[mb-users] More general 'is the earliest release of' AR and duplicate relations just in case

[Age Bosma]

Hi,

BlueDream raised an interesting problem today [1].

I've been adding some record label promo releases and they got a very 
detailed list of info for each track (producer, engineer, mixer, 
composer, etc.) on the back cover. We're dealing with promo's containing 
songs of multiple artists here [2] for promotion of their releases.

*Problem 1*
We currently have no AR to link each track to the track on the artist 
release it appears on. The only AR that comes close is the 'is the 
earliest release of' relation. According to it's definition: 'Indicates 
that the two tracks are identical...[snip]...Please take care to always 
point to the *first* version ever released!'. While this AR could be 
used in some cases, this will only work when the promo was released 
after the artist releases. We will have a problem again when the promo 
contains a track of an upcoming artist release.
Because of this I've been adding the AR's to all tracks on the promo 
releases instead of the tracks on the artist release they appear on.

*Problem 2*
In addition to this I also did it because I don't have all the artist 
releases so I can't cross-reference that the info on the promo's is 
actually identical to the tracks on the artist release. While it's 
likely that the info will match, I want to be 100% sure this is the case 
by cross-referencing it with the cover or booklet of the artist release.
This behaviour, however, creates a lot of duplicate ARs, especially when 
the same info is added again to the tracks on the artist release.

In case of problem 1 there was a discussion the other day about linking 
to singles with the 'is the earliest release of' AR [3]. The opinions 
where a bit divided. While some agree that the AR should really be used 
in a strict manner including linking to singles (which should include 
promo's then as well IMHO), other people might find it more useful to 
know on which official artist album the track appears. Personally I'm a 
bit divided about this as well. Because I feel that both info is 
important, I am tempted to introduce a more general AR to be able to 
link tracks to the official artist album. This will, however, result in 
basically having to create two ARs for each track if everything is 
entered completely. On the other hand it will provide a way for a lot of 
people to create a more accurate relation when they are unsure about the 
fact that it might not be the earliest release.
How do you feel about introducing an additional more general AR like 
e.g. 'is the main release of'?

As for problem 2, what is, or should, be common practise in this case? 
Preferably the info should only be added to the main artist release and 
it would be sufficient if an AR is supplied to link the tracks together. 
As I explained it is, however, not always possible to add the info to 
the main artist release. I think it's acceptable to have the possible 
duplicate ARs for the time being but do you agree on this?
Personally I don't think it's wise to just safely assume that the info 
will be identical on the main artist release. Because of this I don't 
feel comfortable adding it to the main artist release when I've only got 
the promo as real proof.

Yours,

Age Bosma


[1] http://musicbrainz.org/show/edit/?editid=5876856
[2] E.g. 
http://musicbrainz.org/album/1a3f62b0-1ed5-4de7-b1b8-2ac82b2f3f7c.html
[3] 
http://www.nabble.com/Does-%22earliest-release%22-include-singles--tf2349611s2885.html#a6542635