artist icons not showing

We appreciate you clarifying this for us, benjigordon,

Are you able to see the artists thumbnails if you sign into Music in a new user account?

To create a new user account, you can go to the Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Users & Groups.

Click the lock icon, then enter an administrator name and password.

Click the add button (+) below the list of users.

Complete the fields shown for an Administrator account, then click Create Account (or OK).

Once you’ve created the new account, go to the Apple menu  > Log Out, then log in with the new account and sign into Music.

This will help us to isolate this behavior further.

Best regards.

Hi benjigordon,

Thanks for contacting the Apple Support Communities!

We understand that you're unable to see the artists artwork for your albums. In the Music app, you can go to File > Library > Get Album Artwork.

If you'd prefer to apply custom artwork to your albums, this is a great resource to show you how: Add artwork to content in Music on Mac

We hope this helps.

Cheers!