Original release date, release date and other dates

The original Release Date is what enables a DSP to appropriately catalogue a track or album and put them into chronological order in which they were released. The following dates can be communicated:

  • ReleaseDate – the date where the Release at hand has first been (or will be) been made available to the public in its current form, whether for physical or electronic/online distribution.
    For the Beatles' "White Album" this would be "1968-11-22" (or "1968" if less precision is required).
    Note: This is not the date from when on the DSP is allowed to make the Release available to consumers; that date is part of the Deal section of the NewReleaseMessage.

  • OriginalReleaseDate – the date on which the collection of tracks for the Release (e.g. the equivalent physical album on vinyl) was or will be first made available for Usage.
    In most cases this is the same as the ReleaseDate and thus does not need to be replaces. However, if the an album is re-mastered then the ReleaseDate of the re-mastered album would differ from the OriginalReleaseDate of the original album.
    The Beatles' "White Album" was a re-released on white vinyl in 1978; to accompany that Release with dates, one could set the OriginalReleaseDate to 1968 and the ReleaseDate to 1978.

There are additional date fields that have been deprecated and should not be used any more:

  • GlobalReleaseDate

  • GlobalOriginalReleaseDate

  • OriginalDigitalReleaseDate (for Sound Recordings, Videos and other Resources)

  • GlobalOriginalDigitalReleaseDate

For the avoidance of doubt: none of these dates should be used for determining if a Release may be made available – this is solely(!) determined by the start and end dates/datetimes in the Deal composite.

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