Q: iTunes 11: No more album art preview for selected track??? :(

It's really pathetic that I have a 30" monitor and my ipod classic displays bigger album artwork. 

You CAN get a large album art window displayed - just click the thumbnail of what's currently playing.   A window pops up that can be resized.      But ONLY what's currently playing.       Until iTunes11, the art window in the lower left hand corner would display whatever was selected, regardless of what was playing.    You could drag artwork to or from this window, and if you selected multiple files the art would apply to all selected.      It was really fast, really handy.      Clicking "Get Info" takes a lot longer, and commits you to that single selection until you close the box.       

There's a lot of features that I miss from earlier iTunes - (opening multiple windows, convert and import.   I don't miss cover flow at all.)   but the inability to view, click, and drag the artwork of selected songs is a great inconvenience to those of us trying to manage large libraries of music.     

verbcrunch wrote:

 

...You could drag artwork to or from this window, and if you selected multiple files the art would apply to all selected.      It was really fast, really handy.      Clicking "Get Info" takes a lot longer, and commits you to that single selection until you close the box.       

...but the inability to view, click, and drag the artwork of selected songs is a great inconvenience to those of us trying to manage large libraries of music.     

You are incorrect - you can select multiple songs, press Command-I (Ctrl-I Windows), and then drag an image to the Artwork Box in the dialog. iTunes will apply the image as Album Art to all the songs you have selected.

To view artwork of a song that is NOT playing, you can highlight the (non-playing) song in Songs view, and press Command-I. Alternatively, if you are listening to music, you could switch to Album view and browse album artwork there. One can also go to either Artist or Genre views and do the same - you can even make the artwork larger (in those two views) by pressing Command-J (View Options) and adjust.

I'm sure it is quite possible that Apple will fix some of the problems (with artwork) in future updates. I wish they would. Actually, there wouldn't be fun threads like this one to read and participate in if they did fix it, so I take that back The weird thing for me, is why there is such an obsession with this "enshrining" of album art. The buggy-eyed fixation on managing a bunch of music files. Many people seem to seek recognition for massing a library of digital music - bragging about the size of their library, how they have organized it, how much time and money they have invested in buying (or importing) music - as if they were the actual artist behind the creation and production, or that they are in special because of this? I'm thinking that people have gone over-board with making music some sort of self-defining mantra of their existence. Everyone likes music, but some insist they like it "more" which causes delusional thoughts of magnificence. Apologies in advance if this seems abrupt or offensive, but I had to make this observation. Anyone else notice these things?

Yes, I know you can use "Get info" (command - "i")  to manage album art assigned to song.    My point is that's a far more cumbersome process than earlier versions of iTunes.       I could use the "down arrow" and all the artwork would flash by as songs were selected - even if only for a hundredth of a second.     This way I could pinpoint and remedy any missing album art.      The process of "command i" takes much longer and is far more tedious.

As far as the OCD nature of requiring proper artwork assigned to songs, I would submit that in the digital age this is only manifestation to "record covers" or "CD packaging" we have left.

Furthermore, it's a feature we've enjoyed since iTunes version 1, now abruptly removed.      No one likes when useful features are taken away, or when it becomes more burdonsome and time consuming to perform functions that were previously easily done.

I agree with you to some extent, although I would not describe it as a "far more cumbersome process". Pressing Cmd-I is not cumbersome, and should be second nature to every Mac user, since this keyboard shortcut is universal to file info dialog. The missing album art can easily be identified in the Albums view. You can also just as easily create a smart playlist, where it shows only songs that are missing album art; Which, in my opinion, is far more efficient than using the arrow keys.

MaxSeven777 wrote:

 

 

I'm sure it is quite possible that Apple will fix some of the problems (with artwork) in future updates. I wish they would. Actually, there wouldn't be fun threads like this one to read and participate in if they did fix it, so I take that back The weird thing for me, is why there is such an obsession with this "enshrining" of album art. The buggy-eyed fixation on managing a bunch of music files. Many people seem to seek recognition for massing a library of digital music - bragging about the size of their library, how they have organized it, how much time and money they have invested in buying (or importing) music - as if they were the actual artist behind the creation and production, or that they are in special because of this? I'm thinking that people have gone over-board with making music some sort of self-defining mantra of their existence. Everyone likes music, but some insist they like it "more" which causes delusional thoughts of magnificence. Apologies in advance if this seems abrupt or offensive, but I had to make this observation. Anyone else notice these things?

Everyone has a hobby or two, many become obsessed with it. Have tou ever seen an elaborate model train layout? Or someone who makes ships in a bottle? Just becaust other people have taken their music hobby farther than you have doesn't mean you should judge them.

