Additional Metadata

Additional Metadata and Information

Some information cannot be stored in the MusicBrainz database but is important background information for editing and voting. These are:

• IdenticallyNamedArtists - A list of artists who have the same name. Most of them have not been splitted into different artists but are one entry in the database, so you could start to work on them. (see HowToSplitArtists)
• NotDuplicateArtists - This tries to keep track of artists with similar names who are not duplicate entries and should not be merged. Also see NotDuplicateReleases for a list of similar releases which are not the same.
• OddReleases - Different releases that are hard to fit into the MusicBrainz schema.
  • There is also a page called OddReleaseDiscussion. It is rather outdated and if you have a question when editing something odd it is probably best to ask in the UsersMailingList or see if you find a hint in the StyleGuidelines.

• InternationalArtists - Lists of artists from certain countries. This is a good point to start editing on artists in your native language! Also if you want to keep track on the artists from a certain (your) country you can subscribe to the artists on this list.
  • If you need help editing in certain languages you might want to look at TellSimilarLanguagesApart of contact a moderator with a certain ModeratorLanguage - or you try one of the OnlineTranslators.

• TracksWithMultipleArtists - Tries to list all releases that have tracks that consist of more than one song by more than one artist.
• FictitiousArtists - Lists artists in the database which don't exist as real persons but are of discographic relevance because material was released under their name - for example the Muppets.

The following pages don't try to be exhaustive lists but more describe general constructs which can be found in the database and give some examples for that:

• VirtualDuplicateReleases - Releases that were duplicated with another tracklisting although they do not actually exist in this version (so they are virtual) - either because of tagging problems with special Unicode characters or for just transscripting/translating them (often done with Japanese releases). In a future database version it might be possible to put all these entries into one.
• BandWithMainPerformerName - Description and list of a special construct where bands have the name of the main performer.

Finally there are some pages with genre specific metadata that might help when editing in that area:

• ClassicalMusic
• Jazz

External

• OtherDatabases can be helpfull resources for editing the data in MusicBrainz.
• A rather outdated page provided links to artist discographies - though now that they can be stored using AdvancedRelationships this page only contains a few usefull links.
• Again: there is a list of OnlineTranslators.

Trivia

Trivia is the fun in data!

• For attempts to collect trivia about the data stored in the MusicBrainz database see DataTrivia.
• But there is also information about the social component of it:
  • MusicBrainzSlang for example tries to describe vocabulary used by the MusicBrainz users.
  • On http://www.frappr.com/musicbrainz you can find a map locating the users of MusicBrainz - feel free to add yourself to it!

Subjective Data

Storing subjective, non-factual data maybe one of the future goals of MusicBrainz. As by now there are only proposals.

• There is a very outdated draft for MusicReviews but this is not used anymore. Though we have a new separate Wiki dealing with questions about the realization of a review system: http://review.musicbrainz.org/.
• MusicRating might provide means of rating the data in MusicBrainz.
• Genre information is perhaps too subjective and may lead to disputes (see GenreAlternative for another outdated draft) but the data could be categorized using a FolksonomySystem.