Release front cover art : with or without sticker/obi?

MusicBrainz Style
1

Hi everyone,

I’m facing an issue: what should be the correct (first front) cover art for a release with a sticker ? The “front” cover art, without a sticker, or the “front” + “sticker” (or “obi”) cover art?

On my side, I do prefer covers without stickers or anything else: they are relly nicer, clearer, etc.

Plus, in my opinion, the sticker is “external packaging” as it’s something usually sticked on the plastic film of the cd package, so not a part of the front cover art itself.

But I must admit it’s not only a matter of taste, as the sticker is a really distinctive part of the release when bought new.

So, what’s your opinion?

Thanks!

Smeulf.

PS : If this topic has been discuss before, please forgive me, I conldn’t find any reference about it yet…

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Personally I think the sticker should be on the cover. Especially as some stickers only exist for a few weeks at the start of a release.

When submitting cover art there is a tick box to show if a sticker is in view or not.

(But then I am the kinda nutter who attempts to open his CD cases while keeping the shrinkwrap and stickers in place…)

When I upload scans I will supply two - one with the sticker and all external bits in place. And one of the plain square cover. Leaves the choice to the user of the images then.

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3

I think OP knows this, but the question is about the order of the uploaded covers.
And I actually think:

Is an argument to put the sticker-less version in first place. The same release might even come with different stickers in different stores (and I’m not talking about 50% off stickers), so they are not always really representative for the release.

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4

Yeah - agree with you on that one. This is one of those “toss a coin to get an answer” questions really.

5

As a matter of fact, it doesn’t let the user so much choice when they use Picard, 'cause it will automatically use the first marked ‘cover’, nevermind it’s also à sticker (or obi) or not.

For sure it’s still possible to change it manually, but there’s currently(?) no way to tell Picard to use the ‘cover’ image, excluding stickers or obi tags. Or maybe a plugin is missing on my side ^^

6

Generally I scan the sticker separately from the cover (after removing the shrink wrap), and just mark it as “sticker”.

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7

Here’s an example of the sticker I’m annoyed with:

This one is somehow release related…

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8

Good question!
I definitely like obi strips as the default with a JP release, to tell them apart easily. Stickers I think can be useful for the same reason.

For this I think you should be tagging with the release group image - then you can pick the nicest/clearest cover out of all of them! And we can keep distinct images on releases to tell them apart - for instance non-square images, obi’s, etc.

Edit: I usually upload the cover without sticker, with sticker, and the sticker seperately :dizzy_face:

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9

That’s indeed possible, but the main problem is that the release group cover may be very différent with the release cover:

Release group:

Release:

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10

Absolutely, it’s far from a perfect solution.
But the first priority of MusicBrainz is to be a great database, a tagging resource second.

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11

You’re right @aerozol.

I have mix the 2 issues with my answers, and there’s a specific improvement that can be made in Picard for this IMO, something like a “use default front cover”, “don’t use front cover with stickers or obi” and “prefer front cover with stickers or obi” combobox in the settings. I’ll open a thread for this :wink:

But remains the style question for the release : stickers/obi or not ? ^^ Maybe @reosarevok could give us his opinion?

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For those who are intresed, here’s the Picard thread for front cover selection : Cover-Art Archives Configuration : Additional Front cover selection setting

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I would say with obi first because it is the visible difference of the editions.

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