feat. tags

[urfausto]

do you use the featuring tag inside artist tag or in the separate guest artist field?
is there even an automated way to put the feats in their own box? by default it seems the tagger puts it next to the artist.

[hiccup]

This might become an interesting thread.

Opening shot: Would you make a distinction between the concepts of 'featuring' and 'guest'?
And, where would guest and/or featuring get sourced from to begin with?

[phred]

by default it seems the tagger puts it next to the artist.

By default the tagger puts it where the -source- decided to put it.

I believe it's really a user's personal preference. In the past I always place it as part of the title such as "Title (feat. some artist)."
But I discovered that makes it difficult to do a search for the featured artist.

With some help from boroda and his amazing Advanced Search & Replace plugin module, I copied all the featured artists from each track to Guest Artist. I also left the featured artist as part of the title. 400+ files took a few minutes once I was satisfied it was working as expected.

do you use the featuring tag inside artist tag or in the separate guest artist field?

Personally it's not part of the Artist. It's part of the song. So if you're going to make it part of something, make it part of the Title.

is there even an automated way to put the feats in their own box?

Use <Guest Artist> tag and the Advanced Search & Replace module from the Advanced Tagging & Reporting Tools plugin. This assumes you already have a "featured artist" in the track title or album title tag.

[hiccup]

Personally it's not part of the Artist. It's part of the song. So if you're going to make it part of something, make it part of the Title.

If there is a performance by Pat Metheny featuring David Bowie, wouldn't 'the artist' as a whole be 'Pat Metheny featuring David Bowie'?

Or; there is an album where the album artist is named: 'Rufus featuring Chaka Khan'.
Is that also not a part of the artist, but only a part of the song titles of the songs on that album?

[phred]

If there is a performance by Pat Metheny featuring David Bowie, wouldn't 'the artist' as a whole be 'Pat Metheny featuring David Bowie'?

Exactly why I said this is a personal choice. IMHO, if the Pat Metheny example was an entire album, then yes. But if David Bowie appeared on some of the tracks within the album, I would say that the track features him.
[/quote]
In my early days with MB I never paid attention to this. As I got more sophisticated with my tagging, I looked at a lot of hip hop and rap artists to see how they handled it. Since at the time there appeared to be more featured (guest) artists in the genre than others. For the most part they had the featured artist as part of the title. I adopted that 'standard' and only recently stated added them as guest artists.

My opinion is the user should use what works best for them. But to be consistent in the tagging. Choose one way or the other, or both, and use that way every time. I do the same with "Volume" even if the album title shows as "Vol" I will use "Volume." Other folks will only luse what the album says. That's fine. I like consistency.

[hiccup]

IMHO, if the Pat Metheny example was an entire album, then yes. But if David Bowie appeared on some of the tracks within the album, I would say that the track features him.

Would you be able to make a decision if you would only have a single track available, and have no knowledge or information if that track perhaps belongs to an 'album'?

[phred]

Would you be able to make a decision if you would only have a single track available, and have no knowledge or information if that track perhaps belongs to an 'album'?

Yes, easily. I'd use the method I've been using. It may be incorrect, but it would be consistent with my other guest/featured artist tags.

[urfausto]

so far most of the tags you get from internet put featurings inside artist tag but myself too find that putting the feat. in the title of the track is more accurate than the previous and the correct way to tag albums. it is quite odd moreover to have a featuring inside album artist and i think i never found one. but however wasn't expecting there was a plugin to transfer feats to guest tags, amazing. i will look into it surely.

[urfausto]

With some help from boroda and his amazing Advanced Search & Replace plugin module, I copied all the featured artists from each track to Guest Artist. I also left the featured artist as part of the title. 400+ files took a few minutes once I was satisfied it was working as expected.

could you explain in short the steps to do this please?

[hiccup]

it is quite odd moreover to have a featuring inside album artist and i think i never found one.

https://musicbrainz.org/artist/7ce51ba7-91f4-46aa-a030-1e22aaa7510d
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/59bcb7e6-8d45-44c4-97ff-6805acc36546
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/a3d7eb7d-f2c0-403d-ac75-16222c92c6d7
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/9092a2a1-ef5f-42b8-a326-61a2325665b1
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/d993030f-e03e-4537-a587-ecb7aaa600f1
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/f9c43c42-d5cb-401a-bea8-308a970ad724
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/13513ef0-8347-408a-83af-4195afb8fe38
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/8672764c-21c4-4028-b3b6-826bce0c3514
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/035a3a72-2891-4a6c-89fa-404ece47cbd3
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/177d349a-7e12-4048-99b6-c47ad74eb02f

;-)

[frankz]

it is quite odd moreover to have a featuring inside album artist and i think i never found one.

https://musicbrainz.org/artist/7ce51ba7-91f4-46aa-a030-1e22aaa7510d
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/59bcb7e6-8d45-44c4-97ff-6805acc36546
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/a3d7eb7d-f2c0-403d-ac75-16222c92c6d7
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/9092a2a1-ef5f-42b8-a326-61a2325665b1
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/d993030f-e03e-4537-a587-ecb7aaa600f1
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/f9c43c42-d5cb-401a-bea8-308a970ad724
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/13513ef0-8347-408a-83af-4195afb8fe38
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/8672764c-21c4-4028-b3b6-826bce0c3514
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/035a3a72-2891-4a6c-89fa-404ece47cbd3
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/177d349a-7e12-4048-99b6-c47ad74eb02f

;-)

I clicked on two and the annotations for each go on to describe why it's not "featuring" in the traditional sense. Seems like they use featuring in this context when they want you to know someone famous is a part of the band, not because they're a guest artist performing with a stand-alone band.  Featuring is a word in the name of the band, not a description indicating a band is performing with a featured artist.

Even though the word "featuring" is in the name of the band, it is indeed a band in it's own right. There is no Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators or The Conspirators as a separate artist. They all exist together. They should stay together unless Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators start to exist as a separate band, which to date, they have not.

I agree that "featuring" does not technically belong with an album artist.  Of course you can find exceptions, but exceptions generally prove a rule instead of negating it.

[phred]

https://musicbrainz.org/artist/7ce51ba7-91f4-46aa-a030-1e22aaa7510d

;-) indeed. Point taken.

For your first link, Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, there's an annotation which states:

Even though the word "featuring" is in the name of the band, it is indeed a band in it's own right. There is no Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators or The Conspirators as a separate artist. They all exist together. They should stay together unless Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators start to exist as a separate band, which to date, they have not.

[phred]

could you explain in short the steps to do this please?

Sure can. I created a short Tips & Tricks tutorial:
How to Copy 'Featured Artist' (within Artist tag) to 'Guest Artist'

[urfausto]

could you explain in short the steps to do this please?

Sure can. I created a short Tips & Tricks tutorial:
How to Copy 'Featured Artist' (within Artist tag) to 'Guest Artist'

amazing! would it also work if the featuring tag is inside the artist field?

[phred]

amazing! would it also work if the featuring tag is inside the artist field?

Perhaps. As I indicated there are four presets for working with featured artists. I found the one that worked for me and didn't try any otners. You can experiment with the other presets to see if they work the way you want. But make backups first and only test on a couple. If none of them work, I suggest you post a question in the plugin's thread so boroda can see it and respond.