Storing artists

[snejus]

Hi,

I have been looking at the artist data returned by the Discogs API, for example

{
    'id': 7465241,
    'type': 'artist',
    'user_data': {'in_wantlist': False, 'in_collection': False},
    'master_id': None,
    'master_url': None,
    'uri': 'https://www.discogs.com/artist/7465241-Oprofessionell',
    'title': 'Oprofessionell',
    'thumb': 'https://i.discogs.com/sUdx49kkq8Xb521AeRQ9arLPexuLJ2wVltHAmh706P0/rs:fit/g:sm/q:40/h:150/w:150/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTc0NjUy/NDEtMTU4NTkwNjkx/NS0zNzQyLnBuZw.jpeg',
    'cover_image': 'https://i.discogs.com/RzUxTimsTKQkKyV3Dli1qU28eraLFoxP-5vGTPhKkqs/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTc0NjUy/NDEtMTU4NTkwNjkx/NS0zNzQyLnBuZw.jpeg',
    'resource_url': 'https://api.discogs.com/artists/7465241',
    'name': 'Oprofessionell',
    'releases_url': 'https://api.discogs.com/artists/7465241/releases',
    'images': [
        {
            'type': 'primary',
            'uri': 'https://i.discogs.com/RzUxTimsTKQkKyV3Dli1qU28eraLFoxP-5vGTPhKkqs/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTc0NjUy/NDEtMTU4NTkwNjkx/NS0zNzQyLnBuZw.jpeg',
            'resource_url': 'https://i.discogs.com/RzUxTimsTKQkKyV3Dli1qU28eraLFoxP-5vGTPhKkqs/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTc0NjUy/NDEtMTU4NTkwNjkx/NS0zNzQyLnBuZw.jpeg',
            'uri150': 'https://i.discogs.com/sUdx49kkq8Xb521AeRQ9arLPexuLJ2wVltHAmh706P0/rs:fit/g:sm/q:40/h:150/w:150/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTc0NjUy/NDEtMTU4NTkwNjkx/NS0zNzQyLnBuZw.jpeg',
            'width': 600,
            'height': 600
        }
    ],
    'realname': 'Filip Storsveen',
    'profile': 'Trance DJ & producer from Oslo, Norway.',
    'urls': ['http://www.facebook.com/oprofessionellklubb', 'http://soundcloud.com/Oprofessionell', 'http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/oprofessionell'],
    'aliases': [
        {'id': 7754870, 'name': 'Stayer (3)', 'resource_url': 'https://api.discogs.com/artists/7754870', 'thumbnail_url': ''},
        {
            'id': 7754871,
            'name': 'Filip Storsveen',
            'resource_url': 'https://api.discogs.com/artists/7754871',
            'thumbnail_url': 'https://i.discogs.com/1ACUurRP-s9QOjfq_Pj2FibK0LLJa_GbH5eKkWoFstk/rs:fit/g:sm/q:40/h:400/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTc3NTQ4/NzEtMTY1OTY0Mjgx/OC0yMjE0LmpwZWc.jpeg'
        },
        {'id': 7754872, 'name': 'Changer (4)', 'resource_url': 'https://api.discogs.com/artists/7754872', 'thumbnail_url': ''},
        {'id': 8035700, 'name': 'Repulsive Force', 'resource_url': 'https://api.discogs.com/artists/8035700', 'thumbnail_url': ''},
        {'id': 10654534, 'name': 'Oprofessor', 'resource_url': 'https://api.discogs.com/artists/10654534', 'thumbnail_url': ''},
        {'id': 10985942, 'name': 'Victoria Messor', 'resource_url': 'https://api.discogs.com/artists/10985942', 'thumbnail_url': ''},
        {'id': 11344577, 'name': 'Braindoc', 'resource_url': 'https://api.discogs.com/artists/11344577', 'thumbnail_url': ''},
        {'id': 11763767, 'name': 'Repulsive Norse', 'resource_url': 'https://api.discogs.com/artists/11763767', 'thumbnail_url': ''}
    ],
    'data_quality': 'Needs Vote'
}

data like aliases, realname, profile and urls would be of interest (at least for me, personally), and similar data can be retrieved from MusicBrainz.

@sampsyo @Serene-Arc @JOJ0 what would be your thoughts on storing artists in a new table, which could be linked up with artist and albumartist fields in items and albums tables respectively?

[arsaboo]

We don't need a new table; we can store that information in the flexible attributes table. spotify plugin saves a lot of such flexible attributes.

[wisp3rwind]

In addition, from my understanding, it's not really a goal of beets to replicate the discogs/musicbrainz/... relational model locally, but rather a flattened version which really only has tracks and albums.

Changing that would be big project and I'm not sure of the benefits.