I have heard both opinions on this one, and the guidelines are not clear. Should tracks listed as Intro in the tracklist have brackets around them?
Some editors think that [intro] is correct as they don’t concider Intro an actual title. And some editors think we should only use the brackets when the track has no name on the cover.
Tracks listed as Intro on the cover should be listed as…
0 voters
I’m voting with my personal preference over my interpretation of the guidelines here and am going with Intro.
PS: Possible reasoning for clearly stating an exception for intros and outros in the guidelines: Those are not expected to have a title.
In my opinion, the track names should always be whatever listed in the tracklist (but with errors fixed unless artist intent and following the guidelines on series numbering).
Classical music releases are an exception to this.
PS: And of course the letter case corrected unless artist intent.
Titles between square brackets are only when the track has no title printed on package and we make up a title like [intro], [silence], [outro], [staff roll], etc.
When there are titles printed on the package or booklet, etc. and they are called Intro, Silence, Outro, Staff Roll, in that case no square brackets as they are not made up by us.
Same with Various Artists, IMO, I think it’s strange to not have it as [various artists] as I never saw it printed on my VA/Omnibus releases.
I vote “no brackets” because I don’t know how to draw a line between a “pseudo-title” that would need brackets and a “real” title. We have tracks named “Introduction”, “Band Introductions”, “Comedy Skit”, “Interview, Part 1”, “Judy’s Spoken Tribute to Jerome Kern”…all of which are essentially made-up titles comparable to “Intro”. So I would agree with jesus2099: only use brackets when we are adding something that isn’t available on the package/medium.