[DaveBlake]

Thanks. I guess in general once an album is added, that's it. But artist of course can be updated from time to time with additional releases. The source problem probably is tagging error, though there might be mb data edits too that affect tags.

I don't think 99.9% of users want to see (or know about) mbid. If it was possible to add a debug level log entry for mbid mismatch on strArtist that at least would clue user or support to the problem. As you suggest then user has to take a few steps to clean out the mbid if it is wrong in the database. Maybe something like a "force rescan" on a track-basis that would update the mbid. Would have to think if that breaks anything (might for addons that rely on mbid).

Good point about MB data changes, it does happen, although most is about users doing manual tag edits not seeing the mbid tags, or as the op did just not using Picard consistently when the release is not present.

I agree most times mbid is not something to show (just useful for me when debugging other people's libraries).

Been thinking about catching artist "conflicts": Kodi can spot when it scans an mbid that is paired with a different artist name from what it already has, but what to do about it? Mostly this will be an alias name e.g. "Will" rather than "William" or "Beethoven" rather than "Ludvig van Beethoven" etc., and nothing needs fixing. I could write this to the debug log or event list, but both are temporary (cleared on start-up) so likely to be gone before the user looks. Not sure adding yet another logging process with a more permanent log just for scanning is a good idea. Also would prefer to keep scanning as an automated process, not have it wait for the user to confirm any discrepency, that would get tedious really quickly. Perhaps an external pre-Kodi music file tagging consistency checker is a way to go?

Forced rescan: in v18 this can be triggered on a subfolder of the music source(s), but does not unscramble messed up artists because the deletes are dones on an album by album basis levaing the artist intact.

I am always open to practical suggestions, but don't see the way with this.

[bilgepump]

not using Picard consistently when the release is not present.

I'm a bit worried what will happen next. I've been motivated to get some of my old cassettes into the computer and the first couple I've looked up aren't on Musicbrainz. If the scraper scrapes them, I could end up with anything I suspect that others who might have had the crappy old records I've got will either be in their graves, or their dotage. For mainstream releases, you'd have less of a miserable time with it all, I expect.

[helta]

add them to musicbrainz

[scott967]

Here is my recent problem. I have albums with the following artist /album artists

上原ひろみ ザ・トリオ・プロジェクト b62db9fb-459f-4e99-8e13-db3148cf87c8
Sort name Hiromi: The Trio Project
上原ひろみ 8472f0ce-c57d-46f2-93db-d4a6f6e6473a
Sort name Uehara, Hiromi
Hiromi’s Sonicbloom 59b17756-2308-4109-a6d9-cc9f112cf723
Sort name Hiromi's Sonicbloom

At some point, either my fault or mb changed I got the mbid assignments crossed on some tracks/files. The result was dupe artists and albums. So I went through my tags and found the problem and corrected them, then rescanned. But nothing changed. After trying various things I used sqlite viewer to search the db and figured out the artist mbid was bad for one of the artists (上原ひろみ had the mbid for 上原ひろみ ザ・トリオ・プロジェクト on some tracks) result was IIRC both of the artist's tracks/albums split. Also had artists in the db with duplicate strArtist, one with mbid and the other with null mbid.

Only fix was to remove all files from both artists and do an update to get the artists out of the database (losing all scraped data and art).

Just seems like we could be able to alert the user somehow so he/she doesn't have to dig into the db or remove the entire source and rescan it.

scott s.
.

[bilgepump]

add them to musicbrainz

Easier said that done...

[DaveBlake]

I'm a bit worried what will happen next. I've been motivated to get some of my old cassettes into the computer and the first couple I've looked up aren't on Musicbrainz. If the scraper scrapes them, I could end up with anything I suspect that others who might have had the crappy old records I've got will either be in their graves, or their dotage. For mainstream releases, you'd have less of a miserable time with it all, I expect.

I get that you may not want to spend many hours adding your old cassettes to Musicbrainz, life is too short! Giving back to the community is good karma, but so is time spent doing other worthy tasks

But honestly, the scraper results are not random, it depends on how unique album and artist name are, and if they are so obscue (or old) not to be in any online resource. You have alternatives, put all the ancient stuff under a separate folder and set scraper to local - you don't have to look online. Create NFO files for them.

It just means that you will need to tag manually: song and album titles, artists, year etc., to get the library you want.

[DaveBlake]

@scott thanks for the recent "confused artist" example.

Just seems like we could be able to alert the user somehow so he/she doesn't have to dig into the db or remove the entire source and rescan it.

I would be happy to, if I could see practically how to do this, but I don't see how Kodi can know there is an issue. Nor, if it somehow could, then how to usefully communicate it to the user in a way that they can easily indicate how to unscarmble things.

I'm not denying the problem, but I just don't have an answer.

[bilgepump]

it depends on how unique album and artist name are,

That's the thing: the record companies seem to keep the same name for different releases. When you buy "greatest hits" type albums from the bargain bin, they'll be the same or similarly named as a million other "greatest hits" compilations of a popular artist.

You have alternatives, put all the ancient stuff under a separate folder and set scraper to local - you don't have to look online. Create NFO files for them.

It just means that you will need to tag manually: song and album titles, artists, year etc.,

Thanks yes, I think I'll do that for the obscure and old stuff. I'm already tagging with the basic info when I copy into Audacity.

(interestingly, I'd put my singles in a folder called "singles", and the scraper scraped up an album called "singles" by "the associates". Hopefully nobody's put out a record called "ancient weird stuff" )

Kodi's turned me into a bit of a weirdo "must archive everything" mode. I should just have a garage sale and flog all of my old records instead.

[bilgepump]

Since the improvements to the music library (having the artists together in a separate folder), I've had some renewed motivation to get my music in the computer and have made some more progress getting my old cassettes into the computer. It's like Christmas, and santa brought me a whole heap of records. I haven't played my cassettes since I got my new car and lost the cassette player I had in my old one, so I had forgotten what titles I have.

Not only have I made another start putting my music into the computer, I've been learning more about how Musicbrainz/Picard work and have made some progress in learning how to enter my "stuff" into the database.

And it's all because of one Dave Blake. Thanks!