http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Performance_Name_Relationship_Type http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Same_Artist_With_Different_Names http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Artist_Alias#When_NOT_to_use_aliases
MB makes clear that Performance Names are to be linked to Legal Names, and aliases are not supposed to be used for performance names. That's good, but what happens when no one knows an artist's real name? Disregarding the fact that the debate in http://musicbrainz.org/show/edit/?editid=10881818 is a complete trainwreck, you can be pretty clear, even if you can't read Japanese, that "KOTOKO" and "kotoko" are different artists. KOTOKO has released all her music and written lyrics for other songs as "KOTOKO" for nearly 10 years, and she specifically announced that "kotoko" would be a side project. She has releases as KOTOKO scheduled for August, and she wrote lyrics for the "kotoko 1st Single" as "KOTOKO", so it's not a case of inconsistent artist capitalization either. I am of the opinion that for all intents and purposes, "KOTOKO" is almost like a legal name, and "KOTOKO performs as kotoko" would be an alright edit, even though it bends MB guidelines. Because iff "kotoko" can't be linked to KOTOKO as a performance name, then there is nothing you can do to link the 2 artists together, when they should be linked. I am hoping we can get some discussion on Performance/Legal Names and see everyone else's opinions on this matter, when no legal name is known but one performance name is used consistently, almost like a legal name.
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