[jadaml]

I'm extending my music library with my vinyl collection, and thought I would rather extend it with my own album art then downloading it from online. However, with Kodi's ability to display a disk art with the albums, I thought I would like to take both sides of the disks as disk art, and would use one side with the songs from that side, and the other with the songs from the other side. I thought I could use MusicBrainz Picard to do that, but it does not seem that it is capable to do that.

Is there any way for Kodi to pick up two different disk art for two sets of tracks (like storing them under SideA and SideB folders) in an album or I would need to settle with one disk art?

[DaveBlake]

Art is a lot more flexible in v18 onwards than it was previously, at least Kodi is no longer limiting what can be done. Now it is down to skins and art fetching addons or manual user effort.

If you want Kodi to automatically pick up locally held discart for different tracks then you will need to tag the tracks with different disc numbers. You can then either use a flat file layout with discart1.jpg and discart2.jpg, or subfolders for each disc (side) and put the discart.jpg in each.

[jadaml]

Art is a lot more flexible in v18 onwards than it was previously, at least Kodi is no longer limiting what can be done. Now it is down to skins and art fetching addons or manual user effort.

If you want Kodi to automatically pick up locally held discart for different tracks then you will need to tag the tracks with different disc numbers. You can then either use a flat file layout with discart1.jpg and discart2.jpg, or subfolders for each disc (side) and put the discart.jpg in each.

Do you mean I need to both set the disc number and copy them to subfolders? I tried to just copy them in hope I don't have to set it that way but it didn't work. Also I've set the disc number and total disc number as 1 for all song with Picard, as it is technically from one disc. Meanwhile I tried to set the media image with a ID3 tagger on the MP3 files, but Kodi did not pick it up.
Also I'm using the Rapier skin, which does support disk art.

Also note to self: It is discart, and not diskart. Working with a NAS as well makes this difficult.

[scott967]

It would be possible to use front cover and back cover in ID3 APIC tag, but getting skin support for that is limited.   I'm not entirely happy with the handling of vinyl.  I guess on musicbrainz you can enter tracks as A1 / B1 but it isn't really set up to work well with that.

scott s.
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[DaveBlake]

I've set the disc number and total disc number as 1 for all song with Picard, as it is technically from one disc.

Well yes I guess an album on a vinyl record probably would be a single disc when on CD, however you are trying to trick Kodi (and skins) into showing images of the different record sides as if the tracks had different "discart" (a type of art supported by many skins). I will repeat: if you want Kodi to automatically pick up locally held "discart" for different tracks then you will need to tag the tracks with different disc numbers.

Having tagged the music files that way you can then either
a) use a flat file layout for the music files with art in discart1.jpg and discart2.jpg,
or
b) use subfolders for the music files on each "disc" (side) and put discart.jpg in each.

Meanwhile I tried to set the media image with a ID3 tagger on the MP3 files, but Kodi did not pick it up.

Currenly Kodi only extracts front cover from the ID3 APIC tag, embedding other art will not get you what you want. Extracting other art from tags is an enhancement that could come in the future, however many users prefer to keep art external to the music file where it is easier to edit so it is not a priority.

[jadaml]

I have played around a bit with this, and I've realized an issue with my setup:
I have two different release of the album (both in time and medium) I'm trying to set up, both a CD and a Vinyl version of it, and it seems that Kodi keeps mixing up the two.
Before my first post, I've already managed with MusicBrainz Picard to make Kodi differentiate the two albums, but I don't have a unique identifier for the recording nor the release, only for the artist.
After that, does not pick up the discart file, quite possibly because of this. On another installation of Kodi (I use Ace2 as my skin there) I tried to set it manually, and when I set the disc art for the first side, it automatically updates the CD album's disc art as well (I assume this is because of the missing recording ID). Then I've realized that some plugins could interfere with the automation process as well.

On another note I see that this unique ID is a GUID v4 but I do not wish to generate a GUID that could possibly clash with an already existing album (I have nothing against of choosing a non-existing GUID version that I define for myself OR write any arbitrary identifier if a GUID isn't mandatory), and also do not wish to upload this information to the MusicBrainz database, as it is just as complete as it pleases me.

[DaveBlake]

Yes Kodi can handle multiple releases of the same album when Musicbrainz id tags are provided, otherwise it uses album and artist regardless of what folder layout the music files are located in or when the folder is scanned into the music library.

Kodi looks if all the music files for an album, and only that album, are located under a unique folder. If such a folder exists then it will pick up local album art and NFO files from that folder, but if the common folder contains music files from other albums it will not. So yes having multiple releases (say vinyl + CD) of an album in separate folders but not tagged with mbids, Kodi will add to the library as one album and be unable to locate the local art.

The simple approach to using Kodi is to use Picard to tag your music files, this adds Musicbrainz id tags as well as other tag data. Of course with a little care you can trick Kodi using fake Musicbrainz id tagging, but really adding entries to the Musicbrainz library is better way to contribute to the wider community.

But let's say to want to just fake-it, there are a few things you need to keep in mind:

• When scraping additional artist and album data from remote sites, the scrapers use Musicbrainz ids when they have been provided. The scraper has no way to know if you have used a valid mbid or some fake value, but making requests using fake values is useless server load and abuse of the remote sites that provide free data. If faking ids then don't scrape!
  
• The MUSICBRAINZ_ALBUMID tag (name varies slightly in different tag formats) value when present is used by the scanning process regardless of album or artist tag values, give differnt albums (by different artists) the same mbid and Kodi will take all the songs to belong to this one album.
  

