music_assistant.search seems to prioritize collaborations above the individual artist

[jeroenterheerdt]

What version of Music Assistant has the issue?

2.4.0b12

What version of the Home Assistant Integration have you got installed?

n/a (built-in)

Have you tried everything in the Troubleshooting FAQ and reviewed the Open and Closed Issues and Discussions to resolve this yourself?

• Yes

The problem

If you use music_assistant.search to search for an artist such as 'Joe Cocker' the results prioritize collaborations instead of the individual artist.

How to reproduce

1. Call service music_assistant.search with an artist in your library. For example, I called:

action: music_assistant.search
data:
  limit: 1
  config_entry_id: xyz
  media_type:
    - artist
  name: Joe Cocker

2. Notice how if your library contains collaborations by that artist, such as "Joe Cocker and [Someone]", the result will be that instead of what you actually were searching for, the artist itself.
3. If you remove the limit: 1 you can confirm that indeed the artist itself is returned as well:

artists:
  - media_type: artist
    uri: library://artist/1225
    name: Jennifer Warnes & Joe Cocker
    version: ""
    image: null
  - media_type: artist
    uri: plex://artist//library/metadata/171326
    name: Joe Cocker
    version: ""
    image: >-
      http://172.30.32.1:8095/imageproxy?path=/library/metadata/171326/thumb/1736946209&provider=plex--vJGBjSdX&size=0
  - media_type: artist
    uri: library://artist/259
    name: Joe Cocker
    version: ""
    image: >-
      http://172.30.32.1:8095/imageproxy?path=/library/metadata/171326/thumb/1728733967&provider=plex--vJGBjSdX&size=0
  - media_type: artist
    uri: library://artist/1368
    name: Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes
    version: ""
    image: null
albums: []
tracks: []
playlists: []
radio: []

Music Providers

plex

Player Providers

slimproto

Full log output

music_assistant.log

Additional information

No response

What version of Home Assistant Core are your running

2025.1.0

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant OS

On what type of hardware are you running?

Generic x86-64 (e.g. Intel NUC)

[OzGav]

This is not a core issue with MA but rather a problem with the plex provider or plex itself. Unfortunately there is no dedicated plex dev so this may take some time to get looked at.

[jeroenterheerdt]

Oh, interesting, I am not sure I understand, because when I search in Plex with exactly the same input any collabs are not even showing in the first results, as I expect. So, I am not sure but I think there is something specific about how MA searches in Plex that is different.

[marcelveldt]

Pretty sure this is an error in the Plex provider or the library its using.
Just performed the search and as you can see all other provider return the correct artist

[jeroenterheerdt]

ok, so there is something in the MA search when using Plex that does not use the right thing, as Plex happily gives me the right results. Here's a screenshot of the search results in Plex with the same inputs on the same library:

[OzGav]

You misunderstand what Marcel said (emphasis added)

error in the Plex PROVIDER or the LIBRARY

[jeroenterheerdt]

sorry, wanted to just make sure I was clear on what I was seeing in Plex.