Greetings, fellow mappers and modders!

Many of you have encountered different problems with metadata. The main point of this thread is to give you a basic idea of how and where to obtain correct metadata. The list below contains all the possible sources for metadata according to their priority with all the necessary notes added.







Feel free to post any notes/comments or suggest corrections!

Nice and interesting information.Thanks for it,Bakari

I'm actually surprised that there was nothing like this here before, good to have this now!

Will the official youtube channel be a reliable source (official website) for the metadata?

Yes, sticking to something which is official is the essence.

Nice
So it's been official now, iTunes is not a reliable source
Good to know, thanks!

Updated a little bit, added official YT channels to the list of reliable sources!

So we have to use an official translation for sources now? I'm confused.

Example: 櫻子さんの足下には死体が埋まっている/ Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru has to go by "A Corpse is Buried Under Sakurako's Feet."
Or Detective Conan must go by "Case Closed"???

This is kind of stupid imo. Id rather just use the original official source instead of the official translated English one.

ps. probably add something for database sites like VGMDB or Discogs.

also. Maybe add in something for Family/Given order and when or when not to use them, since you guys have been using Given Family for Eastern artists lots as of late. =/

Lanturn wrote:

So we have to use an official translation for sources now? I'm confused.

Example: 櫻子さんの足下には死体が埋まっている/ Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru has to go by "A Corpse is Buried Under Sakurako's Feet."
Or Detective Conan must go by "Case Closed"???

This is kind of stupid imo. Id rather just use the original official source instead of the official translated English one.

Most of the times, this makes perfect sense. People will see a title, which is familiar to them instead of a bunch of unknown characters or english letters, which don't make much sense to the player.

As for the exampples you've provided they'll be listed as "Beautiful Bones: Sakurako's Investigation" and "Case Closed", although you are always free to use "Detective Conan" and "A Corpse is Buried Under Sakurako's Feet." as the tags.

Lanturn wrote:

ps. probably add something for database sites like VGMDB or Discogs.

also. Maybe add in something for Family/Given order and when or when not to use them, since you guys have been using Given Family for Eastern artists lots as of late. =/

These are unofficial wiki-like websites, probably shoul list them somewhere, that's true. As for the Eastern artists stuff I'll add some notes to make it easier to understand.

Edit: updated the first post. I try to keep the post itself as short and clear as possible, so it is understandable for the majority of community members, including those with low level of English.

Nothing in the RC supports it as of now. Better make a rule in 87 imo. I'm pretty sure the majority of BNs are going to miss this otherwise and we'll just have drama down the line.

This is just a guide, which is written for those, who have little or no understanding of how to handle metadata. This gives a basic idea, while BNs/QATs handle it and make things more accurate when it's necessary.

Hello.

Be careful, there are still some "traps" :

- What happens if a song comes from 2 different sources ? It usually happens with rhythm games song.
For example : LeaF - Wizdomiot
The song was made for a BMS event, so the source could be BMS, but the song is also a touhou remix, so the source could be 東方Project
Official source : http://manbow.nothing.sh/event/event.cg ... &event=102
Everything was uploaded by the artist.

And there is more case like this, especially with Cytus (for example Sakuzyo - AXION) etc.



- Second thing, soundcloud is not really a reliable source :
If we're still on BMS, the most reliable source is the site where BMS files can be found because they are uploaded by the Artist.

An example to illustrate what I mean :
This song Mastermind (xi+nora2r) - Dreadnought which comes from BMS. The metadata comes from this link , and as i said before, this source for BMS songs is the most reliable.
But when you go to soundcloud, the artist name is not the same.

Awh well, just assume this is for BMS songs only, uuuuh.

Perhaps, we'll just make a list of exceptions with specific metadata stuff.

Cherry Blossom wrote:

Hello.

Be careful, there are still some "traps" :

- What happens if a song comes from 2 different sources ? It usually happens with rhythm games song.
For example : LeaF - Wizdomiot
The song was made for a BMS event, so the source could be BMS, but the song is also a touhou remix, so the source could be 東方Project
Official source : http://manbow.nothing.sh/event/event.cg ... &event=102
Everything was uploaded by the artist.

