History:Featuring Artist Style
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This guideline applies to cases in which one or more artists are featured on a track or release by another artist, but not equally as they would be in a collaboration. That is, they are given credit on the cover or track listing of a release by another artist in a manner which elevates their contribution above normal liner note credits. Often, the word "featured", "feat." or "featuring" proceeds their name(s).
Guideline
- File the track/release under the normal primary artist.
- Append the name of the secondary artist(s) to the Track Title/Release Title as follows:
- "Put Your Lights On (feat. Everlast)"
- Add Advanced Relationships of the Performance Relationship Class to link to the featured artist(s') entries in MusicBrainz.
Notes
Ordering of Extra Title Information which includes FeaturingArtistStyle, PartNumber, TrackVersion can be found under TrackTitle.
An artist being featured or not can vary for the same track, depending on the context. For example, The song "Under Pressure" may have been initially credited as a collaborative effort by David Bowie and Queen (e.g.), but may be credited differently on their respective compilations. e.g., a David Bowie compilation might give Queen a featuring credit (e.g.), rather than a additional primary artist credit, or might not credit them outside of the liner notes at all (e.g.). Use FeaturingArtistStyle or CollaborationRelationshipType as appropriate, but do not attempt to unify all instances to the same format.
- Note: The last sentence here conflicts with the style principle of Consistent Original Data and is thus disputed within the community.
Details
- The TrackArtist/ReleaseArtist is the main artist a track/release is credited to. This means, the artist mentioned on the release cover (in most cases the front cover), package or any other labelled package like entity that describes the release (e.g. release page for online releases).
- For additional contributors who didn't perform on the track, use the various AdvancedRelationships to define their roles in relation to the track. Those can be contributors to the technical production process (mixers, producers, record engineers, etc.), remixers and others. The different roles are explained in Compilation Relationship Class, Composition Relationship Class, Production Relationship Class, Remix Relationship Class. Note, that composers are often the main artists of classical releases (see ClassicalStyleGuide) and remixers or compilers can also be main artists if they fit into 1.
- If a track features both "Foo" and "Bar", it should be entered as "... (feat. Foo & Bar)". For more than two: "... (feat. Foo, Bar, Baz ... & Quux)".