Why does iTunes on Windows 11 need to update individual media files on adding album artwork

RKapoor1973 wrote:

iTunes for me doesn't find album art for a wide range of CD's I have previously ripped (even recent GRAMMY award winning albums).

I don't think it ever does for albums that have been ripped already. As far as I can tell, the Get Artwork feature only works at the time that iTunes rips the CD. So once again, the ability to add artwork manually is a good and useful feature.

Perhaps if they were ripped using iTunes it would ;)

I believe it would. I have had very few (and I mean very few) occasions when iTunes has not found the artwork for a commercial CD I'm ripping into iTunes. The most likely time when it fails to find the artwork is when the album is brand new. I may be wrong (but I think not), but I assume that iTunes gets the album artwork from the same source as the track information (and at the same time); that is from the Gracenote database.

Gracenote data is compiled and added to Gracenote:

• by a record company employee, who may be thinking more about their next holiday than doing a good job
• by the musician or band (particularly for self-releases), who may or may not know how to add artwork or may simply add the wrong artwork
• by fans, who have vested interest in the artwork being correct. Even then, they might add artwork used for the release in their country, rather than yours. It happens

Some high quality copies of music often doesn't have the artwork in the file, but instead it is put in the folder. I don't know why.

Long time ago Windows Media Player Legacy (WMPL) used to populate CD artwork when ripping but not anymore. Hence the need to populate artwork manually.

Understood, but that's not iTunes, is it?

The reason for the post was that iTunes did not fully process WMPL artwork and re-updated the mp3 which WMPL had already updated with album art. This seems to happen if I add the artwork via WMPL after I have made iTunes aware of the media folder.

That comes as no surprise to me. I have found that changes made to a track in other software usually gets recognised by iTunes the next time the song is played in iTunes. To cover a point that I made previously, I think you either need to accept that using both WMPL and iTunes may cause you extra work when the two disagree, or stick to using only one of them. It is your choice.

Regarding choosing iTunes - it's not a matter of choice but need as Apple Music App on Windows didn't turn out to be a viable option. Apple Music app doesn't yet support playlist import/export, ripping, or provide user control like WMPL and so is disappointing like Microsoft's Groove/new Media player.

It has been said elsewhere in this community that iTunes' replacement is not yet ready as a full replacement of iTunes. Personally, I have chosen to not use the new apps or Apple Music subscription.

For most (but not all*) audio formats, the album art is stored in the song's file itself, so that each song has its own copy of the artwork. This means that if a song is sold as one song, the artwork goes with it without question (i.e. it doesn't get lost in the move). The copies of the artwork in the folder are not necessary.

RKapoor1973 wrote:

To actually have it show on the Album icon you have to Select Add Artwork, manually locate the folder, select the artwork, and then accept - tedious but acceptable.

There's a couple of points here:

1. 1. in most cases you should not need to add the artwork yourself:
   2. if you buy digital copies copies of music (i.e MP3s from Amazon or AAC from iTunes, or music from Bandcamp etc.) the artwork should already be in the file. I know that Bandcamp (a digital music outlet) does have a copy of the artwork in the folder, but since the artwork should be contained in the file, this is not actually necessary
   3. if you rip a commercially produced CD into your iTunes Library, iTunes should find the artwork online and add it to each track on the album at the time of importing to iTunes
   4. any music from other sources that does not have the artwork for any (strange) reason can easily add it by using the method you mention. That's probably why the option is there (good thinking Apple). Similarly, if an album picks up different artwork, for example because it used the artwork used in a different country to you, then once again this option allows you to change it for your own country's release

* The exception to all of this is .wav files. A .wav file cannot contain artwork. If you use iTunes to add artwork to a .wav file, what actually happens is that iTunes makes a note internally of which picture is used. But if that .wav file is moved, or even added to a different media player without moving the file, the artwork will not appear in the copy in the new library.

What is more annoying is that after that update all the individual media files (mp3's) are changed and increase in size! I would expect that when media files are not under the iTunes folder, iTunes would keep it's metadata edits to the iTunes folder and not change the media files themselves.

As stated, the artwork is in the file itself and the increase in file size is not significant. This concern has been raised before by people trying to squeeze more music to their iPod. However, the size of the artwork is so small in comparison to the audio itself, that it becomes irrelevant and would not help anyone add extra music to their iPod.

Changing the media files to alter just metadata like singer/album/genre etc. is one thing which would be fine but changes which increase the size of the media files themselves are at a different level and make one wonder if the media content has been altered.

To be pedantic, the "media content" includes the tags (track title, artist, album title, genre etc.) as well as the artwork, so in that respect, it has been changed even without artwork. However, if you mean the audio content, then the answer is no, why would it do that?

I'm looking to understand why iTunes needs to increase the size of individual media files stored outside the iTunes folder on an album art update

Because as stated, each track contains its own artwork, which is why (as you point out) the size of the file increases (but not by much).

Most other music management software works in the same way as iTunes; the artwork is in the file itself and it does not use artwork buried in the folder. So why is the artwork added to the folder? I can think of several reasons, none of which may be correct:

• • the artist simply did what others have done, without questioning why or if it was necessary
  • the record company that released the album chose to do it that way, either for reasons unknown or unstated, or because they did not understand how iTunes etc. work
  • so end users (music fans) could study the artwork separately to the music (as we all did in the days of vinyl records)

You and I have had a previous discussion about iTunes, and the same thing applies in both cases; instead of fighting with iTunes, learn to encompass it and don't worry about understanding every little nuance of it. After all, you've chosen to use Tunes, but if you keep fighting with it in order to get your own way, you won't get the best out of it.