When I had basic Plex, I had very little issue with music. With PlexPass, I am constantly getting corrupted results. My first time with PlexPass was using Last.FM as the main scraper.
I have altered the order of the scrapers, most recently going with local information. I’ve got Read Tags selected. Nothing has changed from before I purchased PlexPass. Everything was pretty solid, as I mainly used MusicBrainz Picard with a little from Discogs via mp3Tag. I know each scraper can have slightly different information, but it’s not a failure to find artists as much as a mash-up.
An example is I will have two pictures of Aretha Franklin under artists. Beneath one thumbnail, there’s (say) Quarterflash and the next shows Aretha Franklin. Going in Edit, you’ll see in the first one Artist is Quarterflash and Sort Artist is Aretha Franklin. I have to re-scan before I can choose either Match, Fix Match, Unmatch or even sometimes Split Match. Lots of cases of up to ~ 10 artists all with the same thumbnail. Sometimes I have luck in fixing those, sometimes not. And if I do fix a artist match, it will generally screw up the album art. and there’s no consistency in the fixes, nor guarantee they stick.
Again, I didn’t have this problem before PlexPass. I’m stumped. I’m not sure what Plex Premium Music does, either…maybe that’s the issue since Last.FM was with basic Plex. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help.
So this is the same music library you had before the upgrade to PLEX Pass, right? If so, try creating a new music library (keep the old one just in case as well) and select "Create a premium Plex music library! " during setup. I had similar issue last year and I found creating new library did the trick for me 
Hope this helps! Good Luck!
I also use Picard for my naming. While the tags are set by Picard, I do not use them. The directory structure and file name is sufficient (must be prudent about this).
There is a distinct difference in how Gracenote does things (Premium) and how Last.FM does. They do not always agree and it’s extremely annoying. PMS is using what it gets. It just happens to be wrong from one of them.
For this reason, I stick with a Basic library. No issues there.
@bbubulka said:
So this is the same music library you had before the upgrade to PLEX Pass, right? If so, try creating a new music library (keep the old one just in case as well) and select "Create a premium Plex music library! " during setup. I had similar issue last year and I found creating new library did the trick for me 
Hope this helps! Good Luck!
I can’t select that. The pop-up is there, but when I click on it, it doesn’t “fill the circle”.
@Core-Lokt ,That’s odd as mine selects that option first. Are you signed into your PLEX Account on that server? I enjoy the additional data PLEX provides hence why I don’t use the “basic library”.
Side note, I use the same software as both of you when it comes to metadata and I’ve never had any major issues. Just odd stuff from older music and finding appropriate metadata.
@ChuckPA said:
I also use Picard for my naming. While the tags are set by Picard, I do not use them. The directory structure and file name is sufficient (must be prudent about this).
There is a distinct difference in how Gracenote does things (Premium) and how Last.FM does. They do not always agree and it’s extremely annoying. PMS is using what it gets. It just happens to be wrong from one of them.
For this reason, I stick with a Basic library. No issues there.
Could you detail exactly how you select and configure the scrapers? That might be helpful.
I think the directory and file name is fine. I know what you mean about accord between scrapers, as even thumbnails change. If Plex weren’t scanning currently, I’d put up some pics. Right now, I see Charlotte Church has Ray Conniff as Sort Artist and biography. Bobby Caldwell has Andrae Crouch bio, but Artist and Sort Artist are Bobby Caldwell
@bbubulka said:
@Core-Lokt ,That’s odd as mine selects that option first. Are you signed into your PLEX Account on that server? I enjoy the additional data PLEX provides hence why I don’t use the “basic library”.
Side note, I use the same software as both of you when it comes to metadata and I’ve never had any major issues. Just odd stuff from older music and finding appropriate metadata.
Yes. I have to log in before Plex even starts. I know I’m logged in, as on the top right there’s a “C” (Core-Lokt) icon with a drop-down menu of things like Users, Account, Get Plex Apps etc.
