Standardising Artists

MusicBrainz
#1

I have two CD’s by “Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox”: “The Essentials” and “The Essentials II”. The labelling on both CD cases is the same format - all the tracks are listed as for example “Black Hole Sun starring Haley Reinhart” (as per this image of the back cover).

The two release pages however aren’t consistent in how they list the track artists. “The Essentials” lists them as, eg:

Postmodern Jukebox starring Robyn Adele Anderson & The Tee Tones

Whereas “The Essentials II” lists them as, eg:

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox feat. Haley Reinhart

I’m fairly new here - would it be appropriate to standardise them so they use the same format? If so, do you have any suggestions for the best way to go about it please? Do I just change them both to “Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox starring SingerName” (replacing SingerName as appropriate :wink: )?

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#2

Yes, it’s absolutely fine to correct to artist credits to more closely match the release - as long as you can be sure the release you’re editing is yours or essentially like yours. Some digital music service might have mucked around with the credits, for example.

More likely, the feat. credits were entered when the rule was to standardize everything. That’s no longer the case, so fixing it will be very helpful of you.

Btw, to find out more about how a release got the way it is, you can click the Edit History link in the right sidebar. The history is in reverse chronological order, so go to the last page to see how the release was originally entered (and when).

1 Like
#3

You can leave the first release alone because:

  • we don’t see its back cover
  • you think it’s already correct

You can fix THE ESSENTIALS II to starring because:

  • we see it on the back cover

Please link it in your edit notes: https://musicbrainz.org/release/b02808a3-c21e-43bb-a7db-c09ef2edb3e3/cover-art

#4

Since @P72endragon says they have the release, this isn’t so much of an issue. Could add it, though!

And yes, please do be sure you’re documenting the source of your info

1 Like
#5

Thank you for the replies (apologies it’s taken me a few days to get back to you).

OK, so I’ll edit The Essentials II to change “feat” to “starring”

On The Essentials, do you see how each track has the artist as “Postmodern Jukebox starring …” but they all show the recording artist as “Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox starring …”. Should I update the artist to the full “Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox starring …”? In terms of how it’s displayed on the CD artwork, it’s exactly the same format/layout/wording as the picture that’s been uploaded for the back of The Essentials II

#6

Actually, looking again, it appears that my CD back cover is slightly different from the uploaded image (some of the artists are listed in a different order, and a typo present in the uploaded image doesn’t exist on mine). I suppose that makes mine a different release, but I can’t really spot any identifiers that would mark it as different for me to add a new release (barcode matches, the label information all looks to be the same, etc). The only thing would be that I’m in the UK, so I would maybe add it as a “UK release”?

I’m thinking this is getting into complex subtleties of MusicBrainz (from a novice’s perspective at least!), so given that this boils down to minor tweaks, maybe I should leave it for now, at least until I understand things a bit better :slight_smile:

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#7

It sounds like the different information on the printed back cover qualifies for a separate release to me.

3 Likes
#8

Making a clone release like this is an excuse to dive in and learn. Make loads of mistakes, and let us help you clean them up.

As @rdswift point out, it sounds like you probably have a re-issue with a cleaned up rear cover. Often happens. Trickiest part then comes down to getting a date for it. Discogs may help, but you may need to leave the date blank if unsure.

3 Likes
#9

Cool, thank you for the support, I might just have a go when I get chance in that case…! :slight_smile:

1 Like