User:AnatoleSerial/Music Categories Rework Proposal

The Problem

We want to make sure the information in the wiki is consistent and up-to-date. This includes information about *musical releases*. Whether it's a single, EP, LP, or even a song released only through MVs, we want a way for users to consult this information

The problem is that a lot of information about Songs in the wiki is inconsistent and/or incomplete. As an example, let us look at one of the most prolific artists in hololive, Hoshimachi Suisei, and how her releases show that lack of consistency.

Release classification

In her page, she has three main categories for releases: Singles, Extended Plays, and Albums. However, a closer examination shows that all of the releases in Extended Plays are actually Double-sided Singles, with 1 or 2 songs on its "A-side", and their corresponding Karaoke versions on their "B-side". This is supported by actual releases in the general Japanese industry; for example, SMAP's best selling single, "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana", follows this exact double-sided format.

Other pages have them, correctly, as singles (i.e. Sora's). Few talents in hololive have released actual EPs (Calli being the most prominent in this regard). It is likely that this mis-classification is due to how music platforms classify releases, as they automatically assign a classification based on the number of tracks: These platforms see 4 tracks and classify it as an EP, when in reality is two tracks in two different versions, or a double-sided single.

The distinction is important when it comes to Categories, which can be used to generate listings that can properly classify all released music properly.

The Pages

Ideally, we want pages for classification of original song releases. However, this too is inconsistent, and makes it difficult to properly classify all releases.

Let's take Suisei's Bluerose single. Released on June 25, 2021, it includes two songs: Bluerose, the new release, and comet, a song that had a prior release as an MV-only song. In Suisei's page, this release is correctly listed as "Bluerose / comet", its official title, with each song including a link to each respective song's page. Clicking on either of those take us to each song's page, which features some inconsistencies and omissions: the Bluerose page focuses entirely on the song, containing very little information about its release as a single, while the the comet page just says "work in progress" without any template, so it exists, literally, in the void: without the Under Construction or Stub templates, there is no way to know that this page is empty.

In short, as it currently stands, none of this can be used for Categorizing, nor provide enough valuable information, which would save time in creating listings of releases.

Solution Proposal

The objective of this proposal is to ensure a minimum amount of consistency across music pages, and to create a framework that can be used to generate listings of musical releases. The best way to automate this is through Categories. However, we also need to make sure that the information in the wiki is as consistent and up-to-date as possible, so we need to do some work: creating blank templates (lowercase, not to be confused with MediaWiki's Templates) for different release types, and going through all musical releases to ensure that there exists, at least, a page with the right Categories for *each release and song* (including the Stub and Under Construction Categories, when necessary).

There are two main areas of improvement: Pages and Music Categories

Pages

There are two types of pages, each for a different type of release:

• Song: Information about individual songs. If a song was released as part of a Single, the song page must also include the Single information. If the song has an associated MV, the page must also link to the associated MV and its information. If the song has official lyrics, the page will also include them.
• EP/LP: Information about an EP/LP. These will technically have less information than Song pages, with a stronger focus on track listing and other information connected with its release(i.e. promotional materials, events, etc.)

All the information in these pages must be properly cited, preferably with official sources. For the kind of formatting/information we could include in these pages, see some examples from Wikipedia: the same-single songs Ryuusei and Yakusoku, and the album Blau by Japanese artist Eir Aoi.

Categorization

We need a new system for categories, and one that can be used to correctly categorize every Song, EP and LP

• Original Songs: General Category.
  • Original Songs by <name>: Name can be talent, group, or project.
  • <year> songs: Important for classification.
  • Original Songs with MV / Original Songs without MV / MV-only songs: important for classification. The last category is particularly important, as there are some songs that do not have any kind of Single/EP/LP release and still need to be tracked as such.
• Songs in Singles: Songs that are released as part of a single
• Songs missing lyrics: Songs that are missing lyrics in the Lyrics section.
• Original EPs
  • Original EPs by <name>
• Original LPs
  • Original LPs by <name>

General Categories

• Under Construction: If you started working on a page/section, use this Template to indicate that it is incomplete but actively worked on.
• Stub: If you create a page without all the required information, use this Template to indicate that it needs more information by yourself or other editors.

Changes needed

This is a lot of work. That is why this proposal divides the work in phases, as follows:

1. New blank templates

We need new blank templates for Songs and for EPs/LPs. These blank templates must contain enough relevant information for either Single and EP/LP releases, which will require improving upon the existing Song Infobox, and creating a new EP-LP Infobox just for this kind of release.

We need to put these templates in a place that is easily accessible to new and old editors, so they can create new pages and copy the template into them, along with the new categories.

2. New format for Media Section

The Media section on the songs page looks absolutely atrocious, mostly due to changes in how certain third-party plugins / templates work behind the scenes. We need a new format that is resilient to these changes. My best idea for this is a new Template that encapsulates the calls to these third-party plugins, while also providing some degree of formatting.

3. EP/LP Pages

The first thing to complete would be the EP/LP Pages. The main reason is that are less EPs and LPs than there are Singles, and this can be done in parallel with the new Media Section format, which is not used in the EP/LP pages. We will track these on a talent-by-talent basis: if someone chooses to help, they choose a talent and add all their releases with, at least, a Stub format and a set of Categories

4. Song Pages

Similarly, the song pages can be done on a talent-by-talent basis, using the talent's page as reference.

5. The Discography Infobox

The Discography Infoboxes for individual talents are outdated, and keeping them up to date is always a chore. I am leaving this last for a single reason: We need to look into how these could be generated automatically using Categorie. This is a job for those of us who work on the lower-level stuff, as it might require some tinkering with stuff that your average editor does not touch much upon. Same as the New format for Media Section, this can be done in parallel with the EP/LP Pages and Song Pages rework/recategorization.