Mixing classical with popular music

To indicate that a NewReleaseMessage contains at least one resource that is “classical in nature” the following rules are defined in the relevant release profile standards:

• For ERN-3, a ReleaseProfileVersionId of either “Classical Audio Album” and "Classical Audio Album (AV)” needs to be communicated as defined (as defined, for example, for ERN 3.8 in Clauses 3.1 and 3.2 of the Release Profiles for Common Release Types in Version 1.4);

• For ERN 4.0 – 4.2 the ReleaseProfileVariantVersionId needs to contain the term Classical (as defined, for example, for ERN 4.2 in Clause 5.2.2 of the Release Profiles for Common Release Types in Version 2.2).
  In this context the rule (1) of Clause 5.5.2 (“This profile variant may only be used for Releases containing at least one musical work that comprises more than one ‘segment’.”) is to be understood to include individual tracks that have been taken from a hierarchical work (e.g. the third movement from Vivaldi’s Summer).

This does not, however, indicate which of the resources are classical and which ones are not; it only signals that there is at least one that is.

Signalling which resources are classical (and which ones aren’t)

As shown in the samples about Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, classical resources need to have a genre of “Classical” to ensure that the receiving DSP can apply the special rules to handle roles and titles. Non-classical resources would not have that genre.

If the main release is “primarily classical in nature”, the album should have a ReleaseType of “ClassicalAlbum” (for the same reason). The receiving DSP would then be able to determine, based on the Genre of the contained resources, whether the resources follow the classical rules or not. The album release’s ResourceGroup would need to have three levels: release, data carrier/disk and work. The only exception to this rule is the communication of tracks that are not party of a hierarchical musical work; a track containing, Ravel’s Bolero, for example, does not require the extra ResourceGroup level.

If the main release is “primarily not classical in nature”, the album should neither have a ReleaseType of “ClassicalAlbum” nor a genre of “Classical”. Otherwise the same principles discussed in the previous paragraph apply, except that the album release’s ResourceGroup would only need to have two levels: release and data carrier/disk.

ERN 4.3 (and later)

In ERN 4.3 the distinction between classical and non-classical resources is indicated with the ApplyClassicalProfileVariant attribute instead of the Genre tag.

If the main release is “primarily classical in nature”, the album release’s ResourceGroup would need to have three levels: release, data carrier/disk and work whereas if the main release is “primarily not classical in nature”, the album release’s ResourceGroup would only need to have two levels: release and data carrier/disk.