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TheAudioDB

TheAudioDB is a community-driven database of artist information and images.

What TheAudioDB Provides

  • Artist banners
  • Artist fan art (background images)
  • Artist logos
  • Artist thumbnails
  • Artist websites and social media links
  • Artist biographies
  • Album cover art

Requirements

An API key from TheAudioDB is required. A free tier is available using 123 as the API key, limited to 30 requests per minute. Higher limits are available via a Patreon subscription.

Setup

TheAudioDB Settings

Note: TheAudioDB settings are under Artist Data in the Settings menu.

Getting an API Key

  1. Subscribe via TheAudioDB on Patreon
  2. Follow the instructions provided to receive your API key
  3. Paste it into the TheAudioDB API Key field in What's Now Playing

Content Options

Once enabled and an API key is entered, select what to download:

  • Biography — artist background text
  • Banners — wide horizontal artist banner images
  • Cover Art — album artwork fetched by artist and album name. Skipped when cover art is already embedded in the track file. Requires the track's album tag to be set.
  • Fanart — large background/fan art images
  • Logos — artist logo graphics
  • Thumbnails — artist photos and thumbnails
  • Websites — artist URLs and social media links

Enable only what your templates actually use.

Biography Language

When Biography is enabled, you can set a preferred Language ISO Code (e.g. EN, DE, FR). Enable Fallback to EN to use the English biography when your preferred language is not available.

How Matching Works

TheAudioDB first attempts to look up the artist by MusicBrainz Artist ID. If no MBID is present in the track tags, it falls back to a text search by artist name. The MBID path is more accurate and avoids collisions between artists who share a name.

Troubleshooting

No results returned

  • Verify the API key is correct and your Patreon subscription is active
  • Check that the artist exists on TheAudioDB.com by searching manually

Wrong artist returned

  • This typically happens with the name-based fallback when multiple artists share a name
  • Add MusicBrainz Artist IDs to your tracks via audio recognition (Recognition settings) to use the more accurate MBID lookup path

No biography or images despite correct match

  • Not all artists in TheAudioDB have complete information — this is community-contributed content
  • Check the artist page on TheAudioDB.com to confirm the content exists there