Right, I'm not sure if this one has been considered before, but considering promos in a band's discography are always listed as demos, singles and EPs with no consistency, would it make sense to add "promo" to the list of options when submitting a release?

I know it would mean an awful lot of discographies would need updating, but similar to the addition of "changed name" to the current status options there would be plenty of veterans able to tidy more notable examples up as they went along.

Wouldn't that result in a lot of albums being added twice?

Well yeah if people are stupid...which they are....hmmm, good point.

I meant promos like a release featuring 2 songs from an upcoming or recently released album that is given away at gigs or whatever. Nevermore and Arch Enemy each have one of these in their discography as a single (if memory serves), which while being the closest thing to it isn't technically accurate.

Promos of full lngeth albums isn't what I meant.

Like the Iced Earth, Type O Negative, and Engel promo split?

I say keep it the way we have now. A single or demo can be mentioned as a promo in the notes, while an ep is a promo with a couple more songs (or one really long one), and a promo split is what I mentioned above.

Full length promos wouldn't be allowed though, as they are essentially the same as the full length.

How isn't it technically accurate to call it a single, just because it's given away for free? We don't classify releases based on price, but on content.

In some cases it could be possible to call it a single. It is promoting (free or not) a single song for radio play, reviews, previews, whatever. EPs could be the same For example on the Hypocrisy page they have a "Virus Radio EP". When I see it I always wonder if it should actually be on the page...

But essentually full-length albums cannot have a promo release. *SOMETIMES* full-length promos have different mixes or track orders, but this should never really be mentioned/added because this isn't a release that was released to the public. This was for promotion...

Then mentioning that... comes a new question about single/EP promos.

if it's never been released to the public, it doesn't belong, regardless of length.

To make it more clear: some labels send alternate versions of upcoming albums (often incomplete or with lesser audio quality) to the specialized press, in an attempt to avoid piracy. This kind of "promo" is undesired here.

I'd say the difference is that a single is released with full packaging and is, well, promoted in its own right whereas a promo is simply something distributed as a sample of an existing release.

I'm thinking more in terms of unsigned bands here, local examples (to me) being Dionysus (UK) and Syth - two bands that have releases in their respective discographies that were made only with the intent of providing samples of their sound, but not as demos to record labels or properly relseased EPs to the gig-going public.

Similarly, Nocturnal Rites have a release called 'Promo 92' that was made only to be handed out to venues and such but was never used as a demo or presented as a properly-recorded single release.

I don't know, many singles also only seem to exist as a sample of a full-length's most commercial songs.

A distinction must be made concerning promos; two very different release types are commonly labeled as such. One is pretty much a synonym for demos, the other is the sampler discussed above.

It is very obvious that promo CDs for review/sampler for full-lengths should not be added but a lot of bands release demos labelled as "promo [year]". Judgement just has to be used when adding this. I think it is quite obvious when a promo is a demo and a promo is just a sampler.

To be honest, I think that it would be more pressing to add the ability to add Samplers and V/A kind of releases to a band's discography. Some of these V/A releases are legendary such as the Eastern Front 3 - Live At Ruthies with original live recordings of Legacy and Heathen and Violence. Just my opinion but I would like to see a feature added for magazines also.

does anyone have any more info on the band named Fuhrer that was featured on this comp?

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=44205

other than that.. I really have no clue. That track is really fucking cool though. I remember when I was ripping it to my computer it came on and grabbed my attention.

is there any way I could hear that somehow?