Yeah, Lidarr is easily the weakest of the *arrs in my experience. As a newbie to setting up that stack, it was definitely nice to have a similar interface and functionality between the apps, but the last few months have me ready to look for something different for music.
As far as I can tell, no. I haven’t been able to search or import releases since about April.
I think the issue they are referring to is that Lidarr’s API or interface with the MusicBrainz database has been broken for a few months now, which means it’s impossible to search or add new artists/releases to your Lidarr library.
And as far as I can tell, it’s still down. I have been unable to use Lidarr for anything since about April, except for finding releases that I had already added to my local database.
These days I pirate the music, and if I like it I go back and buy the album directly from the band (when possible). If i really like it, I buy concert tix/merch. If it doesn’t tickle my fancy, then I don’t.
In either case, I don’t think the artist is too worried about the pennies lost from my Spotify plays.