TUAW Tip: Re-embed iTunes artwork in media files

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.

#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.

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.
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@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

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.

Nice to see Year Zero on your iTunes.

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.

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. :(

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.

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.

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?