A frustratingly slow day of intense work on the minutiae of filing. My music albums are filed with a code number, but the distinction between formats or types of release is haphazard. There's not really a difference, in the coding, between a release on CD and a download version, for example, or different re-releases in the same format.
For years my codes have been 'R' (for album), a number, then 'A' (for variant). The first version of Synaesthesia was coded R1A, and the second version R1B because it was a variation of the same album, but what constitutes a variation? It quickly became neater overall to create a whole new album, but this meant that the 'A' for variation was pointless, and albums like the 2021 re-release of Tree of Keys had a new code when it was mostly the same as the 2018 version. So, when is a new number justified and when a variation? I decided that an album with the same title, same artist, and same tracks of the same length, but different actual recordings, was a variation. This may include remasters, or re-recordings, but not new versions of an album with, say, bonus tracks, or longer, more complex productions. Generally, when there are two or more of these 'variations', only one will be on sale, the most recent one.
This equivalence occurs for 4 of my 66 albums: Tree of Keys, Burn of God, The Modern Game, and the Masculinity Two single. Some albums, like The Infinite Forest, have had two versions, but the track lengths are slightly different because they are re-creations, put together slightly differently, so those two are really two different albums, even if they are pretty similar. So I've spent today recoding these in my files, so that Burn of God 2022, which was R62A is now R48B (the 2020 version of Burn of God was R48A).
I've also devised new codes for formats. Coding for these isn't always necessary... what use is a code? It can make it easier to see what something is from a distance, and to help separate. So I start with medium (digital, CD, vinyl, tape, etc.) and then a two digit number for 'issue' or variation there, which could include different packaging. So a CD in a jewel case with my old 4-page booklets, like the first Spiral Staircase pressings, have one CD code, and the newer issue with the 8-page booklet have a second. In terms of music formats I've only ever made CDs and released digitally, so I only have two formats A for CD, and B for Digital.
So R11A-A01 refers to the first CD release of album R11A, The Spiral Staircase. R11A-A02 is the second CD release, with the 8-page booklet, and R11A-B01 is the digital download release. R11B would refer to a remaster of that album, providing that all tracks have the same name and size.
Doing this is all bit esoteric, pointless to the world, like an obsessive compulsion, so doing this, which had taken all day of tedious typing, has felt dreadful and soul-destroying; but it is now done.
I am inspired with art and have album (and other) ideas, though I know that these will likely be ignored by the world and bring me little money or acclaim. I am aware that this is normal for almost all art - and this insight should not limit my drive. Money is a constant worry. I've bought £20 of unwanted chewing gum from Amazon which I tried to cancel before it was sent, but failed, and now cannot return it, and some small spray bottles from eBay are the wrong size. Luck and fortune seem evasive.
I feel as Sisyphean as ever, and must be as stoic as ever. Every act feels like a trudging, slow roll in a life which feels pointless, in a universe which is friendless and unrewarding. But rolling the rock is infinitely better than not rolling. On we roll.
