Thread: Publication dates a possibility?

Posts: 6

Post by sgb April 23, 2007 (1 of 6)
Zeus, I was thinking how useful it would be to have the publication date as a field in your database. Granted, these differ for different parts of the world so perhaps the initial date would be all that anyone would care about. Some of this data can be had at various music-selling sites, but it is not always accurate.

I found the necessity for this kind of information when I was recently searching the internet to purchase an item that was out of print. One seller listed the publication date as being one which differed from all of the dates I could find anywhere else. Since he provided no graphic for the recording, it was impossible to determine whether this was an original release or one of its many reissues.

Post by zeus April 27, 2007 (2 of 6)
sgb said:

Zeus, I was thinking how useful it would be to have the publication date as a field in your database. Granted, these differ for different parts of the world so perhaps the initial date would be all that anyone would care about. Some of this data can be had at various music-selling sites, but it is not always accurate.

I rarely have this information, though for earlier releases I acknowledge it would be useful. The problem here is that, as you've noted, release dates vary around the globe and aren't always firm anyway. The best way to determine the release date is to click on the click to a vendor in your region and see what date they have. The date you can actually buy it is arguably more important than when it first became/becomes available. I may be able to add some historical data but I find it hard enough just keeping up with releases. At some stage it will be up to the label to contribute listing information and maybe then the date they give can be published.

Post by Sigfred April 27, 2007 (3 of 6)
Perhaps registration date in your SACD DB will be sufficient? For me, the exact publication date or availablility date is not that interesting when some time has passed.

Post by Claude April 28, 2007 (4 of 6)
I don't think that will help with sgb's problem. Stephen usually enters the titles as soon as they are announced, which can be several months before the actual release date. So the sa-cd.net entry date is of not much use when researching for the release date.

Post by sgb April 28, 2007 (5 of 6)
Claude said:

I don't think that will help with sgb's problem. Stephen usually enters the titles as soon as they are announced, which can be several months before the actual release date. So the sa-cd.net entry date is of not much use when researching for the release date.

You are correct, Claude. The recording in question is the Rachmaninov 2nd Concerto and the Paganini Rhapsody, performed by Julius Katchen with Boult and Solti waving the baton in front of two different orchestras (I forget which) for Decca.

I recalled enjoying this on LP, and had found an early budget CD of this in a clearance bin for less than a dollar. Amazed that the sound on this CD was so bad, I retrieved the record and, having given it a spin, found it was much better. This led me to inquire whether the recording had been reissued with, perhaps, better sound. It was -- in the Decca Classics series at least. Amazon lists this as having been released in July of 1997. Many of these have much improved sound over the earlier releases, especially those in the weekend classics series. My recollection of the weekend series is that most of these were published in the very late eighties or early nineties, but one I had seen available for sale listed a 1995 publication date. This begs the question of the number and variety of releases there might actually be.

A private seller has since posted a copy of this Decca Classics version for sale at Amazon, but at the outrageous price of $100!

Post by HV April 29, 2007 (6 of 6)
sgb said:

Zeus, I was thinking how useful it would be to have the publication date as a field in your database. Granted, these differ for different parts of the world so perhaps the initial date would be all that anyone would care about. Some of this data can be had at various music-selling sites, but it is not always accurate.

I found the necessity for this kind of information when I was recently searching the internet to purchase an item that was out of print. One seller listed the publication date as being one which differed from all of the dates I could find anywhere else. Since he provided no graphic for the recording, it was impossible to determine whether this was an original release or one of its many reissues.

To Zeus,


I think it would also be useful to have some numbers in the "Top Library" and in the "top recommendations".
goal : to see how many times a disc appears in the libraries of the members.

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