[vorbis] TAG Standard - ENSEMBLE/PERFORMER tags

[Craig Dickson]

Jonathan Walther wrote:

> The information I wanted to go in tags is just the information need to
> fill the goals of the standard, as set out in the standard:
> 
> 1) Identify a track so the listener knows what he is listening to.
> 2) Identify a track so the listener can purchase the piece of music.
> 3) Meet goals 1 and 2 without access to external data sources.
> 
> Goals 1 and 2 are not the same thing.  One could just put in the ISRC
> tag, and TRACKNUMBER tag, and they might have satisfied goal 2, but not
> goal 1 and 3.  ISRC data is NOT on the cover of most CD's, and I know
> of no tools for extracting the ISRC from an audio CD yet.

True. I don't suggest relying on ISRC for performer/title information.

> Anyway.  Any information that isn't needed to meet the goals of the
> standard is better off residing in an external database. 

I agree with your three goals. I simply feel that your proposal exceeds
the requirements.

The distinction between PERFORMER and ENSEMBLE is unnecessary. Several
people have made this point. One could further argue that CONDUCTOR
should be merged with these, but I think CONDUCTOR is useful to
distinguish between, say, Daniel Barenboim as conductor and Daniel
Barenboim as pianist.

COPYRIGHT is unnecessary for identifying the recording. If you know the
composer, the title of the piece, the title of the CD, the date and
location of recording, and the record company's brand name (LABEL), you
don't need COPYRIGHT.

A similar argument might be made for ARRANGER, but I accept that
ARRANGER is necessary for knowing what you're listening to, though not
for being able to go out and buy it.

The distinction between PUBLISHER and LABEL is not exactly meaningless,
but I don't see that it's useful. LABEL="Columbia", PUBLISHER="Sony"? Do
you update all your files if a label is sold? I think identifying the
label is sufficient.

The distinction between AUTHOR and LYRICIST is not exactly meaningless,
but also not terribly helpful. I would prefer the simplicity of using a
single field for "the people who wrote the words", whatever you want to
call it. (Actually, the problem of what to call such a field may be the
best argument for keeping them separate!) There may be an argument for
also merging COMPOSER in with these, but it's less significant.

So to sum up, I suggest the following modifications to the proposal:

Merge ENSEMBLE into PERFORMER
Eliminate COPYRIGHT and PUBLISHER
Maybe merge AUTHOR and LYRICIST into...?

Then you will have a minimal standard that satisfies your three goals.

> If we can agree on such a database (possibly a descendant of FreeDB)
> then I would add as another goal,
>
> 4) Identify the track for location in the external database that
>   contains ALL POSSIBLE information about the track.

That seems reasonable, once such a database exists and can be guaranteed
to remain free (or at least licensed in such a way that it can be forked
if necessary).

Craig

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