Recording search problem (Massive Attack - Teardrop)

MusicBrainz
1

I’m the author of a C# MusicBrainz library and recently found that a test was failing, that was working well before. Of course this can always happen, since the server data might have changed, but investigating this case, I found something strange.

Here’s the search request:
https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/recording/?query=artist:“Massive%20Attack”%20AND%20recording:Teardrop%20AND%20releasegroup:Mezzanine

The first result leads to https://musicbrainz.org/recording/f3a67563-5666-4118-9709-d078a13c3992 and this recording was created 2020-03-25 with the comment

Imported from https://www.discogs.com/release/10470946 using Discogs import script from GitHub - murdos/musicbrainz-userscripts: Collection of userscripts for MusicBrainz, by various authors

Last time I checked my tests the search result was https://musicbrainz.org/recording/f3bba4cd-8018-468b-902e-bc8f029593e5 which is the correct one I think.

So, here are my questions:

  1. Is there any way to get the second (correct) recording using the MusicBrainz search? Why isn’t it included in the search results (it clearly matches the query)?
  2. The duplicate recording should probably not have been created. Any idea why this happened (maybe some problem with the Discogs import script)?

Thanks!

2

releasegroup is not a valid search field for recordings. You can find all valid ones at MusicBrainz API / Search - MusicBrainz. Both your search and Teardrop (Mad Professor remix) list https://musicbrainz.org/recording/f3bba4cd-8018-468b-902e-bc8f029593e5 among the results, although lower than https://musicbrainz.org/recording/f3a67563-5666-4118-9709-d078a13c3992. I assume, but cannot prove it, that that’s because the latter does not also appear on releases not called Mezzanine.

At the moment, it’s the 7th result with a score of 69.

Nothing stops editors from creating new recordings that are the same as already existing ones. If you know f3a67563-5666-4118-9709-d078a13c3992 is the same as https://musicbrainz.org/recording/f3bba4cd-8018-468b-902e-bc8f029593e5, you can merge them.

4 Likes
3

Thanks, this answers all my questions. I will take a look at the merge procedure…

I guess MusicBrainz gives a hint, when you try to add an item that already exists? Maybe it should insist on double-checking before the user actually saves a new (probably duplicate) version :slight_smile:

4

I fear such a hint for recordings would be interpreted by many as “please use the existing recording”, even though they should only do this when they are really sure it is the same recording. But if in doubt it is safer to add a new recording. It’s easier to merge later than to split again.

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5

Ok, but there’s even a release with the same catalog number (https://musicbrainz.org/release-group/6f9f6899-c0d3-311d-ae87-a10ae6bc53a9). Maybe the vinyl is a repress. When adding such a (known) release, does MusicBrainz automatically populate the recording list or at least suggests to do so?

I’m asking, because I try to understand how easy/hard it is to create duplicates. I think we agree, that it should be hard, so some kind of warning should be displayed in such a case.

6

Yes, if you add a release it does suggest using the existing track lists of similar releases. If the editor would have done that it would have reused the existing recordings.

2 Likes