Releases without metainfo imported from freedb

MusicBrainz Classical
1

Are there guidelines how to deal with releases automatically imported years ago from freedb, if they do not have any meta-info attached?

This release has been imported by FreeDB Bot back in 2003. There is no meta-info for the release: no label, no release date, no performers. It is even not entered whether the release is on CD or on LP.

I have found on discogs a release which may be the source of the FreeDB import. The discogs release contains recordings of the same works in the same order. Duration of tracks is very close.

There is no proof that the release imported by FreeDB is exactly the release I have found on discogs, and no way to validate if that is the case indeed: there are no meta-info at all, and release was not entered by a particular real person whom we may ask. I assume there is no harm to identify the MusicBrainz release and discogs release as one and the same, since currently MusicBrainz release is in a sense a “generic” release, not associated with any particular real-world release. By adding to the MusicBrainz release all meta-info from the discogs release, we give the MusicBrainz release a particular identity.

Do you agree with my reasoning?

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2

FreeDB is a CD database, and the release has a Disc ID, so match to one of the CD releases on Discogs.

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3

How could one search on discogs for a disc ID? The search form I am aware about does not have an input field for a disk ID.

Or do you mean “match to any of CD releases on discogs”, that is “to CD, not to LP”?

4

Looking at the edit history, the discID added five years after the import? I didn’t think that FreeDB had discIDs in the same format as MB. I may be wrong? but I thought it was just the most basic of track details as shown in that first edit.

This is what I do. I’ll check the track times are the same, and then use that skeleton to fill up with more data from my release in hand and\or Discogs.

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Yes, it looks like you’ve found the correct recording on Discogs, I just meant you should use the CD version not the LP. So one of these two:
https://www.discogs.com/release/6569365
https://www.discogs.com/release/7532452

6

You are right, but both MusicBrainz and freedb disk ID are available in MusicBrainz if you open the page with the disk ID. I suppose Picard calculates and submits both IDs.

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