Template:Infobox

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The standard infobox for album articles is the {{Infobox album}} template. The box to the right is an example. You can look at the wikitext of this documentation page and copy-and-paste the markup to an article, replacing the information within the copy with info on the album you choose to write about.

The infobox code should be placed at the top of the article.

Code

Nirvana
Black square with the gray word "NIRVANA" in the center
Greatest hits album by Nirvana
Released	Template:Start date
Recorded	1988–1994
Genre	Grunge
Length	49:38
Label	DGC
Producer	Steve Albini Jack Endino Steve Fisk Scott Litt Butch Vig
Nirvana chronology
From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (1996) Nirvana () With the Lights Out (2004)

Most articles should only need the following fields (for the full list of fields see Template:Section link). Do not remove fields from this list when the value is unknown; in that case the values should be left blank. Please note that the field names are case-sensitive.

If this template is substituted, it will return a cleaned-up copy of itself (see Wikipedia:Substitution trick) with unnecessary parameters removed and deprecated parameters replaced. Parameter indentation will also automatically be fixed.

<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" style="overflow:auto">

Untitled

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Details

Try to fill in as many of the details as you can. If some details are unknown, leave the section blank. Wikilink wherever appropriate, but make sure you check your links and disambiguate accordingly.

name

The album's title should be specified using text (not a logo), which will be automatically italicized.

Template:Anchors type

The |type= field refers to the general type of album. Enter a code from the following chart. The type will appear with the appropriate color. If the type is unknown, leave the field blank.

cover

An image of the official front cover of the original version of the album (or a reissue, if no original cover can be found) should be included at cover. However, unless the album cover is represented by a free image, the cover art should not be included when the infobox is used in an article whose primary topic is not the album itself, such as a musician's biography of discography. Album cover artwork may be scanned, or downloaded from another site such as AllMusic or Amazon.com. Note that whether you scan one yourself or copy it from another site, when uploading an image, you must tag it properly and follow non-free content usage guidelines where they apply. Whenever possible, prefer a version without stickers (like Parental Advisory, "As seen on TV", etc.) to display the artwork as intended by the artist. If you cannot find a cover image, just leave this field blank.

• Upload a copy of the album cover (as a non-free image under fair use if necessary). The image will display in the infobox in its real size, capped by the value of the user's "Thumbnail size" parameter in their appearance preferences, or the default (currently 220px) for non logged-in readers or users who have not set a different preference. To satisfy non-free use criteria, the total number of pixels in the uploaded image for any non-free image (i.e. the width in px × the height in px) should not exceed 100,000Template:Sndsquare images should therefore not exceed 316px (300px is a common choice for square album covers).
• On the image description page, use the {{Non-free album cover}} image copyright tag if it is non-free. Selecting "Album or single cover" from the pulldown list on the image upload page will accomplish this.
• Add a detailed non-free use rationale for each use of the image if it is non-free. You can use the {{Non-free use rationale album cover}} template.
• Fill the template's |cover= field with the name of your file (the full image syntax is not needed hereTemplate:Sndjust the file name with the extension).
• Remove the request-photo or request-image template from the talk page of the article.

If nothing is entered into this field, the article will be added to the tracking category Category:Album infoboxes lacking a cover. The article will also be added to the category if one of the following values is used: ???, Nocover.png, nocover.png. Setting the field to the value blank will leave the cover area empty without categorizing the article into the above category. This is useful if the cover does not exist, for example the album was not released yet, or the cover cannot be added due to other limitations.

alt

Alt text for the album cover, for visually impaired readers. See WP:ALT.

released

Original album release date, formatted according to the Manual of Style for dates ("December 14, 2003" or "14 December 2003" depending on the article style, without the quotation marks). The {{start date}} template may be used here. If the day is unknown, indicate only month and year ("December 2003"); if the month is unknown indicate only the year ("2003"). Only the earliest known date that the album was released should be specified; later release dates (incl. re-issues) can be mentioned in a Release history section.

recorded

Enter the date(s) the album was recorded. When there are many dates, it is best to summarize, using the month or range of months (e.g., January–March 2022). For multiple entries, see NotesTemplate:R for details. Add the location of the recording in the |studio= or |venue= field.

