Topic: recommended procedure to replace artist ?

Hi. I found an incorrectly spelled artist in the DB with only one track associated. I was looking for the correct procedure to honour, following a link to http://musicbrainz.org/doc/ChangeTrackArtistEdit but the page has not been written yet.

I read somewhere in the forum here, that there is a bot doing housework and deleting artists without any associated tracks. So should we - in the given case - just create a new artist and wait for the bot to delete the incorrectly-spelled-not-existing one or is it better if we do this manually (and if so how?) ?

Thanks, chrizoo

Re: recommended procedure to replace artist ?

You have two choices, depending on the situation.

1) If the correctly spelt artist is already in the DB can you either
    a) change the track's artist (as suggested above); Click on the track; then click 'Change artist'. Select the correct (existing) artist, and an edit note, etc etc.
    b) "merge" the typoed artist into the correct artist. This is usually better when there are several tracks/releases under the typoed artist, and also has the benefit of automatically adding an "alias" with the typo to the correct artist so if someone else makes the same typo, it will locate the correct artist entry.

2) If there is no existing artist entry correctly spelt, you should use "Edit Artist" on the typoed artist to rename it correctly. if you're really thorough, you could add an alias with the typo to that artist to, as above, save from people making the same mistake in future.

This is better than changing the track's artist to a brand new artist - creates fewer DB entities; retains editing history for that artist.

Which artist are you talking about?

3 (edited by voiceinsideyou 2008-05-06 07:21:47)

Re: recommended procedure to replace artist ?

FWIW, I just wrote ChangeTrackArtistEdit, so hopefully one less edit type which is missing at least a basic "howto" page.

Re: recommended procedure to replace artist ?

Thanks for the clarification. I edited the artist. It's here (but since I am honoured to have you subscribed to me, you'll be notified anyway ;) ) I didn't add an alias, as it was an unlikely to be repeated typo in the artist name and adding that as an alias would only create confusion I think, but feel free to add one, if you deem it advisable.

Re: recommended procedure to replace artist ?

Nice work. I added an alias; you're probably right re it being an unlikely typo, but you'd be surprised how many times the same artist typo has had to be merged in some cases!

Re: recommended procedure to replace artist ?

Thanks.
Something unrelated: I looked up this PUID which is attributed 12 times to the Fatboy Slim song "right here, right now" and one time to David Benoit's "right here, right now". I know both and David Benoit's song sounds nothing like Fatboy Slim's. So logically that must be a wrong PUID match. Should it be removed ?

Re: recommended procedure to replace artist ?

Yup, I've removed it now.