Kodi Community Forum

Hi All,

Thought I would try and expand the creation of a music library within Kodi (Jarvis) and in my case Aeon Madnox (RC1) Skin

Note:
1. That not all artwork will be present as it depends on which skin you may be running.
2. There are new feature in Kodi (Krypton) which I will eventually update once out of beta stage, I have already started a guide but as you can tell by the detail I have gone to below, takes sometime to create.

Having to split this into multiple posts due to 12 image limit on the forums ..

So lets get started... Long post sorry....

Some of the Tools I use:

Tagging Your Tracks :
MusicBrainz Picard , here's a link to follow on how to tag your files. Tagging Guide

Here are a few screens for option settings for MusicBrainz Picard which I use, again change them to be suitable for yourself as needed :





Here is the string to copy into set up to make things easier for you :
%discnumber%$if($ne(%albumartist%,),$num(%tracknumber%,2). ,)$if(%_multiartist%,%artist% - ,)%title%



On the above screen select "GetAPI Key" and following instructions. This is needed for using the scan track function in the tool.

Adding Artwork

I use this tool for adding the folder.jpg to the tracks : TagRename (Note : MusicBrainz Picard can also do this, I prefer TagRename though)

Wesites used for Artwork for your Artist folders and Albums under each Arstist directory :

TheAudioDB this is one of the sites which Kodi can use to scrape data for your music when imported. If its missing here you will not get it through to Kodi when you import.

Support : So far I have made over 6500+ edits to update the site with missing data from my music collection... A great site and well worth contributing to added missing data as you go.

Fanart.TV used for artwork for most of your Kodi needs but it has excellent scans for both Artist's and Album's which will make thing look a lot nicer once finally imported.

Aeon Madnox Music Skin Settings - Important

I've added a post at the end on how to configure the Skin Music setting, please following this LINK to configure your settings, Required for some Artwork to show.

Folder Structure :
There is no hard and fast rule here but this is how I set mine up

Root folder with Artist folders inside



Inside each Artist folder I have the following, with each Album having it's own folder with the year in brackets :



Key artwork for the Artist folder :

folder.jpg - This is the artwork shown as the Artist while browsing your Music collection in Kodi



fanart.jpg - This is the artwork shown as the while browsing through your your Music collection.



logo.png - This is the artwork shown for each Artist in Artist view and when you browse the Artists available ablums




banner.jpg - This is used for other views in Aeon Madnox, not used in Showcase2 which is my main view in Kodi for Music.

The Extrafanart folder is used to add more fanart files which can be used within Music Visulization screens when playing Music. i.e. they rotate through the jpg's in this folder.
Here is my 10cc Extrafanart folder, i don't use special naming conventions here....

Key artwork for the Album folder :



folder.jpg - This is the Artwork for each Album shown under the Artist selected.



cdart.png - This is the Artwork shown while playing the track or while viewing info on the albums as per screens below :

Importing Music into Kodi

Next I'm going to show you the process I follow to import new Music to my Kodi / Aeon Madnox set up. I know there may be other ways to do this, but in my case this works. I'm going to use the Artist "Lonestar" and Album "From There to Here Greatest Hits (2003)" as a working example.

So I have set everything up as I mentioned above. So this assume's that you have completed the following :
1. Added all artwork to Artist and Album folders
2. Tagged you tracks via MusicBrainz Picard
3. Added any artwork to your tracks via TagRename

Ok so now onto the Kodi import : Note I will not cover how to add a Music source to Kodi as there are plenty of instructions on how to do this.

1. Launch Kodi (Very simple)
2. Ensure you have the basic Addon installed and set up. Follow Aeon Madnox installation instructions.



3. Install the following scrapers from the Addon repository:

Album






Artist





Important : Also ensure you configure the Music Library settings highlighted below.

4. Add your new Artist folder to your root folder that you have configured in Kodi to be monitored.

5. Update your Music library to import new Artist / Albums added, I have added a Kodi action to my home screen to complete this action as per screen.


Kodi will now import new music, you should see the Artist / Album being scraped in the top right hand corner



6. Once Kodi finishes the import, go into the Music section in Kodi and select the Artist option.



In my case as mentioned earlier I was importing the Artist Lonestar



As you will see from the above screen most things have pulled through in the scraping action but there a few things missing.

