Author Topic: LastFM changes to API (02/05/19)  (Read 41050 times)

Steven

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Does that mean about 90% of the current usage of their API from MB users is for downloading artist pictures & album covers?
by far the largest is artist image retrieval and album covers


Steven

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https://getmusicbee.com/patches/MusicBee33_Patched.zip

this version has the following:
- uses a new API key so you should be reliably able to use the last.fm functions that MB still supports
- as such, if you use a last.fm account you will be prompted to confirm access for MusicBee (once only)
- the functions implemented are:
  - scrobbling
  - playcount sync
  - track love and track love sync - however track love now only updates last.fm if the "synchronise Track Love to last.fm is enabled in the last.fm plugin preferences ie. without that being set, track love now only updates the musicbee database
  - artist biographies
  - similar artists
- as a fallback, spotify is also used for similar artists if none are found on last.fm or last.fm is failing
- as a fallback wikipedia is used if last.fm artist biography fails - however wikipedia is not ideal as its not specifically focused on music/  artists and i am expecting there will be some cases of rubbish results
- for artist thumbnails, fanart.tv is still used but as a fallback, spotify is used

ost

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last.fm is blocked by some Russian ISP's and now I can't use this plugin after update

Last Edit: May 12, 2019, 04:35:59 PM by ost

stardepp

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Last.fm Statistics will stop working and the current play bar will no longer show the played counter after the artist.


Steven

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Last.fm Statistics will stop working and the current play bar will no longer show the played counter after the artist.
that plugin is still using the unreliable API key and until i update it, it will only work sometimes. The play counter is no longer supported

stardepp

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Last.fm Statistics will reappear, after which I have reinstalled the addon Last.fm Statistics.

But the current play bar still does not show the played counter behind the artist. Is it wanted like that?
I mean this ad, see screenshot:






redwing

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- as a fallback wikipedia is used if last.fm artist biography fails - however wikipedia is not ideal as its not specifically focused on music/  artists and i am expecting there will be some cases of rubbish results

Thanks for adding this! Very useful for classical music artists.

- It returns just a double quote without any content for some artists: e.g. Erica Morini
- If the previous paragraph ends with a hyperlink, it doesn't format properly. A lot of artists end with ".References" because of that. e.g. Aleksandr Gauk

redwing

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- for artist thumbnails, fanart.tv is still used but as a fallback, spotify is used

Is audioDB no longer supported either for artist picture downloader or artist backdrop? It seems artist gallery retrieves only from fanart.tv.

Steven

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- It returns just a double quote without any content for some artists: e.g. Erica Morini
- If the previous paragraph ends with a hyperlink, it doesn't format properly. A lot of artists end with ".References" because of that. e.g. Aleksandr Gauk
both are addressed now, but for Erica Morini wikipedia is returning no data for some reason

Is audioDB no longer supported either for artist picture downloader or artist backdrop? It seems artist gallery retrieves only from fanart.tv.
they blocked musicbee a long time ago due to high volume.
It will really need someone to write a plugin that can get artist backdrops from google or the like

edit:
i think i will also do something with wikipedia for getting the main artist backdrop
Last Edit: May 12, 2019, 07:15:31 PM by Steven

redwing

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both are addressed now, but for Erica Morini wikipedia is returning no data for some reason

Thanks! Working fine now. Actually it was wrong tag for Erika Morini.

redwing

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Let me know exactly what needs to be done and I can probably do it.

Would be great if you can build a plugin for retrieving artist backdrops. Right now it retrieves only from fanart.tv except local pictures.

Steven

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I have added the main picture from the artist wikipedia page for the backdrops.
I will see if it will be feasible to get other pictures with the artist name in the picture but not promising as it might be too unreliable/ slow