Fake mbid values do not have to be GUID, but if you do hit real mbid values and scrape then you could get some odd results.

But to be honest why complicate things, if you are not using Musicbrainz data why not just tag the vinyl duplicates with a slightly different album title. That was the approach users used to use for multiple releases back before Musicbrainz id tag handling was added.

[jadaml]

When scraping additional artist and album data from remote sites, the scrapers use Musicbrainz ids when they have been provided. [...] but making requests using fake values is useless server load and abuse of the remote sites

I both didn't know that the MusicBrainz ID is used by scrapers (that is not the only music database after all) and a perfectly valid argument against using fake IDs IMHO.

But to be honest why complicate things, if you are not using Musicbrainz data why not just tag the vinyl duplicates with a slightly different album title.

Well I've recently started digitizing my vinyl collection, and so up to this point was satisfied with whatever the CD ripper or online store have provided me with; thus didn't knew about this practice.

Thanks, I feel enlightened. But as I am kind of a novice identifying the exact release of the vinyls my problems are the following:
In the case of the CD album, I was certain that my album matches the one in the database, because it had a barcode that matched, and everything else nicely fell in to place (although I'd prefer if the artists tags would contain all contributor and performer).
But in the case of the vinyl, it does not have a barcode, and I often have multiple of numbers, and had difficulty to figure out what is the record identifier. And even if in the end I was sure that I have found the one, it did not quite match, and MusicBrainz even suggests a different one and on top of it offers a barcode and even an ASIN or ISRC number which I'm certain the vinyl does not have. I don't even know what they mean (ASIN is the Amazon identifier as far as I understand, which makes no sense in case of the old vinyl.)
Also I often find that I do not quite understand the use of some tag, or even use it differently than others. (Like the tag "artists" I'd list all the contributors of the song whatever is noted on the back of the case, not just the album artist. And "comment" is too broad to believe it is used at all, yet I've used it whatever was noted on the back of the case that did not felt appropriate for any other tags, like thanking someone.)

So unless it is possible to later fix information by others, or ask for reviews whether the collection of information is valid or even relatable or necessary (or if it is a perfectly valid practice, to treat every information retrieved from MusicBrainz as a base to start tagging your music and modify it to your own taste), I feel uncomfortable to contribute to it. I'll definitely look in to it after this discussion though.

And to come back to the original issue, I'd assume I would still need to fake the information on the disc number if I'd want to display both sides as they play, right?

[jadaml]

A–and as soon I have voiced my concerns about contributing, I started reading the "how to contribute" page, which have started answering some of my concerns; especially the fact that it has the capability to review existing entries. Sorry about that.

[scott967]

A–and as soon I have voiced my concerns about contributing, I started reading the "how to contribute" page, which have started answering some of my concerns; especially the fact that it has the capability to review existing entries. Sorry about that.

From scraping perspective, in some cases the "release group" id is used -- that can get around some of the "fake" release id issues.  I suggest if you use a fake release id, also use an album.nfo to avoid having bad scraping.

scott s.
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[DaveBlake]

I both didn't know that the MusicBrainz ID is used by scrapers (that is not the only music database after all) and a perfectly valid argument against using fake IDs IMHO.

Yes there are several remote sites that can be accessed by scrapers for album and artist data, and new scrapers can be created at any time by anyone with the skills and interest (they are external to Kodi). However all the current scrapers make use of Musicbrainz ids if they are present, these ids can be used to efficiently access TheAudioDB and fanart.tv site not just Musicbrainz itself, and Musicbrainz can provide links to other site such as Discogs and Amazon.

What those with small music collections don't realise is that album and artist names are often not sufficient to uniquely identify an album e.g. there are 4 different albums called "Peter Gabriel" by Peter Gabriel all with different tracks, art etc. Using resources like the Musicbrainz database to identify not only an artist or an album but even the individual release is extremely useful. I wholeheartedly encourage the community to support it when they can.

However local nfo files always take priority when scraping, so if you do use some kind of fake mbid then you can avoid ever looking up that artist or album remotely by adding an nfo file.
 

But as I am kind of a novice identifying the exact release of the vinyls my problems are the following:...

Don't get too tied up with finding the perfect match for a release. In general it is good that the tracks match, and yes sometimes I adjust the tagging Picard provides to my personal taste (but with care on ARTISTS and ALBUMRTISTS: the number of artist names and artist mbids needs to match exactly). My own collection contains some items that don't have Musicbainz tags at all, while others I add missing or edit entries to the Musicbrainz site, no one size fits all. For example I would skip adding a 15th release of something because my copy has a different barcode, but I would spend time accurately adding more obscure albums and little known artists, or extending the performer data or links to other sites if I found them.

I have script setting in Picard to drop ASIN and IRC data as it is irrelevent to me (and to Kodi), but that is a personal choice. The Musicbrainz documentation does explain a great deal

Despite being old the last vinyl I bought was in 1985, and having finally replaced almost all my records with CD I eventually gave them all away to charity along my high end deck. There were more than a few collectors items in that, all lovingly cared for, and the charity did well selling them. Then in 2014 I discovered Kodi did the "big rip and tag", converting ~1600 CDs to single FLAC files on a NAS drive. That took some time, but was well worth it. I don't miss having record sides (or cracks and pops) at all.

Kodi has not been designed to present vinyl well, but with a little creativity you should be able to get out of it what you want.

I'd assume I would still need to fake the information on the disc number if I'd want to display both sides as they play, right?

Yes. You may also want to add "Side A" or "Side B" in the DISCSUBTITLE tag.