Q: Artist Photos Missing in iTunes 12.5.1

At my Apple Store nearby, EVERY artist's name is accompanied by a pink microphone in 'Artist View.'  Checked several iMacs and Macbooks on display.  So, even Apple is presenting the iTunes interface this way to potential customers...

At my local Apple Store, ALL/EVERY/100% of artists are represented by the pink microphone.  Checked several iMacs and Macbooks -- somewhat different artists on different devices, but this feature was consistent among all.  So, it's pretty clear that purchasing from iTunes Store has no bearing on this feature/bug.

WHY CANT APPLE JUST MAKE SOME KIND OF STATEMENT?  Surely they can see we are all unhapp with this ?  Has to be Bug Surely

Checked several iMacs and Macbooks at my local Apple Store.  Artists varied somewhat from machine to machine, but 100% of artists were accompanied by the pink microphone in 'Artist View'.  Aesthetically ugly and unhelpful when browsing an artist list...

I know what you're getting at.

Here's the thing, though:  At my local Apple Store, I checked several iMacs and Macbooks for this issue, and 100% of artists were accompanied by pink microphones in 'Artist View'.  Artists varied somewhat from machine to machine, but this feature/bug was consistent across all of them.

it is probably a bug. hopefully be resolved with the next update

I'm pretty sure this isn't a bug. The pink/blue hued microphones are exactly what the Apple designers wanted.

Frankly, I prefer the grayscale graphics from the previous OS - simple and attractive...but the current version is okay, too.

but if it's not a bug, why in some artists appears an image and in others appears the microphone?

Why oh why won't Apple let us add our own artwork anymore? Makes me mad!!!

You bring up an interesting point. I'll admit there's little consensus why the circular artist pics in Artist View vary between users. That probably qualifies as a "bug."

However, the blue/pink color of the microphones is definitely not a bug.

Ok, I can see that Apple wishes to move forward with the circles for artist images. I can live with that, but like everyone else, the fact that the system in place to properly fill the circles is flawed is very annoying.  In every Keynote, Mr. Cook or one of his associates, make the point of how "MUSIC" is buried deep in their (Apple's) DNA.  If so why does the iTunes, which the entire Apple world appear to revolve around have so many half-baked improvements.  I just don't buy that during all of the beta testing, by all the music lovers, not see this as a major screw-up.  Sorry for the venting.

Ok, here is a solution.  We've had (and excepted) the round circles as part of Contacts, Mail, and Messages for some time now.  But they allow (through Contacts) to customize the image.  So the software module exists.  Yes it might be a bit to mate with iTunes, but it can be done.  And yes it will be time consuming to someone like myself and others with huge libraries to customize, but it as least provides a reasonable option.

Again, it should be noted, that if you upgrade the Sierra, before updating iTunes to 12.5.1, you'll be left with version 12.5.0 installed, which retains the original artist thumbnails.  See my screen-shot on page 13.  I just won't install 12.5.1 until Apple comes up with a better solution, like my suggestion or variation of it.

...according to Apple there is a workaround - all you need is camera... then go take an actual photo of the band and upload it.

Life is too short for this.

I can see some of artist's photos on my iPhone AND on my mac. So I hope Apple is just fixing some bug or something like that.

As a quick'n'dirty workaround you can replace the MissingArtworkArtist.png with an transparent 1 pixel image. You can get one from Wikipedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1x1.png Rename it to /Volumes/Macintosh HD//Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/MissingArtworkArtist.png

It seems to be another subtle form of coercion.  If you don't buy the music from the apple store then your library will have annoying microphone avitars for the artists.  Classic Apple.