Album entry editing
Entry guidelines
This page explains how to edit existing album entries.
Deleting album entries | Merging album entries
tab: Basic info
Names
For general instructions on fields like “Original language,” “Primary name,” “Non-English,” “Romanized,” “English,” and “Aliases,” refer to Entry names and aliases.
Album entry-specific name instructions
Unlike songs, albums should include the full album name, even if the name seems to have multiple parts: #VOCALOID CAFETERIA vol.01 Chinese food for example.
If an album has multiple entries due to differences in tracklists, include this information in the title, such as “(Regular Edition)” or “(Kagamine Rin version),” if appropriate. Link these album entries using the album description and/or external links. Also include the multiple editions tag.
Cover picture
A cover picture for the album.
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If the album has no cover picture, use the no cover art -tag.
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If the only available cover picture is low quality, use the temporary cover art -tag.
Album description
For other information that does not belong to any other field.
GitHub-flavored Markdown is supported for formatting.
If the original description is in a non-English language, an English translation can be added/moved to a separate field below.
Record type
If unsure which type to use, try to find out how the artists themselves categorize the album. For more elaborate descriptions, refer to Wikipedia, Discogs, or Musicbrainz. More details are available on the Album types and artist participation page.
More on the page Album types and artist participation.
Original album
Album that consists mostly of previously unpublished songs.
original track = Alternate versions (instrumentals and remixes) are usually not counted.
Single
Contains one or two original tracks.
EP
Meaning extended play. Contains 3-4 original tracks.
Split album
Collaboration between two or more (but usually just two) equal artists, where all artists have roughly the same number of songs.
Compilation
Collection of previously published songs, gathered from one or more earlier albums. For example, “best of” collections.
Video
Disc containing mostly music videos, usually a DVD or Blu-ray.
Other
For albums that don’t fit into anything above.
Release event
The release events of the album.
Release date
The earliest release date of the album.
Catalog number
A catalog number typically follows the format “ABCD-1234.” According to MusicBrainz:
“A quasi-unique number assigned by the record label, including alphanumeric characters, often letters followed by numbers, possibly separated by a dash, space, or other punctuation.”
Barcode
Barcodes are usually plain numbers, e.g., 01234567, and can be scanned from the product package.
External links
External links relevant to the entry. Illegal/direct download links are forbidden.
Link categories:
- Official: Official album websites.
- Commercial: Authorized sales sites like Amazon and CDJapan.
- Reference: Fansites with useful information such as wikis.
- Other: Links that don’t fit into the above categories.
More details are available on the External links page.
Status
Entry status communicates the level of completeness:
- Draft: Entry is missing crucial information. Indicates a request for additional information or corrections.
- Finished: The entry has all necessary information but hasn’t been inspected by a trusted user yet.
- Approved: The entry has been inspected and approved by a trusted user. Approved entries can only be edited by trusted users.
- Locked: Locked entries can only be edited by moderators.
Finished Album Entry Requirements
Finished album entries should meet the following criteria:
- The album has at least one name and the original language is specified. (ALV2)
- All artists (including vocalists) responsible for the album are specified. Whenever possible, each of those artists should also have an artist entry. (partially ALV3)
- The album has a cover picture, temporary cover art tag, or no cover art tag. (ALV4)
- The album includes one of the following: description, external link, or media link. (ALV5)
- The album’s release date (at least the year) is specified. (ALV6)
- The album has a complete tracklist. (ALV7)
- The album type is specified. (ALV8)
Album entry validation errors
- ALV1: DuplicateArtist (automatically fixed when the entry is saved)
- ALV2: UnspecifiedNames
- ALV3: NeedArtist
- ALV4: NeedCover
- ALV5: NeedReferences
- ALV6: NeedReleaseYear
- ALV7: NeedTracks
- ALV8: NeedType
Criteria for approving albums
TODO
tab: Artists
In this tab, you can add and delete artists who have participated in the album. These changes do not affect the tracklist (song entries).
Vocaloids, UTAUs, and other singing synthesizer voicebanks are added as artists as well. Refer to Choosing the correct voicebank credit.
You can also add an artist to the album by creating a custom artist, which adds an artist credit to the album entry as text (no artist entry is created).
If the album has no known artist credits available, use the entry missing artists tag.
If the vocalist is uncredited, the artist entry Unknown vocalist(s) can be used. The entry Unknown vocal synth(s) or any of its derived artist entries can also be used to further narrow down the vocalist.
Support status
For albums, the support status indicates that an artist had a minor role compared to other artists of the same category. For example, if the album has multiple songs by one artist and 1 or 2 remixes by other artists, the remix artists should be marked as support.
Effects of support status:
- Artists with support status never appear in the “artist string” of the album.
- On the album entry page, support artists are shown in parentheses and after all other artists.
- Albums or songs where the artist has support status never appear on the first tab of the artist’s entry page, under recent or popular albums.
- These albums also never appear on the artist’s “main albums” tab.
For collaboration albums, none of the artists can be marked as support.
Artist roles
Same rules as with songs. Refer to the Artist roles section.
tab: Discs
If the album contains multiple discs you may define extra properties for those discs here. You may specify disc name and type (Audio or Video). Name is optional: if not specified, the default “Disc #” will be used, where ”#” is the disc number.
tab: Tracks
Songs entries can be connected to the album entry here.
Clicking a track by its name opens the “Track properties” -window, which can be used to add artists to the song entry (track). Only the artists which are added in the “Artists”-tab are visible here.
- If the artist participates in most of the songs, it’s efficient to select all the tracks and update them instead of adding the artist to the tracks one by one.
The “custom track” -feature (no song entry) is intended for tracks made by out-of-scope artists. Secret Sky 2020 (DJ Mix) for example.
When the album entry is saved, the new tracks are created as song entries.
tab: Additional pictures
Note that the main picture is edited on the “Basic Info” tab. Only upload pictures relevant to this album.
tab: Media
Crossfades and other advertisements related to the album.