[Longtime Collector]

I'm missing artwork (fanart and thumbs) for many music artists and it seems better to update the source databases rather than just add artwork to my harddrive. So some questions.
* Which database is preferred (fanart or theaudiodb) ... easier uploads are my main concer, bulk uploads would be best
* I'll probably grab the artwork by using google or bing images ... what are the copyright restrictions to be followed
* Is there a way to query which artists are missing artwork (I don't want to scroll one-by-one in the artist node)
* If I do end up adding some artwork to my harddrive (same folder with the music), what are the naming conventions for fanart and thumbs? I have no albums, rather each single has the album and albumartist named the same as the artist.

Thanks

[DaveBlake]

Good that you are considering contributing to the community music art. I can answer the Kodi side of things

* Is there a way to query which artists are missing artwork (I don't want to scroll one-by-one in the artist node)

Kodi does not offer such a facility. However you can get a list from the muisc db using SQL, if that sounds like something you would feel able to try. Another approach would be to parse the results of a JSON request, but personally I would find SQL easier. Let me know if you are up for this and I will tell you the SQL.
 

* If I do end up adding some artwork to my harddrive (same folder with the music), what are the naming conventions for fanart and thumbs? I have no albums, rather each single has the album and albumartist named the same as the artist.

If you want Kodi to automatically pick up local artist art then image files have to be either in
a) an accurately named folder for each artist all located under a nominated folder (Artist Information Folder)
b) a unique folder (name not matter) that is common to all music files by that album artist and only that artist

Locating artist art in the same folder layout as the music (b above) is fine, but can run into difficulties: there is no place to locate art for guest artists (those that feature on a song or various artists compilations but do not have albums of their own); there is no folder layout that can take collaboration albums i.e those by more than one album artist that are artists in own right e.g. Alison Krauss & Robert Plant "Raisng Sand", or all classical music with composer, conductor and orchestra.

You could choose to use a mix of both approaches since Kodi tries location a) first then falls back to b). Hence where it is possible to put all music by an artist under one common folder use b), but use a) for those artists that you can't arrange your music files for suitably.

Naming conventions:
* fanart in fanart.jpg
* thumbs in folder.jpg (although it is the only art type that has configurable naming)

[DaveBlake]

* Which database is preferred (fanart or theaudiodb) ... easier uploads are my main concer, bulk uploads would be best

I don't know which gives easiest or bulk uploads (I contribute to Musicbranz db, but don't do artist art), hopefully someone else can help you with that. You may be interested in the new artist scraper https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:Generic_Artist_Scraper which looks in more remote sites for artwork than the original Universal Artist scraper does

* I'll probably grab the artwork by using google or bing images ... what are the copyright restrictions to be followed

You would need to check at the site that you are contributing too.

However @docwra is the TADB guy, and he may be able to advise you clearly on these things.

[docwra]

I'm missing artwork (fanart and thumbs) for many music artists and it seems better to update the source databases rather than just add artwork to my harddrive. So some questions.
* Which database is preferred (fanart or theaudiodb) ... easier uploads are my main concer, bulk uploads would be best
* I'll probably grab the artwork by using google or bing images ... what are the copyright restrictions to be followed
* Is there a way to query which artists are missing artwork (I don't want to scroll one-by-one in the artist node)
* If I do end up adding some artwork to my harddrive (same folder with the music), what are the naming conventions for fanart and thumbs? I have no albums, rather each single has the album and albumartist named the same as the artist.

Thanks

Always interested in people who offer to contribute

1) I'm biased but TADB is best for music artwork and text data. Although fanart.tv supports some more hi quality artwork
2) Your responsible for your uploads and we do remove copywrited stuff from time to time when alerted. Its up to you really. Creative Commons lecensed art is always prefered.
3) You can search for the artist see the missing artwork from the search results or simply go to the artist page and fill out anything missing. You can add new artists here: https://www.theaudiodb.com/add.php
4) All details here: https://kodi.wiki/view/Artwork

Let me know if you need any help. We get about 200 edits a day on TheAudioDB so its constantly being updated by people like you.

[Longtime Collector]

Thanks all.
* I have DB Browser (SQLite) so any insights on how to get a list of missing artwork using this tool would be greatly appreciated. I would prefer to ADB pull over the relevant databases to my PC and work from there, if possible.
* Loading local artwork sounds tedious (I now have 3,000 artists and I've only tagged up to the letter F, within which I'm guessing a third are missing artwork). Before worrying about local artwork I'll have to see how many blanks I have after I finish updating TADB. Surprisingly some pretty big names are missing artwork (Cal Smith). Is there a way of automatically generating local art subfolders for this local artwork scheme?
* Most of my missing artwork is from the early 20's and 30's, so is likely not copyright protected. Many images can be retrieved from wikipedia.
* I'll try the new scraper once Matrix is finalized.

[burcs]

 Is there a way of automatically generating local art subfolders for this local artwork scheme?

Using the Artist Info folder you can export to "library folders" and it will create folders automatically.

[Karellen]

Using the Artist Info folder you can export to "library folders" and it will create folders automatically.