Born and Years active do not have any info available on the Artist screen.



Now select the Artist, in my case "Lonestar" to view the available albums which I imported , (Only one album as per screen earlier)

As you can see from this view below I am missing Type and the Album Rating Stars :



Now let fix the missing data for the Artist and Album views.

Return to the main Kodi window and head into the System area and elect Music.



Next select Export Music Library from the Library screen



Next select Separate - This will create nfo files for each Artist and Album you have in your Music location set up in Kodi. Please be careful as this will overwrite previous nfo files.



Next select Yes to Export thumbnails and fanart



Next select No to Overwrite old files



This will complete very quickly.

7. Now head over to folders and check that both the Artist.nfo and Album.nfo has been created.

Artist



Album




Editing the NFO files

Most of the hard work is now done. What I do next is open both the Artist and Album nfo files which Kodi has generated to add the missing details we talked about earlier.

Artist was missing Born and Years active

and

Album was missing Type and the Album Rating Stars

So lets open the Artist nfo to start with :


So to add / amend the missing data I will change the following to resolve the formed missing info, I removed the 1992 from born and added to the formed area as per :

<born>Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.</born>
<formed>1992</formed>

And to add the missing Years Active I add the following line :

<yearsactive>1990s - 2010s</yearsactive>

So I ended up with a final Artist NFO like this, which I then save to complete the changes to the Artist.nfo file. It is saved in the same location from where we opened it earlier :


Now we will repeat the same exercise above to edit and update the missing data with the Album NFO file :

So lets open the Album nfo to start with :


To up the missing data Type and the Album Rating Stars in the Album.nfo we need to edit the following lines.

<type></type>
<rating>-1</rating>

To the following

<type>CD</type> Note : This could be DVD-Audio, Digital Media, Vinyl etc
<rating>3</rating> Note : Kodi Rating range is 1-5.

My final album.nfo file looks like this:

Having made those changes to the Album.nfo please save the file in the same location we opened it from i.e. Inside the Album folder along with the music tracks.

No we can head back into Kodi and update the Artist and Album details by refreshing each by completing the following :

Head into the Music section and select Artists view. You should now see this screen but the details are still missing :



So to update this, click the "i" button on the keyboard or controller and select the refresh option, highlighted in screen below.



This will then review and import the changes from the amendments we made to the Artist.nfo file earlier. You will see this screen while it imports the data.



Once completed, You click the "back" key to exit out. This will still not show you amendments yet as you require to exit the Music section and re entry the Music section to see the changes.

So from this :



To this :



To this , you will now see the missing data from earlier has now been added , Happy days....



So we now repeat this same process for each album you have imported.

Enter the Artist screen and select the Artist to enter the Album view :

You should now see this screen but the details are still missing.



So to update this, click the "i" button on the keyboard or controller and select the refresh option, highlighted in screen below.



This will then review and import the changes from the amendments we made to the Album.nfo file earlier. You will see this screen while it imports the data.



Once the refresh is completed you will end up back at this screen. As you can see it has added both the ratings (3 in my case) and the Type (CD in my case) to the album information screen as per screen below :



Once completed, You click the "back" key to exit out.

When you back out the the main album view it will still not show you changes even though we saw them on the last screen. You will need to click go back out to the main Artist window again and then re enter to see the final changes in the album view.

So from this :



To this :



And finally you will now have all the missing data showing in Album view :



So thats it, phew. Hope this helps a few more people getting your music section in the great Aeon Madnox skin with all the required info.

I think I have OCD but I want thing to look the best in my home cinema set up...

Any questions please let me know.

Cheers Zorg

Thanks for this thread, I'm sure others will benefit from your guide, but could you make a few things clear at the top. Maybe edit the thread title too? As author you can do that when editing first post.

This requires the Aeon Madnox skin - many of the art work files are not used by Kodi by default. We get many posts from people saying "I put artwork in logo.png etc. and I'm not seeing it" because they are not using a skin that supports it. Make it obvious, saves later posts.

