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Topic: Inconsistencies In The International Category

12th Dec 2015, 3:42 AM
	PhilMH SUBS Member since Jan 2012 1058 Points	A couple of other ideas: I think I once suggested the possibility of having multiple country options, and was told that it didn't work when it was tried, but maybe that could be re-investigated, as Rate Your Music have been able to do it, with some of their entries showing multiple country flags. I appreciate that it might not necessarily be easy, and could take a lot of programming work, but it might be possible. If it is done, a CD that is entered as, say, Australia, could be added to by another user to select UK or whatever as an additional country flag. Other than that, it might be helpful to think in terms of who the label/company is and who the artist is. A non-domestic artist, or a domestic artist with significant international success, and released by one of the international majors, is more likely to be an International release, whereas a domestic artist with no international profile would be a domestic release only. Examples from an Australian perspective (but the same logic could be applied to any country, using different artists as appropriate): Beatles on Parlophone/Apple/EMI - International INXS - on Mercury via PolyGram or Universal, most likely International Slim Dusty - on EMI, Australia and (probably) New Zealand only The latest X-FACTOR or VOICE winner - domestic only! (Though having said that, I notice that last year's X-Factor UK runner-up Fleur East has scored an Aussie release for her debut album!). Releases on large domestic majors, or on independents, are more likely to be for the domestic market only, e.g Distributed by Festival in Australia or New Zealand (either pressed with Festival numbers, or imported from licensors and stickered with new catalogue numbers and barcodes) - Australia and/or New Zealand only. (I have to mention here that in their last few years of operation, Festival abandoned their practice of renumbering their imports, and retained the originating companies numbers. This means that discs made by, say, ZYX in Germany, and having no mention of Australia on the packaging, might also be Australian releases. Conversely, some of ZYX's releases which do mention Australia actually weren't released in Australia, as they were already in catalogue here under Festival's numbers!). I am aware of a couple of exceptions for independents - Shock Australia used to have the rights to Anti-/Epitaph, and distributed both local and imported pressings for them. Those two labels now seem to be with Warner Music for Australia, who, for the most recent Mavis Staples EP at least, just imported the US pressing. I believe that Shock also have the local rights to the US Fat Possum labels (which includes the Hi Records catalogue of Al Green, Ann Peebles, etc). There are bound to be other exceptions, of course - the Ace group of labels in the UK would normally be UK only (due to where the company is based - ignore the fact that the discs mostly say "Manufactured in the EU"), but back in the early 2000's, they licensed a few compilations of Aussie beat groups from Festival in Australia, who then imported those compilations for domestic Australian release, therefore those can be made International. I think I mentioned before that Japanese record companies tend to do their own thing and not follow their overseas parents numbering conventions, so most of their pressings would be Japan only. (If a disc is pressed in Japan, but the package doesn't contain any Japanese text, and there is no logo for the Japanese performing rights society JASRAC, then assume that it is not a Japanese release). Also, for the benefit of Jasper, Lee, and any other Aussies who might need help, here is a link to the ARIA news page, which is updated each Friday with a list of that week's new releases (though unfortunately not listing catalogue numbers or barcodes, and they are inconsistent with their use of labels and distributors). You can continually click "Next" further down the page to access previous weeks' details, though I haven't yet tested it to find out how far back they go! Hopefully this helps to unmuddy the waters a little bit, and allows Jasper and Lee to feel more confident about continuing. However, as Lee pointed out before, it would help a great deal if all the admins and mods were on the same page!