Embedding Album Art in MP3 Files
Filed under Podcasting
Album art can be embedded into MP3 files fairly easily using ID3 tags. However, before you start filling up all of your MP3 files with works of art, there are a few things that you should stop to consider first.
While MP3 files were not originally intended to store additional metadata within them, the release of the ID3 tag protocol in 1996 suddenly made this a possibility. However, it wasn’t until version 2 of the protocol became available that MP3 files could actually contain embedded album art.
So, before you start cutting and pasting huge graphics and adding them into your collection of MP3 tracks, what do you need to consider to avert potential disaster?
ID3 Tags and MP3 Files
A standard MP3 file only contains audio data, with no additional information about the artist or type of audio contained within it. To include such extra information in an MP3 track, tag data is usually added to the beginning or end of the audio file in ID3 format.
ID3 tags allow you to store additional information within your MP3 files such as the track title, artist name and even album art. If you’re not familiar with ID3 tags, you may find my previous article on What are ID3 tags in MP3 files? helpful.
Image Types
While the ID3v2 tag standard allows any type of image to be embedded in an MP3 file, it does advise that either PNG or JPEG formats should be used when interoperability with playback devices is required. Practically speaking JPEG images have been adopted as the de facto standard in this respect.
The ID3 standard is very flexible with regards to the type and number of images that can be embedded in a MP3 single file. The full list of different images that can be embedded are:
- $00 – Other
- $01 – 32×32 pixels ‘file icon’ (PNG only)
- $02 – Other file icon
- $03 – Cover (front)
- $04 – Cover (back)
- $05 – Leaflet page
- $06 – Media (e.g. label side of CD)
- $07 – Lead artist/lead performer/soloist
- $08 – Artist/performer
- $09 – Conductor
- $0A – Band/Orchestra
- $0B – Composer
- $0C – Lyricist/text writer
- $0D – Recording Location
- $0E – During recording
- $0F – During performance
- $10 – Movie/video screen capture
- $11 – A bright coloured fish
- $12 – Illustration
- $13 – Band/artist logotype
- $14 – Publisher/Studio logotype
Quite an exhaustive list, and while a single MP3 file could embed all of the above images, in practice only one image is ever usually embedded.
File Sizes
Unfortunately, any additional information that you add to an MP3 file will increase its file size and this is of particular importance when adding images due to their potential size, even with compressed images such as JPEGs.
However, this does need to be taken in context. For example, adding an 80kB JPEG image to a single 8MB podcast won’t have a significant effect; it’s only a 1% increase in file size.
If on the other hand you add an 80kB album image to every single track in your MP3 collection, let’s say of 1,000 songs, then you’ll need any additional 80MB of storage, which could otherwise hold a further 20 songs or so (another 2 albums).
Current Media Player Support
Windows Media Player embeds album art as 200 x 200 pixel images, although will display larger images if they are embedded in the playing file as a larger size. iTunes currently displays album art as 200 x 200 pixel images. The picture to the right is sized at 200 x 200 pixels by way of example and is 35kB in file size.
The resolution of the iPod nano and iPod classic screens is 320 x 240 pixels. The iPod touch screen is 480 x 320 pixels, more than sufficient to display images of 200 x 200 pixels.
The Current Standard
The majority of podcasts that include images embedded within them adopt an image size of 300 x 300 pixels.
The picture to the right is sized at 300 x 300 pixels and is 62kB in file size by way of example.
JPEG images of these dimensions will vary in file size (dependant on the compression ratio used and image complexity) from around 10kB to 80kB or so. A 300 x 300 pixel image is actually over twice the size of a 200 x 200 image, and will consequently lead to approximately double file sizes.
Adding Your Own Pictures
So if you’re producing your own podcast and want to enhance it with your own logo, or just want to embellish some of the tracks that you already have in your MP3 collection with album art, what’s the best way forward?
It’s probably best to standardise on JPEG images to ensure that your artwork can be seen on the majority of possible playback devices.
Image sizes are probably best set at 300 x 300 pixels to display in reasonable quality on most playback systems. However, if you’re concerned about the space taken up by these images, 200 x 200 pixel images may be the better option for you, reducing the image file size to about half that of a 300 x 300 pixel image. The BBC (a useful technical yardstick I’ve always found) embed 300 x 300 images in their podcasts.
