Proposed text for definition of "Soundtrack" on Release Group /Type documentation

MusicBrainz
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and the majority of Japanese anime.

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isn’t published a state of the album? eg released / unreleased. what about “entire”?

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I think “complete” or “entire” is far too high a requirement It’s not just “not every second” - parts of the score may be missing for copyright reasons, e.g. Zabriskie Point (Stones song missing), or lack of capacity of the medium, e.g. Koyaanisqatsi (only half of the tracks compared to the film).

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Here are some from streaming shows:

Stranger Things (Netflix):

Watchmen (HBO):

Both sets just cover single seasons, I believe.

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Not sure on this. I’d guess it depends. The counter is true. Many soundtrack albums that include complete songs while only part maybe heard in the film. However, isn’t it what is released on the soundtrack ‘album’ that defines the soundtrack, not what is heard in the film / concert etc?

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So the stranger things list is three releases and three separate soundtracks. Not one…

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Depends on what is defined to be a soundtrack. :smile:
But in most cases it’s not complicated, as you can read on the cover that it’s a “soundtrack”.
What seems to cause the most problems: it is not explained that “soundtrack” does not affect the individual parts. And the misleading examples for “soundtrack artists” that are no soundtracks at all. (→ https://musicbrainz.org/edit/106437396 )

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What would you suggest?

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Don’t focus on one word. A soundtrack is music from a film/show/game. Most soundtrack CDs are only a small part of the film audio. Bootlegs come along and fill in the gap and rip every little part from a film. (So rules out using words like “Official”)

“Complete” \ “Entire” and words like that are misleading as copyright and other issues stop the music from bring complete. It is a collection of audio from a film, but not necessarily all of the audio.

I recommend to return to the dictionary. Soundtrack - Wikipedia

And with current edits as an example, need to point towards it being for one film and not a compilation of tracks from multiple films.

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The proposed text is just fine. I would not suggest to add words like “complete” or “entire”.
And we should look for better soundtrack artist examples, taken from soundtrack RGs.

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I read the Wikipedia article and it makes sense to me. I agree a soundtrack with being for one film, but how are compilations of songs from various soundtracks to be handled?

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In my understanding I would say a compilation made up of tracks from movies is just a compilation.

I worked on this today:

I would not see that as a soundtrack.

If MB are not going to call a Single released from a movie a “Soundtrack”, then why would MB call a collection of these singles a “Soundtrack”?

The only time I would say you can have a Compilation Soundtrack is when you have a box like this with three soundtracks inside.

That is a compilation of three separate soundtracks.

In the edit in question it is currently 11 to 1 against calling that collection a soundtrack. Only one person is in favour of calling that a soundtrack. Music from movies does not instantly make it a soundtrack.

-=-=-

I should also say I will contradict myself. In my OWN collection I will be adding a Soundtracks genre to that Film 4 CD and sticking in on the shelf alongside my other Soundtracks. But then my own collection does not have to follow MB guidelines. :grin:

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I’ve made further revisions to hopefully eliminate some of the ambiguities that have been mentioned. Please see post #9 above.

Please suggest improved text if something doesn’t seem clear.

(Please let me know if the strikethroughs are confusing. I wanted people to see before/after text, but it gets a little busy. :slight_smile: )

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No issues at all with the version in post #9, looks like a big improvement to me!

I don’t know if it’s just me, but another thing that comes up every now and again, and I am unsure about, soundtracks for unreleased media, or ‘fictional’ soundtracks.
A soundtrack for a unreleased game or film, I mark them as soundtrack.
Trickier, for me, are fictional soundtracks. These come in two flavours, a ‘unofficial’ soundtrack for something that does exist (example: a fan soundtrack for a real book), or a soundtrack for a book/film/story that only exists in the musicians head, or the music ‘canon’ (example: a ‘grindhouse style soundtrack’ for a film that doesn’t exist).

Perhaps these examples could be added as well? If it gets into the weeds/slows it down then I would prefer the current proposal be added, and this be added separately and maybe in a separate thread :slight_smile:

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I misunderstood the vote. Apologies.

