Style / Specific types of releases / Audiobook

An audiobook is a book read by one or more narrators.

For the purposes of this guideline, a "narrator" is any voice actor appearing on the audiobook.

Release Groups

A new release group should be made for each different reading of the book. In other words, an audiobook read by one narrator should not be in the same release group as an audiobook read by a different narrator. Apart from that, the standard guidelines for release groups should be used.

Release Title

The release title should be the title of the audiobook. The usual guidelines for release titles apply.

Release Artist

The release artist should be the author(s) of the book being read, followed by a join phrase such as "read by" or "narrated by", followed by the narrator(s). If there is a join phrase on the release, the join phrase in the release artist credit should match that. Otherwise, use an appropriate join phrase in the language used on the cover of the release.

When in doubt about which narrator to include in the title, follow the credits on the release cover. If the narrator is not known, leave them out of the artist credit.

If the author of the book is unknown and can't be identified through further research, credit them as one of the special purpose artists. More specifically, in the case of anonymous authors, the author should be the special purpose artist [anonymous], with the artist credit as it is on the release.

In the rare case that the narrator is also the author of the book, simply use their name for the release artist.

For example:

• "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin read by Roy Dotrice
• "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" by J. K. Rowling read by Stephen Fry
• "The Snowman" by Howard Blake narrated by Bernard Cribbins
• "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams (author same as narrator)
• "The Whole Bible Narrated in Hebrew" by [traditional] read by Shlomo Bertonov (author unknown, narrator known)
• "Lazarillo de Tormes" by Anónimo (author anonymous, narrator unknown)

Track Title

Tracks titles should be based on the following guidelines. Note, that if the release is not an English language release, the appropriate language's equivalent of "Chapter" and "Part" can be used.

Releases split into chapters

If the release has tracks based on chapter boundaries, then each track should ideally be named:

• Chapter X: "Chapter Title" if the track contains a complete chapter.
• Chapter X: "Chapter Title", Part N if a single chapter is split over multiple tracks.
• Chapters X-Y if a multiple chapters are contained in a single track.

If chapter names aren't listed on the release, attempt to find them on the internet. Many books have chapter listings online that can be used for this purpose. If chapter names are unavailable they can be left out of the track title, but this should be avoided where possible.

Releases with no chapters

Any release which doesn't split tracks based on chapter boundaries should have tracks named:

• Part N

Releases containing multiple books

Releases which contain several books should have the book name added to each beginning of each track title:

• "Book Title", Chapter X: "Chapter Title", Part N
• "Book Title", Chapter X: "Chapter Title"
• "Book Title", Chapter X-Y
• "Book Title", Part N

Boundaries

If one chapter ends in the middle of a track and the next chapter begins in that same track, the track should be named according to the multiple titles guideline - i.e. use two titles separated by space, slash, space. For example:

• Chapter X: "Chapter Title 1", Part N / Chapter X+1: "Chapter Title 2", Part 1

The same applies to book boundaries:

• "Book Title 1", Chapter X: "Chapter Title", Part N / "Book Title 2", Chapter 1: "Chapter Title", Part 1

Track Artist

The track artist should be the same as the release artist, unless it is known that one of the narrators isn't featured on a particular track. In these cases, credit the author along with the known narrators.

Relationships

Relate all tracks on the release to the narrators that appear on them, using the spoken vocals relationship.

If a track features a theme or background music, also add relationships for the performers of the music, where known.

Works

The work for the book being read should be linked to all recordings on the release.

If a work for the book doesn't exist in MusicBrainz, create one. The work title should be the name of the book in the language it is narrated in. The author of the book should be credited with the "writer" relationship. If the audiobook is translated, relate the new work to the work for the original book, and add relationships to any translators where this information is known.

For example:

• All recordings from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone should be linked to a work called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" and J. K. Rowling should be related to that work as the writer.
• All recordings from Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen should be linked to a work called "Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen". Klaus Fritz should be related to the work as the translator, and J. K. Rowling should be related as the writer.