Why is Artist Intent still so outdated in the Guidelines?

MusicBrainz Style
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Asking us to provide proof of artist intent by having us ask the labels or artists directly is a bit of an impossible task. Most labels are unreachable, and the only artists that could actually answer you back are the independent ones. Do you need more proof than checking the way the labels themselves provide that information for other services? If I see an album that have capitalized letters for all the titles, how can that not be artist intent? It’s very clearly not a mistake in most cases.

Look at this album for example. It has very inconsistent capitalization. Some tracks follow the standard guideline, while others are lowercase, and then there’s “Read your Mind” in the middle. Now look at the back cover of the CD. (or here for better quality) It’s printed exactly the same way as it is on Spotify and other streaming services.

So why do I need an e-mail from Sabrina Carpenter herself or her label to prove that this was intended? I know there are gray areas, but it’s very annoying when you enter a release exactly how it’s catalogued and then another editor easily changes the capitalization by using the guidelines card.

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This is not a requirement. If you are so confident it’s intentional surely you’d be able to to convince other editors without having to auto-edit it yourself.

I for one am not convinced:

<title>Melanie Martinez | Portals 3.31.23</title>

Melanie Martinez - Portals

It’s the rebirth of @MelanieLBBH :fairy: Watch her stunning new music video for ‘Death’ on YouTube today and prepare yourself for ‘portals’ dropping on 31 March! #melaniemartinez #death

See also Edit #65605520 - MusicBrainz

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On her Twitter account, Melanie Martinez referred to the album as “𝖕𝖔𝖗𝖙𝖆𝖑𝖘”, i.e. using all-lowercase bold blackletter.

On the album’s cover art, it appears to be stylized as “portals”, i.e. again all-lowercase.

I’m not pointing this out to argue that it should be all-lowercase instead. When the artist or label aren’t consistent in how they write a title, I see it as a sign that the language style guide should be followed.

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