So, I was wondering if there’s any official stance/protocol on how and when the “featuring” fields for songs should be used.

When I first saw the field I had assumed that it was there to be able to list contributors who did not have a ccMixter account, or people who otherwise helped you with your submission but whom you couldn’t attribute their help by simply linking to a ccM sample. As such, I’ve never used the field.

But I’ve noticed that a lot of people seem to use the featuring field to just list any and all artists that were remixed in the track. So, if someone samples CiggiBurns it says “uses samples from CiggiBurns” and then also says “featuring CiggiBurns”. Unless I’m missing something, this seems redundant and unnecessary. The “uses samples” section should contain comprehensive attribution info, right? Doesn’t that make this kind of “featuring” attribution pointless?

Can someone clarify?

I am probably unable to clarify, but most of the time I only use it for people who have recorded something specifically for the remix, even if they are a member of ccMixter and have uploaded the recording here. Sometimes I also use it when an artist features prominently in the remix. But I don’t think that there are rules about using the field. I guess that it is mostly used to give the sampled artists a little more credit, just because they deserve it for uploading their stuff for others to use for free.

The importance of the “featuring” field is that, since it travels with the piece when picked up in RSS, vacuumed up into last.fm, etc., it survives the site.

I would be aghast, for instance, if my version of Sunrise, which is all over the web, didn’t say “(ft. shannon hurley)”. It’s great that the rich attribution tree is here at CCMixter, but I want those attributions to survive the transitions to other sites.

To echo Subliminal and the good Admiral, I believe it is far better to over Attribute than the opposite. The remix tree is excellent for us on the site, but for visitors not part of the community, the featured field is much more prominent. I use the field both in the way Subliminal described and for the purpose the Admiral describes. If I end up featuring a track in a release off of ccMixter, I actually include every contributing mixter in the song title too. Over the top? Perhaps, but as Victor reminds us, “ Attribution is Currency”.