unable to get artwork with cds imported to Apple Music using my old MacBook Air (which still works fine!)

Question

Level 1

8 points

unable to get artwork with cds imported to Apple Music using my old MacBook Air (which still works fine!)

The problem is stated in the subject line! I have resumed putting cds I have purchased onto my MacBook Air, but so far am unable to get the artwork for the albums which I have purchased!

This makes no sense to me, and my subscription to Apple Music has expired. I do not use it to stream music, or anything else such as Apple TV. I was able to import the tracks for the albums no problem. I don't get it. If anyone knows how to do this I would appreciate their advice.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 28, 2023 11:22 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Timbuktu

Level 3

790 points

Jul 2, 2023 9:29 PM in response to marredzur92

Just to make sure we are on the same page. You have an external CD/DVD Drive you use to import the CDs into Music App, you selected "get track names" from the settings before importing, and you either have checked "Automatically update artwork for imported songs" in Music app settings or manually select "download artwork" for songs or albums. And then nothing shows up. Is this your process? See this article Apple Guide: Import songs from CDs

Reply

Answer 2

javaliga

Level 10

119,857 points

Jun 29, 2023 1:13 PM in response to marredzur92

Getting the artwork for CDs that you imported can be tricky. Everything on the CD has to match EXACTLY with what is in Apple's music or the Gracenote media database, titles, song lengths, etc. You can add album artwork (from images you can get from the internet) manually. Perhaps this link will help:

Add artwork to content in Music on Mac - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 3

marredzur92 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 29, 2023 4:12 PM in response to javaliga

Thank you so much javaglia~I still purchase cds the actual ones that a person can carry around, and for many years put the albums into itunes, then Apple Music. I do not purchase titles through Amazon music etc. most of the time! I stream from Tidal as an online streaming source.

So, according to what I saw from the link to Apple Support unless I buy the albums as downloaded (I tried it with a few albums and it was unwieldy), I can't access the artwork for the album which I OWN. (purchased the actual cd)

I am a bit confused as to how one would access Gracenote media database. I have a new laptop, not Mac, although I have loved my Macs over the years. This is really a blow, in addition to ipods being phased out. sigh.

Reply

Answer 4

Jun 30, 2023 1:42 PM in response to marredzur92

I've found that using iTunes to get the correct artwork for music imported from CDs is hit-and-miss. A lot of times, it will get correct (or near-correct) artwork. A lot of times it will get nothing. And sometimes it will get artwork that is completely wrong.

If you're running iTunes on a Mac, you can prepare artwork for songs that you have imported from CD … then drag-and-drop the artwork into a song's or album's Info window. Make a photo or flatbed scan of a CD cover. Crop it to a square aspect ratio, save it as a not-too-large .JPG, and then you have art that iTunes will like.

I don't know whether you can do this with iTunes for Windows.

Reply

Answer 5

Jun 30, 2023 1:40 PM in response to marredzur92

schaeferpianostudio@fastmail.f wrote:

I am a bit confused as to how one would access Gracenote media database. I have a new laptop, not Mac, although I have loved my Macs over the years. This is really a blow, in addition to ipods being phased out. sigh.

Gracenote is what a lot of programs use "behind the scenes" to try to automatically fill in the album and track names for your CDs (and songs imported from your CDs). Typically you wouldn't log in to Gracenote; instead, applications running on your Mac or PC would contact Gracenote for you.

https://www.gracenote.com/

Reply