Musician Boost: Web Submission Service

MusicBrainz has been described as “Wikipedia for music”. It is probably the most important website database for musicians you’ve never heard of, that is used by some of the biggest websites you know well. This is why you need to be on MusicBrainz (website).

How MusicBrainz Benefits you on the Web?

What is MusicBrainz?

 

 

MusicBrainz is a music database with two important feature: (1) it is used by well-known websites and apps (see above), (2) it defines and confirms how you are musically related to other musicians, groups, releases, recordings and works, and how they are related to you. eg.

• That you are (or have been) a member of certain bands and groups (and vice versa)
• The you have composed or recorded various piece of music
• That your music has appeared on various CDs from various publishers
• That music played on air was either written by, recorded by, or features you
• That you have a website, Facebook, Twitter or Soundcloud page
• And many other types of relationships
• And much much more, see the MusicBrainz database description

The Benefits to You

Being on MusicBrainz automatically creates “structured data” that provides meaning to your musical relationships, that results in:

• Improved quality of Google search results, such as showing “Knowledge Graph cards” along with search results. This may include details of you and your releases.
• Publicly available confirmation of your musical relationships, eg.:
  • Confirmation of your identity
  • Your past and current collaborators, groups and bands
  • Your releases: CDs, digital downloads, vinyls
  • Your recordings
  • Your works
• Improved visibility on many other website and apps that use MusicBrainz
• A legacy of inter-related music information found nowhere else on the Web
• The ability of others to more easily find and identify you from your musical contributions
• And if the BBC broadcasts any of your music, a BBC Music Artist page with links to your website and social media sites

Who is MusicBrainz for?

Costs

You can add your own information to MusicBrainz for free. I also offer a service to add information on your behalf as follows:

• Per artist (or group): £10
  Adding your details, including adding the names of artists and groups with whom you have collaborated, but not their details
• Per CD (album): £20
  In addition to the format, release date and availability links, this includes specifying the tracks, the track artist(s), the name of the recording used (usually the same title), and recording artists. Each additional CD at 50% discount: £10 each
• Per Recording: £5
  Recordings that appear on a CD must include the whole CD as described above. Other stand-alone recordings (singles, SoundCloud, etc) are added here.
• Per Work: £3
  Title, composer, arranger. Links to recordings and availability as a score to purchase
• Per Event per artist: £5
  ie. a festival with five performers counts as 1+5=6, and may include set lists
• Music labels: £email
  Bulk addition of your catalogue of artists and their CDs, recordings, and works at discount

Note that information to be added must be available online, or supplied. For example, if track lengths or composers/arrangers aren’t readily available, I can’t add them!

Online payments

MusicBrainz information added

Information is added to MusicBrainz based on (a) information you provide (b) information from existing artist pages (c) other websites. It is not exhaustive, which means that if you don’t provide it, and I can’t find it, it will not be added. It may include:

You as an artist

1. Your name (sorted by surname)
2. Gender
3. Where you are from
4. If known, your IPI and ISNI codes
5. Official website
6. Social media sites (eg. Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, YouTube)
7. Known online reviews and biographies
8. Listings in other databases (eg. VIAF, Wikipedia)
9. Relationship to other artists (including tributes)
10. Relationships to family members who are artists
11. Your CD releases (see below)
12. Your recordings as performer (see below)
13. Your works as composer (see below)

Your CDs and releases

1. The CD title
2. Other artists credited
3. Whether the release is part of a larger set
4. The release type (eg. single, album etc), and sub-type
5. Language (if a foreign release)
6. Release date and country
7. Label and catalogue number
8. Barcode number and packaging format
9. Website for purchase mailorder and/or download
10. Discography web pages
11. Listings in other databases
12. Cover artwork (or Amazon listing)
13. The CD tracklist of recordings and artist credits (see below)
14. The release format (eg. CD, vinyl, etc)
15. Each track number, title, artists credited, duration
16. For each track, a related recording (see below)

Your Recordings

1. Recording title, artists credited
2. Recording arranger, conductor
3. Recording artists’ instruments (featured)
4. Recording ISRC code
5. Recording Acoustic Fingerprint (optional extra)
6. Recording purchase online link
7. CD tracks and releases of the recording (see above)
8. Work on which the recording is based (see below)

Your Works

1. The title of the work
2. ISWC code
3. Musical key of the work (eg. D major)
4. Relationship to other artists (eg. lyricist, arranger)
5. Recordings of the work
6. Score purchase link (mailorder and download)

Your Groups and bands

1. The name of the group
2. Vocalist or instrument played
3. When the collaboration started (and optionally ended)
4. Whether you are an original (founder) member
5. Optional additional information as “Artist” (see above)
6. Optional Recordings (see above)
7. Optional CDs and release (see above)
8. Optional Works (see above)

The Small Print

• I have no control over how other website use the information from MusicBrainz. They may not give the same importance to information as you and I, and they may not use the information at all.
• MusicBrainz is an open source database / encyclopedia, which means that I can not control, or take ownership of the information added. It also means that other people may add or modify information added to yours.
• I am not resonsible for legal disputes over copyright, performance rights, works, and any other claims to ownership etc. And as far as I know (I am not a legal expert), MusicBrainz is not used as an authoratitve legal precedent.
• I am happy to correct any mistakes I may have made, but it will take time for other websites that use the infiormation, to update the corrections, if at all

 

More information

• FAQs at BBC Music
• FAQs at MusicBrainz
• Google introduction to better search results | Structured data