The ccMixter site contains over 10,000 samples from a wide range of recording artists, including high-profile musicians such as Beastie Boys and David Byrne.

As a cultural phenomenon, ccMixter represents a direct response to what some say is the increasingly litigious attitude of organizations like the RIAA—one which prevents artists from appropriating elements of others' work for creative reuse in their own.

In February 2009, Victor Stone, project lead of ccMixter, posted a "memoir"[3] detailing the history and philosophy of the first four years of operations at the site.

In 2007 ccMixter eschewed remix contests, in part, due to concerns in the member community that the site was losing its focus on open music.

Instead major artists such as DJ Vadim, Bucky Jonson (The Black Eyed Peas' live backing band) and Trifonic have contributed the solo studio tracks (stems) to entire albums making them available under Creative Commons licenses that allowed remixes.