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FanArt.TV

FanArt.TV is a community-driven project that provides high-quality curated artwork for music and other media. It specializes in professional-grade images including banners, logos, fan art, and thumbnails that are perfect for streaming and visual displays.

What FanArt.TV Provides

Content Types:

  • High-quality artist banners
  • Professional fan art and background images
  • Stylized artist logos
  • Artist thumbnails and photos

Strengths:

  • Curated, high-quality artwork reviewed by the community
  • Professional-grade images suitable for streaming
  • Consistent image quality and resolution standards
  • Wide coverage of popular artists across all genres

Requirements:

  • Requires MusicBrainz Artist IDs in your music tags
  • Works best with well-known mainstream artists
  • Limited coverage for very obscure or new artists

Setup

FanArt.TV Settings

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

API Access

  1. Visit FanArt.TV API Key Registration
  2. Create an account and request an API key
  3. Copy your API key once approved
  4. Paste it into the What's Now Playing FanArt.TV settings

MusicBrainz Integration

FanArt.TV requires MusicBrainz Artist IDs to function:

  1. Enable MusicBrainz in Recognition settings
  2. Ensure your music files have artist/title/album tags
  3. Let MusicBrainz identify artists and add MusicBrainz IDs
  4. FanArt.TV uses these IDs to find matching artwork

How FanArt.TV Works

Lookup Process

  1. What's Now Playing gets MusicBrainz Artist ID from track metadata
  2. Queries FanArt.TV database using the MusicBrainz ID
  3. Downloads available artwork for that specific artist
  4. Caches images locally for fast access

Quality Control

  • All artwork is community-reviewed before acceptance
  • Images meet specific quality and resolution standards
  • Multiple image variations available for most artists
  • Consistent styling and professional appearance

Configuration Options

Content Selection

  • Enable banners: Download artist banner images

  • Enable fan art: Download background/fan art images

  • Enable logos: Download artist logo graphics

  • Enable thumbnails: Download artist photos/thumbnails

Image Preferences

  • Image limits: Control how many images to download per artist

  • Resolution preferences: Available images meet FanArt.TV quality standards

  • Caching: All images are cached locally to minimize API calls

Best Practices

Improve Coverage

  • Use music files with complete MusicBrainz integration
  • Ensure artist names match MusicBrainz database entries
  • Keep music library well-tagged with artist/album/title information
  • Enable AcoustID for automatic MusicBrainz ID population

Optimize Performance

  • Let MusicBrainz run first to populate Artist IDs
  • FanArt.TV works best as a secondary service after MusicBrainz
  • Cache settings help reduce API calls during live sets

Troubleshooting

No Images Found

  • Check MusicBrainz IDs: Verify tracks have MusicBrainz Artist IDs

  • Enable MusicBrainz: Required for FanArt.TV to work

  • Artist coverage: Not all artists have FanArt.TV artwork

  • API key validity: Ensure API key is active and correct

Poor Image Quality

  • FanArt.TV maintains high quality standards - poor images are rare
  • If images appear low quality, they may be from other services
  • Check that FanArt.TV is actually being used (not Discogs/TheAudioDB)

Missing Artist Coverage

  • FanArt.TV focuses on popular/mainstream artists
  • Obscure or very new artists may not have coverage
  • Consider using Discogs or TheAudioDB for broader artist coverage
  • Community-driven - coverage depends on volunteer contributions

API Issues

  • Rate limits: FanArt.TV has API rate limiting

  • API key expired: Check if API key needs renewal

  • Network issues: Verify internet connectivity

  • Service downtime: Check FanArt.TV service status

Integration with Other Services

FanArt.TV works best alongside other Artist Extras services:

  • Use with MusicBrainz: Required for Artist ID lookup

  • Complement Discogs: FanArt.TV for quality, Discogs for coverage

  • Combine with TheAudioDB: Different image types and artist coverage

  • Fallback strategy: Configure multiple services for comprehensive coverage

Community and Quality

  • Volunteer-driven: Community members contribute and review artwork

  • Quality standards: All images meet resolution and quality requirements

  • Regular updates: New artwork added regularly by the community

  • Professional focus: Designed for media centers and streaming applications