If your current software doesn’t allow you to embed or add images to your MP3 files directly, then standalone tag editing software should offer you this functionality. Some useful examples of such are:
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I tried pasting a definite 300*300 into wmp and got the same image. On “now playing” the album art takes up about one sixth of the available horizontal space, and one third of the available vertical space. Is that what I should expect? I’d like to have a [almost] full screen album cover on display.
The percentages are dependent on your screen size I guess. From my tests I think WMP will only display a maximum album image of 300x300px. A 300px square image may look tiny on full screen on a big monitor.
really thanks, that was very helpful…. especially the softwares.
if u allow me to add another free relevant software (stamp):
http://www.nch.com.au/tageditor/index.html
this site have many other cool programs related to conversions and stuff.
Is it advisable to use upto 500×500 size images?
You certainly can if you want, but remember bigger images take up more storage space. Also, what is the maximum size of image that your playback device supports, as there’s definitely no point in going larger than that.
I putted an album art in wma file, then it worked when I double clicked it on the computer. but when I played the song on my cellphone (C510), the album art won’t show. I have another song, someone just sent it to me, then when I played it, the album art showed. Please help.
When using Windows Media Player, album art is saved as an image in the folder with the rest of the album tracks and not actually in the track itself, so if you copy an individual track to another device such as a mobile phone, the album art probably isn’t getting copied across as well. If you copied the whole album folder across, then the album art may work.
It is possible to embed album art into individual WMA tracks using something like the MP3TAG editor, but you’d have to do this on each track individually.
Is the song that was sent to you in wma format or MP3? What cell phone are you using?
thanx a lot ma….this really helped a lot….thanx….respect+++…..
Yes the MP3TAG is a nice program that avoids this problem by imbedding the art.
Hey Richard,
Thanks for your site. I am trying to use MP3 files in a somewhat unconventional way. My “artists” are not humans, but rather birds. “Birders”, as opposed to music fans, use a technique called “playback” to attract certain species. In certain locations-like the Amazon-sound is a much more reliable way to identify species than by sight. Thanks to you, I am able to imbed an illustrative image of the bird in 300 x 300 jpeg format in an mp3. For years the status quo was to use an I-pod, …..to be continued….
Hi Douglas, I’m so pleased that you found my site helpful.
To all interested guys and girls,
You can google a freeware able to find and add album art in mp3s very easily. It’s Creevity Mp3 Cover Downloader.
This information is what I was searching for. Thank you for good post.
very helpful … thanks
You can use Winamp to link a mp3 file to a specific jpg album art without embedded it. Definitely, there are some disadvantages if you want to move your music to other devices or share it via internet.
If you need an tutorial on using Mp3Tag to include artwork on mp3 use this one:
http://www.withsteps.com/602/include-album-art-into-mp3-files.html
I’d like to say thanks to Richard for his clear explanations.
And thank you boguzz for the link to the tutorial.
Another tutorial (which I made after reading the above one) to embed artwork using Mp3Tag plus AlbumArtDownloader can be found: here or here.
Hi,
Very useful info. Exactly the explanation i was looking for.
Thanks!
I’ve been very interested to read some of the reviews/comments regarding embedding artwork in mp3s. I have both a comment and a question.
Firstly, as I understand it, neither WMP nor Winamp actually embed artwork, they simply create an image file in the mp3 folder and refer to it when the music is played. (This is why artwork will often not appear if you move the music file to another location). WMP creates a (hidden) file called AlbumArtLarge.jpg and Winamp creates a file called .jpg. There are advantages and disadvantages with both methods, depending on how you listen to your music.
On the other hand, some music files do actually have artwork embedded, usually while being ripped to your computer. This way the picture will always (or almost always) appear when the music is played. I’ve got such a file on my computer right now and it is this file which brings me to my question. The mp3 has been tagged incorrectly (by my music ripper, not by me). I edited the tags so that the track would match the others in the folder… and now the embedded artwork no longer shows up! Yes, I could just rerip my CD, but I’d rather learn what’s happened and how to rectify it.
