Artist Slideshow

Artist Slideshow is a Kodi addon that downloads images and additional information from fanart.tv and theaudiodb.com for the currently playing music artist.

Donations

Donations are not accepted for Artist Slideshow. If you find this addon useful, please consider instead supporting the services that make Artist Slideshow possible.

• fanart.tv: https://fanart.tv/contribute/
• theaudiodb: http://theaudiodb.com (look for the "donate with PayPal button)
• musicbrainz: https://metabrainz.org/donate

Features

• displays slideshow as background for music visualization (must use a compatible skin or update skin using the instructions below)
• option for a fallback slideshow if no local or remote images are found
• option to have a single slideshow displayed regardless of artist playing
• options to download artwork from fanart.tv and theaudiodb.com to display as background for music visualization
• artist images can be downloaded (from fanart.tv and theaudiodb.com) and/or use a local directory of existing artist images
• option to download artist bio and other additional information from Kodi's internal database, theaudiodb.com, or last.fm (skin must support display of this information)
• support for overriding the artist bio, discography, and similar artists list with local information
• option to limit size of download cache
• support for multiple artists for a single song (as passed by Kodi)
• also supports iTunes/Amazon standard of song name (feat. artist 2) in title MP3 tag
• support for internet streams that put the artist name in the Kodi title field
• support for other addons using Artist Slideshow to provide the background

How to use this addon

Find a Compatible Skin

There are a number of skins that support Artist Slideshow, but keeping a running list of them has proved too much work. I'd suggest visiting the Kodi forums and see if the skin you want to use supports Artist Slideshow. I know the default Kodi skin (Estuary) supports Artist Slideshow (you need to be using Kodi 18.5 or later), as does the default OSMC skin.

Changes to MusicVisualisation.xml

If you want to manually add support for AS to an existing skin, you need to add/update a few things in MusicVisualization.xml.

To run the script:

    <onload>RunScript(script.artistslideshow)</onload>

On AppleTV if ArtistSlideshow isn't updating after the first artist, use this instead:

    <onload>RunScript(script.artistslideshow, daemon=True)</onload>

You also need to add the XML code below (or update what the skin already has) to the skin's MusicVisualisation.xml.

    <control type="image">
        <aspectratio>scale</aspectratio>
        <fadetime>400</fadetime>
        <animation effect="fade" start="0" end="100" time="400">WindowOpen</animation>
        <animation effect="fade" start="100" end="0" time="300">WindowClose</animation>
        <texture background="true">$INFO[Player.Art(fanart)]</texture>
        <visible>String.IsEmpty(Window(Visualisation).Property(ArtistSlideshow.Image))</visible>
    </control>
    <control type="image">
        <aspectratio>scale</aspectratio>
        <fadetime>400</fadetime>
        <animation effect="fade" start="0" end="100" time="400">WindowOpen</animation>
        <animation effect="fade" start="100" end="0" time="300">WindowClose</animation>
        <texture background="true">$INFO[Window(Visualisation).Property(ArtistSlideshow.Image)]</texture>
        <visible>!String.IsEmpty(Window(Visualisation).Property(ArtistSlideshow.Image))</visible>
    </control>

Addon settings

Slideshow

Delay between slide transitions: (default 10 seconds)<br /> The time each slide will show on the screen.

Use override slideshow (default false)<br /> Tells Kodi to use this folder of images no matter what artist is playing. With this set no artist artwork will ever be downloaded.

Override slideshow folder: (default none)<br /> Path to a directory of images that should be used intead of artist artwork.

Fade to black during chage in artists: (default True)<br /> Shows a black screen when transitioning from one artist to another. To allow the skin to show some other image during transition instead, set this to False.

Include Kodi artist fanart: (default True)<br /> If Kodi downloaded an artist image during scraping of the music, this image will be included in the slideshow and shown first while other images are loading in the background.

Include Kodi album fanart: (default False)<br /> If Kodi downloaded an album fanart image during scraping of the music, this image will be included in the slideshow..

Disable secondary and featured artist images: (default false)<br /> When set to false, Artist Slideshow will show images for all artists associated with the playing song. When set to true, Artist Slideshow will show only images for the primary artist.

