Server Version#: 4.51.3
Player Version#: N/A
Hello,
I have used Plex for Movies/TV for ages but want to start using for music - especially via PlexAmp as a player. I have a ton of music that I’ve tagged with very specific and detailed tags over more than two decades so I don’t want Plex automatically downloading any album/track details, etc. That’s all tagged. I have multiple versions of many Albums and when I let Plex try to match them, it’s a disaster. That’s not Plex’s fault. I fully recognize I’m likely an edge case.
So I have the library set for :
Agent - Personal Media Artists
Genres - Embedded Tags
Album Art - Local Files Only
It works beautifully, but I have one question: Is there ANY way to let Plex download poster art ONLY for the actual Artists?
All my Album Art looks terrific with the above settings because it’s reading it all locally. However, the “Artists” view is all blank boxes. I do know that I can create/name an “artist-poster.jpg” but that would be a ton of work to track down and find artist posters for all the artists in my library. In the end, it isn’t a huge deal. I can live with the Artists view being ugly in PlexAmp and everywhere else. I understand that my settings are configured for the expressed purpose of NOT letting Plex download metadata for my music. I am basically just wondering if there’s a config file or something behind the scenes that I can edit that would tell Plex to keep my settings as they are, but automatically add a poster for each Artist like it would if I allowed to download metadata for my music.
Actually, I think it is possible with the new “Plex Music” agent. If your tags are in as good a shape as you say, you should do well with Plex configured according to this guide.
When configured that way, Plex will use your local art files and embedded tags whenever possible, only backfilling from online sources when something is missing locally. That alone should be enough to do what you want. It will only look online if you’re missing something. But if you really don’t want Plex to even look for album art beyond your local files, you can use the “Album Art” setting, set to “Local Files Only,” to force Plex to not backfill missing album art, but it will still get Artist posters from online.
I’ve been configure this way for several years now, and it works really well, when my tags are correct. A side “benefit” is, you’ll find out very quickly, as I did, when your tags are wrong.
One thing that came out of working with the “Plex Music” agent: You’ll be much better off if the embedded Album tag in your files is identical to the folder name containing the files. MUCH better off!
Just wanted to respond with my results. Basically, the article worked except for one minor hiccup - some of my folder names don’t match the ID3 tags exactly. I am super OCD about my tags, folders, etc. but some don’t match exactly. For example, I might have this:
The Beatles → The Beatles in Mono → Help!
The Beatles → The Beatles in Stereo → Help!
But that tags on the album will be (respectively):
Help! (2009 Mono)
Help! (2009 Stereo)
This seems to cause Plex confusion and it won’t display the embedded album art - even though I tell it “Local Files Only” for Album Art.
Otherwise, it worked. Not a big deal. I can script something to read my tags and rename the album directory name accordingly.
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond and help me out. I truly appreciate you!
Yep, absolutely. And I can fix that pretty easily. Just out of curiosity, does anyone happen to know the source of the artists images when Plex downloads that information? Where does Plex pull it from? Just wondering in case I need to fill in any gaps or if I have issues.
As it was explained to me by a Plex employee, Plex queries Musicbrainz, and Musicbrainz links with fanart.tv for graphics. I don’t know if that’s the only place it gets graphics, but that’s what I know.
Wish I could say that.