Right-clicking the file in XP lets me see some limited ID3 information. Viewing the file information in Winamp (my player of choice) shows me both ID3 and ID3v2 tags. However, Winamp does not store image metadata in the ID3v2 tag, it uses a different method (as described above), which means that reattaching the artwork results in a new jpg file being created.
The file was originally encoded in iTunes (before I abandoned it with an all-consuming hatred of all things Apple) and I have to assume this is where the artwork was originally embedded. I’d like to know how this was done and if it can be reproduced (without using iTunes). I’d be interested to read your suggestions.
How did you edit the tags? Re-writing the tags could have destroyed the artwork. You could see if it is still there and easily restore it with Mp3Tag.
Hi Phil, It looks like you have got a pretty good understanding of what’s going on. The problem might be with your troublesome file that there are actually 20 tags that can store album art in an MP3 and unfortunately most software will only display one of them. Try using MP3Tag, or a similar tag editor to look at all of these artwork tags to see if you can track down the errant artwork.
[...] wenn ich cover auf der HDD speicher, wie die mp3, der Plyer darauf zugreifen. guckst du hierhttp://www.richardfarrar.com/embedding-album-art-in-mp3-files/und gefunden habe ich den link hierhttp://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ID3-TagT S__________Ich bin ein [...]
very helpful site and so thanks
thanks bro for this very useful information
I use a 40″ c650 lcd tv as a pc monitor and no matter how much i have tried, the size and quality of the art is poor. Using a usb stick in the tv, the art is good on its own but with music its poor. Any ideas.
Hi, I guess it all depends on what system you use to play your music and how it handles artwork. For example I think Windows media player only stores images up to a maximum resolution of 200px, which if blown up full screen is always going to look rather grainy.
Hi Richard. Thanks for the prompt reply. I have the same tv in the living room and just play the music through that tv by stick or external hdd on tv media play. The music quality is good enough but i like good cover art and it is not good enough.
If the original program used to rip your music, or even bought music, embedded the artwork at a low resolution then you’re kind of stuck without using another piece of software to go in and update the artwork files to a higher resolution. Something I’ve come across before is an album artwork management tool called Bliss, it may be worth a go?
Hello Sir,
I From INDIA And I am Very Big Fan Of Yours…..
Can you Clarify me that what is the official and Actual size in Pixels of an mp3 Album art? and if I Download Songs from I TUNES What Will be the size of the album art of that File?.
Hi,
Thanks for your kind comments. Regarding your question, the ID3 tagging standard for album art in MP3s doesn’t specify a size, you can put in whatever image size you want. I think iTunes uses 200x200px images, but as I don’t use iTunes I can’t verify this; they may also have changed things as display sizes are increasing with devices like the iPad.
Thank you very much SIR.
You’re welcome.
so thats how you embed album art!
thanks for the heads up.
I have an MP3 of an obscure musical group for which Windows Media Player couldn’t find any album info. I like to have the album cover showing when a song is playing, so I found a jpeg image of the cover online and copied it to my computer. Then I discovered a way to link it to my mp3 through WMP. If I right-click on the mp3 in the library tab, choose advanced tag editor, click pictures, and click add, I am able to add the picture to the mp3 file and have it display in WMP. I thought this information might help others with simple needs like mine.
Hi Kerry, A useful tip, thanks very much.
Thanks for sharing, Richard, this helped a lot!
Awesome! I was looking for this info and here it is! Now I just need to know the easiest way to get music up to itunes without having to pay a 3rd party a fee.
How can I successfully add such an image to a burned CD? The images added to ID3tag dissapear as soon as I burn the CD
Hi, If you’ve burnt a CD that can be played on standard CD players, the the audio files would be converted to WAV files that don’t support embedded artwork unfortunately. The only way would be to burn a DATA CD with MP3 files and their associated embedded artwork, which might play on more modern CD players, but wouldn’t be classed as a standard CD.
On most album arts I find the name interesting. On a song from the show “Criss Angel: Mindfreak” I found and album art called “AlbumArt_{553F5C66-56A8-46E2-9B45-57C6B89FE2EB}_Small.jpg” does this have anything to do with embedding an image to a song?
