Musicbrainz vs. Discogs

[donstrack]

If I were to use a single online database to input album data and upload cover images, which would be best? Musicbrainz or Discogs?

I'm sure each has its boosters and detractors, but I'd really like to use only one, and not have to do dual entries. I asked a question on one of the Discogs groups, but recently discovered Musicbrainz, and I'm now dithering. Here is my message to the Discogs group:

>> I have about 40 vinyl LPs and cassettes of railroad sounds, published by several different sources beginning in the mid 1950s, when steam locomotives were being retired. Many, many others have been released since then, up through the mid 1980s. These are formal releases that were available from retail outlets and by mail order.

>> Is "Non-Music/Field Recording" the best genre/style? They are all recordings of locomotives and trains in their working environment. Mobile Fidelity (MF- prefix) is likely the best known label. There are four releases from Owl Records (ORLP- prefix) in Boulder, Colorado, and at least seven from Stan Kistler (SK- prefix) in Pasadena, California. Another active label was Arkay Records (later Arkay Enterprises) (AR- prefix) in San Jose, California.

http://www.discogs.com/label/Mobile+Fidelity+Records

http://www.discogs.com/label/Owl+Records

http://www.discogs.com/label/Arkay+Enterprises

>> I have scanned the album covers and backs, and the label on the LPs, along with the cassette inserts and the cassettes themselves. Any album inserts and liner notes have been scanned and OCR'd. Many do not have formal catalog numbers, or copyright/release dates, including a few of the earliest Mobile Fidelity releases. The scans were done with the FlipPal portable scanner, at 300 ppi resolution, and although each album cover requires 12 separate 4x6 overlapping scans, the stitching software is by far the best I have ever used, including Photoshop. <<

For some reason, there is very little activity in 2012 and 2013 on the support forums for each database, or on Hydrogen Audio, so I thought I'd ask here.

I've been a licensed user of dBpoweramp for my regular music for many years (11,000+ songs and 1,100+ albums), and I'm now putting my railroad sounds collection into foobar2000 and my MP3 player. Since I gathering all the data for the MP3 tags, I kind of want to share it with others with similar interests.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Musicbrainz vs. Discogs

If I were to use a single online database to input album data and upload cover images, which would be best? Musicbrainz or Discogs?

Can I ask why (you want to use only one)? Especially with dBp, where you can quickly see/compare the results from several databases at once and pick the best source, I don't understand why one would want to limit themselves to a single source. There is simply no one source that is consistently accurate & thorough enough that I'd rely on it exclusively, and dBp offers such an efficient way to get the best data for every track, regardless of the source.

>> Is "Non-Music/Field Recording" the best genre/style? They are all recordings of locomotives and trains in their working environment.

The best genre label, in this unusual case, is whatever makes sense to you. I personally wouldn't use "non-Music" for anything; it's way too general. Field Recording, Sound Clip, Train Audio, or just Trains are all viable options, I'd think.

[donstrack]

Re: Musicbrainz vs. Discogs

After several hours of online research, it appears that lots of people use both Discogs and Musicbrainz, and various other "free" databases. Kind of along the lines of "My database is better than your database." I've seen comments in forums that none of them have a really effective control system to prevent multiple entries with only slight variations in spelling, punctuation or capitalization.

I've received a couple private messages advising me to not use any of the online databases, for two reasons: 1) they are used to establish and document an increasing re-sale value for online auctions, that are already getting too expensive; and 2) they are used to add tags to music that has been "borrowed" from a friend, or outright pirated. In any process, doing nothing is always an option, and I choose to do nothing, except to build a personal web page that I can share among the 10-15 like-minded fans of railroad sounds.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Musicbrainz vs. Discogs

After several hours of online research, it appears that lots of people use both Discogs and Musicbrainz, and various other "free" databases. Kind of along the lines of "My database is better than your database." I've seen comments in forums that none of them have a really effective control system to prevent multiple entries with only slight variations in spelling, punctuation or capitalization.

I've received a couple private messages advising me to not use any of the online databases, for two reasons: 1) they are used to establish and document an increasing re-sale value for online auctions, that are already getting too expensive; and 2) they are used to add tags to music that has been "borrowed" from a friend, or outright pirated. In any process, doing nothing is always an option, and I choose to do nothing, except to build a personal web page that I can share among the 10-15 like-minded fans of railroad sounds.

I really think most users are agnostic when it comes to the online databases....they simply want the most complete, accurate data they can find and don't really care where it came from. I'd put myself in that category. (To make it a personal "mine is better than yours" kind of thing seems silly. They're just collections of data.)

Those arguments "against" using the databases seem even sillier. Online auctions for what...music? I've never once seen database hits offered as a rationale for measuring re-sale demand. Of anything. And I don't even understand the point of the second "argument." It's otherwise-readily-available, freely-shared information.....an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weenie slice of the huge universe of otherwise-readily-available, freely-shared information available on the internet.
(Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean somebody isn't following you. But in this case, they really aren't! :D:D)