[Mike952]

I have established the 'Artist Information' folder.  It contains folders for listed artists in my collection.  I have placed a 'folder.jpg' file (containing a (500x500 px) picture of the Artist in each respective folder.
When I navigate to 'Music' > (Catagory=) 'Artists', Artist artwork attributable to an Album or to a 'single' are correctly displayed.  However, artwork (folder.jpg) of Artists from my compilation album (16 tracks, 16 different artists) are not displayed.
When I navigate to 'Music' > (Catagory=) 'Album', Album artwork attributable to an Album are correctly displayed, including the compilation Album.
Further, I have placed fanart.jpg in several '/Artist Information/Artist' files.  These (fanart.jpg) files are not displayed during playback.
Currently, this compilation album is listed in my file structure as '/.../Music/Tropical/Various Artists/Album/tracks'.

I believe this issue to be related to a simple parameter setting (probably in the music tag(s)).  As I recall, somewhere I read, compilation =0 for standard albums and =1 for compilations.  But, I don't find that setting.  Can someone point me to a good tutorial for managing a compilation album in Kodi

Thanks,
Mike952

Follow-up...
Kodi is showing 'Compilation' catagory.  My compilation album shows up under this catagory, so I believe I have managed 'compilation' correctly.  My compilation album also show up under the Album catagory.  I can play tracks from the compilation album from all catagories, and fanart is now displaying correctly.  It is just the artist art (folder.jpg) that is failing to display.

[black_eagle]

It is just the artist art (folder.jpg) that is failing to display.

Can you provide a screenshot of where you think this art is missing please?  Thanks.

[Mike952]

Thanks black_eagle,
This minor issue has been resolved.  While Kodi correctly interpreted my album as a compilation, pre-prepared artist artwork (folder.jpg) was not found during scanning.  When navigating to Music > Artist, Artist artwork for the compilation album was displayed by the standard black/white placeholder with the Artist's name.  Artist files and artwork were prepared in the same manner as other artwork (that was found on scanning).  I don't know why Kodi interprets these '/.../Music-Artist Information/Artist/folder.jpg' folders/files differently for my compilation album.  In any event, I was able to manually add the missing artwork by highlighting the placeholder for the missing artwork and typing 'i' (information).  Knew it had to be simple.  Just was 'stuck' for about 24 hrs.
Thanks,
Mike952

[black_eagle]

Glad you've got it figured out.  For ref, both "Show song and album artists" and "Fetch additional information during updates" need to be enabled when you scan your stuff. Scanning later (say if you change some art etc) won't make it change.  For that you need to use the info dialogs and navigate to the required image(s).  Slow if there are lots to change.

[Mike952]

Thanks for the additional 'nuggets'.  "Show song and album artists" is enabled, "Fetch..." is not.  I enabled, and attempted to add new artwork via. 'information'.  Messy.

I am simply trying to personalize playback with some selected artwork.  I realize this will be a 'manual' effort.  (And, I realize the Kodi/Music was not intended to be used in this manner.)  This little project is proving to be a major uphill battle.  I am working with a small source containing ca. 50 Tropical tracks, so rescanning is not horribly time consuming.

• Artwork is manipulated using 'GIMP' (A 'Photoshop' style software) to produce (16:9; 1280x720 px) jpg files.
  
• The files are renamed as fanart#.jpg and placed in the appropriate /Artist Information/Artist/ folder.
  
• I have enabled the 'Artist Slideshow' Addon.  'Include Kodi artist' and 'Include Kodi album' are enabled.  Although I've been unsuccessful thus far using fanart stored with album tracks.
  
• Album artwork is in music tags, and is correctly displayed in most (but not all) playbacks.  (Album art missing when playing with a 'playlist'.)
  

I am seeking to design a 'best practice' approach for this project.

1. Identification and preparation of Kodi compatible artwork (i.e., fanart#.jpg as 1920X1080 px (or other 16:9 format)).
   
2. I had hoped to place artwork into my '/Artist Information/Artist/' folders to test (trial & error).
   

My immediate challenge is the resolution of image files downloaded from the internet can be rather random.  It appears that Kodi attempts to display these as 'full page' by maximizing the horizontal dimension, thereby driving the vertical dimension off screen.  for example, one downloaded image is 474x474 px.  It appears that Kodi attempts to maximize the image in order to fully display the horizontal (at 1920 px).  This, of course, leads to the vertical being expanded to 1920 px as well -- so mostly off screen.  I have attempted to 'fix' images to a (1920X1080 px) working size.  As you might imagine, this can require some trial and error.  But, as you have pointed out, "Scanning later (say if you change some art etc) won't make it change.  For that you need to use the info dialogs and navigate to the required image(s)."
I have attempted to use the 'information' > 'choose art' pathway.

1. Add art type -> 'fanart1'
   
2. Browse to '/.../Artist Information/Artist/' and select artwork.
   

Wow!  That's not fun.

I note that even with these direct assignments (using 'information') there remains some residual artwork.  Is there a better way to 'attack' this?

[black_eagle]

(Album art missing when playing with a 'playlist'.)

Yeah I've fixed that recently.  You will need an up-to-date version of Kodi though.  The fix was only merged ~2 days ago.

I have enabled the 'Artist Slideshow' Addon.  'Include Kodi artist' and 'Include Kodi album' are enabled.  Although I've been unsuccessful thus far using fanart stored with album tracks.

That downloads it's own fanart and thumbs from internet sources. It doesn't use any local art - that's displayed by the skin you are using. Estuary doesn't really have a lot of options for what it can display. Other skins are rather more "art rich" and display a lot more. Also, artist slideshow has a setting for resolution. If your getting a lot of pixellated art, you should probably change that.

[Mike952]

Whoa...

Did I interpret that correctly?  "It ('Artist Slideshow') doesn't use any local art - that's ('Local Art') displayed by the skin you are using."   I had assumed 'Artist Slideshow' to be necessary to manage and display multiple fanart (e.g., fanart1.jpg, fanart2.jpg, etc.).  If I am using local artwork only is 'Artist Slideshow' unnecessary?  Is multiple artwork display (for local artwork) exclusive to the skin?  Are there recommendations for alternative skins (not full builds) that are better equipped to manage artwork?  Does 'Artist Slideshow' function for other (e.g., Movies) libraries?  Or, is it exclusive to the Music Library?

[black_eagle]

Almost.  It finds my Artist Information Folder and for each artist that it displays, it uses exactly one fanart (named fanart.jpg) in spite of the fact that there are in excess of 10 for each artist.

There is historic stuff to this, which is possibly why things are the way they are today.

Art handling got changed / updated / much improved a while ago by a couple of our devs and I can see all my fanart etc is indeed in my music database.  I think that maybe Artist Slideshow got left behind a little because most people are probably happy with it downloading images and showing them (after all, that is it's primary function) and only a small group want to just show their already local images.

I've asked the Artist Slideshow developer to see what if anything, can be done.  Linky

~~~~EDIT~~~~

The answer to getting it to work (and I have tested it) is this. Thanks to @HomerJau