Hi, This filename looks like the sort that Windows Media Player generates automatically for the album artwork and sticks in the same folder as all the tracks. This is not actually embedded as such in any of the tracks.
Hi richard
plz help me
i added a picture to an mp3 in mp3tag and saved it. It shows that picture on computer but when i copied it to my cell phone that mp3 did not showed the picture so i am a bit confused wat to do. Is it because the image was above or under 200 or 300 resolution dat u said if yes then plz guide me how to change the resolution and give me the needfull guidings to put the picture to mp3 but should be visible on my cell phone after copieng. As i am a dj it is very important for me to put my image to my mixes and publish it was wondering how the other djs put their pic to their mp3s man
kindly need your help
thanks in advance
take care cia…
Hi, Without having direct experience of your phone it’s difficult to tell. Maybe working backwards would help. If you have an MP3 that displays the artwork correctly on your phone, download that file onto your PC and analyze the artwork in MP3TAG to see what size it is, what file type (e.g. jpeg) and which artwork id it uses (there are numerous different possibilities). Then try and use these same settings when you upload new tracks to your phone to see if it works.
Good luck.
how can i download this
Download what exactly?
Thanks for your very useful info! Wish you all the best.
Just wanted to know that this was very helpful. Thanks
You’re welcome; glad you found it helpful.
Thanks for your helpful article.
I am about to feed my MP3 collection into iTunes on the Mac and wanted to be sure what I was doing. Having some kind of artwork inside the MP3 file has to be the way to go, though if I ever get an iPad (who knows?) then maybe I’d want bigger artwork. Maybe.
Hi, Glad you found the article useful. I have no experience with iTunes I’m afraid, so can’t advise you of the best way forward to process your tunes, but I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it fairly quickly. Good luck.
How is an image stored in an MP3 file?…
I am interested in this and related topics as they relate to computer security and security in general (full disclosure: this is a hobby level interest, I am neither trained nor employed in compsec), e.g. how data, for example text, can be embedded in …
Regarding Embedded Image Size…
I have noticed that when saving JPG files in Photoshop, a higher compression results in a much smaller file size. Considering this, is there anything wrong with embedding a JPG with 500 x 500 pixel size? Since Windows Media Player has the feature to show the album art in a big window, this size allows more detail to show especially helpful when there is a lot of small text on the album cover.
BTW…I use MP3 Tag Assistant Pro 2.9.2 program which makes it easy to embed all songs in an album in one step.
Would appreciate your feedback and thank you in advance.
Your logic is perfectly correct, but if you compress an image too much you will begin to see compression artefacts and loose quality, so you’ll need to experiment to find the best compression settings that work for you balancing quality against filesize. Having said that there’s absolutely no reason not to go for 500x500px images if it works for you.
Richard, thanks for the info. Just what I was looking for!
You’re most welcome, I’m pleased you found it of help.
Hi. I need to be enlightened! I’m a MAC user at this time. The cover art of all my iTunes audio files appears in iTunes and on my IPOD. However, when I connect my IPOD to my multimedia car system which also displays cover art, only some of the cover art appears. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the audio type, as aac, mp3 and m4a all have this problem. On one song, the cover art appears and then on the next which is the exact same format, it does not. I tried embedding the cover art with the Apple Script, but this didn’t do the trick either.I also tried replacing the artwork with smaller or bigger sized pics, but to no avail. Another thing I noticed, when I go into Artwork and manually erase the cover art on the file, sometimes, another one pops up on the iTunes screen (from who knows where..) but it is not visible in the Artwork box….. Do you have any miracle solution to this problem ??
Thanks -
Hi Nicole, I’m afraid not being a Mac or iTunes user I really can’t offer any useful advice. May be someone else reading this might have an idea and would be kind enough to leave a comment suggesting a potential solution.
Thanks for your reply anyway. I’ll keep scratching my head then…
You’re welcome, I’m just sorry I couldn’t be of more help to you.
