Script to add list of artists (in a folder) to lidarr, this method bypasses the difficulties that are currently present in lidarr with relation to searching and adding new artists

add_artists.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Folder where existing artist folders are located (source)
source_dir="/mnt/media/music/old"

# The Lidarr root folder path to add new artists under
# This must match a configured Root Folder in Lidarr settings
lidarr_root="/music/new"

# Lidarr API access
lidarr_url="http://localhost:8686"
api_key="YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"

# Set a delay (in seconds) between each add operation to avoid rate limits
delay_between_adds=120

# IDs required by Lidarr – see comments below for how to gather these
quality_profile_id=1
metadata_profile_id=1

# --- HOW TO FETCH PROFILE IDs ---
# curl -s "$lidarr_url/api/v1/qualityprofile" -H "X-Api-Key: $api_key" | jq
# curl -s "$lidarr_url/api/v1/metadataprofile" -H "X-Api-Key: $api_key" | jq

# --- START SCRIPT ---

echo "📥 Fetching list of existing artists from Lidarr..."
existing_ids=$(curl -s "$lidarr_url/api/v1/artist" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $api_key" | jq -r '.[].foreignArtistId')

# Loop through each artist folder in the source directory
find "$source_dir" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d | while read -r artist_folder; do
  artist_name=$(basename "$artist_folder")
  echo "🔍 Searching for: $artist_name"

  # Lookup artist metadata from Lidarr
  search_result=$(curl -s -G "$lidarr_url/api/v1/artist/lookup" \
    --data-urlencode "term=$artist_name" \
    -H "X-Api-Key: $api_key")

  artist_json=$(echo "$search_result" | jq '.[0]')
  if [ "$artist_json" == "null" ] || [ -z "$artist_json" ]; then
    echo "❌ Not found in lookup: $artist_name"
    continue
  fi

  # Skip artist if it already exists in Lidarr
  foreign_id=$(echo "$artist_json" | jq -r '.foreignArtistId')
  if echo "$existing_ids" | grep -q "$foreign_id"; then
    echo "⏩ Already exists in Lidarr: $artist_name"
    continue
  fi

  # Root path only (Lidarr creates the subfolder automatically)
  target_path="$lidarr_root"

  # Build the JSON payload
  payload=$(jq -n \
    --argjson artist "$artist_json" \
    --arg path "$target_path" \
    --argjson qualityProfileId "$quality_profile_id" \
    --argjson metadataProfileId "$metadata_profile_id" \
    '{
      artistMetadataId: $artist.artistMetadataId,
      qualityProfileId: $qualityProfileId,
      metadataProfileId: $metadataProfileId,
      rootFolderPath: $path,
      monitored: true,
      foreignArtistId: $artist.foreignArtistId,
      artistName: $artist.artistName,
      addOptions: {
        monitor: "all",
        searchForMissingAlbums: true
      }
    }')

  echo "➕ Adding to Lidarr: $artist_name → $target_path"
  curl -s -X POST "$lidarr_url/api/v1/artist" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "X-Api-Key: $api_key" \
    -d "$payload"

  echo "✅ Done: $artist_name"
  echo "⏳ Waiting $delay_between_adds seconds before next artist..."
  sleep $delay_between_adds
done