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[translat]

The best way I found to make sure your album artwork is embedded in your music files and appears in all applications -- including in pulpTunes -- and not only in iTunes is to use Max, a free open source application that you can download here: http://sbooth.org/Max/

Max is also useful for converting audio files to over 20 different formats, and controlling all associated metadata besides the album cover.

[alpeb]

Thanks, I'll move this into the FAQ

[translat]

Even if you're certain that your album art is already embedded in the music file, it may not appear in pulpTunes if the ID3 tag version is too old.  Not to worry: simply select the songs in iTunes, right-click and choose Convert ID3 tags, then pick the latest version -- currently 2.4.  No need to restart iTunes.  The cover art will appear in pulpTunes the next time you play those songs.

[R0tten]

Thank you! I'll give this a try.

[noise]

OK, that works. What about aac(m4a) files? There is no "Convert ID3 tag" option for aac.
Now, I can only see artwork for mp3 files.
Hope there is solution for aac files. I have 80% of them.

[translat]

If you're on Mac, try Max, a free open source app that allows you to control all tags and convert from to almost any sound format.

It's here: http://sbooth.org/Max/

[kevine]

If you're on Mac, try Max, a free open source app that allows you to control all tags and convert from to almost any sound format.

It's here: http://sbooth.org/Max/

You should NOT use Max to "control" your tags.  Mac is a transcoder.  It will transfer your tags when transcoding and also let you add or edit tags during the transcoding process.

Using Max as a ID3 tag editor is a VERY bad idea because if you're dealing with MP3, AAC or any other lossless format, you're going to lower the quality every time you edit the tag (or add/remove and image).  Plus this if a very inefficient way to edit tags.

If you don't want to use iTunes for ID3 Tag Editing, there are plenty of alternatives on both Windows and Mac platforms.  These utilities (Media Rage, ID3 Editor, etc...) will just edit the metadata, leaving the audio itself untouched, as opposed to Max, which will transcode the audio file as it's editing the ID3 tags.

[translat]

Max will let you choose the encoding type in its preferences (under Formats). If you choose the same type of file as the original, nothing will be changed to the file except the tags you've added or changed. Never noticed any loss of quality, on the contrary.

[kevine]

Max will let you choose the encoding type in its preferences (under Formats). If you choose the same type of file as the original, nothing will be changed to the file except the tags you've added or changed. Never noticed any loss of quality, on the contrary.

I'm sorry.  I don't want to argue, but I think you're wrong and are giving really bad advice.  When using Max, bring up the encoder window.  You'll see when you're "editing the tags", the encoding engine is running. 

Try this...

On a really slow Mac, use any ID3 Tag editor (Media Rage, ID3 Editor, etc...).  Edit the tags and save the file.  Time how long it takes (it will be near instant on even the slowest of Macs).  Now do the same thing in Max and look at the encoder window.  It's taking a lot longer, roughly about the same amount of time that it took to encode in the first place.

Additionally, if you'll notice in the preferences, there's no "pass-through" option.  The interface isn't supporting not re-encoding.  Even if your method of selecting the same encoding settings worked, you'd have a problem doing this since the original encoding settings aren't known within the application...not to mention that there are different encoding algorithms even when the settings are the same (see LAME for example).

By re-encoding from lossy to lossy, you're lowering the quality.  You may not be noticing it, but you're definitely lowering the quality, and you may significantly notice it if you use Max to re-encode and re-encode files over and over, which would be a shame to do just to edit the metadata.

There are other tools available for metadata editing which are free or cheap and don't re-encode.  Additionally, since they aren't re-encoding, it's a lot quicker and more efficient.  I highly recommend Max for encoding and transcoding, but I'd recommend ID3 Editor, Media Rage, or others for metadata editing.

[noise]

So, what should I do for aac artwork to be shown?

ID3 is mp3 metadata container only.

[kevine]

@noise,

Sorry, I was using "ID3" when really it's really metadata, of which, ID3 is a spec that defines metadata for MP3s.

I use Media Rage because it does a lot of other things I need it for.  It should be worth noting that you can use iTunes to edit the metadata in the files themselves.  I use iTunes for my library of music, but use Media Rage (or sometimes another meta data editor) to edit files that I won't be adding to iTunes (media files I produce and/or syndicate).

I think people get confused because when you "download artwork" using iTunes, it doesn't edit the metadata in the files themselves.  However if you drag artwork or paste artwork into iTunes for a song, it does edit the metadata in the file for the song.

You can even let iTunes download the artwork and if the artwork window is displayed in iTunes, right-click or control-click on the artwork, choose "copy", right/control-click again and select "paste" and it will then edit the metadata in the file itself.

I was thinking about creating an AppleScript to do this, but I'm too late.  This free AppleScript will do this for any selected set of files within iTunes:
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=embedart

In other words, this free AppleScript can be run to convert all (or any) art in iTunes from "downloaded only and won't be a part of the file's metadata" to "embedded in the file's metadata".

[R0tten]

@noise,

Sorry, I was using "ID3" when really it's really metadata, of which, ID3 is a spec that defines metadata for MP3s.

I use Media Rage because it does a lot of other things I need it for.  It should be worth noting that you can use iTunes to edit the metadata in the files themselves.  I use iTunes for my library of music, but use Media Rage (or sometimes another meta data editor) to edit files that I won't be adding to iTunes (media files I produce and/or syndicate).

I think people get confused because when you "download artwork" using iTunes, it doesn't edit the metadata in the files themselves.  However if you drag artwork or paste artwork into iTunes for a song, it does edit the metadata in the file for the song.

You can even let iTunes download the artwork and if the artwork window is displayed in iTunes, right-click or control-click on the artwork, choose "copy", right/control-click again and select "paste" and it will then edit the metadata in the file itself.

I was thinking about creating an AppleScript to do this, but I'm too late.  This free AppleScript will do this for any selected set of files within iTunes:
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=embedart

In other words, this free AppleScript can be run to convert all (or any) art in iTunes from "downloaded only and won't be a part of the file's metadata" to "embedded in the file's metadata".

NICE, to bad they don't have a script for this on windows environment!