Hi Nicole, being a Mac user I suppose you stumbled across am iTunes specific handling of artwork. In fact, iTunes does not automatically store the artwork in the music-files but the artwork will be stored separately on your file system in a folder called “Album Artwork” which resides in your “Music/iTunes” folder. iTunes can handle both, integrated artwork in the music files as well as of course its own separate storage scheme. But alternative non-apple players are usually not aware of the apple scheme and hence only show the artwork for the files which embed the artwork. You will most likely have a mixture of both depending of the source of your files.
There is help, of course, there are several programs out which will transfer the external apple storage scheme to the internal one, e.g., have a look at Doug’s scripts here: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=embedart
best
Hi Marc. Thanks for your help. I had already used Doug’s script, but strangely, all artwork still did not show up in the car audio system. So I ditched the IPOD and connected a USB stick to the car system instead. Miraculously all artwork now appears. It seems to have been an IPOD related problem.
Ah, Apple, here in lies the problem.
Thank you for the information.
I have a question regarding the $08 – Artist/performer image type. Can it co-exist with the album cover in the one ID3 tag? There seem to be a few Android Apps claiming to display Artists and Album covers (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.tbig.playerpro&feature=top-paid).
If so could you recommend program to accommodate this?
Hi Dan, Yes it certainly can co-exist with the album cover. This is something I actually covered in a separate article that you may be interested in reading:
http://www.richardfarrar.com/alternative-id3-tags-for-adding-artwork-to-mp3-files/
The program that I use for editing a track’s ID3 tags (MP3TAG) can definitely allow you to add multiple images to an MP3 file, but I’m sure there are many other tag editing programs that would work in a similar fashion.
Its rly hlp ful 4 me..
Thx gd…….
I am part of an indie band about to drop a project. All songs are mixed down and completed. Before I make these songs available for download (we’re releasing it digitally), how can I get our logo/album cover embedded so that once people download our music, no matter where they play it (WMP, iPods, etc.) the artwork will be displayed?
Hi, Embedding the album art into each of your MP3 files directly as an ID3 tag should be your most compatible option. Hope this helps and good luck with your release.
Hello!
Your explanation on embedding album art is brilliant, found it really helpful!
As per your recommendation, I downloaded EasyTAG s/w for Ubuntu and was successful in embedding a couple of album arts for my mp3 files. However I can only view them when playing in a media player on the computer and not on my mobile phone. I’ve tried retracing from backwards as you’d suggested someone earlier but the file formats (JPEG), type of image ( Cover(front) ) and the resolution seem to match with the ones that I can view on my phone. Do you know what the solution for this could be?
Hi, I’m pleased to hear you found the article and some of the comments helpful and that you’ve managed to embed some artwork successfully. If your computer can display the artwork OK and your phone can’t it. seems to point more to some sort of quirk in your phone’s software, which without further investigation (although it looks like you have done) would be quite difficult to pinpoint. Sorry I can’t be of any great assistance with this problem.
Oh ok!! Thanks anyways!
And again great work on your blog! Lots of people would really appreciate what you’ve done! Looking forward to more of your work!
Sorry I couldn’t be of more assistance. Maybe someone else would be able to offer some more specific advice. Have you tried hunting around for some forums on the subject?
I’m working on it right now. If I do come across a solution for fixing this problem, I’ll let you know!
hi richard ,
am try to create id3 editor for mp3 file in java. initially i just want to view the meta data and images in mp3 file.i am using id3 jar.. i can view meta data and image also…
my problem is ” there are more than one image in mp3″ am getting only one image from it…
how to get all the image from mp3…..
Hi, If the id3.jar class defaults to extracting only a single image from one of its inbuilt functions, you may have to use one of the classes lower level functions to extract all of the ID3 source data and then extract the separate images yourself, referring to the ID3 specification for the specific storage and encoding mechanisms. It should be possible, but may take a little extra effort on your part unfortunately.
Nice info. I have to add that iTunes can add atwork too.
Find the album you want to add artwork to
Select all the tracks in the album you want to add the iTunes artwork to the ID3 tag
In the bottom left-hand corner click on ‘show/hide artwork’
Right-click on the artwork image that is displayed and select ‘copy’
Now right-click on the tracks you’ve highlighted and select ‘Get info’
In the pop-up box that right-click in the artwork field and select ‘paste’
source: http://www.onetipaday.com/2006/12/31/how-to-add-itunes-artwork-to-mp3-id3-tags-using-itunes/
Hi, Thanks for the handy little iTunes tip, I’m sure users of iTunes would find that really helpful.