studio

If the album was recorded in a recording studio, enter the name and location. Link the studio, but not well-known cities, states, or countries (see WP:OVERLINK). Remove "Studios" if it appears in the nameTemplate:Snd use [[Wikipedia:Sound City Studios|Sound City]] rather than [[Wikipedia:Sound City Studios|Sound City Studios]]. For multiple entries, see NotesTemplate:R for details. For "United States" and "United Kingdom", it is preferred that they be abbreviated "US" and "UK", but political subdivisions should never be (never "MA" for "Massachusetts", "ON" for "Ontario", etc.). See NotesTemplate:R for details.

venue

For live recordings, include the name of the venue (concert hall, stadium, etc.) and location. Link as appropriate. For "United States" and "United Kingdom", it is preferred that they be abbreviated "US" and "UK", but political subdivisions should never be (never "MA" for "Massachusetts", "ON" for "Ontario", etc.). See NotesTemplate:R for details.

genre

See also: WP:GWAR and WP:INFOBOXREF

The field should include the music genre(s) that best describes the album. It should come from a reliable source and also be stated and referenced in the body of the article; personal opinions or original research must not be included. Genres should be linked (piped linked where needed), for example, "Rock, pop" should link to rock music and pop music respectively. Note that most genres aren't proper nouns, and shouldn't be capitalized, but the first word in the list should be. For multiple entries, see NotesTemplate:R for details.

length

Enter the length of the album in minutes and seconds, even if it is longer than one hour. Use a colon to separate the two, such as 71:09; do not use "71 minutes and 9 seconds", 71' 9", 1:11:09, etc. A seconds value must be included; enter "71:00" if the album is timed to 71 minutes only.

Usually, only the length of the original album release should be entered. The timing of reissues or other releases, such as with bonus tracks, should be added to a "Releases" or similar section in the main body of the article, if noteworthy. For albums that are released with multiple track listings simultaneously, only list the most common length or that of the standard edition of the album. In the exceptional case when multiple entries are justified, use {{Duration}} for the second and subsequent lengths: {{Duration|71:09}} will produce "71:09". For multiple entries, use {{Plainlist}} (see the template documentation for details).

label

Only the record label that the album was originally released on should be specified. Where significantly different versions have been released (featuring alternative track listings) e.g. in the US vs UK, the later release date or record label should be mentioned in the article, for example in a Release history section. Drop words like "Records" from the end of the label's name (e.g. use [[Wikipedia:Universal Records|Universal]] rather than [[Wikipedia:Universal Records|Universal Records]]). For multiple entries, see NotesTemplate:R for details.

producer

Template:Shortcuts Enter the name of the person(s) credited as the actual record producer(s). Do not include those listed as executive, co-, additional, vocal, etc., producers, unless a reliable source identifies their contribution as substantially the same as the main producers. These should be included in the article body or track listings rather than be listed here. For multiple entries, see NotesTemplate:R for details.

Professional reviews

Template:Further Formerly, a Reviews field was included in this template. Professional reviews may no longer be included in the infobox, but should be described in paragraph form in a "Reception" section. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Albums/Article body#Critical reception. The template {{Album ratings}} can be used to illustrate review scores in this section.

Chronology

This group of fields establishes a timeline of an artist's releases. In general, all albums and EPs should be placed in a single, chronological chain in order of release date (singles have a separate infobox, and thus a separate chain). Exceptions may be appropriate for artists with very complex discographies which may warrant more than one chain (for more information, see discussion). If the previous or next release has a Wikipedia article, link the title to the corresponding article. Take care to maintain the integrity of chains, so that when release "A" points to "B" as the next release, "B" points back to "A" as the previous release.

Wikipedia's date style guidelines recommend that years should not be linked within the chronology section. Cover images should not be included in the chronology, as that would not be non-free use.

