Plex Music Artist Picture Question

General Discussions
1

I set up my Plex music library (basic) and have the agents set to “local media assets” is there any way to only automatically pull in artist pictures without overwriting my tags so when I view my library by artist all the artist icons are not blank? Or is it possible to show an embedded image from the metadata tag as the artist image automatically?

2

@sean_c said:
I set up my Plex music library (basic) and have the agents set to “local media assets” is there any way to only automatically pull in artist pictures without overwriting my tags so when I view my library by artist all the artist icons are not blank?

Not if you put it completely to ‘Personal Media’.
You need to change that to a ‘hybrid’ mode.
Set the library to agent ‘last.fm’
tick ‘Use embedded tags’

Then edit the order of agents under
Settings - Server - Agents - Albums - last.fm
by dragging the line ‘Local Media Assets’ into the topmost position

Repeat the same under
Settings - Server - Agents - Artists - last.fm

Or is it possible to show an embedded image from the metadata tag as the artist image automatically?

Unfortunately, artist pictures cannot be read from embedded metadata.
You can supply artist photos as ‘sidecar’ files, though.

This however requires that your music files are organised in a folder structure like this:

Music /  <-- folder which is added to the music library
|--Albumartistname /
   |  artist-poster.jpg      <--- a photo of the artist
   |  artist-background.jpg  <--- a background/wallpaper particular to the artist
   |--Albumartistname - Albumtitle /
         cover.jpg           <--- album cover
         background.jpg      <--- album background/wallpaper [if not present, inherited from the 'albumartist' level]
         1. Trackartist - Tracktitle.mp3
         1. Trackartist - Tracktitle.txt
         2. Trackartist - Tracktitle.mp3
         2. Trackartist - Tracktitle.lrc
         ...

The graphic files can be in jpg, png, or tbn format. For all filenames there are a few alternative names which can also be used.
These sidecar graphic files can be significantly larger (and therefore better quality) than what you would embed into the music files.

The txt files can contain the song lyrics in plain text format.
The lrc files can contain the ‘timed’ song lyrics.

Here are some more tips regarding music

multi-disc albums
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1050849/#Comment_1050849

handling singles and EP’s
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1093611/#Comment_1093611

soundtracks and ‘various artists’
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1472799/#Comment_1472799

3

Thanks I believe I changed the settings correctly but nothing has changed. I’ve scanned and refreshed the library several times to no avail. Any ideas?

4

After doing the “plex dance” it seems to have worked properly…is there any other method other than removing everything and re-adding?

5

@sean_c said:
After doing the “plex dance” it seems to have worked properly…is there any other method other than removing everything and re-adding?

No, I’m afraid not.

6

Okay thanks very much! The pictures seem to be loading now Is there any way to get the artist bio information as well ?

7

Artist bios should come as well, after the whole library has been processed.
If you activate the butler job
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201553286-scheduled-tasks/
“Refresh metadata periodically”

Plex will try every 3 weeks if there are new facts about the artist, and so will fill in missing artist info gradually.