And there is more case like this, especially with Cytus (for example Sakuzyo - AXION) etc.



- Second thing, soundcloud is not really a reliable source :
If we're still on BMS, the most reliable source is the site where BMS files can be found because they are uploaded by the Artist.

An example to illustrate what I mean :
This song Mastermind (xi+nora2r) - Dreadnought which comes from BMS. The metadata comes from this link , and as i said before, this source for BMS songs is the most reliable.
But when you go to soundcloud, the artist name is not the same.

Awh well, just assume this is for BMS songs only, uuuuh.

Well I don't know I have the rights to post here or not because it seems like only the experienced posted but meh.

For the first one, the source for songs from rhythm games should be the official game where the song first appears imo OR the game where it officially buys the song eg. Deemo and Cytus. For example, if a song appears in both BMS and Cytus, maybe you can prioritize whether the song first appears in Cytus or BMS OR choose Cytus since the song is bought by the game and the copyrights are owned. I don't have any strong proofs for this so it might not be convincing enough. idek whether Touhou is considered a branch of BMS or not haha idk mayb you guys can make a priority list or something

For the second one, Soundcloud IS the official source and is reliable for metadata because no information could be changed by any third party for every song uploaded by the uploaders (original music composers, if we can prove that the Soundcloud profiles are official) and only the uploaders have the rights to change the song titles, descriptions and stuffs. It's same as BMS since the songs are uploaded by the artists too. Let's use the example you have given. The song is originally uploaded by xi and the artist name is already mentioned as Mastermind in the Soundcloud description for the song Dreadnought. Actually there are three versions of artist name:

1. Mastermind, according to the Soundcloud description https://soundcloud.com/xi_com_giko_31/dreadnought
2. Mastermind(xi+nora2r), according to the BMS link you have given http://manbow.nothing.sh/event/event.cgi?action=More_def&num=410&event=104
3. Mastermind (xi+nora2r), according to niconico http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm27222114 *literally this one should be rejected since the uploader is the video creator but not the music composer but you write like this in your post so I'm just clarifying

tbh I think Mastermind is the correct one since there is no panel to write any description in the BMS website and therefore the uploader of the BMS file needs to clarify the colaboration in the artist name. Besides, there is no proof that no third party can edit the metadata of the BMS files and we don't even know the process of uploading BMS files.
so ya Soundcloud is actually official sources for metadata tbh

Well maybe it's time for my questions haha

1. If there are more than one version of official metadata like the song Owl City - Beautiful Times (feat. Lindsey Stirling) which varies at the word feat. ft. and featuring, will it affect the rankability of the beatmap if I choose the one where it is not more popular (like I choose the lyric video metadata instead of music video metadata)? I know I'm using my ranked beatmap lol, but a lot of songs (especially English ones) have this type of problem so I need to make sure of it.
2. Mappers might love nightcore and speed up versions of songs that might be edited by themselves or by anonymous humans in the Internet eg. from Youtube, in which the edits do not have any official sources. How should the metadata be? Like, should I add (Nightcore ver.) or (Nightcore Ver.) or (Speed Up Ver.) or sth
3. Are niconico and BMS websites official sources for metadatas to be honest? It is not included in the original post.

that's it. viola. smh.
Hope that @Cherry Blossom and @Bakari and others who see this can reply soon. thx
I used almost 2 hours to strengthen my grammar oh my god

HootOwlStar wrote:

If there are more than one version of official metadata like the song Owl City - Beautiful Times (feat. Lindsey Stirling) which varies at the word feat. ft. and featuring, will it affect the rankability of the beatmap if I choose the one where it is not more popular (like I choose the lyric video metadata instead of music video metadata)? I know I'm using my ranked beatmap lol, but a lot of songs (especially English ones) have this type of problem so I need to make sure of it.

