Best Ever Albums

Re: Albums with future release dates

albummaster — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 08:31:27 GMT

Author: albummaster

Posted: 02/20/2015 13:31

Thanks, agree it's not always illegal downloading, there are plenty of ways to get access.

Personally, I think the details need to be available in a mostly complete form (even if they're draft), for future releases to be added on BEA (e.g. track list, artwork) as otherwise these albums will have little informational value & there'll be people adding releases years ahead of their anticipated release date because they heard a rumour that somebody is going to release something. I think this whole area should become clearer as new albums are added to the site and a sensible policy will emerge.

Re: Albums with future release dates

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 06:30:47 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 02/20/2015 11:30

Great work, AM. In this day in age, it's pretty much inevitable that there will be enthusiasm for leaked albums well ahead of their official release date, so it's nice to have an official policy that allows them to be added to the database.

Also it's worth noting that many artists allow official streams of their music ahead of the release date, so these premature album adds aren't always due to illegal downloading (though I'm sure that's the majority).

Albums with future release dates

albummaster — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 04:12:49 GMT

Author: albummaster

Posted: 02/20/2015 09:12

It's always been the case that BEA should only contain 'official' releases and now that the site captures release dates, it is much easier for the site to keep on top of new releases. However, some albums continue to be added that haven't been released yet and often these releases are scheduled for months into the future and the content of these releases might change once the album is physically released.

It's a reality that a lot of albums are leaked prior to being released (more so than ever before because of the internet) and people do listen to them in this format, so if BEA doesn't list these albums, other sites will. So, to help keep on top of this, added to the site now is an automated process that will auto-flag future-dated albums as suspect and unflag them once the release date is reached. These albums will be labelled as 'future release' within charts so people know why the album is flagged, and they will appear in the new releases chart, but not in the overall / year / decade charts.

Once the release date is reached, these albums will be automatically unflagged and appear 'normally' on the site. Any details, such as the track list, artwork etc can then be re-verified once the release date is reached to make sure that they are correct. Personally, I want BEA to be a reliable source of information, and I think the above might help to achieve this.