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[Kev06]

All my music files (FLACs and MP3s) include both Album cover and Artist art. But even when in Artist View, by default JRiver's thumbnails still show the album covers, not the artist.

I can find threads detailing how to download new artist art to a folder, but not how to make the thumbnails display Artist art that already exists in the music files. Presumably I'm missing something obvious, can anyone point me to the right settings for this?

Many thanks
Kev

[blgentry]

MC does not look for Artist art in the album directories.  It has to be in the master cover art directory in sub directory called Artist.

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Cover_Art#Artist_.26_Series_Images

Brian.

[Kev06]

Thanks for your help. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but I'm not wanting MC to look for images in album directories, or to download new ones. The artist art is already embedded in the music files themselves.

I believe JRiver automatically reads this embedded art to build it's album cover thumbnails, I was simply wanting it do the same for the artists.

Thanks again
Kev

[blgentry]

Hmm, that's a new concept for me.  I'm fully aware that many file formats support embedded images.  These images are normally what would be displayed when the song plays. So normally that's an album image.  Are you saying you have 2 or more images embedded in *each* file?  One for album, one for artist?

If so, that's brand new to me.  I'm not sure if MC supports that or not.  I'm guessing not, but that's just a guess.

Brian.

[dtc]

There are multiple images defined for ID3v2 tags, including front and back cover art, leaflet, Media,  as well as artist, composer, soloist. I have files with both front and back cover art, although MC only seems to deal with one cover art image. Here is a list from Wikipedia.

$00     Other
$01     32x32 pixels 'file icon' (PNG only)
$02     Other file icon
$03     Cover (front)
$04     Cover (back)
$05     Leaflet page
$06     Media (e.g. label side of CD)
$07     Lead artist/lead performer/soloist
$08     Artist/performer
$09     Conductor
$0A     Band/Orchestra
$0B     Composer
$0C     Lyricist/text writer
$0D     Recording Location
$0E     During recording
$0F     During performance
$10     Movie/video screen capture
$11     A bright coloured fish
$12     Illustration
$13     Band/artist logotype
$14     Publisher/Studio logotype

[Kev06]

Yes ID3 allows for multiple embedded images, though I just use front cover and artist myself as being the main ones I list/sort by. It adds a little to file size but is quite convenient to have chosen, familiar images permanently tied to the music files in this way. Processes which download art can be variable in the image they find, making visual search frustrating over time or across music players, and can even fail with less famous artists.

Its very true that not all players recognize all of them, but TBH I'd just assumed that MC would do the main ones, as the process seems already to be implemented for the album cover art. It seemed logical that Artist thumbnails could be used/built for the artist view in the same way that album covers can in album views. Though in fairness I'm not very familiar with MC so am probably bringing preconceptions from other players.

Thanks,
Kev

[blgentry]

Well I learned something. 

Though I can't speak on whether MC supports any of these other embedded images.  I'm certain it supports artist images via the directory that I talked about in my previous post, which is documented in the link that I posted.  If you put artist images there, MC will definitely display them.

Good luck.

Brian.

[Kev06]

Thanks. Yes I just tested that and it does work. It would take a while to extract and name them all, but if MC can only handle album cover art it would certainly be a work-around.

Many embedded images aren't widely used. But as MC has 'Artist' as a standard View, it is a bit surprising to have to fudge this one. Maybe reading embedded artist images (where present) could be added to the future wish list?

Thanks
Kev

[syndromeofadown]

Kev06 you can get MC to fill the artist art folder for you.
Highlight music the right click->Cover Art->Get artist images from last.fm

Out of curiosity I am hoping you can let me/us know:
How did you add artist images to your files?
Where did they come from?
Are there any players that show your artist images?

[Kev06]

Thanks, but for consistency the intent was to populate the artist thumbnails from the embedded artwork, rather than to download whatever last.fm chooses to offer at the current time (or not, for the lesser-known artists). I've started doing this manually now, its more tedious than expected to get the exact file names, but it does work so I will continue if I decide to use MC more often

I happen to use Mp3tag for managing all my FLAC and MP3 tags at the moment, though others will do this too. As you mention, Artist art can be downloaded if they are popular enough, but personally I chose/edited/made my own images that best represents the artists as I see them (which for the longer running ones may not necessarily be as they are now).

For a while I've been using foobar2000 which will read/display (and i believe also manage) artist art - though I forget which UI elements I used to configure foobar with. However the artist images are just standard ID3 tags, like front cover art, and not exclusive to any particular player; some players just offer better support of ID3 than others.