[Secret Squirrel]

Current Guidelines

There is support for multiple titles, separated by carriage returns (Enter key). Only the first line is absolutely required.

line 1: Display Name

• This is the name that will appear as the title when the album is displayed.
  
• Generally, the name for an album comes from the title on the Front or the Spine.
  
• If the game has an official english name, you may use it instead of the romanized Japanese name (Art of Fighting instead of Ryouko no Ken). Don't submit a literal translation of a game's name if it differs from the official English game name, or if the game has no English release. It is fine to translate other parts of the album title.
  
• Never abbreviate to OST (unless the title really does include it, but this is rare).
  
• All monospace characters should be mapped to the Latin charset equivalent, thus ～ＪＡＳＣＩＩ should be ~JASCII. Decorative symbols like ☆ are still permitted.

line 2: Original

• Use this when the official name differs from the display name.
  
• For Eastern releases, this will often require Unicode characters.

line 3: Romanized

• Direct romanization of the original title. Note, don't include this if it's essentially the same as the Display title.
  
• In particular, please do not literally transcribe loan words (i.e., no Orijinaru Saundotorakku)

line 4+: Alternatives

• Any alternate titles can be added here. For albums whose titles and franchise names are typically rendered in English, Japanese titles may be included here to aid in searches.

Unless the front or obi indicates otherwise, a main title and a sub title should be separated by a colon ( : ), and two titles of equal standing should be separated by a slash (/). A slash (/) may also be used at the submitter's discretion to include the artist's name on an artist album, as Title / Artist.

Changelog

• 22-Feb-2010 -- Standardized the mapping of monospace characters to the Latin charset equivalent for display titles.
• 26-Feb-2010 -- Standardized the separator for subtitles.
• 26-Feb-2010 -- Kept the inclusion of names in artist albums up to the submitter's discretion, but standardized the format.
• 26-Feb-2010 -- Rejected the idea of splitting out subtitles into separate fields.
• 26-Feb-2010 -- Japanese titles for English albums may be included as an alternate.
• 26-Feb-2010 -- Fan translated titles must be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
• 27-Feb-2010 -- [Limited Edition] is now automatically appended to titles.

Technical Changes to Implement

• Some kind of marker for digital albums (in the spirit of the Reprint marker.)

Proposed Changes for Discussion

• Standardize on Romanized or Western game titles in the Display Title for the album
• Overhaul to the multi-title system