This is a project to improve the way labels and their associated
companies are dealt with in the Discogs database. The outcome should be
a clear way to list the complexities of labels and music industry
companies. The solution will solve all the eventualities we uncover on
the label and company pages, but should also be as easy to use as
possible for new users. Adding to the complexity of this task is the
fact that a lot of labels / companys have changed roles or names over
the years, and reflecting this change in a coherent way will be one of
the biggest challenges.
The company and label pages should be used to try to deduce the history
and hierarchy of a company/label. What will be especially helpful is a)
a complete history of the company/label, and b) a rundown of the current
structure at least, with divisions, labels, sub labels etc, the catalog
number differences, country differences, and anything else that can help
identify the correct label for a release.
Of assistance would also be information or knowledge (possibly with
additional fields in the label page) of local licencees and distributors
which could, in some instances, even be competing companies.
1) Labels - have releases, cat#'s, and all the other usual things
on Discogs. 2) Companies - which own labels and do not release items
directly. These are sometimes 'hacked' at Discogs by making a dummy
release to add a company with no releases.
Please check out Formatting page for some ideas
of how to lay out a label page using headers to organize information
(please update this as nessasary).