[mb-users] Remastered Reissues with same/different content

[Mike Lerch]

On 7/6/07, Frederic Da Vitoria <davitofrg at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2007/7/6, Mike Lerch <mike.lerch at gmail.com>:
>
> > I'd like some guidance before I do an edit.  The artist Mike Keneally
> >
> (http://musicbrainz.org/artist/b018a7c2-2f56-4f01-ac7e-ad9b4c73226c.html
> )
> > recently gained control of some of his early releases from the old
> > record label and is remastering and reissuing them on his own record
> > label.
> >
> > In the case of the album hat,
> >
> http://musicbrainz.org/release/3b3ac7c8-8820-4a63-8f0b-13292b8a4df4.html,
> > the remaster includes new content (no new tracks, but some tracks have
> > formerly edited pieces restored and are thus longer).  In the case of
> > the album Boil That Dust Speck,
> >
> (http://musicbrainz.org/release/bbdcbdb9-c2d1-45eb-91c3-751138d18bb9.html),
> > while it sounds different, there isn't any new content
> >
> > So my question is what are the guidelines here?  I looked up Pink
> > Floyd's Dark Side of the moon to get an idea of what to do when
> > something is remastered/re-released.  It looks like I can add a
> > release event and that would take care of Boil That Dust Speck.  I
> > looked up Pink Floyd's The Final Cut to get an example of an album
> > that was remastered and re-released with an additional track and in
> > that case it is listed as a whole separate album.  Note that in the
> > case of hat it doesn't actually have a new track, just longer versions
> > of tracks.  In both cases I noted that the title of the album stayed
> > the same (while at Amazon they have "hat" and "hat. (remastered)".
> >
> > If anyone can provide me with detailed advice or a better place to
> > look on the Wiki I'd really appreciate it.  Thanks much!
> >
>
> I'd enter both as separate releases. In the first case, the track durations
> are significantly different, so it is a different release. The second is
> less obvious, but I believe most editors agree that if the sound is
> different, then it should be a separate release.
>
> This wiki page is an indirect answer to your question:
> http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/MergeReleasesEdit
>
> This wiki page asks the same question you do:
> http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/WhatDefinesAUniqueRelease
>
> --
> Frederic Da Vitoria
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>

Thanks much for the advice and those links.  The wiki seems to
indicate that this is still open for discussion, which surprises me
since it happens so often in the music industry.

I'm not seeing consistency in the data either, which is confusing.
Dark Side of the Moon for instance has been remastered several times
(including Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab remaster on 24k gold disc and
most recently a hybrid SACD) but there are only two listings in there.
 AC/DC had their whole collection remastered and then after that Back
In Black was released on a DualDisc but that doesn't seem to be
reflected.  Iron Maiden has had all their older albums released three
times: the initial release, a remaster with bonus tracks, then on a
new label a different remaster that didn't have the bonus tracks.  For
the Iron Maiden, I see that there's a fantastic annotation that
explains this (http://musicbrainz.org/release/4766bf83-3b58-4584-b75a-43917627b790.html),
but don't see such an annotation for Dark Side of the moon.  In some
of these cases it's difficult to know if the differences are because
the standard/style is incomplete/inconsistent or if the information is
just incomplete (i.e. maybe no one has ripped and/or entered the
Mobile Fidelity version of DSOTM)

This is tough!  I want to contribute here and do the right thing
(better yet, do the right thing the first time) but am not sure what
to do.  I with the wiki at http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/HowPUIDsWork
was clearer...it seems that knowing how the PUIDs interact with the
data model would help answer this, the disc IDs in particular.
Certainly CDs with slightly different track lengths and such are
gathered under one album in the case of Back in Black.  Certainly
multiple PUIDs point to the same track on the same release.  We also
have times where one PUID points to the same track on multiple
releases (i.e. when the same master that appeared on the original
release also appears on a greatest hits compilation or a soundtrack).

Augh!  Just when I was about to say, "forget it, I'll just associate
these PUIDs to the existing releases" I see Frederic's great point
about associating different data with the remastered release than the
original release.  Aw, man.
-- 
http://mikelerch.tumblr.com