Artist information folder: Difference between revisions
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<section begin="intro" />In v18 the concept of the Artist Information Folder is introduced as a new way to handle providing local artist artwork and information via nfo files. The Artist Information Folder is a user nominated folder that {{kodi}} will look in first for artwork or NFO files for ''any'' artist. <br> | <section begin="intro" />In v18 the concept of the Artist Information Folder is introduced as a new way to handle providing local artist artwork and information via nfo files. The Artist Information Folder is a user nominated folder that {{kodi}} will look in first for artwork or NFO files for ''any'' artist. <br> | ||
This topic is of interest to those users that want to provide local artwork for artists, or capture their current artist art and additional data for transfer to another installation of {{kodi}}<section end="intro" /> | This topic is of interest to those users that want to provide local artwork for artists, or capture their current artist art and additional data for transfer to another installation of {{kodi}}<section end="intro" /> | ||
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Unfortunately not all music fits neatly under such a strict layout. For example: | Unfortunately not all music fits neatly under such a strict layout. For example: | ||
*Collaboration albums with more than one album artist (very common in Classical music with composer, conductor and orchestra credited, but happens in pop when two artists in | *Collaboration albums with more than one album artist (very common in Classical music with composer, conductor and orchestra credited, but happens in pop when two artists in their own right make an album together). | ||
*All the albums by an artist had to be on the same music source which made it difficult to organise libraries to suit personal preferences. | *All the albums by an artist had to be on the same music source which made it difficult to organise libraries to suit personal preferences. | ||
Art and additional information could only be provided for album artists, not those artists that only feature as a guest on some songs on an album by another artist or on a compilation album, nor the other musicians and professionals that contribute to the production. | |||
Art and additional information could only be provided for album artists, not those artists that only feature as a guest on some songs on an album by another artist or on a various artists compilation album, nor the other musicians and professionals that contribute to the production. | |||
The way {{kodi}} tried to identify folders from their contents, combined with a slightly inaccurate music file arrangement, produced some unexpected art results that were often difficult to pin down. <ref>https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/12891</ref> | The way {{kodi}} tried to identify folders from their contents, combined with a slightly inaccurate music file arrangement, produced some unexpected art results that were often difficult to pin down. <ref>https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/12891</ref> | ||
<section begin=" | <section begin="intro1" />From v18 the Artist Information Folder can be used to resolve many issues with providing local art and additional information for Artists. Local artist art and nfo files can be provided without requiring a specific folder for music files, and artist NFO files can be kept separately from the music rather than jumbled with it. <section end="intro1" /> | ||
= FAQ = | = FAQ = | ||
{| | {| | ||
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| BGcolor=WhiteSmoke | | BGcolor=WhiteSmoke | ||
| Question= How do I setup the Artist Information Folder? | | Question= How do I setup the Artist Information Folder? | ||
| Answer= See Section 3- Recommended Setup | | Answer= See Section 3- Recommended Setup<br> | ||
The folder can be named in whatever way suits you and located with, or away from, your music files. We recommend away from your music files. | The folder can be named in whatever way suits you and located with, or away from, your music files. We recommend away from your music files. | ||
Once a folder has been created on your file system, set it as the Artist Information Folder in either one of two ways: | Once a folder has been created on your file system, set it as the Artist Information Folder in either one of two ways: | ||
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| Answer= Any artist can have a subfolder within the Artist Information Folder which is named same as the artist name. Within that folder can be artwork and additional artist information as XML metadata in an '''''[[NFO_files/Music| NFO file]]''''' called ''artist.nfo''. | | Answer= Any artist can have a subfolder within the Artist Information Folder which is named same as the artist name. Within that folder can be artwork and additional artist information as XML metadata in an '''''[[NFO_files/Music| NFO file]]''''' called ''artist.nfo''. | ||