Excellent article and discussion – will certainly try some of the techniques mentioned as portability of artwork seems a real problem (have been trying WinAmp and Roxio on to a Cowon PMP, but wihout no luck because they are not embedding).
Thanks Craig, I hope embedding the artwork works as a solution for you.
I can confirm that MP3tag does actually embed the artwork and, therefore, the art transfers to a portable media player. My congratulations to the German designers. Only seems to work when copying and pasting rather than loading artwork (where it creates a link rather than embedding), but I can live with that. Aspect ratio is my next problem, but I think that is to do with a square art image (an LP cover) trying to display on a rectangular PMP screen.
Good to hear that you’re making some progress. I must admit that I also find MP3TAG to be a great little bit of software. Keep up the good work.
Hi Rich-
I am using Mp3tag to rename files and folders consistent with the tags for 50k+ tracks. By renaming folders, artwork gets left behind and only audio moves to new folders. Am I OK to delete jpg files left behind if the artwork is already embedded in the tag? I have many non-commercial recordings with special artwork.
Thanks so much for your thoughts,
Jeff
Hi Jeff, That sounds like quite a task you have set yourself! I would say that if you have the artwork embedded in the audio files then the remaining JPG should be superfluous. However, to be on the safe side I would do a test run first to make sure that you’re not going to loose any potentially irreplaceable artwork. Another thing maybe to consider for an album where the JPG isn’t a separate file is that you might need the artwork to be embedded in every track on the album to be on the safe side, although this involves an inevitable bit of duplication.
For mass artwork and audio management, have you considered something like bliss?
Thank you Richard. Great suggestion. Hadn’t heard of Bliss.
FYI: I am making a full move to subsonic as a player and for streaming to the phone or any web connected device from mediamonkey. I highly recommend it! http://www.subsonic.org/
Glad to be of some service. Thanks also for the link to Subsonic, it looks like a really powerful and useful bit of software.
A very insightful demonstration of the topic. Lots of thanks Richard.
FYI : I am using Winamp player for my MP3s. It displays ID3v1 and ID3v2 info tabs. Also displays separate “Artwork” tab but I don’t get it. I tried every button but couldn’t be able to change the cover art.
Please help me with this.
Thank you once again.
–Mukul–
Hi Mukul, Thanks for your comment and I’m pleased that you enjoyed the article. Sorry to hear of your troubles with WinAmp. Unfortunately this isn’t a piece of software that I have any experience of (I wonder if any other readers would be able to offer any suggestions). You could download a free ID3 tag editor like MP3TAG to analyse your files directly or try adding artwork and then going back into WinAmp to see if it’s made any difference? I hope you manage to make some progress.
I’m just going through a reorganization of my own music library. I’m normally using iTunes on the PC for playback. Album artwork downloaded through iTunes is 600×600, and that is what I then paste into the individual files. This might be a bit excessive in space, but MP3 encoding quality has increased as well and files have become bigger due to that fact, and 600×600 is a good compromise for seeing details like text on the album cover.
When you use “Get Info” on a iTunes song it isn’t clear where the artwork shown is coming from, but if you have an Explorer folder open in “Large Icons” mode, you can see if the MP3 files actually contain the art. If necessary, I then use copy from the “Get Info” artwork page of one of the album’s song files, then multi-select all files of the album and use “Get Info” again which then shows an empty artwork field where I paste the image. You then see iTunes working on updating the ID3 tags of all files and can also control the result by looking at the open album folder in Explorer. Of course this also works for adding art from a non-iTunes source like a scan or website, just use e.g. “Copy Image” in Firefox, then paste it into the artwork field.
As another test if the embedding was successful, you can run the song with Windows Media Player and check if the album art is displayed as background.
It is interesting that the standard supports a whole list of images, this might be useful one day for having a complete jewel case with CD simulated in a VR environment.
Hi Martin, Thanks for your comprehensive description of how you manage your artwork with iTunes and the MP3 ID3 tags, I’m sure quite a few people will find your description very helpful.
