A release version is a particular grouping of one or many recordings. It's the introduction of a particular group of recordings of work(s) to a market. Different versions of the same album for different territories may be identified as different releases by their identifiers, such as GRid, UPC or EAN. A GRid is the Global Release Identifier. GRid provides a system for the unique identification of ""Releases"" of music over electronic networks, so that they can be managed efficiently. An UPC or EAN is a Universal Product Code or International Article Number (was European originally, hence the “E”). This identifies a product for retail sale, and is often the number encoded in a barcode font. Traditionally, barcodes were different in different regions, and whilst this has been standardized, it is still at the discretion of the releasing company. For example, exactly the same release in the US and Australia may or may not have a different UPC, depending on the processes in place by the releasing entity. David Bowie’s Blackstar album has 6 different UPC’s for exactly the same release. This is based on the different barcodes for different formats (Vinyl, CD, Digital, etc.).
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Release version
A release version is a particular grouping of one or many recordings. It's the introduction of a particular group of recordings of work(s) to a market. Different versions of the same album for different territories may be identified as different ...
Recording
A Recording is the final mastered recording of a song, optimally identified by an ISRC. Different mixes of the same song can be assigned different ISRC codes depending on the release process. A recording can contain data such as the song title for ...
Work
A Work is the compositional element of a song, optimally identified by an ISWC. Think sheet music. This means the song ‘as written’, therefore a complete reinvention, remix and retitle of the same song should have the same ISWC as the original ...
Release
A Release is a particular grouping of one or many recordings. It's the introduction of a particular group of recordings of work(s) to a market. An Album, Single, Compilation, EP or any other grouping can be a release. Different versions of the same ...
Release Group
An Album, Single, Compilation, EP or any other grouping can be a release group. A release group is the summary terms of all of the release versions - we think of an Album as a singular release, despite the fact that it may be made up of Digital, ...