It is pretty hard to choose which metadata to use when there's many official sources using different styles. I have another example, involving with my map also, with the artist: Coeur de pirate. We can also see as Coeur de Pirate, Coeur De Pirate. There are good, but I follow the one from the most reliable sources. This means, the official website, the booklet from an album, and the jacket on the CD, for this case. To answer your question, I honestly think it will not affect the rankability and the rules for metadata, but it's highly recommended you go for the correct names that appear more often, from trusted sources of course.

HootOwlStar wrote:

Mappers might love nightcore and speed up versions of songs that might be edited by themselves or by anonymous humans in the Internet eg. from Youtube, in which the edits do not have any official sources. How should the metadata be? Like, should I add (Nightcore ver.) or (Nightcore Ver.) or (Speed Up Ver.) or sth

Basically, when the song sounds like nightcore, you use (Nightcore Ver.). If it's sped up but doesn't sound like nightcore, use (Speed Up Ver.). I have a tiny knowledge of this, but I tried lol. If this is not right, please correct me.
Okay lol, I was wrong. But I found the post I wanted to find: p/4105834

HootOwlStar wrote:

Are niconico and BMS websites official sources for metadatas to be honest? It is not included in the original post.

Yeah, they should be included.

I agree with Cherry Blossoms say: "But when you go to soundcloud, the artist name is not the same."

Example:
https://soundcloud.com/m2ustudio/myosotis
So, we used M2Ustudio - Myosotis? It's weird, right?

or this

https://soundcloud.com/xi_com_giko_31/dreadnought
xi_com_giko_31 - Dreadnought? It's very really weird lol!

So, i think it's fine if we following NicoNico, Bandicamp, Youtube, Official Website, OST Soundtrack Album, Original Games etc. If a Composer only used soundcloud, but we need used from him/her descripion!

For Brad Breeck's case: I agree to used Brad Breeck than bradbreeck because:

https://twitter.com/bradbreeck/status/6 ... 2034512896
https://soundcloud.com/bradbreeck/wbb-e ... n-sunshine (In descripion, that have a word: "Music by Brad Breeck")
http://bradbreeck.com/ (and in About part, that have a word: "Brad Breeck is a composer and songwriter")

In cases where you are not sure, you could try contacting the artist...

So I am allowed to copy the url for the official YT channel and pate it into the meta data, correct?

actually maps can use metadata from wikipedia considering this map does so.

usually on wikipedia there's usually some sources + references on the bottom

question. especially considering this is a 5 year old post.

why official English titles?

is it because those English titles are "internationally distinguishable" and official? (and therefore they are suitable for rank, which should be international...?)

it makes me think about my personal usage of metadata song titles. personally, i am using romanized titles for all the maps i make since (1) they feel authentic, (2) it fits my theme of mapping the album, and having some romaji and literal English beside each other look weird on my list, and (3) i'm not ranking these maps anyway.

but it makes me think... if other people looked at a title on my song list, some might think about the alternate, English title. and also there are generally accepted English titles for those songs anyway. it shakes me.

i have no personal plan to change my way of title usage. but i want to know if the rule of official English titles still strictly hold after 5 years? since we can have titles like this when in fact i know that the official English title, from the official YT channel of the artist, is "I'm going on the bus to the other world, see ya!" i think the opinion is divided nowadays.

Tritoin4567 wrote:

So I am allowed to copy the url for the official YT channel and pate it into the meta data, correct?

what do you mean, paste it into the metadata? in the tags? in the source field? don't do that, it doesn't help with anything. it would be much better if you put it in the map's description.
you bumped a four year old thread for this?

Li Syaoran wrote:

actually maps can use metadata from wikipedia considering this map does so.

no, the wikipedia article being listed on that map is a mistake, if you ask me. the YouTube video is the only official source listed there.

renzthegreat wrote:

why official English titles?

basically, it is because the titles are official, and therefore a viable alternative to romanising the song title. as long as there are official sources for the title you use for metadata, you may use them. to quote the RC:

RC wrote:

If a Unicode Song title has either an official translation or romanisation provided by the artist, either or may be used in the romanised title field.

however, this is completely optional, and ultimately, it is the mapper's choice. it is completely OK to use the romanised title regardless of the existence of an official English translation of it.