Hi Richard,
A very interesting article, thank you for posting this. I started using MP3tag often now.. since I like embed artwork in all my music collection. However, I noticed that WMP and MP3tag and a few other software mentioned above all embed the album art in 200 x 200 px resolution max. I was wondering if there is anyway I can embed at least 300 x 300 px? Please let me know if there’s a similar software like MP3tag which can batch edit ID3 tags and embed images in a much higher resolution.
Hi, Glad to hear that you found the article informative. MP3TAG actually embeds the album artwork at its original resolution, but your playback software or device (e.g. WMP) may not be displaying the full resolution of the artwork that is actually in the MP3 file. Try a test with MP3TAG and then play the file in something like VLC Player and you should see what I mean.
Hi, thank you for replying.
Yeah I thought so too at first. When you open a file in MP3TAG, it displays the tags on the left and at the bottom, it displays the artwork with its resolution right beside it. I have some songs with 500×500 px artwork and they show up fine in MP3TAG and in my device (Nokia N8 to be precise). However, I opened the songs in MP3TAG again after using it to embed the artwork, and it was displaying the image size to be 200×200 px, even though the resolution of the artwork is much higher. I can clearly notice the difference in the quality of the image between the two in my phone, i.e, the higher resolution one was clear, and the lower resolution was a bit pixelated and choppy, due to obvious reasons. I was wondering if there was any option to choose what resolution to set while embedding, I couldn’t seem to find it anywhere or in any app so far..
Oh, also, I tried VLC. Same thing.. the embedded artwork is tiny, 200px tiny. Other original artwork from audio files downloaded over the internet show up fine and go even to 800px wide. Any ideas?
I can’t seem to reproduce the problem with MP3TAG, it seems to work fine for me. Are you using the latest version? Perhaps you could try another tag editor, or maybe some other software in your system is overwriting the files and reducing the artwork size???
I’m using the latest version.. but the strange thing is, it works now after a re-install. I think it was messed up on the first install. Now all the files have proper resolution. Thanks a lot again!
That is odd, but good to know that you seem to have it sorted now.
Hello Richard,
First I would like to thank you for all the info you provide. I owe a big collection of music (2000+cd’s, 3000+vinyl records mostly remixes from back in the day when I used to DJ). A few years ago I started converting all my music to mp3s to save them in my computer (external memories, etc). I also imported a good percentage of my music to Itunes and tried to get the album art there but I have to say that was very “lousy” since I could only get about 5% of 50,000+songs, I am fairly new in this kind of task but I want to try to get more of the album art for my music. My questions are first, can you recommend a program that would handle mass info very well to make my life easier? and second, is there any program that gets info from the Discogs database? And the main reason of my second question is that since I started storing my music quite a few years ago, the best method back then to do vinyl records was to record them to music cd’s first (does anybody remember cd recorders and how expensive they were?) and that’s what I did, from there I would import using windows media player or Itunes but I had to do a lot of “manually input info”. I know the Discogs database is pretty good when it comes to vinyl records. Please help and thanks in advance.
Hi Eduardo, Thanks for your comments and I’m pleased you found my website helpful. Wow, you certainly have a lot of music. I’ve just checked and the tag editor that I use for adding album artwork (MP3TAG) actually supports importing from Discogs:
“Import from Amazon, discogs, freedb, MusicBrainz Save typing and import tags from online databases like Amazon, discogs, freedb, MusicBrainz, and more.”
Perhaps it’s worth giving this a try. For mass management, perhaps have a look at Bliss, which also links to Discogs? Hope this helps a little.
Yes, I use Discogs too for my album art. Advantage is that there are numerous scans for albums (and singles and everything else), with different versions of tracks and resolutions and colour settings (depending on the choices of the person doing the scanning). This creates a problem in that it requires a lot of manual selecting. It would be of interest which version of graphic file MP3TAG would pick up. Might try it!
I’d be interested to see how you get on with it if you decide to give it a try.
thanks Richard helpful post, i download a tag u suggested and was able to add artwork to my Personal NonStop Mix, thanks mate.
You’re welcome, glad it worked for you.
thank you for this information. it helped a lot. your site is cool
Thanks very much.
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