Use fallback slideshow (default false)<br /> Tells Kodi to use this folder of images if no artwork is found for the playing artist<br /> Fallback slideshow folder: (default none)<br /> path to a directory of images that should be used if no local or remote images can be found.

Storage

Store artist images in: (default addon_data folder)<br /> three options: addon_data folder, custom location, Kodi artist information folder<br /> addon_data folder uses the default data storage location for Kodi addons. If you select this option you can also limit the size of the downloads to between 128mb and 4gb.<br /> Custom location use a location you define. If you select this option you can also specific a different name for the extrafanart folder or even opt not to use an extrafanart folder at all.<br /> Kodi artist information folder will use the artist information folder defined in the main Kodi settings. If you select this option and haven't set the artist information folder in Kodi, it will default back to the addon_data folder.

Store artist information in: (default addon_data folder)<br /> two options: addon_data folder, custom location<br /> addon_data folder uses the default data storage location for Kodi addons.<br /> Custom location use a location you define.<br />

Images

Download images from fanart.tv: (default false)<br /> fanart.tv has very high quality (1080p) artwork. To use this service, you must have the MusicBrainz Artist ID tag in your music files and have that scanned into your Kodi library.

Client API key (default empty)<br /> fanart.tv provides the option for individual users to have an API key. For information on the benefits that provides, please see https://fanart.tv/2015/01/personal-api-keys/

Download all images regardless of resolution: (default false)<br /> Downloads images even if they are not in 16x9 aspect ratio.

I donate to this service: (default false)<br /> Set this to true if you donate money to fanart.tv. This will provide more frequent updates of images. Please don't be an ass and enable this without actually donating. We've already lost one image source because of funding issues. We don't need to lose any more.

Download images from theaudiodb.com: (default false)<br /> theaudiodb.com has no more than three images per artist, and they are often duplicates of artwork from fanart.tv. To use this service, you must have the MusicBrainz Artist ID tag in your music files and have that scanned into your Kodi library.

Download all images regardless of resolution: (default false)<br /> Downloads images even if they are not in 16x9 aspect ratio.

I donate to this service: (default false)<br /> Set this to true if you donate money to fanart.tv. This will provide more frequent updates of images. Please don't be an ass and enable this without actually donating. We've already lost one image source because of funding issues. We don't need to lose any more.

Album Info

Download album info from theaudiodb.com (default false)<br /> Downloads the artist's discography from theaudiodb.com. To use this service, you must have the MusicBrainz Artist ID tag in your music files and have that scanned into your Kodi library.

Priority (range 1 - 10, default 5)<br /> If multiple services are enabled, the service with priority 1 will be used first, and the one with priority 10 will be used last.<br /> Download album info fromlast.fm (default false)<br /> Downloads the artist's discography from last.fm.

Priority (range 1 - 10, default 5)<br /> If multiple services are enabled, the service with priority 1 will be used first, and the one with priority 10 will be used last.<br />

Artist Bio

Preferred language for artist bio: (default: English)<br /> Sets the language Kodi uses when attempting to download a bio. If no bio for that language is returned, no bio is returned (even if available in other languages).

Get artist bio from Kodi: (default: true)<br /> If selected, AS will ask Kodi for the artist bio that was stored when the music library was last scraped.

Priority (range 1 - 10, default 5)<br /> If multiple services are enabled, the service with priority 1 will be used first, and the one with priority 10 will be used last.

Get artist bio from theaudiodb.com (default: false)<br /> If selected, AS will download the artist bio matching the selected language from theaudiodb.com.

Priority (range 1 - 10, default 5)<br /> If multiple services are enabled, the service with priority 1 will be used first, and the one with priority 10 will be used last.

Get artist bio fromlast.fm (default: false)<br /> If selected, AS will download the artist bio matching the selected language from last.fm.

Priority (range 1 - 10, default 5)<br /> If multiple services are enabled, the service with priority 1 will be used first, and the one with priority 10 will be used last.

Similar Artists

Download similar artists fromlast.fm (default: false)<br /> If selec