How to store album art as itc file - NOT embedded in each song file

Chris - wow, that was quick. I had tripped onto that same link but hadn't yet tried it as it looks to be for the "not faint of heart." I will give it a try. Thank you!

It works! I will expand on this with simple instructions when I have done a few more titles. It looks convoluted but at least after initial use seems straightforward. Plus, while it is geared toward pulling images from Amazon, you can use any other source and point it to the other source (e.g., local jpg file). And it places the album cover in the Album Art Folder, not in the individual song files.

Sweet!

Yes, and I am discovering a few more quirks. I thought iTunes accepted png formatted files but they won't work - has to be jpg, at least that's the only format I've gotten to work so far.

Here is a proposed work flow and set-up instructions to accomplish the task of storing album art in the same manner that iTunes does, once per album - NOT embedded in each song file. Kudos to Chris for providing the link, and to Jacob Weber for the excellent script and instruction set. It looks involved, but the steps are straightforward, and the workflow is only as involved as your quality standards are for good quality iTunes album art!

Loading album art into iTunes without storing the image in each song file involves the following steps - basically redirecting the iTunes "Get Album Artwork" command to an album artwork repository that you build in steps 1 and 2. The work flow once you have the initial set-up completed looks like this:

1-Find and store your preferred album art as jpg files on your hard drive (skip and go to step 2 if you want to use the built-in search of Amazon feature of the below toolset).

2-Link album art from step 1 to your iTunes albums that have incorrect or missing album art (or use the built-in search of Amazon in the below toolset) - this step is done within a web server that you set-up on your machine.

3-Get Album Artwork using iTunes command, with automatic redirection to your web server (step 2).

4-Reset everything and return to normal operations.

Tools and Set-Up required:

A - Cover Art Server Python Script (and instructions) by Jacob Weber
http://www.jacobweber.com/coverArt
Set-up instructions are provided as a downloaded text file available from the above link.

B - Ensure you have a recent version of Python, available from
http://www.python.org/download/.

C - If using the built-in search feature of Amazon album art, you will need access to their web services (free account).

D - Modify Network System Preferences to create and point to a web server that you set-up (details in downloaded text file).

E - Launch Terminal and run the above-mentioned Python script (this makes your web server in Step D available for the iTunes redirection to fetch your downloaded album art).

F - Launch iTunes, gather together all albums that have missing art - I suggest setting up a "Missing Album Art" Smart Playlist with the following search conditions:
Has Artwork "is false"

G - Select all albums with missing artwork and perform the "Clear Downloaded Artwork" command, then immediately perform the "Get Album Artwork" command. This is an important step as it builds the file list in your web server to later associate with album art that you fetch.

H - Launch Safari, type in URL for your web server (details in downloaded text file). Begin the process of associating fetched album art with file list built from Step G. Now you begin the work flow described at top (steps 1-4).

Kudos to Jacob Weber for his solution to this challenge.