I’m planning to add a bunch of Toolroom Radio (formerly known as Toolroom Knights) broadcast releases some time in the future, but since there’s a lot of them (500+, apparently) and they can be a bit confusing, I thought it’d be wise to open up a discussion beforehand on how they should be handled, to avoid the need to backtrack and fix all of them later on.
I’ve borrowed a lot of ideas from the BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix thread, but those guidelines aren’t always readily applicable because of the way these broadcasts are distributed (see below).
Background
There are at least 581 episodes of this broadcast at the time of writing, possibly more. They often consist of a 1 hour “main” broadcast, followed by a 1 hour guest mix. They’re distributed in various ways, which I’ll denote as H1V1, H1V2, H1V3 and H2 in an attempt to make things easier.
Recent first-hour episodes (H1V1) are distributed as a 1-hour recording through Apple Podcasts (example), Mixcloud (example), and Soundcloud (example); as well as through a segmented release on Apple Music (example), Spotify (example), and Deezer (example). These segmented releases also contain individual tracks for the spoken parts in the broadcast.
Older first-hour episodes (H1V2) can be available as segmented continuous DJ mixes on Apple Music (example) without the voiceover, but still with voiceover on Apple Podcasts (example), possibly also through other distribution networks.
Some very old first-hour episodes (H1V3) seem to only be available through Apple Podcasts.
The recent second-hour guest mixes (H2) are also available through Apple Podcasts, Mixcloud (requiring a subscription), and sometimes Soundcloud. The older ones may or may not be available.
Tracklistings and notes for recent shows are available on Toolroom’s website (example).
All these different types and formats (1h continuous recordings, segmented with voiceover, segmented continuous mix, the guest mixes, etc) make the situation a bit confusing, so a set of guidelines would be useful for all.
Proposal
The broadcast style guidelines obviously apply, and we can borrow a lot of ideas from the BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix guidelines too, with some tweaks, to enhance them.
Common guidelines
Release group name: YYYY-MM-DD: Toolroom Radio #[episode number]
Release group artist: [H1 presenter] / [guest mix DJ]
Release group type: Broadcast+DJ-mix (both hours are DJ mixes)
Release status: Official (different from the BBC Radio 1 guidelines, since these are distributed by the label itself)
Release country: XW? UK? (suggestions welcome!)
Release label: Toolroom Records
Release cat#: [none]
Release date: Date when made available online, not always the same as the broadcast date.
Releases
I’d propose to split the broadcast into at least two releases, one for the first-hour mix and one for the guest mix, because these two parts generally have different URLs and different artwork. Both of these would be part of the same release group, since it’s still the same broadcast.
Release name for the H1 releases: Same as RG.
Release artist for the H1 releases: Presenter.
Release name for the H2 releases: YYYY-MM-DD: Toolroom Radio #[episode number], “[guest mix DJ] Guest Mix” (per broadcast style guidelines with a program name)
Release artist for the H2 releases: Guest DJ mixer. (+ presenter? It seems they do a short introduction in the beginning)
The tracklists for these releases would differ based on the exact type of broadcast.
H1V1
Tracklist as on the Apple Music/Spotify/Deezer tracklist, i.e., the segmented tracklist guideline for broadcast releases. “(mixed)” ETI (if present) and the “TR[ep number]” ETI removed since they just add unnecessary noise. Suggestions for track names for the voiceover segments welcome.
Track artists: Same as on Apple Music/Spotify/Deezer, i.e., artist for the actual track played, or the presenter name for the voiceover segments.
Recording disambiguation comments that indicate the broadcast episode. Perhaps “part of “Toolroom Radio #[episode number]” DJ-mix”? This would capture the ETI that was removed from the track names.
ARs: “DJ-mixer” (on medium or on all recordings?). “DJ-mix of” on each segmented recording, to an unmixed recording?
URLs: All streaming links, including those of the 1h unsegmented recordings on mixcloud/soundcloud/apple podcasts. URL on Toolroom’s site as “show notes”.
Side note: Since these aren’t segmented on Soundcloud/Mixcloud/Apple Podcasts, would that warrant another release specifically for those, with one continuous track?
H1V2
TODO.
This should perhaps again be split into two releases, one for the segmented continuous mix without voiceover, and one for the unsegmented mix with voiceover. The latter could be one track and one recording with the appropriate ARs.
H1V3
TODO. Same as the second proposed release for H1V2.
H2
Single track or multiple tracks? Since these seem to be available only as an unsegmented single recording, it should probably be a single track, with “DJ-mix of” ARs to each unmixed recording. Alternatively, since services like Mixcloud show the current track name while streaming the mix, it could be a segmented tracklist too?
Example
I know the above is a mess, apologies. I’ve drafted an example of a H1V1+H2 on test.MB to illustrate: Release group “2021‐05‐07: Toolroom Radio #580” by Mark Knight & Elliot Fitch - MusicBrainz
Thoughts, comments, and suggestions more than welcome. I haven’t put too much thought into H1V2/H1V3 yet, since it looks like I’ll already have my hands full with the H1V1 ones for now.