User talk:Tompinks

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Happy editing! Icabobin (talk) 14:32, 4 August 2022 (UTC)

Release dates
Hi - please don't use release dates from RIAA, BPI or any of the Hung Medien archives, because none of them are reliable. The Hung Medien websites are added by users so they fail WP:USERG. RIAA and BPI don't have a database of release dates, so the further back in time you go, the less reliable they become... they often default to the first of the month, in lieu of not having an actual release date. I can find plenty of examples where the "release date" on the BPI certification makes no sense when you compare it to the record's chart date. Thank you. Richard3120 (talk) 19:00, 30 August 2022 (UTC)


 * Hello, thanks for the heads up. I wasn't aware the dates on those archives were added by users. Are the dates on the official German charts at https://www.offiziellecharts.de/ also user uploaded? They usually match those on the Hung Medien sites.
 * Regarding RIAA and BPI dates, I thought they could be used if there was no better source for a particular release date.
 * Apologies and thanks again. Tompinks (talk) 13:27, 31 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes, unfortunately online sources are notoriously bad for accurate release dates... even official websites of the artists are often very wrong, because they have been set up decades after the fact. The only way to get accurate release dates is to find back issues of music magazines announcing the release... and even then, they can still be wrong, because there may have been a last-minute delay pushing the release back by a week, or it might have been brought forward due to a leak. I don't think the German dates are reliable either – the most obvious example is "Money for Nothing", where it says it was released in Germany in May 1985, and yet it didn't chart there until October ... that doesn't sound likely at all.
 * Here's a couple of examples of dubious dates from the BPI, regarding ABBA records: The Album was supposedly released on 13 January 1978, and was certified platinum by 27 January, but didn't enter the charts until the week afterwards . Why would an album by the world's biggest band at the time take three weeks to go straight in at number one, having already been certified platinum the week before? Or even weirder, the BPI says their Eurovision-winning single "Waterloo" was released on 1 May 1974 ... but it had already charted two weeks earlier in April, at no. 17 . In fact, it was already at number one by 1 May. Richard3120 (talk) 16:08, 31 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I understand, I'll bear all this in mind for future contributions. Thanks for taking the time to explain and give examples. Tompinks (talk) 17:56, 31 August 2022 (UTC)