"Part Of" tag for "Official Singles/Album Chart"

Hello,
New user here. My main interest is collecting hit singles and albums. During lockdown, I made a personal database in Excel listing them all in order of the hit sequence. All 35000 singles and 22000 albums now have a hit sequence number in my database. I’ve seen the huge scope of this database over and above Discogs, which I have been a prolific contributor to.

One of the things that appeals is making the essence of my personal database public. On Musicbrainz, I’ve seen one way of doing that is using the “Part of” Tag, as I’ve seen tags such as
“Part Of”: 46th Oscar Ceremony, or “Part Of”: “Singin’ In The Rain” (1952 film) etc.

Would this be a useful way of making the hit singles and albums part of a more detailed searchable database than on the Official Chart site?

For example:

U2 - Electrical Storm; “Part Of”: “Official Singles Chart”; Number: 5; Order: 25882
George Michael - Symphonica; “Part Of”: “Official Albums Chart”; Number:1; Order 16222

Where Number equals highest position reach in the relevant chart and Order equals that hit sequence. e.g. Electrical Storm is the 25,882nd single to hit the UK Singles chart, likewise Symphonica is the 16,222nd hit album.

To my mind, this would be a far better solution than Discog’s List system which barely links. MB links in both directions automatically.

Is it OK to use the function like this, or is there a better way to make this chart information link directly to the release, work and recordings in question?

Thanks

David Carbines

1 Like

You are talking about making a Series. I can certainly see some interest in that as Series can be fairly free form. You’re going to want to make a Release Group Series as this will be more like making a series of Master releases on MB.

A puzzle I can see will be what to do with a re-issued album \ deluxe as that would need the same Release Group to appear twice.

What can run in to trouble is using copyright lists. “Billboard top 100” or “Official Singles Charts” are copyright and I believe those series have had to be removed before. This may mean you can’t actually add this list.

1 Like

Thanks Ivan
Reissues and deluxe, sometimes count and sometimes don’t depending on the chart rules at the time. Singles are easy as they get their own entry. Albums, due to being available for sometimes decades rather than the few weeks that most singles are, makes it a bit more complicated. Deluxes are usually included in with the standard edition, but Amy Winehouse Back To Black is an example where they are explicitly separate and each has an entry in it’s own right.

When this happens, being able to give them different sequence numbers and allow them to appear twice is something that MB allows and Discogs Lists doesn’t… Although you could manually program the list, it won’t automatically link to all the correct versions e.g. first issue on Stereo LP and Mono LP for one sequence and CD, Cassette and 2nd Stereo LP for the reissue sequence. You’d have to list all the individual formats in the Master Release (in MB: Release Group), but only link in one direction. The individual formats do not link back to the list but the list links to the individual formats. MB should be able to link the other way as well. Under Discogs, they’d all be bundled incorrectly into one entry and you’d have to explain in notes rather than use the dynamic database links. Or manually program these diode links as I’ve said.

Copyright? As it’s own sequence number, that information is my own but derivative of another published list, which I do not directly quote. The positions could be a problem here, but easily removable. There is always the option of licensing the information to publish here.

I’ve seen on the OCC (Official Charts Company), there are a few ‘companies’ that they license to that look little more than hobbyist re-publishers (as opposed to large commercial entities like labels and national broadcasters), so it may be possible. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
I’ll cover the practicalities of doing it first!

2 Likes

I think i could be interested in what youre talking about. Im looking for a feature which will allow me to add the UK chart position of a song to its id3 metadata. Im not sure if this already exists? or is this similar what youre talking about /have developed?