Why is it that only Europe gets a continent wide release country?

With digital media, I’m starting to see many releases that are Worldwide, except North America or Asia, etc. Just curious as to why all 5 (not counting Australia) inhabited continents don’t have a selection. I think it would help. It’s too complicated to select all the countries that a release appears in and misleading to say something is worldwide when it may not be in a certain continent. It would be nice to just say North America or South America, Africa, etc. for those releases that are in the majority of the countries of those continents.

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I made an AREQ ticket for North America a while back, but it’s been on the backburner for over a year now.

I am not a big fan of Europe for release event countries because IMO it is always wrong as a CD has never been released the same in all countries of Europe or even never just released in all countries of Europe.

I think Europe was maybe added for Made in the E.U. prints on CD, this kind of relationships. There, it’s good use.

CF. @drsaunde’s interesting comment:

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Is it? It would always mean: “Released in the countries that were part of the EU at release date.”, right?

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That’s just an assumption. :slight_smile:

I always see that “Europe” option as a vague choice. When I see it I read it as meaning “Released in UK, France, Germany, Probably Spain and Portugal, wonder if the Scandinavian’s got it?, Austria and Switzland maybe, Slovakia and Poland should have it but I doubt it, did anyone remember to send copies to Lichtenstein …”

It is a selection that is basically “Europe” and not “EU”. Don’t understand why an EU flag is being used for Europe as EU is only a sub-set of the whole. There is no European flag.

I read it as a “Released in multiple European countries at around the same time”. A list that is impossible to know the true number of countries. (Always makes me laugh the number of people who confused “Printed in” with “Released in”)

Asia is surely the same. Surely nothing is released in every part of Asia at the same time? From China to Japan via North Korea and India through Burma and beyond… So if “Asia” becomes an option it would again be “a vague number of Asian countries around the same time”.

A minefield I have no idea how to get a real solution to. :slight_smile:

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Surely not indeed.

On the same date, almost never but who knows, it could still happens in some cases for two countries.
But I am pretty sure it could never be the same and the same date.
I do have seen a same thing not at the same date. But in fact it was only the same inside and there was still some additional obi for the Japanese edition of this HK import, that warrants new MB release even if same inside obi, the not same date anyway.

So I don’t think we can ever use any kind of grouped countries in Asia either.

Well, since labels and artists are actually using “released in Europe” (vs released in North America) and “european release”, i think it makes sense, especially when there’s no way to be more specific.

They never define what they call “Europe”, and you’re right, that’s never all countries in “Europe” but it still serves a purpose (helping editors to differentiate releases).

For example, some metal labels are used to do “european” and “american” releases, good luck having more details about exact locations and dates… and afaik big players (Sony, Universal, …) are just doing “worldwide” CD releases atm… (the CD being available everywhere in the world through online services).

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I have yet to read that somewhere.
And it would not mean it is actually releases in all countries or Editor not that it means it is releases the same. Even between France and Belgium the products can be different.

Well, just google for it, artists and labels are saying “released in Europe” or “in North America”, not editors, here are few random examples:

https://www.johnsmithjohnsmith.com/news/2018/10/9/european-release-hummingbird

My new record Hummingbird is out today in Europe (and will be released worldwide in early 2019).

http://www.guitarofzorro.com/news/553/

“METAL SOULS” to be released in Europe and North America on July 13

Swedish death metal act, Entrails, have just announced “Resurrected From The Grave – Demo Collection”, which is scheduled to be released the 18th of July, 2014 via Metal Blade Records in Europe, and July 22nd in North America!

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:thinking:hmmm well, ok, good examples. :wink::+1:

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So what about Benelux? Established, defined, and no way to be more specific.
Google: “Released in the Benelux”/“Released in Benelux”, and here we have a release marketed and distributed there.

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On physical medium I believe you are correct. However, on digital releases, it appears that most releases that aren’t worldwide are Europe wide or South America or North America, etc. I’m just looking for a way to show more regionally accurate releases instead of just selecting several random countries on a list of many. If there was some way to limit the release countries across a continent only to digital media that’d be cool, but it’s probably not possible the way the site currently handles release countries.

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It is actually the flag of Europe and predates the EU. It was later “absorbed” by the EU (like many other pan-European institutions).

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I’d argue that if it is only in “the majority of the countries” of a continent, then the continent shouldn’t be chosen. :man_shrugging: Though @zas’ points also have merit. If it’s the most specific we can be, then that’s what we should use.

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In fact, i think we should have all “areas” used by labels and/or distributors. Benelux is clearly one of those.

For any release having textual content, languages and scripts may determine the distribution area. Same goes for cover art and possible rules/censorship.

The main point here is to provide good enough information to editors and users, if a distributor says the release is/was available in area X, i think it makes sense for us to just use area X, until we have more precise information (which may never happen), rather than dropping the info we have because it isn’t 100% accurate by our current standards.

That’s something bothering me with dates too, and i’m not alone, one may know a band was founded around 2000, but at the moment, you can’t enter this information if you don’t have the exact year, because we don’t have circa.

And that’s bad, because even though the information is a bit fuzzy, it isn’t false, can be proven, and is still useful to editors and users.

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[AREQ-2021] Benelux

Very agreed about dates. (But wildcards are sort of allowed for, as in Rosenberg’s Str4 5.)

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