Should this release be updated like this?

MusicBrainz Style
,
1

Bang! by AJR was released with this art back when Neotheater Deluxe was planned. After covid delayed their plans, they decided to release it under a new album (OK Orchestra), so they updated the art to match the new album’s style. They still have the same barcode, release date, even same id on their platforms.

I initially had updated the art for the existing releases, but as an auto-editor pointed out, that’s against the style guidelines.

So would the correct way to go about this be to reimport the updated releases, and mark the old ones as withdrawn? Perhaps also adding a disambiguation specifying the difference?

This also happened to Bummerland, so I’ll also update it.

3 Likes
2

If the original artwork was replaced on all platforms, then the existing release was withdrawn and replaced by a new one, which you should create.

I would rather explain in an annotation.

1 Like
3

Okay, I’ve created the release here.

I’ve noticed there are two versions of this single on the british store (1, 2). One seems to be the original one with the cover art updated, the other seems to be a proper re-upload, including an updated release date. When importing into harmony, it links it to a different spotify listing compared to the first one.

Seems they have the same barcode though… I’ll have to do more research on this.

2 Likes
4

Is the recording anyhow different? (I have not heard more than the apple music preview)
If not, it’s at least the same recording. The releases have different dates… I don’t know, I’m not an expert on digital releases.

5

To me that’s 2 releases, sharing the same content, but 2 different dates and 2 different cover art.
Release date they provided is inexact for the second release (they just re-used the previous one, but that’s obviously not the case).
If 2 CDs with exact same content are released in 2 countries on the same day but with different cover art, that’s 2 releases on MB.

Modifying releases after initial release is quite common, especially on digital platforms, sometimes the changes are minimal (a typo fix in a title, usually not considered as a new release), or more profound (swapping tracks, titles, cover art).
For physical releases, that could be different, because even a typo could make the release unique and even increase its market value (some vinyls were released with music from another artist due to factory error, making them actual collectible items).

In doubt, the general rule on MB is to create 2 releases, they can always be merged later if needed.

4 Likes