I have standardized to use Original Date as the recording date and is on a track by track basis. This is all manual and primarily through liner notes, but more recently wiki/discog sites for albums often have this. I've put many hours into this and I quite enjoy the result.

Perhaps differently than many others I use the Date field as the first release date for the track. If a compilation or re-release I'll use the original release date, not the release date of the compilation. (Remaster I stick with the original date, but a re-mix I will use the new release date.)

I retain notes about the source of the track in the Comments section.

sordup wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:02 pm Where/how do you get this Original Date data for your tracks??

You can laugh: Google, Wikipedia, Discogs, etc.

I use "original date" primarily to mark cover versions of songs, then store the original date and artist. If I think I recognize a song as a cover version, I feed the mentioned search engines and then enter the information manually.

I try to avoid compilations, best-of albums, etc, where the original and publication date do not match.

...I guess I have thought that, given the power of digital databases and all the rest of this modern rigamarole, there would be a way, then, for a ID managing software to parse, say, liner notes (are there ways to get these batch written into the digital tags?? - I miss liner notes terribly and the majority of my digital library has nothing of the kind attached to the albums, and online streaming services do not offer liner notes as far as I can tell) and to extract the dates provided therein with which to then populate the Original Date field.

I know I'm wanting too much as I become a lazy old man

Lowlander wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:07 pmLiner notes.

Exactly.

Liner notes.

Lowlander wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 3:59 pm I don't know. I rely heavily on Original Date (for Track not Album), but I don't know if a large percentage of MediaMonkey users do.

Well then. Where/how do you get this Original Date data for your tracks??

I don't know. I rely heavily on Original Date (for Track not Album), but I don't know if a large percentage of MediaMonkey users do.

Lowlander wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 3:49 pm No, the screenshot doesn't show that. It shows Original Release Date, but doesn't show it's using a Track release date instead of Album release date.

I think that is what I'm saying that I want - which is the original release date of the album containing the songs in question. But maybe I've confused myself at this point. But for the cases in question and for my purposes, the two are the same.

...and yes I understand that there are re-releases of albums with different dates of the original release of the track, but... In general, the original historical release date of an album's specific tracks will match the date of that specific album's historically original release. In any case, that is the data I am after for the most part, and it seems to be fairly well covered in this Original Release Date tag provided by MusicBrainz. By "proofreading" results I generally can tell if there is a discrepancy myself and make alterations before committing to a batch update.

I can imagine that this particular issue would be a common one in the music library geek world. Strange that it's so.... strange.

No, the screenshot doesn't show that. It shows Original Release Date, but doesn't show if it's using a Track release date instead of Album release date.

Lowlander wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 3:37 pm That isn't necessarily true. A track could've been released previously on an earlier Album or EP, this Track Original Date and Album Original Date don't always match. The Track Original Date doesn't seem to be made available by MusicBrainz.

This indicates otherwise, doesn't it??

.... and I find that I can use Picard/MusicBrainz to get this desired data and write it to the file(s), and then re-scan the folder(s)/file(s) in MMW5 to get the desired result displayed.

I guess I don't understand why, if other ID taggers (including MMW4) can use MusicBrainz to get specific data, why can MMW5 not do this as well. ??

That isn't necessarily true. A track could've been released previously on an earlier Album or EP, this Track Original Date and Album Original Date don't always match. The Track Original Date doesn't seem to be made available by MusicBrainz.

Lowlander wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 3:25 pm I'm not sure the information is accurate. Original Date is used by many as the original date the track was released, it seems you're getting the Original Date for the Album instead.

I'm not sure I follow you. They are the same. The original release of the track is the same as it's original release on the album.
This is the data I am desiring in any case - a track's original release date on it's album's original release date.

I'm not sure the information is accurate. Original Date is used by many as the original date the track was released, it seems you're getting the Original Date for the Album instead.