[mb-style] Band name changes (was [mb-devel] Panic! at the Disco)

[Bram van Dijk]

Well, http://www.aelius.com/njh/tmp/musicbrainz_summit8_schema.pdf
seems to indicate that we will (eventually) get something like Discogs' 
ANV system.

But I agree that until then, it may be better  to keep the releases 
together.

Bram

Chris B schreef:
> On 19/03/2008, Lauri Watts <krazykiwi at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 4:53 PM, Olivier <viapanda at gmail.com> wrote:
>>   > Hello Nick,
>>   >
>>   >  Probably the users list is more appropriate for such a question.
>>   >
>>   >
>>   >  As for the question itself :-]
>>   >  No, there are no such AR.
>>   >
>>   >  IMHO, both these artist entries should be merged into one (but the
>>   >  last word on this usually is for subscribers...), and an alias added
>>   >  for the alternative spelling.
>>   >
>>   >  Relevant documentation here:
>>   >  http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/SameArtistWithDifferentNames
>>   >
>>   >  there is some (admittedly sparse) information about *groups* changing
>>   >  their name down the page.
>>   >
>>   I honestly think we need to actually discuss this properly.
>>
>>   I disagree that bands that _just_ change their name can be identified
>>   by their common lineups, but there are a lot of people who will want
>>   to keep the discographies under each name separate.
>>
>>   I understand some people don't like the idea, but fact is we're
>>   already using the 'performs as' AR with dates for some of these, and
>>   it is apparently both working and making sense to people.
>>
>>   Obviously there are a lot of bands that do change lineup and music
>>   style along with a name change (and indeed, that is often the reason
>>   for the name change itself).  But there are a lot of bands that do it
>>   for marketing purposes alone, especially bands that change their name
>>   once they start to achieve some success internationally.  So long as
>>   the guideline is clear (oh come on, we can manage one guideline that's
>>   actually clear, surely :)
>>
>>   So, I _really_ think we need to have an AR for these situations.
>>
>>   The options as I see them:
>>   1) Formalise the fact that the DB is already seeing use of the
>>   'performs as' AR, and emphasise the use of dates if possible.
>>   2) A new 'is also known as' AR just for bands (or 'changed their name
>>   to, it's worked fine for labels)
>>
>>   And a guideline that says something like:
>>
>>   "To be used in cases where a band changed their name only, between
>>   releases, with no accompanying lineup or musical style change.  This
>>   AR should only be used for completely consistent name changes, where
>>   all releases for a given period used one name, and the change to the
>>   new name was entire."
>>     
>
> i'd feel more comfortable with this if we had a system around that
> collates discographies of these artists onto the same page. eg, there
> is no reason to split the discography of 'Martha and the Vandellas'
> and 'Martha Reeves and the Vandellas' into two separate pages -
> they're the same act titled differently.
>
> from a 'discography' point of view:
> - doesn't allow you to see the entire sequence of releases in one place
> - involves silly discussions over VA comp releases - whether one name
> has a particular 'time span' or whether whatever name was used on the
> release goes, despite it possibly being from a different name 'era'
> - what about the new worklists? do they get separate ones if both
> 'names' have the same recording under their records? happened a lot
> with {diana ross &} the supremes (another IMO
> not-worth-splitting-artist)
>
> from a tag point of view:
> - stops having a single point of access (the artist name) for that
> acts work (really big issue IMO).
>
> if we had something like discogs ANV system -
> http://www.discogs.com/artist/Supremes%2C+The - where name changes can
> be stored without splitting discographies - then i'd feel differently,
> but at the mo IMO it's not worth the downsides, and would sooner just
> keep it as an annotation.
>
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