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

On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 10:33 PM, Kuno Woudt <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> On 12/31/2012 07:30 PM, Greg Thomas wrote:
> > 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.
>
> I think they're different releases, yes.  The audio itself is different
> because each retailer uses their own encoding (with different file
> format and bitrate).  The available cover art is typically in different
> resolutions.  The file names will be different.
>
> When dealing with physical releases very small differences to the
> coverart (different barcode or catalog number, different record label
> imprints) already is enough for a new release, even if the audio is
> identical between them.  A different release date (e.g. for
> geographical regions) is already a new release in musicbrainz.  We
> shouldn't treat digital versions differently in that regard, there are
> differences between them, so we should have separate entries in our
> database.
>
> Though I believe most of us agree that if a retailer of digital
> downloads (such as bandcamp) offers the download in multiple formats
> (e.g. flac, mp3, ogg), we consider those to be the same release.
> (that is my impression based on irc discussions, I could be wrong).
>

From what I've seen people actually *do*, pretty much every digital release
with the same tracklist is being treated as the same (and a fair amount of
people don't even see the point of having the digital releases as separate
from the physical at all, amazingly enough). I don't know if people would
actively *disagree* if someone was to add one release per format, but I
don't think I've ever seen anyone do it.

-- 
Nicolás Tamargo de Eguren

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