[mb-users] Are different digital downloads different releases?

Greg Thomas <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.audio.musicbrainz.user
Message-ID <CA+GjePXqDOXC6so=E99SZVn1SN5UrtmTkwenCpDKO4tYhq5kvA@mail.gmail.com>
Are digital downloads in different formats different releases? For example,
"Fly Yellow Moon" (
http://musicbrainz.org/release/924b8b54-af02-416f-90dc-9f3c14835934) can be
downloaded in the UK from either;

1. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003JVBLFK (£3.99 in 256 kb/s MP3
format)
2. https://play.google.com/store/music/album?id=Bjhqn5dhlu6esx2yswqkpolkqri(£4.49
in 320 kb/s MP3 format)
3. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/fly-yellow-moon/id370394444 (£4.99 in
256 kb/s AAC format)

and possibly elsewhere, too.

On the face of it, these appear to be the same release as they have the
same number of tracks that are the same length.

Now, should this one entry have links to the different download sites, or
should each download have it's own release? I'm leaning towards the latter,
mainly for two reasons;
a) It's only an assumption that they are the same release - it could be
completely different arrangements on each and without download each and
comparing, I don't *know* that they are the same.
b) The different codecs, whilst not as stark as the difference
between cassette tape, vinyl and CD, are nonetheless different. Otherwise
identical releases would be treated as different on physical medium, so why
not different on a digital download?

But what is the MB view? The style guide doesn't really cover this, so
should there be three different releases, each with their own download URL,
or one release with three download URLs?

Thoughts welcome!

Thanks,

Greg

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