Music artwork problems
#1
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I know this one is a bit of an old chestnut, and I have researched but not found a solution that works for me.

I am on XBMCbuntu, with Gotham 13.2.

I have some obscure artists in my music library, some with no references on the web and therefore understandably not picked up by scrapers. So I want to use my own artwork. I have therefore placed folder.jpg and fanart.jpg images in the appropriate artist folders. But, no amount of updating and cleaning my libraries and artist info will display those images.

In my add ons, I have Artwork Downloader and Universal Scraper - they are both enabled and i must confess, i do not really know if they both do the same thing? - in any case I have checked the box in Artwork Downloader that says "Use local files", but this has no effect.

Can anyone please advise before I pull my remaining few hairs from my head?
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#2
You have to first get the artist into the music library as "scraped". The two ways to do that is to 1) create the file artist.nfo and place it into the artist's folder, then do an update/scan, or 2) create the same file but with any filename and extension xml and in the music library settings, use the library import to read that file.

Well actually there is a third way, if you get an SQL tool that can read/write the database you have to input a valid date string into the "LastScraped" field for the artist, then you can use the artist info screen to browse and add the thumb/fanart.

I have many obscure artists, and create a master xml file with all of them (the albums too) so I just import that one file and I'm caught up. If you use the artist.nfo I suggest you also do a single-file export which will accomplish the same thing (create a master xml file for you ).

AFAIK, Artwork Downloader is only for videos, does nothing for music.

scott s.
.
maintainer of skin  Aeon MQ5 mods for post-Gotham Kodi releases:
Matrix see: Aeon MQ5 Mod Matrix release thread
Nexus see: Aeon MQ5 Mod Nexus release thread
Aeon MQ 5 skin and addon repo 11.1.0
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#3
(ignore - it worked eventually I think I wasn't being patient enough waiting for the library to update!) Thanks!
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#4
Unfortunately I'm not having complete success.

I am having only limited success with using my own artwork where Universal Scraper doesn’t identify the artist. (And it does surprise me how many are not picked up. It’s not like Brian Wilson is an unknown, is it?)

So, for those that aren’t scraped, I created a nfo file and place in the artist folder. I make sure that the nfo file shares the same name as the folder and the artist name ID tag.

I then place in there a fanart.jpg and folder.jpg.

Then I go back to my files and scan them all to the library, and for good measure, also update library and clean library (never been sure of difference between all these!)

Now, for some artists, it automatically scrapes the local art I have placed in the folders. For others, I have to open the context menu on the artist and select my own local thumbnail and fanart.

But there remains a stubborn number of artists which when I open the context menu, it brings up the keyboard on screen and I get stuck in a loop.

What am I doing wrong?
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#5
AFAIK, the nfo for an arist should be titled artist.nfo and not the actual artist name. The keyboard loop is a known bug, basically you can't get to the artist info when this happens unless you enter a blank name possibly, think someone has suggested that in the past.

Have you tried CDartmanager add-on for your music?
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#6
Thanks. I have tried with artist.nfo but that doesn't fix it.

I have also tried entering a blank name in the keyboard, but I still just get stuck in a loop.

There are a dozen or so artists which stubbornly refuse to be scanned. Sad
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#7
Well you could also update MusicBrainz and Audiodb databases with those artists and albums. That way others would benefit too.
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#8
(2014-09-30, 21:19)kyungrak Wrote: Well you could also update MusicBrainz and Audiodb databases with those artists and albums. That way others would benefit too.

That sounds good but my experience is you have to get vetted into "the club" or any edits will be auto-deleted by bots.

scott s.
.
maintainer of skin  Aeon MQ5 mods for post-Gotham Kodi releases:
Matrix see: Aeon MQ5 Mod Matrix release thread
Nexus see: Aeon MQ5 Mod Nexus release thread
Aeon MQ 5 skin and addon repo 11.1.0
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#9
What I don't understand is why, when I change the scraper to "local information only", it still doesn't use my own artwork. I still get stuck in that damned loop!
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#10
Is there a way to get XBMC to scrape artists from musicbrainz?

On their website, there are some artists there that currently I am unable to scrape. But there is no way to configure Universal Artist Scraper in XBMC to draw artist info from musicbrainz. It's either the audiodb or nothing.
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#11
If an artist is on Musicbrainz DB, then you can add it to audiodb database. And no need to be vetted or whatsoever. I used to have the same problem, I just subscribed on both site and added missing artists from my library, and voilà.
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#12
Thanks I have been having a play at updating audiodb. It seems to be a bit flaky.

I still cannot see why I am unable to use my own "local" art though.
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