Withdrawn is to be used for previously official releases that were actively withdrawn from circulation. This does not include releases that have reached the end of their ‘natural’ lifecycle, such as an album that was sold out, replaced by a shinier version, or retired from a streaming service. The artist (or label) also needs to consider it expunged from their discography.
Use the initial release date, before they were withdrawn, for these releases.
Examples:
An attempt was made to cancel Play Date (100 gecs remix), but it was available briefly in at least one time zone before being withdrawn.
Matthew West’s single Modest Is Hottest was removed from streaming services after 10 days amid criticism over the song’s core message.
The original pressing of 逆転裁判＋逆転裁判２ オリジナル・サウンドトラック was recalled 10 days after release due to a mastering error on the first track of the first disc.
The original version of Lady Gaga’s album ARTPOP was pulled from streaming services in early 2019 to remove the track “Do What U Want” featuring R. Kelly. Gaga herself ordered the removal after viewing the docuseries Surviving R. Kelly.
I immediately thought of Negativland by U2, I mean U2 by Negativland, since it’s sort of a crossover with the discussion about unauthorized releases. The EP was withdrawn after a trademark infringement lawsuit was filed over cover art that intentionally made it look like it might be an official release by U2, the original artist. Per an (unsourced) MB annotation, 6,951 copies were sold and 692 promo copies were distributed before it was withdrawn. There are more details in this 1995 Washington Post article – I didn’t realize that Negativland got sued by their own label in addition to U2’s label.
You missed “production error” which I cited in my second example. Mixing, mastering or manufacturing problems occur from time to time, and at least in Japan they’re often reasons for the label to issue a recall.
For what it’s worth, the current guideline says “This does not include releases that have reached the end of their ‘natural’ lifecycle. For instance, an album being sold out, replaced by a shinier version, or retired from a streaming service. The artist (or label) also needs to consider it expunged from their discography.” Your new wording loses the “expunged” part and seems to suggest any case where the stuff is no longer on streaming or whatnot is “withdrawn”, even though maybe it was always intended to just be up for a specific period of time for example.
I agree with this, we’re documenting the history of releases, not the current state of everything! I also think we don’t want to open up the “shinier version” is better discussion!
Whoops, I didn’t mean to edit the introduction at all! Just add examples! I’ve updated the OP. (also @dpr)
I had this wiki page open as well and got my copy-paste confused. I’ve updated that terminology wiki page now, while I’m at it. Those terminology pages are a bit confusing tbh, but that’s a discussion for another day/thread.
I’ve added your example to the updated OP, as well as updating it to include a ‘best of’ (if you can call this sorry collection of disasters the best of anything…) of the other suggestions.
I think the “These examples would not automatically qualify for ‘Withdrawn’ status” sentence may need to be reworded or removed, since it now sounds like it might be referring to the new list of actually-withdrawn examples. The “For instance …” bit is also a sentence fragment, so maybe the whole paragraph could be shortened to something like this:
Withdrawn is to be used for previously official releases that were actively withdrawn from circulation. This does not include releases that have reached the end of their ‘natural’ lifecycle, such as an album that was sold out, replaced by a shinier version, or retired from a streaming service. The artist (or label) also needs to consider it expunged from their discography.
I also find the use of the word “cancelled” in the 100 gecs example potentially confusing, since “cancelled” is a different status. Maybe something like this would be clearer?
An attempt was made to cancel Play Date (100 gecs remix) before its release because of allegations against an involved artist, but it was available briefly in at least one time zone before being removed.
I actually like it, because the artist or label in this case may still refer to it as ‘cancelled’. But if it was accidentally available for a brief time, then in MB we should always call it ‘withdrawn’ anyway, which this example makes clear to me (but then again, I formatted the wording…)
If you still think it’s confusing I’ll update that text as well
I agree. Normally when things are cancelled, they never happened. For example, a planned autobiography (Mick Jagger). In this case, it was never published.
As I understand it - Cancelled means it was never released to the public. Withdrawn means it was released for a time, and then taken off the shelf.
It is hard enough to make sense if one should use “Cancelled” or “Withdrawn”. And especially as these will translate differently. I agree that any description of a “withdrawn” item should not have the word “cancel” used in that description. (OR at least say “but it was available briefly in at least one time zone before being withdrawn.” )
Personally I don’t see why there is a need to include the allegations bit at ALL. That kinda gossip only confuses the definition.
Can we get that detail included in the withdrawn\cancelled summary. Or even better on the Release Date page. Just to note that a cancelled release is not used to give a “first release” date, but a withdrawn is. Would be nice to have this clarification on the guideline.
I think that isn’t even needed there - whatever the reasons were, the important bit is that they tried to cancel it but failed I’d drop it from the example (but leave it on the release annotation where people who care about the details can still find it).
Otherwise, the current text looks good to me - does anyone still have issues with any other part of it?
