Kuno Woudt wrote > > Hello, > > On 31/01/12 03:49, MeinDummy wrote: >> As a side note: I think we need to update the guidelines with respect to >> netlabel releases, too. If the same music is released at X different >> netlabels we'd end up with X identical releases according to the current >> guidelines. >> Look at >> http://musicbrainz.org/label/710c65db-6412-4a86-abba-2b6680d2fc05 >> afmusic for example. They make all their CC-licensed releases available >> at >> Bandcamp and Jamendo and they sometimes collaborate with other netlabels. >> I >> think that all these release events belong to the same release rather >> than >> representing several individual releases. An example that I recently >> added >> is http://musicbrainz.org/release/5cad4acb-1729-457b-ae3b-4cee5953166d >> Reality Bites by Emerald Park (detailed release info is >> http://www.af-music.de/releases/afm115-emerald-park-reality-bites-single/ >> here ). > > I've already mentioned this several times, but I disagree that these are > the same release. An artist uploads lossless files to bandcamp and > jamendo, they will generate the lossy versions most users download. > > The retailers act as manufacturers in this process, and the software and > configuration options they use during the encoding process will subtly > affect the audio. The audio of the releases will be different, so they > cannot be the same release. Similarly an iTunes release is different > from an Amazon release and different from a CD release -- even if all > are released on the same day and contain the same tracks. > > But a release available from the Ubuntu One music store is the same > release as the one available from 7digital.com, because 7digital is the > back-end provider for the Ubuntu one music store. Ubuntu One is a > proper reseller or retailer in this scenario, and not involved in > manufacturing the way Bandcamp, Jamendo, Amazon and iTunes are. > > -- kuno / warp. >
Of course all these sources do not provide exactly the same audio but this does not mean that they cannot be the same release. We are not even sure if we want to keep original and remastered tracks separate. So why should we differentiate between encodings? As of now, MB only offers the format "Digital Media" without further branching off into codecs and their parameters so except for the release event all those MP3 releases are the same with respect to their MB data. Even the PUIDs and AcoustIDs are the same. If Digital Media releases from different sources were kept separate then the owner of some MP3s might not even be able to correctly identify his release unless the source is mentioned in some ID3 tag field or he remembers where exactly he bought or downloaded every item of his music collection. And with the "different audio" argument you would also have to create separate releases for Jamendo MP3 and Ogg Vorbis or for the different encodings that you can choose when downloading from Bandcamp or archive.org. People who re-encode music (I actually do this to shrink 320+kbps files) would not even find their MP3s represented in the database anymore because their audio is different from any officially available one. With CDs it's more or less the same: People rip them and end up with differently encoded files that they still tag with the same MB release data. The only difference to our "Digital Media" releases is that the encoding is done by the end user and not by the retailers (where chances are higher that several people own identically encoded files). I don't see why we shouldn't stick to the simple "Digital Media" format to cover all encodings. And as I said before I even think we should combine MP3 releases from different sources into one MB release to prevent the database from being cluttered up with identical copies of the same data. Cheers, Christian (MD) -- View this message in context: http://musicbrainz.1054305.n4.nabble.com/Bandcamp-label-tp3666506p4351105.html Sent from the Musicbrainz - Style mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ MusicBrainz-style mailing list MusicBrainz-style@lists.musicbrainz.org http://lists.musicbrainz.org/mailman/listinfo/musicbrainz-style