The artist folders can be created manually, however it is easiest to create the initial artist folders and contents using the export facility. See 4- Using Export. That way folders are created with the correct names, as slight differences in naming could prevent {{kodi}} from locating the artist. The artwork and NFO files can then be manually edited and the library refreshed. | The artist folders can be created manually, however it is easiest to create the initial artist folders and contents using the export facility. See Section 4- Using Export. That way folders are created with the correct names, as slight differences in naming could prevent {{kodi}} from locating the artist. The artwork and NFO files can then be manually edited and the library refreshed. | ||
}} | }} | ||
{{FAQ| | {{FAQ| | ||
| BGcolor=WhiteSmoke | | BGcolor=WhiteSmoke | ||
| Question= How does {{kodi}} use the contents? | | Question= How does {{kodi}} use the contents? | ||
| Answer= The artwork and NFO files in the Artist Information Folder are read by Kodi as part of scanning and scraping process. | | Answer= The artwork and NFO files in the Artist Information Folder are read by Kodi as part of scanning and scraping process. <br> | ||
If you have made changes to the NFO Files for Artists already in your library, then these changes need to be '''Refreshed''' into the library. | If you have made changes to the NFO Files for Artists already in your library, then these changes need to be '''Refreshed''' into the library.<br> | ||
'''''See: [[Update_Music_Library#Refresh_Artist|Refresh Artists]]'''''<br> | :'''''See: [[Update_Music_Library#Refresh_Artist|Refresh Artists]]'''''<br> | ||
'''''See: [[Update_Music_Library#Refresh_Album|Refresh Albums]]''''' | :'''''See: [[Update_Music_Library#Refresh_Album|Refresh Albums]]'''''<br> | ||
To change existing artwork or to add missing artwork, either use the Refresh method above or manually change the artwork | To change existing artwork or to add missing artwork, either use the Refresh method above or manually change the artwork<br> | ||
'''''See: [[Music_artwork#Manually_Add_Artwork| Manually Add Artwork]]''''' | :'''''See: [[Music_artwork#Manually_Add_Artwork| Manually Add Artwork]]''''' | ||
Note that the music library import facility does not make use of separate nfo files at all. Import only works on the single xml files that can be created via export. '''''See: [[Import-export_library#Import_2| Music Library Import]]''''' | Note that the music library import facility does not make use of separate nfo files at all. Import only works on the single xml files that can be created via export. <br> | ||
:'''''See: [[Import-export_library#Import_2| Music Library Import]]''''' | |||
}} | }} | ||
{{FAQ| | {{FAQ| | ||
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{{FAQ| | {{FAQ| | ||
| BGcolor= | | BGcolor= | ||
| Question= When using File View mode will I see the artwork from the | | Question= When using File View mode will I see the artwork from the Artist Information Folder? | ||
| Answer= No, the Artist Information Folder is | | Answer= No, the Artist Information Folder is a music library feature. In file view you only see the artwork found in the folder you are browsing. | ||
}} | }} | ||
{{FAQ| | {{FAQ| | ||
| BGcolor=WhiteSmoke | | BGcolor=WhiteSmoke | ||
| Question= Why won't the scan pick up my artwork? | | Question= Why won't the scan pick up my artwork? | ||
| Answer= There could be many different reasons for that, only some relate to the Artist Information Folder. | | Answer= There could be many different reasons for that, only some relate to the Artist Information Folder. <br> | ||
'''''See: [[Music_artwork|Music Artwork | '''''See: [[Music_artwork|Music Artwork]]''''' | ||
}} | }} | ||
|} | |} | ||
= Recommended Setup = | = Recommended Setup = | ||
A frequent question from users is ''what do you recommend?'', in the case of the Artist Information Folder the answer is simple: unless you have local artwork for artists, or want to enter artist information via NFO files there is nothing to do. For a first time {{kodi}} user the recommendation is to tag your music files accurately, scan them into the library and allow the scrapers to fetch additional artist and album information and artwork for you. | A frequent question from users is ''what do you recommend?'', in the case of the Artist Information Folder the answer is simple: unless you have local artwork for artists, or want to enter artist information via NFO files there is nothing to do. For a first time {{kodi}} user the recommendation is to tag your music files accurately, scan them into the library and allow the scrapers to fetch additional artist and album information and artwork for you. | ||
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*you have artists that the scraper was unable to find information or art for | *you have artists that the scraper was unable to find information or art for | ||
*you want to manually edit some of the information | *you want to manually edit some of the information | ||
*having selected particular art from the many choices the scraper has found you want to backup that choice | *having selected particular art from the many choices the scraper has found, you want to backup that choice | ||
*you want to transfer your current library to another installation of {{kodi}} | *you want to transfer your current library to another installation of {{kodi}} | ||
