MusicBrainz-Lidarr-Primer

Got an existing library but tired of Lidarr searches failing while they are rebuilding the server cache? Don't have time to search MusicBrainz?

Introducing MusicBrainz-Lidarr-Primer!

A two-stage Python script pipeline to bulk-import artists into Lidarr.

1. musicbrainz_lookup.py: Reads a list of artist names from folders.txt, finds their official MusicBrainz ID (MBID), and saves the results to search_results.txt.
2. add_to_lidarr.py: Reads search_results.txt and adds each artist to your Lidarr instance via its API.

Features

• Resilient & Resumable: If the script fails (e.g., due to a network error), it can be restarted and will automatically resume from where it left off.
• Automatic Retries: Handles temporary network blips by automatically retrying failed requests.
• Efficient: Proactively checks your Lidarr library to skip artists that are already added.
• User-Friendly: Provides a progress bar (tqdm) to show progress during the lookup phase.
• Configurable: All sensitive information (API keys, URLs) and settings are passed as command-line arguments, not hardcoded.

---

Prerequisites

• A running Lidarr instance
• Python 3.6+: These scripts require Python to run.
  • To check if Python is installed, open your terminal and run: python3 --version.
  • If it's not installed, follow the instructions for your operating system:
    • Windows: Download the latest Python 3 release from python.org. During installation, make sure to check the box that says "Add Python to PATH".
    • macOS: The recommended way to install Python is via Homebrew. After installing Homebrew, run: brew install python.
    • Debian/Ubuntu:

      sudo apt update
      sudo apt install python3

---

Setup

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <your-repo-url>
   cd <your-repo-directory>

2. Ensure pip is installed: pip is Python's package installer and is usually included with Python. You can check if it's installed by running python3 -m pip --version. If it's not found, you can install it with one of the following methods:

   • Using Python's ensurepip (Recommended for most systems):

     python3 -m ensurepip --upgrade

   • On Debian/Ubuntu systems:

     sudo apt update
     sudo apt install python3-pip

3. Install dependencies: This will install the requests and tqdm libraries.

   pip3 install -r requirements.txt

4. Create your artist list: Create a file named folders.txt in the same directory. Add one artist name per line.

   Example folders.txt:

   Led Zeppelin
   Pink Floyd
   The Beatles
   

   Automatically Generating folders.txt (Recommended)

   You can use the included create_artist_list.py script to automatically generate folders.txt from your existing music library directory.

   Note: This script must be run on a machine that has access to your music library folder.

   # Example for a library at /mnt/music
   python3 create_artist_list.py /mnt/music
   
   # Example for a library on a Windows machine
   python3 create_artist_list.py "D:\Media\Music"

5. Update the User-Agent: Open musicbrainz_lookup.py and replace the placeholder email in the HEADERS dictionary with your own. This is required by the MusicBrainz API policy.

   HEADERS = {
       "User-Agent": "MusicBrainzLookupScript/1.0 ( your-real-email@example.com )"
   }

---

Usage

You will run the pipeline from your terminal, providing your Lidarr details as arguments.

Running the Full Pipeline

This command will run the MusicBrainz lookup and then automatically trigger the Lidarr import.

python3 musicbrainz_lookup.py --add-to-lidarr --lidarr-url "http://LIDARR_HOST:8686" --api-key "YOUR_LIDARR_API_KEY" --root-folder "/path/to/your/music"

Argument Breakdown:

• --add-to-lidarr: This flag tells the first script to automatically start the second script upon completion.
• --lidarr-url: The URL for your Lidarr instance.
• --api-key: Your Lidarr API key (found in Lidarr under Settings > General).
• --root-folder: The absolute path to your music library's root folder as seen by Lidarr.
• --quality-profile-id (Optional): The ID of the quality profile to use. Defaults to 1.

Running Only the Lidarr Import

If you need to re-run only the import step (e.g., to debug or after changing Lidarr settings), you can run the second script directly. This assumes search_results.txt already exists.

python3 add_to_lidarr.py --lidarr-url "http://LIDARR_HOST:8686" --api-key "YOUR_LIDARR_API_KEY" --root-folder "/path/to/your/music"