Artist Name (general). For compilation albums (soundtracks and samplers, but not greatest hits albums), this should almost always be Various Artists. (See Compilations, above for instructions on entering track-by-track Artists.) For all other albums, look on the spine of the CD. Don't add extra things that the artist deliberately omits, such as a first or last name, or the word "The". For example, it's Dave Matthews Band, not The Dave Matthews Band, and don't enter Carlos Santana as the Artist Name on an album by Santana. When in doubt, look at the spine of the CD cover.
Artist Name (classical). It's sometimes tricky to figure out the principle artist on classical albums that often list the composer, conductor, ensemble, and/or soloist(s) on the front cover. So here's a tip: look on the spine of the CD, as this is where the publisher had to make a decision as to who to list as the primary artist. Second tip: The artist should be a performer on the recording, so you should rarely choose the composer as the artist (unless the composer conducts, performs, or otherwise participates in the recording). Instead, the composer can be part of the Disc or Track Title.
Composer, Songwriter, etc. (CDDB2 only). With the new CDDB2 service, you now have a place to note the composer or songwriter of a work. If nothing else, you should add Credits for these roles (see Credits below).
Credits (CDDB2 only) As we have recently added credits, most CDs don't have them. So this is usually the single more useful information you can add, even if just for the songwriters/composers and the lead musicians. You can add credits for the album, or for each individual track, or for segments. Each credit consists of three things: a name (usually a person's name), a Role (such as Composer, Producer, Soprano Saxophone, Banjo), and optional Notes (such as "appears courtesy of BMI Records", or "tenor banjo"). If your application does not provide its own interface for adding or editing Credits, consult the Help or documentation for the application to see how to bring up the default interface for the CDDB service, and click the Credits tab.