No more than one album should be included in any of the three slots in the chronology. Some albums can be part of more than one chain, using an "additional chronologies" section. Albums released on the same day should be listed separately, ordered using the standard ordering of those albums, or alphabetically if no such standard exists.

|prev_title= and |prev_year= specify the previous album in the chain and its title. If the current album is the first album in a chain, this field should be blank.

|next_title= and |next_year= specify the next album in the chain and its title. If the current album is the last album in a chain, this field should be blank.

At least one of the title fields must have a value filled in for the chronology to display. If the year displayed for the current article's album is incorrect, then it can be specified manually using |year=.

Advanced usage

Template:Extra chronology

Together
Example image Original LP cover
Studio album by Diana Ross & the Supremes and The Temptations
Released	Template:Start date
Recorded	1969
Genre	Pop, soul
Label	Motown
Producer	Frank Wilson, Smokey Robinson, Al Clevland, Terry Johnson, Tom Baird, Henry Cosby, Deke Richards
The Supremes chronology
Let the Sunshine In (1969) Together () Cream of the Crop (1969)
Alternative cover
Example alt text The original American LP for Together has a cover which folds out to reveal a full illustration of The Supremes and The Temptations. The full artwork was also used for some international versions of the album without requiring the cover to be unfolded.
Singles from Together
"The Weight" "Why (Must We Fall in Love)"

In special situations, additional fields may be applicable. Unused fields may be either left blank or deleted. <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" style="line-height:1.2em;">

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italic_title

Per the Article titles policy, titles that are rendered in italics in running prose are also displayed in italics in the page title. By default, the infobox achieves this automatically for album articles. If the page title is not the album title, as when only a section is devoted to an album, and in unusual cases where the title would not be italicized in running prose, such as untitled Korn album, set this parameter to "no" to prevent the page title from being italicized. This will also omit italics in the infobox heading. Use |italic_title = no |name = {{yesitalic|name of album}} to get italics in the infobox heading but not the page title.

longtype

This field can be used if you wish to include information such as the title of the film that an album is the soundtrack to, or the name of the artist that a tribute album is in honor of. The text in this field appears between the type and the word "by".

border

Choosing "yes" here will insert a 1px grey border around the cover image. This is useful for instances where the image and the background will blend together.

caption

If the album has been issued with different front covers, which version the image refers to should be noted here.

language

This field should identify what language(s) are used in the lyrics of the album. Do not forget to disambiguate and pipe link when necessary. For example, if an album's lyrics are in English and French, you would use English, French. Do not use this field for albums entirely in the English language, by English-speaking artists.

director

This field is only applicable to video albums. The name of the director should be linked to the corresponding article. For multiple entries, see NotesTemplate:R for details.

compiler

This field is only applicable to compilation albums of any kind where the person or entity responsible for selecting the album's track listing is known. For multiple entries, see NotesTemplate:R for details.

chronology

This field can be used when the album belongs to an overall series that is not adequately described by the artist's name alone; in these situations, the text entered in this field replaces the artist name (from |artist=) that would normally be displayed preceding "chronology". Examples include series of compilation albums compiled by different people, and series of soundtracks (which are often "various artists" collections).

If |chronology= is blank, the first (English) letter of the artist name given in |artist= is automatically capitalized in the chronology header, so that band names starting with "The" appear as recommended in the Manual of Style. If the first letter of the artist's name is stylized in lower case, or if the first letter in the artist's name is not part of the English alphabet, enter the artist's name in |chronology= as you wish it to appear. For example:

• |artist=":letlive." should use |chronology=":letlive." for it to also appear there in lower case.
• |artist=Édith Piaf should use |chronology=Édith Piaf to prevent the letter "d" (the first English letter) from appearing in upper case.

misc

A number of templates exist that can be inserted in the misc field, including {{Extra album cover}}, {{Extra chronology}}, {{Singles}} and {{Audio sample}}. If you use any of these templates, don't forget to add a second set of closing brackets for the nested template. However, please ensure if you add additional non-free images, that the use complies with the non-free content criteria.

Template:Extra chronology

Additional chronologies are generally useful for split albums, collaborative albums, and series of albums.

<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" style="overflow:auto"> {{Infobox album ... | misc = Template:Extra chronology }} </syntaxhighlight>

The artist field should be the artist that this additional chronology reflects, for example one of the artists on a split album. The type field should contain the same type as the rest of the infobox. The format of the other fields is the same as the standard chronology (see above).

