One of the backend changes that came with the
release of
iTunes 7 is how the app stores album artwork. The days of embedding album artwork in music files are gone, due in part (I assume) to the
purchase and integration of CoverFlow, a flashy new way to browse your albums. Artwork is now stored in a new ~/Music/iTunes/Album Artwork/ folder, but what if you
want your album artwork embedded in those files? Users can have any number of reasons for wanting this, such as the Growl notifications that Quicksilver creates when iTunes starts playing something new. Those notifications (as I understand it) are incapable of properly display album artwork unless the image is embedded in the file, so iTunes 7 has created a bit of a conundrum with this new organization feature.
Never fear, however, for Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes is yet again to the rescue. Doug has a handy script aptly titled
Embed Artwork that can do just what it says: embed the album art back into your files. This should make things easier on Quicksilver + Growl, as well as if you move your media files to a new computer, artwork in tow.
As usual, Doug's scripts are provided for free, but donations for all his hard work are strongly encouraged.
[via
Quicksilver's forums]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MetalSnake said 8:40AM on 4-19-2007
If you add covers yourself (i. e. drag and drop a picture onto the cover field) the cover will be embeded into the audio file. The covers in the Album Artwork Folder are those which are downloaded from the iTunes Store.
And of course apps are able to show the covers which come from the Album Artwork folder, they just have to be updated, but most should be already since some weeks.
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Doug Adams said 9:27AM on 4-19-2007
Thanks, as always, for the mench.
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Harold said 6:06PM on 4-19-2007
MetalSnake, thanks for the info. But I have to wonder why they are embedded when you drag and drop a picture onto the cover field. I mean, why go with two ways of organization? Why didn't Apple just go with storing it in a folder only?
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Jesse said 11:19AM on 4-19-2007
I downloaded the script... selected several songs... and ran the script. I keep getting a parameter error. Anyone else? I couldn't find anything in the forum on Doug's site. I know this really isn't the place for such a question, but I thouht someone may know of a quick fix.
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Bruno said 11:38AM on 4-19-2007
The original source of this tip (from last September):
http://twistedmelon.com/blog/sep2006.html
The original AppleScript for this tip (which works very well), based on that source:
http://nslog.com/2006/09/24/itunes_artwork_in_id3
You have also been able to do this with your Apple Remote since September/October with Mira as well.
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Joshua Ochs said 12:03PM on 4-19-2007
Cover art is supposed to be embedded in the file, just like the rest of the ID3 tags (in fact, it is an ID3 tag in later versions of the spec). If you store them in some other way, not only do other programs on your Mac not show it, but nor does your PC, your cell phone, your Tivo, etc, etc, etc.
Apple's little folder off to the side is what is in error, not storing it in the file. :(
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James said 11:54AM on 4-19-2007
i use GimmeSomeTune. if the track im playing doesnt have album artwork associated with it it goes and gets it from Amazon. It lets you configure whether to store the artwork embedded in the file or in the same dir as the file.
Good stuff.
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Rob said 12:03PM on 4-19-2007
Nice to see Year Zero on your iTunes.
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Lincoln said 2:20PM on 4-19-2007
I've got a different problem. iTunes mistakingly idenitified some of my music when I used its 'get cover art' function. I corrected it but when I use the muisc-cover screensaver the cover still comes up even though it isn't in my library. Is there any way to fix this? I don't want George Michael as part of my screensaver but I can't get rid of him.
It doesn't help going to the files either because they aren't picture files, they're '.itc' whatever that is.
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Michael said 2:24PM on 4-19-2007
I've had to add images to some of my files, which, unlike David Chartier, I'd rather *not* do. One image per album seems enough to me. But iTunes has only a fraction of my CDs in it, and unfortunately, there's no way, AFAIK, to get anything into the database manually. That can be done in Windows Media Player or Amarok or a number of other players, but not iTunes.
But automatic finding and downloading of good quality 600 x 600 pixel art from the iTMS is a nice feature; so iTunes is still the winner here.
_____________________
@Lincoln
"I don't want George Michael as part of my screensaver but I can't get rid of him."
No, I can understand that. :-)
"It doesn't help going to the files either because they aren't picture files, they're '.itc' whatever that is."
FWIW, they're just image files with a little extra information added to the file header.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070313105356621
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Dave Chartier said 3:10AM on 4-20-2007
#6: I pre-ordered the moment I found out about the album, and I downloaded the second the store sent me a notice it was available.
It hasn't quite grown on me yet though, but I haven't been in a very NIN mood this week yet either.
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Tim Nolte said 2:54PM on 4-20-2007
I'm pretty certain that this works, as I've done it a ton, but all I do to embed my album art (even iTunes retrieved) is to get info on the song select and Cut the album artwork out of the file close it, get info again, and paste the artwork back into the song. I understand that this is tedious when you have hundreds of iTunes songs with folder-stored artwork, but I've been putting artwork into my music for quite some time and made sure to tell iTunes not to overwrite my existing artwork so this pretty much takes care of the majority of my stuff.
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