I wasn't looking for recognition when I stated how many songs I have collected or how many hours I have invested in getting all the artwork just the way I want it, I was just stating how much is involved in maintaining a large library. Seems like a lot of people responding here were amazed that someone would have more than 1K songs. ;-)

Max7777 - I appreciate you trying to create workarounds to the removed feature.      My library is over 60,000 songs.   I subscribe to Paste Magazine and the Spinner mp3 of the day.    Both put their own artwork in, I like to remove it and insert the artist's artwork instead, so the playlist of "false" album art won't work here.

Further, with as many songs as I have, it takes my MacPro a second or two to "Get Info", wheras the arrow key revealed artwork literally as a flash - just enough to see if art was missing.      This method also lets you isolate specific artists and compare artwork, not easily done by using "Get Info".   

I stand by my assertion that "Get info" (or command - "i")  is far more cumbersome.      I use "Get Info" to change Genres, Groupings, Album Artist, etc.     Using "Get Info" is a decision, while artwork was a whim.   

How many times do I have to explain why the separate album artwork window is NOT a workable solution?  Can you all at least read the last few pages before coming on here and blabbing? 

The seperate window is also the movie player window, so as soon as you watch a movie, it gets resized and moved. 

I'm not interested in having click on a bloody thumbnail and resize and move around a window for every album just to see the artwork, that's not how it works.  It's not something I want to stare at, it's something that is supposed to just be there in the background.  

Maxx777, how big is your library and how old are you? 

You say this is about bragging, which makes it clear to me you have a very small collection otherwise you wouldn't feel threatened by it.  It's not a bad thing, I could care less how much music you have.  But it is why you don't understand the need to use song view.  And probably explains why you don't understand album artwork either.  People who have a lot of music need a different browsing interface, it's that simple.  And people who have a lot of music tend to think about music in a different way.  A lot of people listen to music with intention, and care about it, not just as background music, and album artwork is meaningful.  I've explained this many times in this thread. 

And I'm quite sick of people coming into this thread who clearly do not use itunes in the same way or with the same intentions, and judging people who are having a problem with this update and blaming them.  Do you really have that much time on your hands you need to spend time in Apple forums about problems you don't have, judging people? 

rhythmdevils wrote:

 

I'm not interested in having click on a bloody thumbnail and resize and move around a window for every album just to see the artwork, that's not how it works.  It's not something I want to stare at, it's something that is supposed to just be there in the background. 

Many think there's no problem with only seeing the song that's playing.

For many, iTunes is a music player. For other people like me, iTunes is a librery manager which I rarely use to play music. iTunes is the card catalog to my music, I stream it wirelessly from a hard drive attached to my iMac to my main stero in the living room.

Just today I was listening to NPR's Talk of the Nation on speakers attached to my iMac while thumbing through my iTunes library. In many ways, it's like reading the dictionary, one word leads to another. I found myself looking at albums by The Jayhawks. I have 10 albums by them, all purchased on CD. As much as I like them, I was unsure of which album was which based on the album title. Having the artwork in the lower left for songs that are not playing is a huge advantage in remembering which ic which.

I personally would be fine with just seeing the song that's playing.  But there's no workable way to do that in song view, as I keep having to explain. 

The separate album art window that opens when you click on the thumbnail is not a workable solution because Apple didn't give it it's own window.  Everytime you watch a movie, it gets moved and resized.  And I like having the "show on top of all windows" checked for the movie window, but if that's checked, when you open album artwork, it also shows on top of every window.  It's not designed for this purpose. 

And again, it's not like I think "I want to stare at this album artwork now" and want to click on something to see it and then close it again.  The point is for it to be there all the time to add context and visual information for the music that is playing.  Just like it was with CD's and vinyl for decades. 

How we use iTunes isn't the point.     The point is Apple has taken away a feature without providing a workaround. This is regressive.       You can choose not to use a feature that's there,  but you can't choose to use a feature that's not there.

rhythmdevils wrote:

 

Maxx777, how big is your library and how old are you?

I only have one song in my library because that is the only song that I like and I am seven years of age.

That's what it seems like.  You don't understand this problem because you don't use itunes in the same way. 

MaxSeven777 wrote:

 

rhythmdevils wrote:

 

Maxx777, how big is your library and how old are you?

I only have one song in my library because that is the only song that I like and I am seven years of age.

I didn't like the way the question was stated, but it might help if you gave a realistic answer to the first part.

A better question might be do you manage your iTunes library on a desktop/laptom or on a handheld?