Update promotion guidelines for digital releases

MusicBrainz Style
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Continuing the discussion from Are Soundcloud tracks official or promotional releases?:

with the discussion in the above thread, I think we should update the Promotion guidelines on Style / Release - MusicBrainz

currently, the guidelines in question are:

Promotion should be used for a give-away release or a release intended to promote an upcoming official release (e.g. pre-release versions, releases included with a magazine, versions supplied to radio DJs for air-play).

I’d like to propose:

Promotion should be used for a release intended to promote a similar upcoming official release (e.g. pre-release versions, releases included with a magazine, versions supplied to radio DJs for air-play, early releases to paid subscribers on Patreon).

the main reason being a ton of digital media is released for free, and the Promotion guidelines saying it’s for “give-away” releases has been confusing for many new editors looking at the guidelines, since it seems to include free releases such as these. I remember I even put in some free releases as Promotional when I first started, lol

I would also like to add a fairly common usage for promotion, for subscriber-only releases on Patreon, Bandcamp, or other artist subscriptions, see the discussion on Patreon Releases

I also added “similar” for clarification, since technically many singles are released to promote an upcoming album, and I’m 98.9% sure that’s not the intent of the Promotion status. I forget where, but I’ve seen some confusion on this somewhere

also, this is my first time proposing a guidelines change, do I need to create a STYLE ticket for this too? I can do so later today, if so

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The way a CD given away with a magazine was described to me is it is promoting the Magazine or Newspaper or Event. It is not always the music being promoted. Sometimes you can get quite junk collections of tracks.

Your new definition focuses too much on the Digital media and looses the nature of Promo CDs as seen on cover disks.

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this is true, by removing the “give-away releases” line, that does slightly lose that definition, tho it is still explicitly called out in the examples still… the main issue I’m looking to solve here is editors reading “give-away” and reading “free” tho, if someone has a better wording for that, I’m all for it

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You can’t completely loose the “give-away” side of a Promotion. Yes, separate the fact that not everything “free” is a promo. Often you just get free releases. But loosing that “give-away” side of physical promotions would cause problems.

I suggest keep the current definition, but extend it to explain “free releases” and how that is a separate thing.

I have picked up plenty of “free” releases on Bandcamp. Often reissues of old music. Just to confuse it, these are often “pay what you want”. Something we also saw decades ago when Radiohead released Rainbows.

I’ve always liked these options as it lets me look at what is in my pocket that day and pick a payment. It is almost its own category.

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Why not explicitly separate the digital and physical cases?

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alternatively, we could clarify that free≠promo. something like:

Promotion should be used for a give-away release or a release intended to promote a similar upcoming official release (e.g. pre-release versions, releases included with a magazine, versions supplied to radio DJs for air-play, early releases to paid subscribers on Patreon).

Just because a release is released for free doesn’t mean it’s a Promotion release. For example, many artists will officially release songs on SoundCloud or an official website. When in doubt, use Official.

does make it a bit wordy, and the tone doesn’t quite feel right yet tho…

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Watching that other discussion. Maybe a better hint towards “artist intent” is needed.

It was easy when it was physical due to the cost of making the media. People didn’t usually give things away without reason.

Now music has no physical replication cost it is much easier for an artist to literally give away their official music if they so choose to. Whereas other times they are making it clear this is a promotion.

It is a tough and confusing line as a lot of music is released to promote interest. Singles promote interest in an album. But in MB language “promotional” has a tighter definition that is also saying “this is not part of an official catalogue”

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Would clarifying give-away to “physical give-away” help?

I like the addition of Patreon-style promotion. I’m part of a Patreon-esque scheme, and while technically I am paying, it’s clear from Artist Intent (their language in emails/posts) that the early digital copies of albums and singles are promotional bonuses and not the official wide releases.

Though when they send out physical CDs and vinyls, my gut says those should be official rather than promotion. They’re just a limited release.

I’m not sure this helps.

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Concerning the Patreon style of releases, I’ve often found myself wishing there was a “Fan Club” release status just for these releases only distributed to a limited audience, usually some kind of paid subscribers. I have several releases both physical and digital which would fall into that category and I’m never sure if Official or Promotion is the correct option.

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My thinking is: If it ever got a “real” release, e.g. on Spotify, years later, what release date would users consider canonical?

For Patreon sub-only releases it’s usually pretty easy - early release for subscribers is a promo, the release a year later with cover art is official/the date people will think of as the “release”.

For comparatively “open” platforms like Soundcloud, YouTube etc I think a release there would be considered the first release date by most people, unless artist intent is pretty clear (e.g. “sneak preview, track releasing soon”)

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