This is for Jarvis, some things you say are different in Krypton. In particular these come to mind, but there will be more
a) the addition of user rating as well as rating for albums and songs. Both will be out 10 by default not 5. NFO files will need changing for this so I suggest they are created now even for Jarvis with a max statement e.g. <rating max=5>3.5</rating>

b) Album type is initailly determined from RELEASETYPE tag in the song files if there is one. Picard will add a releasetype tag, other tagging software it can be added manually.

This is not really a tagging guide, although it does mention tagging music files, it is more a guide to the creation of a music library with nice images (something users do need help with). Put that in the thread name please.

When it does come to tagging it would be helpful if your example screen shots showed
a) using Id3 v2.4 rather than v2.3. Unless using an old palyer that has to have 2.3, 2.4 is a better standard that support multiple values for a tag in ways that 2.3 does not. Encouraging others would be good.

b) a script adding an ALBUMARTISTS tag.
Like the ARTISTS tag, this avoids some of the issues with albums with multiple album artists and musicbrainz id tags. But unlike the ARTISTS tag it is not created by Picard by default (yet).

And finally would you be interested in extending this guide to cover some of the new music features in v17?

Or, you could tag your Music with MusicBrainz Picard, then run MediaElch to grab all the Artwork, Artist Info, Bio, Album Info and Artwork etc. Instead of manually doing all the steps you have listed.

(2016-10-19, 15:44)DaveBlake Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for this thread, I'm sure others will benefit from your guide, but could you make a few things clear at the top. Maybe edit the thread title too? As author you can do that when editing first post.

This requires the Aeon Madnox skin - many of the art work files are not used by Kodi by default. We get many posts from people saying "I put artwork in logo.png etc. and I'm not seeing it" because they are not using a skin that supports it. Make it obvious, saves later posts.

This is for Jarvis, some things you say are different in Krypton. In particular these come to mind, but there will be more
a) the addition of user rating as well as rating for albums and songs. Both will be out 10 by default not 5. NFO files will need changing for this so I suggest they are created now even for Jarvis with a max statement e.g. <rating max=5>3.5</rating>

b) Album type is initailly determined from RELEASETYPE tag in the song files if there is one. Picard will add a releasetype tag, other tagging software it can be added manually.

This is not really a tagging guide, although it does mention tagging music files, it is more a guide to the creation of a music library with nice images (something users do need help with). Put that in the thread name please.

When it does come to tagging it would be helpful if your example screen shots showed
a) using Id3 v2.4 rather than v2.3. Unless using an old palyer that has to have 2.3, 2.4 is a better standard that support multiple values for a tag in ways that 2.3 does not. Encouraging others would be good.

b) a script adding an ALBUMARTISTS tag.
Like the ARTISTS tag, this avoids some of the issues with albums with multiple album artists and musicbrainz id tags. But unlike the ARTISTS tag it is not created by Picard by default (yet).

And finally would you be interested in extending this guide to cover some of the new music features in v17?

Thanks for your comments, some of them have been added to the first post. Hopefully I'll get all the new v17 features into the updated guide I'm working one at the moment, but not until out of beta.

(2016-10-19, 17:50)Powerhouse Wrote: [ -> ]Or, you could tag your Music with MusicBrainz Picard, then run MediaElch to grab all the Artwork, Artist Info, Bio, Album Info and Artwork etc. Instead of manually doing all the steps you have listed.

Hi,

Yes there are multiple ways to obtain artwork, hoping that most people have there own procedure for this but i waned to explain how I do everything from start to finish in case there were users starting from a fresh and had no Kodi experience.

Cheers.

Given changes that are in v17 my suggestion is that you modify your album.NFO files, and this guide, adding
<userrating max=5>N</userrating> for every <rating>N</rating> entry.

Jarvis will ignore the <userrating> tag, still has the rating values as it expects, and the "max=5" tells Krypton that the value N is out of 5 when loaded.

In v17 album rating is not displayed (in Estuary) although sort by exists, and it can only be set using NFO (or scraping online?) , while user rating is modifiable on screen too.

I don't know how these changes will impact Aeon Madnox, but if using NFO I suggest you allow for what is comming.