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Topic: What is the REAL album name? (Read 7932 times) previous topic - next topic
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What is the REAL album name?

1) Ok so the Hobbit an unexpected journey soundtrack...

I've seen:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

2) Michael buble has an album called To Be Loved. Two songs:

- Something Stupid (feat. Reese Witherspoon)

- Have I Told You Lately That I Love You (with Naturally 7)

Now, some sources name it like above. Other sources say (feat. Naturally 7). Other sources do not say feat or with, but change the ARTIST field to saying "Michael Buble feat. Reese Witherspoon).

3) Jeremy Soule composed the Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion and V SKyrim soundtracks. It seems like the official names are "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" and "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Original Game Soundtrack". It kind of buggers me there is no consistency.

4) Tarja has an album called Colours In The Dark. There is a song called Darkness which is a cover by Peter Gabriel. Do you normally indicate (Peter Gabriel Cover) or put it in another field? Most sources I have seen just call it Darkness.

My question: How do I know what the proper names are from 1) 2) 3) 4)???? [yes I have a bit of a weird thing about trying to perfect my library now]

What is the REAL album name?

Reply #1 –
My suggestion...

Pick one way of doing each of these things and be consistent across your entire library.

The "official" (if there is such a thing) answer for each individual track or album is irrelevant - following that would only lead to inconsistencies in your library.


I'd also be concerned that title fields are for titles, and artist fields are for artists, but I understand why people who rely on track artist heavily don't like to "pollute" them with extra artists - but that's exactly what I use them for.

It's also worth worrying about the result of an alphanumeric sort on titles which should fall in a natural order. Roman Numerals usually sort OK to start with. "First" "Second" and "Third" do not.

Finally, if whatever method you choose today can automatically be converted to a different method that you choose tomorrow using a bit of mp3tag scripting, then it's future proof and not worth worrying about further.

Cheers,
David.

What is the REAL album name?

Reply #2 –
There is no perfect solution to tagging... No matter how you choose to do it, you'll probably end-up with situations that don't fit perfectly into your scheme.

The "official" name would be what's printed on the CD.    Personally, I'm not so concerned about getting the proper/official name as I'm trying to create a consistant database.    Another example would be "Live", "Greatest Hits", and "Anthology"  albums.    I've got several of those, and I always add the artist's name to the the official title.

I've standardized like this:
Phantom Of The Opera (Broadway Soundtrack)
Phantom Of The Opera (Movie Soundtrack)

Quote
2) Michael buble has an album called To Be Loved. Two songs:

- Something Stupid (feat. Reese Witherspoon)

- Have I Told You Lately That I Love You (with Naturally 7)

I don't like "feat."  It just looks ugly to me.

I'd do it like this:
SONG TITLE: Something Stupid
ARTIST: Michael Buble With Reese Witherspoon

The downside to including the guest artist in the artist name field is that if you want to play all of your Micheal Buble songs and you just select "Micheal Buble" as your artist, you'll miss the ones with guests.

Quote
4) Tarja has an album called Colours In The Dark. There is a song called Darkness which is a cover by Peter Gabriel. Do you normally indicate (Peter Gabriel Cover) or put it in another field? Most sources I have seen just call it Darkness.
If I included that information at all, I'd put it in a comment field.  Or, if he's the composer, you can put him in the composer field.    (Personally, I don't use the composer field.)

------------------
I get a little obsessive researching the YEAR.  On compilation CDs, I use the year the original song was released.    For albums originally released on vinyl, I use the year of the vinyl release.   

The dates can get tricky for classical music, or modern recordings of older music.  Since The Great Gatsby movie was re-made, I've been looking for some modern (higher quality) recordings of 1920's music.  In that case, I'm using the CD release date, although it doesn't reflect the proper musical era. 

For my (few) classical recordings,  I'll take the opposite approach and use the year of composition (if I can find it).    And, I put the composer in the artist field.    Tagging classical music can get very tricky, and I think you always have to compromise.  But since I'm not really into classical music, I don't get obsessive about it.   


What is the REAL album name?

Reply #3 –
Regarding featured artists: The most common joiner I have seen is "feat." It's up to you whether you want to put it in the title or artist field. I personally prefer putting at the end of the title.