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Why not list the actual players/singers separate from others involved?

In CREDITS, why not list the actual players/singers separate from others involved? It seems silly to mix in nilly-willy the producers and engineers with the musicians – let alone photographers, designers, hair stylists and any others in lesser ancillary roles. After all, IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT THE MUSIC. In other words, CREDITS should more resemble what a good record sleeve used to have, separate categories of involvement – with the MUSICIANS FIRST. Then, below a separating line or whatever, producers & engineers. Then maybe artwork peeps. And forget the hair stylists and the like ;  }

Also, since composers are listed usually per track, why clutter up the credits with that?

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Hi Zac

I don't see importance to be an issue among singers and instrumentalists regarding ordering (ie I don't care whether trumpet is above or below guitar). If it's too difficult to implement what I mentioned above then producers and engineers could also be included among the musicians. And indeed, if a player/singer is also a producer then by all means just list once.
: }

But a lot of clutter could be removed and clarity enhanced, if composers were not listed in credits, since they are shown in the Track Listing anyway – per track they actually composed.

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This is a good idea that we've struggled with figuring out how to implement.

We have millions and millions of credits in the system (taken from physical liner notes or digital feeds) but none of them have an "Importance Type" associated with them. If we did put something like this in place, we'd need to come up with some kind of ranking system by credit type.

This isn't impossible but if we consider "Guitar" to be more important than "Flugelhorn" then Miles Davis' credits would be way down the list on one of his Jazz albums.

You also get into situations like an album where Jon Brion plays instruments but is also the producer. Should he be listed twice? Or combines into one group or the other.

It is an interesting idea, and when you get an album that has 100 credits listed, it can be a challenge to find who the bass player is, but we've never done the back-end work to try to organize these one way or the other.

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