Apple's iTunes is usually adept at unearthing the right artwork for albums in your library. Whether you purchase an album through iTunes or rip one of your CDs into your collection, Apple's music player relies on a database called Gracenote to snag album artwork and other data.
But iTunes can get stumped if the album isn't in the Gracenote database. So how do you then find the right cover art for your albums? Read on for more.
Let's say you buy an album from iTunes or you rip a CD. iTunes consults the Gracenote database to locate the correct cover art for your album. Oops, the right art isn't popping up. In that case, iTunes either applies the wrong art for your album or simply displays its own generic musical note icon instead.
So what do you do in this case?
Well, you can right-click on an album without artwork. From the pop-up menu, click on the command that says: "Get album artwork." If the artwork is accessible, iTunes will apply it to your album. If not, iTunes displays the dreaded message: "Artwork for [album name] could not be found."
Hmm, so is it time to admit defeat? Nope. Here's your next step. You can search for the right image art online using your favorite search engine, such as Google or Bing. From there you can save a copy of the image file and then upload it into your iTunes album. Let's try it.
Find an album that has stumped iTunes. Fire up your Web browser and launch Google or Bing. In the search field, type the full name of the album. In some cases, also include the artist's name if the album name is very generic. You'll hopefully receive the right search results in response.
But we want to narrow down the results only to images. So click on the Images category for Google or Bing. In response, you'll see a series of thumbnail images for the album's cover art.
Click on one of the images to display it in a larger format. Right-click on the larger thumbnail and from the pop-up menu, click on the command to "Save image as."
Your browser should prompt you to save the image file in the location of your choice or it may automatically save it in your Downloads folder. Either way, save the file. Make note of the file name since it will probably be a messy mixture of alphanumeric characters. Be sure to save the file as a JPG or other common image format.
Now return to iTunes, right-click on the album to which you want to apply the artwork. From the pop-up menu, click on the "Get info" command.
At the Info window, click on the second tab for Artwork and click on the button to "Add Artwork."
At the File Explorer or Windows Explorer window, double-click on the album art image file that you just downloaded.
The image appears in the Artwork window. Click OK.
The image now displays as the cover art for the album you chose.