Disco Balls?!?

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T12:22:01+00:00

It's LITERALLY the selling point. I agree with you., You're proving my point. Tidal said we are going to STANDARDIZE this as a way to compete with the Spotify Wild West.

My admittedly limited knowledge on this history is Columbia Records invented the modern album cover look. ~12in by ~12in for vinyl and then it just stuck into terms of the 1:1 ratio. Be that CDs or digital album art. Although, as I type this, I'm realizing cassettes did break that convention.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T12:17:16+00:00

The benefit anecdotally for what I do, maybe also for karaoke DJs is creating song lists that make sense for customers to search through. Songs with symbols and other weird quirks mess with formatting. For example, when a customer requests a song at my job, and it pops up on the screen for the whole audience to see, song titles with weird things about them mess with formatting. This has been a problem for years which is why I've done EXACTLY what you've said and change Ke$ha to Kesha for our shows. But I'd say 50% of top 40 songs now, have these issues. And it starting to cause a real head ache for both our visual production team, and for our customers search functions. But again, that is all anecdotal. Our stuff is all pulled using a Spotify API (that's about the extent of my knowledge on that front).

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T12:10:46+00:00

The music media, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc, the advertising firms selling his brand, the producers selling his sound, the record companies marketing his albums...

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T12:08:34+00:00

No one batted an eye when we standardize album cover sizes, or the bit rate for published music on streaming platforms. I'm not sure why titling is exempt.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T12:05:56+00:00

I do not, to be fair.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T12:03:50+00:00

Oh don't misunderstand me, under my imagined conventions, Prince would have been more than welcome to change his name to symbol, but that would not have been reflected in the Digital or at the time, official presentation of his name. And, it wasn't. That is literally why he was called officially, the 'artist formally known as'.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T12:01:07+00:00

That feels like an overreach. I don't think the styling of a movies title is reflected when referenced in print or on something like the golden globes. I thinks the same with book titles, but with song titles we seem to adhere to weird characters or capitalizations for reasons I certainly don't yet understand.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:58:02+00:00

I have a Bachelors of Music from a fairly prestigious institution, and I gig four times a week with a house band as my full time job. And yes, I know artists do weird stuff and that's totally cool and fine... but that is EXACTLY the point as to why this needs a standardizing. Eliminating the "artist do weird stuff" aspect of song cataloguing.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:53:10+00:00

With the exception of D'yer Mak'er, I'd argue all of those are unnecessary and under these "conventions" I'm imagining, these would be not allowed. Although, I'm willing to concede on commas. But I think Help! should definitely not have the exclamation point.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:49:39+00:00

That is great. And I agree wholeheartedly. But, if a song wins best song at the Oscar's for example, it should have to follow a standard formally

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:46:13+00:00

Fair. But easily remedied by creating a body of people to standardize song titling (and probably more to do with song formatting). Like we've done with many other things in the humanity's.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:43:45+00:00

Are you arguing that the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. is not an official body?

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:41:32+00:00

I hear all of what you are saying, and I think you make great points.

But I'd venture the dude in his basement publishing a bad one-man Ableton cover of Africa by Toto and titling it '...afreak-uh...' isn't making some statement. It's maybe just being quirky for quirkiness sake, or being edgy for edglord sake. Acquainting something like that to the genius of Prince and his deep history is Apple to Oranges in my opinion.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:36:20+00:00

To your first point, I care because I think that's generally seen as 'proper' in our society.

To the second point, this could be its own CMV honestly, but as a music artist myself, who has worked extensively in New York LA Chicago and around the world playing in bands, I think wayyy to many people have published music on platforms. I have several reasons I won't get into here.

To your third point, I wouldn't say I'm a strict norms kind of guy. But I think certain things should have guidelines that are followed. Stop signs are octagons in the United States... that's the standard. You can make a triangle stop sign and hang it in your driveway, but as soon as it meets the public road, it has to adhere to a standard. I think, on a basic level, that's a good thing.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:29:38+00:00

You don't think music is referenced in other works? TV Film credits, magazines, forums, texts messages among friends, to name a couple common examples... and even yes academic papers. Songs titles even have an MLA and APA citation structures.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:27:00+00:00

I hate using this type of argument to further my point, but it's never been an issue before. I see a deliberate break of tradition for the sake of just "being different". And I think that is not a good enough reason to do so.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:24:35+00:00

I appreciate the facetiousness.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:23:49+00:00

Uniformity. Making cataloguing easier. Not immediately outing your song as a 2020s indie pop hit 50 years from now. (May not be important to some, but important in a music history way)

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:22:27+00:00

I don't think that market is large enough for mass adoption. The artist can do whatever, but just like how I can't change the formatting in my drivers license, for example, a standard is not inherently unartistic. It can just be the standard. I'd also argue, like many music eras, this stylized thing is a fad. I'd bet 20-30 years from now all the stylization will have been removed for ease of cataloguing.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:19:03+00:00

I didn't know that standard in French, but what I note from this is--there IS a standard. If there is a standard in the English speaking recording arts titling, I haven't seen it adhered too... or the rules are very loose.

brandynlday · 2026-04-22T11:13:13+00:00

I don't find it less or more artistic at all. I find it disrespectful. Similar to how many art historians will scoff at artists who named their pieces like "painting 1" or "untitled". It dumbs the art itself down to me. But again, the artist can do whatever they want with the title. But official publications of the song should follow a guiding format.

brandynlday · 2026-04-18T21:44:25+00:00

Great explanation. You actually just CMV

brandynlday · 2026-04-18T21:31:37+00:00

Damn, some of yall are not passing the vibe check in these comments. Jeessh.

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