[mb-devel] Release date/locations

[Bogdan Butnaru]

On 5/2/07, Olivier <viapanda at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2007/5/2, Bogdan Butnaru <bogdanb at gmail.com>:
> > Also, per-track info is only relevant in some cases. I
> > don't think it's worth it to complicate things with per-track
> > recordings. Instead, we can just add multiple recording lines for the
> > release (there's no possible different interpretation for that,
> > right?) and use the free-text comment field or the annotation to make
> > sense of the handful of more complicated things.
>
> Unless you want this to apply *only* on "one-date-live performances",
> you just can't spare the use of a per-track system.
> *Most* releases have tracks recorded at different dates.
> > though it intersect it a bit. Also, consider that we
> > have vastly more recording info in the LiveReleaseStyle format than in
> > AR format.
> > For instance, we could add "Recorded between [1994-03 and 1994-05] at
> > [the Music Studio, Town], [Country] by [someone]", with the comment or
> > annotation stating more info -- e.g. "track 1-5 on 7 March, track 6 in
> > several takes in April 5-15, finishing touches on May 19". The vast
> > majority of releases would use only a simple line like the release
> > dates today.
>
> If it was implemented per-track, you could have these automatically
> deduced at the release level, from the info at track level...
> Again, I don't agree at all with your opinion that most releases were
> recorded on one day, or over a continuous period of time.
> This IMHO is just wrong.

I understand your position. I came to this subject through the bootleg
point of view, and you're right that most releases are not bootlegs. I
agree that normal albums have completely different structure.

I think however that it is the live releases (and bootlegs in
particular) are most affected by the recording date; I think that's
why we have release dates and not recording dates (well, except for
ARs) at the moment: the release date is usually more interesting.

Another point is this: 'normal' releases have potentially much more
complex recording info, but it's the live releases where this info is
really very important. For a live release recording info is probably
more important than the release date. I _would_ like to have complex
ability to record such info for albums, but it's much more urgent for
live albums.

Also, the AR-adding process is quite different from how we add release
dates, and for live releases the later process is much preferable. ARs
are for detailed info, but for a live release (especially bootlegs)
usually the most important info after the title and track-list is the
recording.

That said, there's no reason we can't shoot two birds with one bullet.
I believe we can create a "recorded" line that looks similar to what
we have for releases now -- including the edit process -- that's
attached to the releases (it will be used first for live releases,
probably), and use the same table for track ARs; we'll just use track
ids instead of album ids.

This way, adding recording info to a (one-day) live release is just as
easy as adding a release date now, and adding per-track info where
needed will be just like adding ARs. The display would be the same,
under the "Release date" row in the album view, and in the AR list
under the tracks, where used.

The reason I'm insisting on this is that I'd really like to have
"recording date" -- actually, "performance date" is a much better word
-- for concerts and stuff quick and easy. I fear that if we enter in a
lot of track-based details we risk spending much longer and end-up
with a worse interface. I guess I should just shut up and try to add
this myself rather than bugging the coders... :)

-- Bogdan Butnaru — bogdanb at gmail.com

PS. Another quip on the record dates for album tracks: my proposal is
not just for one-day recordings, as you can just as well enter
"1994-05" as recording date, signifying "during that month". I've
rarely seen info more detailed than this on album liner notes. (Though
I'm sure you'll prove me wrong with a big pile of info for some Jazz
artist with 120 perfectly-documented albums :)