Spotify allows artists to set pre-releases, or countdown pages some time before a release is out. This is to get fans to pre save the release so they can listen to it as soon as it’s out.
These links look like this - https://open.spotify.com/prerelease/2WzFX2knYeWrfHfF8lST08 and right now we can add them as a “stream for free” relationship
I’m wondering if we should even allow these links to be added to MB, and if we do, the “stream for free” relationship is not the right relationship for them, since you can’t stream the music on pre release pages (obviously).
These links become obsolete as soon as the release is out, and they redirect to the actual /album/ page, for example, that link above now redirects to https://open.spotify.com/album/6W7mdEoe0lAIDFIhAYf8cx
Like I mentioned on this recent edit, I think it’s best if these links are kept to edit notes, or annotations, if we’re not going to keep them around.
Editors have been either removing these links once the release comes out, or replacing them with the /album/ URL.
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As long as the Spotify ID is the same and the url just changes from prerelease to album I see no issue with replacing with the album link. If the ID changes, I’d just mark the prerelease link as ended and add the album releases. So, IMO, I’d have kept the prerelease URL in those edits and just marked them as ended and added the album URL.
And I see no issue with adding them before they come out.
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The ID does change, in the example I used, it goes from prerelease/2WzFX2knYeWrfHfF8lST08 to album/6W7mdEoe0lAIDFIhAYf8cx
Adding a release based on a pre-release page is completely fine, but adding the pre-release page as a URL relationship only to mark it as ended a few days later just seems tedious to me personally.
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Yeah, I realized that after seeing your examples. I would have just marked those as ended as you stated on your edits.
I assume the pre-release has no audio, just a place holder of a track list? Isn’t this just an advert for what is to come? The date should be the actual Release date (future) and not the day it appears on the Spotify site otherwise when marked marked as “ended” it would distort the actual release date in the Release Group.
This is not much different to an artist putting the tracklist up on their own website for pre-ordering CDs.
I know some albums get a few singles issued before the main album. So I’d assume this pre-release place holder will have some of those added as live tracks. I would still say this does not make it a “real” release, just a “coming soon” advert. And while you wait you can listen to the singles.
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