Box Sets
See also BoxSetNameStyle, an official style guideline.
Need to check if anything here is worth keeping and moving to ReleaseGroups - this may then become a CandidateForDeletion. -- dmppanda 2007-04-01 17:07:25 Note: discussion of implementation of this is now taking place on ReleaseGroups
ReleaseGroups is quite a major undertaking and any guidelines within only come into effect when it arrives, so i think this is a bit of a moot point
-- Gecks
Many releases come in boxed sets. Sometimes they are available only in a boxed set, like a 2 disc compilation or an artist anthology
(a) Sometimes they are available either in a boxed set or not, like a singles collection boxed set
(b) Sometimes the first disc is a normal release, and other discs are bonus discs only available with certain special releases etc.
(c) Sometimes they are only available singly, but they are related in a set somehow, like more than one soundtrack album for a film or a single having a disc 2
(d) a series of compilations.
Case (a) need not be modelled, as the discs are still valid on their own. It would be nice to indicate the set, so that links to places to buy it could be made available, for example, and just to model more accurately the complete discography.
Case (b) covers a lot of various artist albums, and they could really use something to keep them together.
Case (c) is quite a common phenomenon nowadays. The first album is a proper relase, and the second only exists because of the first.
Case (d) could be hierarchical, e.g. the Now series, which is a 2 disc set (like case (b)) released every 3 months or so. In the current data, some of these are called "Now 50 disc 1", some "Now 50 (disc 1)", and some "Now that's what I call music 50 (disc 1)" (the full title) and there are many other variations. It is not even the case that discs one and two of the same issue are always done in the same style. So, each item in the set of releases has 2 discs.
I'd always thought of compilation series not as a box-set but as being linked to a pseudo-artist (usually the same as what people enter into the freedb 'artist' category for various artist comps.) and this agrees with standard used to file releases in physical record stores.
So, for example, 'Ministry of Sound', 'Cafe del mar', 'Now', 'Trojan box sets' or whatever could be listed as the artist/compiler for their respective compilations rather than the generic 'Various Artists'. -- bawjaws
Ministry of Sound is a Record label that happens to do lots of compilations IMHO. I wouldn't group all their releases in a boxed set container. The idea of a series of compilations forming a set goes well with the singles collection type of release, which may be boxed or otherwise. Perhaps we need a more generic sets mechanism, which encompasses boxed sets, and also other types of multiple release, like when a single has a disc 2.
iTunes supports a part of the ID3v2 spec that allows you to specify disc number. So, for example, my 3 CD Burt Bacharach box set has 3 CDs with the exact same title but different metadata (disc [x] of [3]). These are then handled as an 'album' entity. This takes care of the vast majority of cases where it is a simple 2,3 or 4 CD set and the CD's are not available separately. The frame is called TPOS. Note that this could easily be created by a script from the current "(disc x)" data held in the album title. -- bawjaws
I support keeping a page named BoxSet, as a place to write down the MusicBrainz view of what a box set is, and point people to wherever the current instructions are for how to catalogue them. BoxSet is a very natural wikiword to use, and it's good for there to be a page at the other end of that link. I don't claim the instructions themselves need to be there. They can be at BoxSetNameStyle today and ReleaseGroups tomorrow, I don't mind. --JimDeLaHunt 2007-12-30