My first EP comes out two weeks from now for digital streaming and download and CD copies. I’ve been trying to cover all bases around it on here, pre-empt any problems. Last.FM introduced me to this site, and keeping a tidy profile on that site too would be really cool. I’ve had to go back and put right some errors I’ve made, and I’ve tried to read the documentation really thoroughly.
I’m particularly interested in getting aliases sorted, before people start making errors in their track title formatting. (I’m also not clear what ‘sort name’ means on that page?) I’ve been putting subtitles in brackets for different track versions, then I’ve found before that some streaming services have used hyphens/ dashes instead. Any other entries like that I should try correct for now?
Another thing was what credit to put my playing on my solo work under. The legal name I use when performing with other bands? Or the name of that solo project itself? As both obviously just refer to me.
Also, should the music videos that come out with the EP be a release altogether? Two tracks have videos at present, and the title track video gets a couple of different versions too. Separate release entries for each song? And under the same release group as the EP, or a separate one?
What other kinds of error should someone look out for, when it comes to getting their own work up accurately?
As the back cover credits everything to Dino Brewster, I think you should change relationships to real name.
Also the works could be added to hold writing credits, instead of put writing credits at the release level.
If these are songs with lyrics, you should link each song as lyricist+composer (2 relationships) and if not, you should use composer. Not writer (this is for when we don’t know).
Thanks for the clarification. I can’t actually find composer and lyricist in the drop-down menus for relationship per track though? I’ve changed the performer and producer credits now.
Because these are no track nor recording relationships – you’d want to create the Works first, easiest done from the “Edit Relationships” tab of a release.
As for aliases, I’m looking at this and really not sure what it means.
‘Aliases come in two main types: {entity} name and search hint. For example, aliases for a work can either be a work name or a search hint. {Entity} name aliases show how people refer to the entity. Search hints are mainly used for common misspellings, name variants with different encoding and other correct ways of displaying the entity’s name.’
Entity is recording in this case. How do I fill the form in to make it clear that I’m writing in the name that I don’t want a recording called? And clarify the name I do want it called?
One minor note looking at this artist entry, specifically the URL relationships you added. As these are not actually the personal accounts of Dino Brewster, they should be added to the named projects only.
A “sort name” is the name of an entity used for alphabetical sorting, such that “The Beatles” are sorted under B (as “Beatles, The”) instead of under “T” together with loads of other groups with a “The” prefix. You can find guidelines on how these should be set here.
This depends on how the videos are released in my experience. If they are simply uploaded to a site like YouTube with no particular grouping to them, we often do not consider them full releases, and only add a standalone recording. If they are included with a release, e.g. on a CD/DVD/Bluray data track, you simply add them to the tracklist. If the videos are released online in a structured manner (e.g. something along the lines of a YouTube playlist “Some Album: The Videos”), you can add them as a separate release. Whether such a release gets its own release group or is grouped together with the “regular” album depends on the contents again.
The general mental test you can apply to determine if two releases A and B should share a release group is “If I have A, would I consider my music collection to also contain B?”. An example: Release A is “Some Album”, and release B is “Some Album: Deluxe Edition” that includes a small number of bonus tracks. If you have B on your shelf, there is little reason (other than completionism) to also have A on it, so they should share a release group.
As an artist submitting your own work, you are in the fortunate position of knowing best what the truth about your data is. Artist intent is one of the guiding principles of the style guide, but when we as editors normally enter data, we often have to piece together the intent of the artist from scattered clues.
Good point on the links, sorted that. I got that on the sort name for artists. I meant on the aliases page for individual recordings though, which is really confusing me.
I think I could give the ‘Just Another Guy’ videos a release within the EP, as it’s all up on the same day’s launch event? We specifically have a bespoke intro, followed by the long version (‘director’s cut’ listing) playing at a film festival, followed by an online upload of both the longer and shorter version (‘official video’ listing) of the video an hour later. And it’s the EP title track. A single release would mostly be a nomination to its title track and video, and this simply has more ‘b-sides’ but otherwise centres the main track it’s named after.
I feel one could make an argument the other way, that it’s not strictly an alternate tracklist to the EP though, so I’m still not sure if it bundles together and how. Although a b-side did get a video, but that was last year, so probably irrelevant to this specifically, and can stay as a standalone.
That definitely qualifies for its own ‘single’ release group (if you don’t want to just leave it as a standalone recording), it shouldn’t go in with the EP. You can link the two release groups with the ‘has single release’ relationship. If the EP is more of a single as you’re saying, then it should be changed to single status and then the single track can be added to the group as well.
It’d certainly annoy people if I started calling a disc with four distinct tracks (no alt versions) a single instead of an EP. It’s definitely meant to bolster the title track that we spend months on the video for though, as a single would. EP because I wanted to get a bigger sampler out to people for the debut…
I don’t think I’ll alter the track relationships or release groups any further, since the topic’s a bit philosophical now and I found how a recording links to its videos.
Thank you! We’ve still got a lot to work on for it in this house XD
BTW, still really confused if I did it right on aliases for track titles and the EP title. The ones I’m worried about are any with parenthesis that tell you what version of the track you’re looking at. My other project The Proxy Youth immediately had a track called ‘New Generation (radio edit)’ scrobble as ‘New Generation – radio edit’ on Last.FM, and we have ‘These Are the Days (acoustic)’ on this EP. So I definitely don’t want duplicates like that.
It’s just occurred to me that while the EP title simply goes by Just Another Guy, I’ll potentially have to worry about people listing that with EP after dashes or parenthesis too
Here at MB brackets are used for that kind of stuff. (They call it ETI - Extra Title Information). Other sites like Last.FM and iTunes often pop this stuff next to a dash.
If you tried to add a title as “These Are The Days - Acoustic” an editor would come along and change that to “These Are the Days (acoustic)” to fit MB guidelines.
The EP is out (though it’s launching it in 24 hours, just wanted that contingency in case something needed fixed). Added all the external links for streaming and purchase per track. When adding the external links for the overall EP for streaming and purchase – do I add those to the release group, both the digital and CD releases, or just the digital release?
Would anybody be able to vote up me replacing the cover art on the Going South album by String Factory for me please? Had to redesign it due to print constraints I overlooked first time (whoops).
A delete is always delayed, but you can do some tricks. First you shuffle the new art up front to appear first. Next clear the “type” flags so they don’t act as “front”, “back”, etc.
I’ve done those tweaks if you look at the release now.
Thanks for the help on these things over the month, it’s a big site to learn. Finalised all the covers now, and it’s gone to print. Also, how long does it take for an album to be listed on Last.FM?
Okay, the CD packaging artwork is all proofread and uploaded and finalised as digital renditions of what would be on each cardboard panel. But it turns out the printers decided to do us a four panel design with a clear plastic disc tray, in place of the expected gatefold with a CD wallet. Can’t add that in on the image, so should we swap the panel/s for photos when the CD copies get to us? (Hopefully they arrive on Monday – i.e. launch day!)