Template:Extra album cover

If the album has been released with different album covers, they can be added to the infobox using this template. However, per WP:NFCC#3 use of non-free content is to be minimal, and not to be used if one item can convey equivalent significant information. An alternative cover that is significantly different from the original and is widely distributed and/or replaces the original has generally been held to pass this criterion. Also, an alternative cover that is the subject of specific (sourced) critical commentary passes the criteria for inclusion. Covers that are essentially similar, despite differences in colouring, poses, text, etc., should not be included.

<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" style="overflow:auto"> {{Infobox album ...

| misc = Alternative cover

}}</syntaxhighlight>

The caption field allows for an optional explanatory text. It should mention where that cover was used (int'l release, re-release, censored original, etc.). As with the {{Extra chronology}} template, the type field should contain the same type as the rest of the infobox.

Template:Singles

The {{Singles}} template may be used as a miscellaneous addition to the infobox providing concise information about songs on the album that were released as singles during the marketing and promotion of the album. Promotional activity for extremely popular albums may continue for a long time, and songs from the album may be released as singles a year or more after the album's initial release. For example, songs from the album Thriller were released as singles for more than a year after the release of the album, and such singles are considered to be from the album.

1. Do not add specialty- or limited-release singles, such as those supplied to radio stations and music publications, which are often marked as "Promo copy" or "Promotional".
2. Do not include singles that were added as bonus tracks on a re-release of an album.
3. For songs that appear on more than one album, list the song as a single only for the album(s) where the single was released as part of the marketing and promotion of that album. Examples:
   • If a song is originally released as a single during the marketing and promotion of an album on which it also appears, and is subsequently included on a compilation album, list the song as a single only for the original album and not for the compilation album.
   • If a song is originally released as an album track only, but is subsequently released as a single to promote the release of a compilation album, include the song as a single only for the compilation album.

For complex release scenarios where it may not be obvious that a single was released as part of the marketing and promotion of the album on which it appears, seek consensus on the talk page for the album.

The output includes the name of the single and its release date, and the list should be in sequence by release date. You may list up to twelve (12) singles per album. This infobox should be placed in the "Misc" field as shown below, using the field cases also shown below. Any unused fields may be left out. Further usage information can be found on the template page.

<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" style="overflow:auto"> {{Infobox album ...

| misc = Singles from Infobox

}} </syntaxhighlight>

name

The name of the album.

type

The album type (as specified above in the section "Type").

single#

The name of the single. Should be wikilinked to the single's article, if applicable.

single#date

The date of single release. Should be entered in wikidate format. If the full date is unknown, just use "Month Year" or "Year". Do not use the {{start date}} template in this field.

Note that all fields are already properly formatted, so italics or quotation marks need not be entered in fields.

Notes

Microformats

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TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. click here to see a monthly parameter usage report for this template.