@ChuckPA -
Being that you are a Plex Team Member and you are recommending to use a Basic Music Library, what use is the Premium Music and licensing Gracenote if its either not being used well or Plex techs are not using the Gracenote API better?
Perhaps using MusicBrainz, which is open-source, free database baked into the agents for Plex for all members would help with giving music information to not only help all users but be more consistent. Last.fm is simply not the best overall metadata resource anymore. The website is not updated as it should and MusicBrainz clearly is. Information is properly tagged and information on the artist and albums of them are done with great ease. In the past, there has been chatter about using MusicBrainz as a Plugin for Plex, but some users have had some success adding it to Plex whereas others have not.
If you could recommend at a team meeting to add MusicBrainz as the new Plex Music agent and get rid of Last.fm, I think customers will be happy with the change. Gracenote and MusicBrainz working together will give an improved music experience.
Any thoughts on this would be welcome.
IDK if this will display or link. I used Photobucket until they crapped on the internet and don’t have a replacement host, yet.
Please put my “Plex Team Member” hat off to the side.
I personally use MusicBrainz’s Picard and a Basic library because it works best for my collection of music (late 60’s → 00’s). The information for my genres is not as popular as current , examples being “SuperTramp”, “Alan Parsons” or “Pink Floyd” which clearly aren’t “mainstream” anymore.
“Team Member” hat back on:
I hadn’t thought of using MusicBrainz as a replacement for Last.FM but think it’s a good idea. I truly had never considered making a change.
A simple demonstration would be for someone to craft up a MusicBrainz Plug-in for PMS (written in Python) and use it instead of Last.FM.
If you feel up to it, by all means start a poll.
a) Gracenote + Last.FM
b) Gracenote + MusicBrainz
See which comes out on top.
The more contributors to the poll, with simple comments in the thread, the better it would communicate to Engineering and give them information they need to justify such a change (man-hours)
Will do! Thanks for the feedback.
A little OT, but why wouldn’t I be able to select a Premium library?
Gracenote is the Premium library.
Understood. But I can’t select that option. I have a link to a screen capture above.
I see you have an active server on your account that was created a couple months ago? Is this the one?
Your PMS is somehow not recognizing you hold a valid Plex Pass under this username Core-Lokt. Is your server currently signed in under a different name or perhaps not at all? If either of those is true, you will not be able to create a Premium library
Yes, that would be about when I started Plex. The server shows signed in under my e-mail. I sign in with my e-mail or forum name and it doesn’t matter. Is something wrong? The Roku TV displays Plex Media Server with a green lock. Something else-no settings stick. Like playing theme music or Prefer AAC.
For the Roku… that green lock means it’s encrypted AND can directly connect. Best way to be.
If you get Yellow, you’re indirect/limited (not good). Red is, of course, not available / can’t find.
OK; from what I’ve mentioned, what would you suggest? I’m at a loss. I thought everything was basically set up right.
If the roku is working right, the server is working right too.
It has to be in the TV. Something in its config or connection to the server. Wifi versus wired? Both logged in / logged out? Something is different.
It’s Wi-Fi. How could the TV affect the setup of a premium library? I would think the music needed to be compiled and configured first. Anyway, I clicked on the TV icon in the top right of the home screen and activated it with no difference in creating a premium library.
The only thing that might play into all of this is there was just a Plex update. It failed to automatically update and prompted me to manually download and install. No idea why; it wasn’t my internet.
Anyway, I knew from reading in advance that you had to start fresh for a premium library. I completely deleted Plex per the instructions (uninstall app in Control Panel, go to /users/app data/PMS to delete contents). I ran the EXE, configured it and purchased PlexPass. Other than movies/TV shows, it’s all been downhill.
For S&Gs, I re-downloaded Plex and am going to re-install and start fresh. I can’t help but think there’s something about the app where it won’t recognize status, keeps losing settings and messes up music. Thanks to all. I really can’t mark all responses as answered because either I can’t configure things to try fixes or can’t tell where the problem lies.
I’ll report back, but given how long it takes to scan the music, it’ll be tomorrow.
