Skip to content

Discogs

Discogs is a comprehensive music database and marketplace that provides artist information, album artwork, and metadata for What's Now Playing. It's particularly strong for electronic music, vinyl releases, and underground/independent artists.

What Discogs Provides

Content Types:

  • Artist biographies and detailed information
  • Album artwork and artist images (fan art, thumbnails)
  • Artist websites and social media links
  • Detailed discographies and release information

Strengths:

  • Excellent coverage of electronic music, vinyl, and independent releases
  • Community-driven database with detailed metadata
  • High-quality album artwork, especially for vinyl releases
  • Good coverage of underground and niche artists

Setup

Discogs Settings

Note: Discogs settings are located under Artist Data in the settings menu.

API Access

  1. Visit Discogs Developer Settings
  2. Click "Generate new token"
  3. Copy the personal access token
  4. Paste it into the What's Now Playing Discogs settings

Media Tags

For best results, your music files should have:

  • Artist name (required)

  • Album title (required for accurate matching)

  • Track title (improves matching accuracy)

How Discogs Matching Works

Search Method

Discogs uses text-based search to find artists and releases:

  1. Searches for artist name in the Discogs database
  2. Attempts to match album titles when available
  3. Returns artist information and images from the best match

Matching Accuracy

  • Good matches: Well-known artists with standard naming

  • Variable results: Artists with common names or multiple variations

  • Best results: When album information helps distinguish between similar artists

Configuration Options

Content Selection

  • Enable biographies: Download artist background information

  • Enable images: Download artist photos and album artwork

  • Website links: Include artist websites and social media

Performance Settings

  • Rate limiting: Discogs has API rate limits - downloads are automatically throttled

  • Caching: All responses are cached to minimize API calls

  • Timeout settings: Configurable timeout for API requests

Best Practices

Improve Matching

  • Use consistent artist names in your music tags
  • Include album titles when possible
  • Verify artist names match Discogs database entries
  • Consider using MusicBrainz for better artist identification

API Usage

  • Personal access tokens have rate limits - avoid excessive requests
  • Respect Discogs Terms of Use
  • Consider the marketplace nature - some content is user-generated

Troubleshooting

No Results Found

  • Verify artist name spelling matches Discogs database
  • Check if artist exists on Discogs.com manually
  • Try simplifying artist names (remove "The", special characters)
  • Ensure API token is valid and has proper permissions

Poor Quality Results

  • Artist names with common words may return incorrect matches
  • Consider using album information to improve matching
  • Enable MusicBrainz for better artist identification first

Rate Limit Issues

  • Discogs has daily/hourly API limits for personal tokens
  • Reduce download frequency if hitting limits
  • Consider upgrading Discogs API access if needed

Missing Content Types

  • Not all artists have biographies on Discogs
  • Image availability varies by artist popularity
  • Community-driven content means some artists have more complete information

Privacy and Terms

  • Review Discogs Terms of Use before use
  • Personal access tokens are tied to your Discogs account
  • API usage may be subject to Discogs rate limiting and policies
  • Content is sourced from the Discogs community database