TemplateData for Infobox

<templatedata> { "description": "The standard infobox for album articles.", "params": { "name": { "label": "Name", "description": "Name of the album.", "type": "string", "example": "Nirvana", "suggested": true, "required": true }, "type": { "label": "Type", "description": "One of: 'studio', 'demo', 'ep', 'live', 'greatest' (for greatest hits), 'remix', 'box' (for box sets), 'compilation', 'mixtape', 'soundtrack', 'film', 'cast', 'video', 'other'. Determines the colour used for the infobox.", "type": "string", "example": "greatest", "suggested": true, "suggestedvalues": [ "studio", "EP", "live", "compilation", "demo", "soundtrack", "video", "other", "single album", "greatest", "remix", "box", "mixtape", "film", "cast" ] }, "artist": { "label": "Artist", "description": "Name of the artist; should be linked.", "type": "string", "example": "Nirvana", "required": true, "suggested": true }, "cover": { "aliases": [ "image" ], "label": "Cover", "description": "An image of the official front cover of the original version of the album. The image should normally have a Template:Non-free album cover image copyright tag and rationale on the image description page.", "type": "wiki-file-name", "example": "Nirvana album cover.svg", "suggested": true }, "alt": { "label": "Alt", "description": "Text describing the album cover for visually-impaired readers.", "type": "string", "example": "Black square with the gray word \"NIRVANA\" in the center" }, "released": { "label": "Released (date)", "description": "Original album release date. e.g. 'December 14, 2003' or '14 December 2003' depending on the article style.", "type": "string", "example": "Template:Start date", "suggested": true }, "recorded": { "label": "Recorded (date)", "description": "Date when the album was recorded.", "type": "date" }, "venue": { "label": "Venue", "description": "Place where a live album was recorded.", "type": "string" }, "studio": { "label": "Studio", "description": "Place where a studio album was recorded.", "type": "string" }, "genre": { "label": "Genre", "description": "One or more music genres that the album reflects, delimited by a comma and linked to corresponding articles.", "type": "string", "suggested": true }, "length": { "label": "Length", "description": "The length of the album in minutes and seconds. Use Template:Duration.", "type": "string", "example": "Template:Duration", "suggested": true }, "label": { "label": "Label", "description": "The record label that the album was originally released on.", "type": "string", "example": "DGC", "suggested": true }, "producer": { "label": "Producer", "description": "The name of the producer or producers. The names can be delimited by commas or Template:Flatlist.", "type": "string", "example": "George Martin" }, "italic_title": { "label": "Italic title", "description": "By default the infobox causes the page title to be in italics. Set this to 'no' to leave the page title in normal style.", "type": "line", "suggestedvalues": [ "no" ] }, "longtype": { "label": "Longtype", "description": "Can be used if you wish to include information such as the title of the film that an album is the soundtrack to, or the name of the artist that a tribute album is in honor of.", "type": "string" }, "caption": { "label": "Caption", "description": "If the album has been issued with different front covers, which version the image refers to should be noted here.", "type": "string" }, "border": { "label": "Border", "description": "Setting to 'yes' here will insert a 1px grey border around the cover image.", "type": "line", "example": "yes", "suggestedvalues": [ "yes" ] }, "language": { "label": "Language", "description": "Language or languages used in the lyrics of the album.", "type": "string", "example": "French" }, "director": { "label": "Director", "description": "For video albums. The name of the director.", "type": "string" }, "compiler": { "label": "Compiler", "description": "Only for compilations. The person or entity responsible for selecting the album's track.", "type": "string" }, "chronology": { "label": "Chronology (artist)", "description": "Name used as heading for Chronology. Default is the artist's name.", "type": "string" }, "misc": { "label": "Misc",

"description": "Other details can include templates Template:Extra chronology, Alternative cover, and Singles from Infobox .",

"type": "string" }, "prev_title": { "label": "Previous release title", "description": "Title of the previous release in the artist's chronology. Link when appropriate.", "example": "From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah", "type": "string" }, "next_title": { "label": "Next release title", "description": "Title of the next release in the artist's chronology. Link when appropriate.", "example": "With the Lights Out", "type": "string" }, "prev_year": { "label": "Previous release year", "description": "Year of the previous release in the artist's chronology.", "example": "1996", "type": "date" }, "next_year": { "label": "Next release year", "description": "Year of the next release in the artist's chronology.", "example": "2004", "type": "date" }, "year": { "label": "Year", "description": "Year the album was released. Usually not necessary; release date should be in the \"release date\" parameter", "example": "2002", "type": "date" } }, "format": "Template:\n\n", "paramOrder": [ "italic_title", "name", "type", "longtype", "artist", "cover", "border", "alt", "caption", "released", "recorded", "venue", "studio", "genre", "length", "language", "label", "director", "producer", "compiler", "prev_title", "prev_year", "year", "next_title", "next_year", "chronology", "misc" ] } </templatedata>

Tracking categories

• Template:Category link with count
• Template:Category link with count
• Template:Category link with count
• Template:Category link with count
• Template:Category link with count
• Template:Category link with count
• Template:Category link with count
• Template:Category link with count
• Template:Category link with count
• Template:Category link with count
• Template:Category link with count

See also

• {{Infobox song}}

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