Song Titles/Draft
This is under active discussion, please direct all feedback at the discord thread: https://discord.com/channels/603643120093233162/1422821819362316329
Version 0.1.2. The current focus is on Non-Classical works.
The current v0 is loosely based on https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/User:Hmmm#WIP,_please_ignore, https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Style/Titles and https://help.apple.com/itc/musicstyleguide/en.lproj/static.html
The following issues are undecided and have yet to reach consensus, so are used interchangeably
- "Music Video" vs "MV"
- (Karaoke ver.) vs (Karaoke)
- "feat." vs "ft."
- Inclusion of "Official" prefix for Music/ Lyric Video
- Format of truly untitled songs
- ISO8601 date (YYYY-MM-DD)
- Official metadata, big newspapers
- Community-dictated title (community database, fangroups, etc.) (TODO: searchable term, clear source priority)
- Extra song information
- Unlimited vs Limited parenthesis
- Square brackets for subsequent metadata (similar to TuneCore, iTunes)
- Priority/ Order of parenthesis
- Artists > Song > Video
- Special (Non-ASCII) character handling:
- Strip? from artist names
- Strip? From song titles
- Cross-Language covers/ songs and naming
- Which language do we follow for translated covers
- Do we mix metadata
- e.g. Japanese or English title (or both?) if the song is in Japanese? Do we accept alternative title for unsearchable names?
- Should we add language identifier for covers in another song? Ex: (VI cover) for Vietnamese cover of a song
Titles for songs should follow the following format: Artist - Song Title (Extra title information)
Qualification
Qualification for "Songs" follows 
Non-music, for videos showcasing music as their primary contents.
Artist(s)
Artist(s)/ Performer(s) should have case and styling preserved to a reasonable degree if possible. Multiple artists should be separated with commas , and if there are too many artists and/or the length goes beyond 81 characters, it should be replaced in it's entirety with "Various Artists" [1] TODO: change 81 character limit to something that better fits DeArrow
Featured artists should be appended in extra metadata.
- Subtitles should not be included. This includes the following:
- Instrument
- Band
- Birth/ Death Date(s)
- If full name is used, follow their preferred localization
- If name in another language is given, prefer it over translation/romanization? (VOTE)
- If the name is too long, consider shorten it by abbreviation (VOTE?)
Groups (TOVOTE, seeking feedback)
Groups should be cited as such unless they are known specifically for their solo performances, in which case it should be replaced with only their solo names, never both.
Conflicting Examples
- "BABY GRAVY" (bbno$ and Yung Gravy) Spotify Bio YouTube: Goodness Gracious
- K/DA (Virtual K-Pop Group) Wikipedia: K/DA YouTube: "POP/STARS"
- Members all credited individually but compose cast of K/DA (2 members from (G)I-dle
- HUNTR/X (Fictional group) YouTube: "Golden"
- VAs are not singing voice, credited to EJAE, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami k-pop wiki
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T0qdCfgeHwyeut6brW14dTZQYXhADKV4mPa1-38jfiM/edit?usp=sharing Also debated if CV would be applicable
Titles
Based on previous precedence https://discord.com/channels/603643120093233162/897699762738966558/1167120988819968091, titles should be formatted in Sentence case, even if it is stylized differently. Additional metadata should be moved to Extra Metadata
Extra Metadata
Extra metadata should be enclosed in parenthesis (...), one per extra metadata and modifiers formatted in lowercase
This includes the following, in the specified format
- Featured artist(s)
- (feat. Artist Name[, Artist Name])
- VOTE: (feat. vs ft.)
- Should always be separated with commas and follow Artist(s) formatting
- Cover, (re)mix
Live Performances
Live performance formatting largely follows MusicBrainz with a few adjustments
- For yearly events (ie. Lollapalooza, EDC, Osheaga), the verbose data, location can be replaced with the event
bbno$ - Lalala (live, 2025: Osheaga)YouTube
- Venue names should reflect the venue name at the time of recording
- Locations such as County, State, Region can be truncated/ removed as long as it is still uniquely identifiable
Version Markers
Unofficial and/or official markers to distinguish different versions of songs This can include
- (Taylor's version) "All Too Well" YouTube
- (TV size)
- This includes songs cut down for any TV show (Anime or Western)
- (sped up ver.) / (nightcore mix)
- (extended edit) / (radio edit)
Video Metadata
Video metadata specific to the video should also be appended
- bbno$ - imma (prod. lentra) (starring JIMBO) YouTube
Soundtrack / Score
Music/ Videos taken from the soundtrack of TV shows, movies, etc. should indicate the soundtrack name it was from. The title of the work should be double quoted ("Demolition derby the movie") and formatted in sentence case.
- OST should always be excluded
- OP1 / Season 1 intro can be prepended if applicable
Examples
- ROSÉ - Messy (from "F1 the movie") (official music video) YouTube
- Billie Eilish - What was I made for (from "Barbie") (official music video) YouTube
- Creepy Nuts - Otonoke (OP from "Dandadan") YouTube
- FZMZ - Danger danger (OP2 from "Shangri-la frontier") | YouTube
- Various Artists - Alexander Hamilton (from "Hamilton") | YouTube
Mashups
Follows https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/User:Hmmm#WIP,_please_ignore
If the song is a mashup between multiple clearly identifiable songs and doesn't already have an original title, they should be separated with a slash (i.e. Artist - Song one / Artist - Song two). If the title becomes too long, use a descriptive title instead.
Special Characters
If a song title or artist name includes emojis or other special characters, use an alternate official name if it exists. Otherwise, follow the formatting conventions of the "remove emojis" option: convert emojis between letters to spaces, and remove other emojis.
DRAFT: unicode normalization?
Vocaloid
Vocaloid songs should be formatted as Producer - Song (ft. Voicebank).
Untitled Songs
Untitled songs should use the title from the Spotify version or other official source of metadata, or a ISO8601 timestamp (YYYY-MM-DD) if no suitable title can be found. DRAFT: titles for songs w/o metadata
Language
Largely undecided, current thinking is that it should follow the primary language of the original song if it is a cover, etc