I propose using the keyboard-accessible ASCII characters -, ', and " instead of typographic punctuation such as ‐, ’, and “ ” in artist, release, and recording names.

This proposal concerns punctuation only. Non-ASCII letters (é, ö, ñ, 日本語, etc.) would remain unchanged.

Reasons:

• Better compatibility with the rest of the music ecosystem (Spotify, Apple Music, Discogs, Bandcamp, Tidal, Qobuz, etc.).
• Reduces duplicate entries such as Static-X and Static‐X, which many users cannot distinguish.
• Reduces unnecessary edits in the MB
• Works more reliably with older hardware, software, and media players.
• Can be typed directly on virtually every keyboard without special input methods.
• The visual difference is minimal, while the interoperability benefits are significant.

MusicBrainz is a metadata source used by many applications and devices. Using common ASCII punctuation would reduce friction while preserving support for all languages through Unicode letters where needed.