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Getting album art for iTunes
by Stephen Elliot
14.12.06 |
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The iTunes Store may contain millions of songs, but you’re sure to still have a surprisingly large amount of music that it doesn’t sell – the whole Beatles back catalogue, for example. Don’t panic though, as adding artwork yourself is quick, easy and relatively painless. |
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The easiest way to spot the gaps in your library is to switch from the standard view to the album one (the middle of the three view buttons) and then scroll down through your library, making a note of the albums that are lacking that all-important sleeve. |
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Finding the sleeves |
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Now go to a decent online music retailer (Amazon is the most obvious site to head for) and type the album name into the search bar here. When the correct album appears, make sure that you click on the ‘See larger image’ link and download the enlarged sleeve. |
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If you’re downloading a lot of sleeves, make sure that you create a folder to put them all in. Then, when it comes to adding them to iTunes, it’ll be much quicker as all the sleeves will be in one place. |
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Finally, go to iTunes and select all the tracks you want to add the artwork to and press Apple + I (Mac) or Control + I (PC). On the right side of the window that appears is a small box called Artwork and if you simply drag and drop the sleeve into the box, it’ll automatically add it to all the songs for you. |
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If you’re really lazy and can’t even be bothered to look through Amazon for your album art, then you’ll be glad to know that there are even Applescripts that’ll do that for you. Go to Doug’s Applescripts for iTunes and you’ll find plenty there. PC users can get a very similar program that they can run through Konfabulator or a standalone one called iCoverArt. |
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1. The quality of the artwork is likely to be of slightly inferior quality than the sleeves found on the iTunes Store, so that’s why it’s important that you download the enlarged sleeves rather than the thumbnails. |
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2. If you’re planning on burning a playlist then why not design your own sleeve to go with it? Then when it comes to printing out the CD inlay, you’ll be able to add your own artwork to it. |
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3. Album art differs from country to country, so make sure that you go to the online store for your region, as you’ll ensure that the sleeve you download is the correct one. |
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