[mb-style] [Clean up CSG] Box sets, aka, what defines a unique release?

[Chris B]

On 13/02/2008, Brian Schweitzer <brian.brianschweitzer at gmail.com> wrote:
> <snip>
> > why treat classical box sets any different to normal box sets?
> >
> > if released separately: don't add the box set
> > if only released in boxset: add the box set
> > http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/BoxSetNameStyle
> >
> > if part released only in the box set, and part not, add the whole box
> > set for context
> > (my interpretation of what we seem to do in these cases)
>
> I'm not disagreeing with you - if it's released separately, add just
> the standalone release.  If it's added in a box, add the box.
>
> The problem I'm describing is the cases like the Brilliant Classics
> Master Composers series, or the Philips and Brilliant Classics
> Complete Edition box sets.
>
> Each of these is released, not only (and perhaps not initially) as a
> mega 80 to 180 CD set.  To take the Philips Complete Mozart Edition
> example, it has had each CD released first by other labels such as BIS
> and Naxos (1992 and before), then re-released as standalone CDs by
> Philips (1992 and before), then released as 45 volumes box sets
> (1992), then 17 larger box sets (2000), 2 "half-the-series" sets
> (1992), then finally one last huge set of all the CDs (2006).
>
> This isn't just theoretical - right now, we have several editors
> working on adding these mega-sets.  I just added the entire huge
> Brilliant Classics Mozart set a few months ago, and a few editors and
> I have been working on adding the entire Philips one.  Some discs are
> already present, but in their single disc or smaller volume versions.
> So the question is, should we have editors who wanted to add the
> discs, does it really make sense that we would have:
>
> BIS standalone
> Philips standalone
> Philips, one volume out of the 45 volumes
> Philips, one volume out of the 17 boxes
> Philips, one volume out of the 2 half-the-series boxes
> Philips, one volume out of the complete series box
>
> plus any other standalone releases by other labels who also have
> licensed that same CD from BIS?
>
> I'm suggesting that, in these cases, all the standalones list as one
> listing, and for the boxes, so long as it still is the same label, all
> combine into the largest set - so in this case, the 45, the 17, and
> the half-the-series would all be listed once, as part of the complete
> series box.  If another label - Brilliant Classics, for example - then
> licenses that CD for a different BC box, that too gets a separate
> listing, within the same "largest BC box" concept.
>
> Thus we end up with 2 or 3 listings, not one for each time a label
> adds more CDs and resells the same CD.
>
> This isn't what we normally see outside of classical though.  First,
> labels outside of classical don't tend to license off to other labels
> entire CDs for inclusion in a box.  Second, While you might get that
> 25 CD single Oasis box set, you typically don't get a 5, then a 10,
> then a 25, then a 50, then a 70, etc box set, reissuing the same
> smaller boxes over and over again into larger boxes.  Thus, whereas
> the BoxSet guideline of "we allow multiple listings for CDs in boxes
> and outside of boxes" normally makes sense, the business practices of
> the classical labels, reissuing the same CDs over and over in
> progressively larger boxes, stretches this principle, such that we end
> up with largely redundant listings, different only in the name of the
> box and the CD # within that box.

but all of these things *could* happen outside of classical, and sod's
law says they have :)

i don't think this is a classical-only issue and any guideline
amendment should be made to BoxSetNameStyle, even if 99% of the time
it might apply to classical releases.

back to the proposal: i would say that we should allow all box sets to
be added even if they are a subset of a larger box, UNLESS that box is
just a box containing other, existing, boxes (bear with me) - in which
case that's basically the same logic we apply to boxes that contain
separately available items.

eg
- if the 180 set is a meta-package of 10x 10 disc volumes (with the
same order), which are also available separately, then add them
separately. if all the discs are available separately, then add no box
sets.
- if you've got Geck's Mozart Chillout Box which contains discs 1, 43,
83-89 and 109 of the 180 disc set, then that needs to be added
separately to retain the box set name and disc order.