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Don’t think you need the “commercially-released” phrase. Otherwise you are ruling out bootlegs which can often be the only way to get a full soundtrack.

“A soundtrack is an album released of the actual recorded music featured in a movie, …”

I have soundtracks in my collection that were officially made for a film, but then not used. These are clearly written as soundtracks. They never made it to the final movie, but were in the movie at some point during production.

I can see where @aerozol’s suggestions of fictional items can fit for books, but not films. A soundtrack for a film that doesn’t exist is a soundtrack as the film is just not produced yet. :grinning:

Where I’d be a little unsure there is if someone created an alternate fan soundtrack for a film. Someone knocking up their own unofficial version of music to use on a film I personally would not count as that drifts into the Cover Album territory and there be dragons.

Though maybe if talking in purist terms these are really just “inspired by”?

(Why did I just get this picture of someone remixing the Barbie soundtrack and releasing it for Oppenheimer? :joy:)

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My bad, I wasn’t necessarily implying it should all go under ‘not a soundtrack’, just that it might be good to explicitly have these in the guideline.

I actually think it would simplify things a lot if we just went with artist intent, if they see it as a soundtrack, including for fictional media, or fan-made, then we categorise it as a soundtrack. Otherwise a artist page like bocuma (a mix of fictional and real soundtracks, all with ‘soundtrack’ or ‘OST’ in the title) would get very confusing. And it’s easier for new editors.

But I can also understand an argument saying they’re not soundtracks, per the current MB definition.

I don’t really mind what way it goes, but it would be nice to have guidance either way for editing.

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Some of the problem is there are artists and whole orchestras that make a living out of making up covers and interpretations of film soundtracks. And these can make a mess of trying to find official soundtracks.

Someone like Ennio Morricone becomes impossible to actually locate his real soundtracks on the artist page as it would get polluted with other releases.

Without a way to tell “Real Soundtrack for film X” from “Fan soundtrack for film X” I can see potential issues.

I don’t have an answer, but it would be nice to keep things fairly “pure” where possible.

-=-=-

Throws in a reference site: https://www.soundtrackcollector.com to see how other people do this.

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I don’t get it, why would another artists soundtrack end up on Ennio Morricone’s page?

Unless I’m mistaken the question here is whether it should appear under ’ album + soundtrack’ or just ‘album’, nothing else changes.

E.g. where would you expect this album to go in Star Jacket’s page:

edit: personally I don’t think covers and interpretations of existing soundtracks would count, the artist intent seems different.

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Covers and interpretations and “Fan soundtracks for film X” aren’t the actual recordings that were in the film, so they should never be marked as soundtracks. That’s one of the scenarios that inspired the “… the actual recorded music featured in a movie…” phrase. I don’t think they would be much of a problem if they’re marked correctly. The real soundtracks will be in the “Album + Soundtrack” list, and the others won’t.

As for fictional soundtracks, music for books, etc., if the music doesn’t accompany the medium, IMHO it isn’t a soundtrack, it’s “Music inspired by…” I would consider an artist’s labeling of it as a ‘soundtrack’ an editor-correctable error. :slight_smile: If they start putting music CDs in the jacket of a book, well, maybe then, but now we’re really in the weeds.

That’s a case that occurred to me while reading aerozol’s post. I don’t have any such albums, but I am aware of the Alex North soundtrack for “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Still, it wasn’t in the movie, so, IMO, not a soundtrack. How many examples do you have? Edit: On further thought, in this case the work might be a soundtrack, but a release group would not. That’s in keeping with some of the comments made in the “What is a soundtrack” thread. But I also think it’s a mistake to call the work a soundtrack. The word “soundtrack” is literally “recorded sound.” A composition isn’t recorded sound.

Yeah, I think we are getting down to the top of the grass, at least. :slight_smile:
As with all guidelines, there will be corner cases that don’t quite fit, that can be handled on a case-by-case basis. My hope is that what we come up with here will shrink those corners.

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