Style / Principle

Users of MusicBrainz and the members of the Style Council put some great efforts in working out detailed style guidelines, which state how data should be formatted.

The Style Principles

If you ask yourself in what style something should be entered into MusicBrainz, the following principles apply:

• Follow Artist intent.
• If no definite proof can be found for the correct spelling/punctuation, the most common version should be used.
• Follow the style guidelines.

Alternative phrasing

This can also be explained from the bottom upwards:

• Usually you stick to the style guidelines.
• If you are still unsure how to enter something because it is labelled inconsistently on official sources, use the most common version.
• Finally there is the notion of Artist intent. If you can show that the artist intended something to be stylized a special way, then you should enter it like that into the database.