Guidelines - 13. Updating An Artist Profile

Real Name Profile URLs Aliases In Groups Reviews Merge Rename

NOTE: Artists cannot be added on their own, the artist added when a release is accepted to the database.

Real Name

Please use only real names here if they are known, not aliases or nicknames. The role of each member should be described in the profile.

Profile

The Profile field is used to give a description of the artist. History, changes to line-ups, musical styles etc belong here. It must be written in clear English, devoid of hype, and as grammatically correct as possible. The first sentence should be a short overview of the artist for quick identification. The rest of the profile should be a concise and factual summary of the artists career. The average profile should aim be around 150 words. There is no minimum, and profiles can run to about 500 words at the maximum, if necessary.

Recommended content for an Artist profile

• Biography of the artist
• Styles the artist is known for
• Any other historical information regarding the artist

Forbidden content for an Artist profile

• Copy/pasted info from the internet, or any other copyrighted or credited material
• Promotional wordings, or anything that could be perceived as hype
• Profiles written in the first or second person
• Lists of labels, releases, aliases or groups (these can all go into the database via release submissions and Alias/In Groups updates)
• Links that point towards external web sites

Always be sure to use Submission Notes to clearly explain what you are changing and WHY you are changing it. Remember that changes that may seem obvious to you might not be as obvious to other Discogs users.

URLs

For the submission of artist URLs. Only add full URLs with the http:// prefix to this field. Do not add any auxiliary text.

Do not link to review pages, label pages that do not include artist profiles (include the direct link to the artist profile when available), Email addresses, or poor quality fan pages

Aliases

This field is used to link different aliases of an artist. Aliases are other names the artist is "also known as". Use this field only if the artist (meaning a group of members or an individual) is exactly the same, not if a part of "Artist One" is a part of "Artist Two".

If an artist name is simply a variation or abbreviation, don't use aliases, but instead use the Artist Name Variation function {link}.

On Discogs, when adding and deleting aliases you only need to do one update: add alias "Artist Two" to "Artist One" and "Artist One" will automatically be listed as an alias of "Artist Two". Multiple aliases will automatically be linked to each other in the same update.

In Groups

This field is used to list the groups the artist is (or was) a member of. There is no way to add a member to a group from the group's page. You must go to each member's page and add them to the group.

Each group must be entered on a separate line. They will be put automatically in a row in alphabetical order.

List only one instance of an artist as a group member, not all of their aliases. If a member has several aliases then list their real name alias (if a Discogs entry exists for their real name). If a real name alias does not exist in Discogs, use the alias by which they are most commonly known.

Do not list collaborations/groups as members of other groups if individual artist entries exist.

It is possible to mark an association between two artists inactive or defunct by placing a "[[X]]" after the group name in the submission form. This will cause the names involved in the inactive association to be crossed out in the respective Members/In Groups sections on the artist pages. A group membership should only be marked as defunct if the member left the group while it was still active. This means that if a group breaks up, or a project is retired, all artists who were members at the time of break-up or name retirement should remain listed as active members.

Reviews

You can request to remove a Review if it does not comply with the Review Guidelines.

Images

Please follow the Image Guidelines.

Merge

You must edit each release if one artist is being represented by two or more artist pages. Make sure your edits are correct and reflect the name that is is printed on the release, using Artist Name Variations if needed. If in doubt, ask in the adding and updating forum {link}.

Only duplicate artists should be merged. Make sure you explain in the Submission Notes what you are trying to achieve.

If your edits are going to remove all entries from an artist page, please make sure to update that page to remove all 'in groups', 'aliases', the profile, real name, and the links. Please make sure to transfer any relevant information over to the remaining profile.

Rename

You must edit each release to rename an artist. Make sure your edits are correct and reflect what is printed on the release, using Artist Name Variations if needed. If in doubt, ask in the adding and updating forum.

If your edits are going to remove all entries from an artist page, please make sure to update that page to remove all 'in groups', 'aliases', the profile, real name, and the links. Please make sure to transfer any relevant information over to the remaining profile.