Correct. See section 3.4... https://kodi.wiki/view/Import-export_lib...lders_only

[Longtime Collector]

Thanks for the prompt reply. I recently started having difficulties browsing smb shares (although I can create them in file manager). Once I get that issue sorted out I'll try the export approach. I'm hoping I'll only need local artwork where the source databases (fanart, TADB) are completely missing the artist.

More productive at this point would be the steps needed to create my listing of ''missing artist artwork'' so I can start creating and uploading missing jpegs to the source databases.

Thx

[DaveBlake]

More productive at this point would be the steps needed to create my listing of ''missing artist artwork'' so I can start creating and uploading missing jpegs to the source databases.

Look at the MyMusic72.db using DB Browser (or some other tool), and run the following query

Code:

SELECT artist.idArtist, strArtist
FROM artist  
WHERE EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM album_artist
WHERE album_artist.idArtist = artist.idArtist)
AND
NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM art
WHERE art.media_id = artist.idArtist
AND art.media_type = "artist"
AND art.type = "fanart")

The results will be a list of album artists that don't have fanart. Running similar with art.type = "thumb" intead of "fanart" will give those with missing thumbs.

[Longtime Collector]

More productive at this point would be the steps needed to create my listing of ''missing artist artwork'' so I can start creating and uploading missing jpegs to the source databases.

Look at the MyMusic72.db using DB Browser (or some other tool), and run the following query

Code:

SELECT artist.idArtist, strArtist
FROM artist  
WHERE EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM album_artist
WHERE album_artist.idArtist = artist.idArtist)
AND
NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM art
WHERE art.media_id = artist.idArtist
AND art.media_type = "artist"
AND art.type = "fanart")

The results will be a list of album artists that don't have fanart. Running similar with art.type = "thumb" intead of "fanart" will give those with missing thumbs.

Thank you so much. I look forward to contributing to the community artwork.

[Longtime Collector]

I found updating both TheAudioDB and Fanart to be too difficult (too persnickety about file dimensions and extensions, too much work to find artists, too much work to actually upload the files). So I'm using local artwork. Here's my approach.

* I used the above SQL statement to find missing artists (do fanart and thumbs separately).
* For all the missing fanart I downloaded and sized (approximately) the images (1280 x 720).
* Next, for all the missing thumbs I downloaded and sized approx. to 700 x 700. This often included adding top or side borders so as to maintain the image aspect.
* I now have two folders (fanart and thumbs) each filled with images named by artist
* I run the following two DOS command to move the artwork to the KODI Artist Information folder (ArtistArtwork):
for %f in ("C:\Users\xxxxxx\Downloads\fanart\*") do if not exist "\\Kodi-pc\m\ArtistArtwork\%~nf\" mkdir "\\Kodi-pc\m\ArtistArtwork\%~nf" & copy "C:\Users\xxxxxx\Downloads\fanart\%~nxf" "\\Kodi-pc\m\ArtistArtwork\%~nf\fanart.jpg"
for %f in ("C:\Users\xxxxxx\Downloads\thumbs\*") do if not exist "\\Kodi-pc\m\ArtistArtwork\%~nf\" mkdir "\\Kodi-pc\m\ArtistArtwork\%~nf" & copy "C:\Users\xxxxxx\Downloads\thumbs\%~nxf" "\\Kodi-pc\m\ArtistArtwork\%~nf\thumb.jpg"
* These DOS commands create subfolders in my folder ArtistArtwork named for the Artist, and containing 1-2 images (folder.jpg and thumb.jpg).
* Update KODI music and you've added your artwork to the KODI database.

If anyone is interested in actually uploading the public databases, I've included the artwork at this link (so far just artist starting with the letter A, but over time all my missing artists): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1...sp=sharing

[docwra]

I found updating both TheAudioDB and Fanart to be too difficult (too persnickety about file dimensions and extensions, too much work to find artists, too much work to actually upload the files).

Thats a real shame, lots of people are uploading artwork everyday in standard 700x700 pixel or 1280x720 format. You can use the free GIMP software to resize with a keyboard shortcut.

[Longtime Collector]

I found updating both TheAudioDB and Fanart to be too difficult (too persnickety about file dimensions and extensions, too much work to find artists, too much work to actually upload the files).

Thats a real shame, lots of people are uploading artwork everyday in standard 700x700 pixel or 1280x720 format. You can use the free GIMP software to resize with a keyboard shortcut.

I'm still busy filling in the gaps for the rest of my music collection. Occasionally I will place correctly sized images (not found with Kodi scraping) as a link in the forum section of TheAudioDB. Once I finish with my collection, perhaps I'll go back and help update the public databases. In the meantime feel free to access the curated images I've already made available in the forum (over 3000 images for 2000 artists).
The best software I've found for batch image resizing is ImageMagick. It has a robust padding function so images are not distorted by random resizing. Unfortunately it's a command line program. But really the only command I use is the following:
for %F in ("C:\Users\USERNAME\Downloads\2bpadded\*.jpg") do magick convert -gravity center -background  black -extent 600x600 "%F" "C:\Users\USERNAME\Downloads\covers\%~nxF"
Adjust sizes/directories as needed for thumbs or fanart.