Artwork in External Folders vs Meta Data in the MP3 File

[itools]

My understanding is that a recent iTunes update changed their method of saving artwork, to external files and folder, as opposed to saving it in the mp3 itself.

I don’t think I like this idea for me, although I’m not sure I understand the ramifications.

First of all, is there a function to take the folder artwork and stuff it inside the mp3, and then delete the folder artwork.

Second question, as I just got the iPod Touch. Will the Coverflow feature work with the artwork in the MP3 file.

Third, if anybody has some background information to fill in all the gaps in my knowledge, I’d sure like to hear it.

Thanks

mark

[paultaylor]

[quote=itools]My understanding is that a recent iTunes update changed their method of saving artwork, to external files and folder, as opposed to saving it in the mp3 itself.
[/quote]
iTunes have added a Get Album Artwork feature that downloads the artwork from itunes, and stores it in an encryted from with the iTunes folder. AFAIK it is not possibly to decrypt or use this artwork in any way.

However iTunes still reads artwork that is embedded in mp3 files, and files that you add yourself to iTunes by dragging images from your computer will be embedded in the mp3 file. The various ipods available will show the image artwork embedded wthin the mp3s.

[wynlyndd]

Hello itools, I know that there are some applescripts that turn embedded artwork into the encrypted itc format that iTunes uses now and also scripts that do the reverse. If this is able to be done in the Mac world, I imagine there is a program or python script to do the same thing in the windows world or linux one.

[rpm4fsu]

For the Mac side you might want to look at http://dougscripts.com/itunes/index.php. There are a lot of scripts to work on the iTunes DB and one group works with artwork. Very good documentation on each script.

I use a few and have not had any problems.

Most of the scripts are free but he ask for a donation.

He has one program called dupin which searches an iTune library for duplicates but it has a lot of filters and is way above what comes with iTunes. This one he charges a small fee. The cripled version only allows you to make so many changes in on run. I have used it and it is excellent. I will probably purchase the software.

[wynlyndd]

For the Mac side you might want to look at http://dougscripts.com/itunes/index.php. There are a lot of scripts to work on the iTunes DB and one group works with artwork. Very good documentation on each script.

I use a few and have not had any problems.

Most of the scripts are free but he ask for a donation.

He has one program called dupin which searches an iTune library for duplicates but it has a lot of filters and is way above what comes with iTunes. This one he charges a small fee. The cripled version only allows you to make so many changes in on run. I have used it and it is excellent. I will probably purchase the software.

Check out a program called Tidy Up! since you are a mac user. One of the cool things you can do is set a folder location as Master and then if it finds a copy (a copy defined by you based on song title, artist, album, length, bit rate, etc) anywhere else, it knows which one to delete (or move).

There are tons of “Tasks” and “Strategies” you can define. Plus the beauty of it is that it isn’t just for music, it can do pictures or any other arbitary files.

In the end, I’ve used many different tools in conjunction to help wedd out dupes, fix tags, clean library. So far the most potent is Jaikoz, Tidy Up! and a handful of doug’s scripts and strangely enough itunes itself has a place for me as well