As I said in the other
thread, I would like to suggest adding artist images to the feature set.
As we know, MC does not have "artists" separately in the library. It has only files and file tags. I don't know if that is ever going to change, but for now, the info about artist images has to be in a file tag. (It would be great to be able to maintain separate relational artist files with artist specific tags & linked artist images and show this data in visualizations and view schemes, but maybe that can be handled more easily by accessing wikipedia and other online sources.)
I think the following additions would do the trick:
1. A new library field: "Artist Image". This would be similar to the Image File field.
2. A new file location option: the location of the artist images. This should be a single separate folder and the naming templete should be simply [Artist].jpg
3. An internal system for creating and maintaining the artist thumbnails.
3. A new view scheme option: Use Artist Image as a thumbnail when the view is set to show artists in the thumbnail mode.
4. Two new details view columns: Artist Image (large thumbnail) and Artist Image (small thumbnail)
5. Action Window and right-click options for handling Artist Images (add from file
*, drag and drop
*, remove, quick find, paste from clipboard, etc)
6. An online database for the images.
7. A lookup and submission tool for Artist Images. This would work exactly like the Cover Art tool works now. You could select the best image for each artist and the system would vote the images automatically.
8. TRACKINFO_INSERT_ARTIST_IMAGE (maybe also other developer options -- does MC currectly offer other track image related commands?)
When an Artist has several linked images MC should be able to display fanned thumbnails in the usual way.
When an artist image is not available MC should automatically show standard cover art for that artist.
* The manual linking options would be essential for linking a single "album artist" image with a multiple artists album and for linking different images to different files from the same artist (eg. the artist in the 60's, 70's, 80's & 90's or in studio / live concert / etc)