Now it is time to populate the Artist Information Folder with Artist folders. Use the ''Artists folders only'' method in the link below. | |||
:'''''See: [[Import-export_library/Music|Import-Export Music Library]]''''' | |||
= References = | = References = | ||
<references /> | <references /> | ||
{{top}} | {{top}} | ||
<div style="{{linear-gradient|left|#f5d3ff, #12b2e7}}">{{next|[[Scraping_Music|Scraping Additional Music Data]]}} </div> | |||
{{updated|18}} | {{updated|18}} | ||
[[Category:FAQ]] | [[Category:FAQ]] |
Revision as of 06:31, 7 May 2019
Steps to create your Music Library |
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1. Guide Main Page |
2. Music Settings |
3. Music File Tagging |
4. Scanning Music Into Library |
5. Artist information folder |
6. Scraping Additional Music data
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7. Update Music Library |
8. NFO Files
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9. Artwork
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10. Import-export library
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11. Backup & Recover |
Music_library | Artist information folder |
In v18 the concept of the Artist Information Folder is introduced as a new way to handle providing local artist artwork and information via nfo files. The Artist Information Folder is a user nominated folder that Kodi will look in first for artwork or NFO files for any artist.
This topic is of interest to those users that want to provide local artwork for artists, or capture their current artist art and additional data for transfer to another installation of Kodi
History
In v17 and prior releases of Kodi the ability to automatically fetch local art and information from NFO files depended upon the music files being in a strict Artist > Album > Songs folder structure. Kodi populated the basic library by using data embedded in the music files. It did not use the folder structure or filenames to populate the library, but it would try to identify a unique folder for each (album) artist and a unique folder for each album from the location of the related music files, and look there for art and additional information for the artist and album respectively.
Unfortunately not all music fits neatly under such a strict layout. For example:
- Collaboration albums with more than one album artist (very common in Classical music with composer, conductor and orchestra credited, but happens in pop when two artists in their own right make an album together).
- All the albums by an artist had to be on the same music source which made it difficult to organise libraries to suit personal preferences.
Art and additional information could only be provided for album artists, not those artists that only feature as a guest on some songs on an album by another artist or on a various artists compilation album, nor the other musicians and professionals that contribute to the production.
The way Kodi tried to identify folders from their contents, combined with a slightly inaccurate music file arrangement, produced some unexpected art results that were often difficult to pin down. [1]
From v18 the Artist Information Folder can be used to resolve many issues with providing local art and additional information for Artists. Local artist art and nfo files can be provided without requiring a specific folder for music files, and artist NFO files can be kept separately from the music rather than jumbled with it.
FAQ
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Recommended Setup
A frequent question from users is what do you recommend?, in the case of the Artist Information Folder the answer is simple: unless you have local artwork for artists, or want to enter artist information via NFO files there is nothing to do. For a first time Kodi user the recommendation is to tag your music files accurately, scan them into the library and allow the scrapers to fetch additional artist and album information and artwork for you.
With v18 you can arrange your music files however you like and still have access to local art and NFO files. We would recommend that all the music files from an album are kept in a unique folder, perhaps with subfolders for each part of a multi-part set. Perhaps you choose to arrange those in artist folders of some kind, but that does not have to be strictly adhered too. You could divide a large music collection by genre (with an artist having albums in more than one), or by decade, or some broader music category e.g. Xmas music. Use an Artist > Album > Songs structure if it is convenient for you.
Once you start to extend your use of Kodi then a number of situations can arise:
- you have artists that the scraper was unable to find information or art for
- you want to manually edit some of the information
- having selected particular art from the many choices the scraper has found, you want to backup that choice
- you want to transfer your current library to another installation of Kodi
Now it is time to populate the Artist Information Folder with Artist folders. Use the Artists folders only method in the link below.
References
Return to top |
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Next step: | Scraping Additional Music Data |