Artist Artwork is missing in iTunes 12.5

@jamesfromthemars It seems unlikely that the rep is correct. I suspect your rep just didn't know what they were talking about. All the artists had artist art before the update, and then not after. They were all originally pulled from iTunes (I never added artist artwork to anyone). Unless Apple went through and deleted thousands of artist's artwork, it is an error in the update.

(I think I'm agreeing with your overall point - just adding that the rep sounds clueless.)

I don't think that's the case, as I have Apple Music and even for artists that I've only added through Apple Music to my Library, there is no picture for the artist, only the stupid microphone. For another artist, every song is Purchased except 1 song which was added via Apple Music and only the microphone is displayed.

But it's even inconistent for Purchased Music. I have found several artist that every song is showing as Purchased, but yet only a microphone appears. But yet for Aerosmith, I see the picture of the band, yet only one of my songs is Purchased.

So there is little rhyme or reason....

Here is the behavior I am seeing related to artist artwork in iTunes 12.5 and Music on iOS 10:

• iTunes 12.5.1 on macOS 10.11 - seeing artist artwork for all artists which I have purchased music for. The vast majority of my music, from disks or purchased elsewhere, has the placeholder microphone icon for the artist.
• Music on iOS 10 - I see artist artwork for *most* all artists in my library. Among artists missing artwork, some are legitimately valid (multiple artists collaborating - like "Elton John & John Lennon", or "Grace" (my daughter)). Other artists missing artwork are mainstream enough to warrant artwork (Journey, Matchbox 20) but don't have it.

I find two things strange:

1. Why iOS / macOS are exhibiting different behavior. Shouldn't they be consistent?
2. Why there is no pattern to missing artwork.

It's not the end of the world for me. That said, I can clearly see this as concerning for those who take pride in the quality and completeness of their library. I'm guessing this is a bug or oversight on Apple's part.

Until this is fixed, I've moved over to Album view. Thankfully, the albums are arranged alphabetically by artist. It takes a little more scrolling to find what I want, but I can see the cover art and no microphones.

Where can I find this option in Mac?

100% of my music library is ripped from CDs, or purchased legitimately and legally online (e.g., HDtracks, Pono, 7Digital, et al). I have ZERO interest in listening to crap lossy music sold in the iTunes store.

100% of my artist artwork is now missing. All of it. What was so hard about the right-click Set artist artwork option that used to be in iTunes? That was great. I could pick a favorite album for each artist. Easy peasy.

I have a feeling that this problem is probably due to poor QA and testing. My guess is that the QA lab only uses music sourced from the iTunes store during testing. Apple's QA have proven themselves to be worst of breed over the past few years. Really, it's absolutely dismal. This update never should have been released.

If Apple wants to come out with a disclaimer that it only works with content purchased from the iTunes store, so be it. But do let us know that so that we can make an informed decision to buy/use someone else's product next time we upgrade.

No, it has nothing to do with purchased from itunes etc. I have no music bought from apple, and half of my artwork is there. Anyone?

Apple fix this. Why must you break , change and screw up every release? Remember the old days when you had to pay people to beta test the software PRIOR to public release? This is a direct result of having to many Apple fans boys n girls nowadays willing to turn a blind eye to anything negative about Apple. Does anyone remember when Apple used to make computers ?

So true. This reminds me of the time they removed the ability to colour-code filenames. There was no reason to do it and they must have been aware that many people counted on this.

Hopefully the interns charged with reading the forums will realize how many people are peeved by this and pass the information on to their role-playing supervisors.

I have the same problem! I also purchased new music to see if the rule about it being Apple purchased music gets the artwork. The new albums, which I both purchased and downloaded after this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad update, don't show the artist artwork and have the hideous microphone circle image. Albums/artists I have never bought through Apple music sometimes have artist artwork instead of the microphone. There doesn't seem to be a discernible pattern that can explain why this is happening, at least to me.

I don't know what Apple is thinking, but it feels like with each update their software and devices are becoming exceedingly difficult to use and troubleshoot. I want to pull my hair out every time something changes because things no longer change for the good. I've set up all of my Apple devices not to auto-update because it screws up everything (but someone my laptop changed it back, which is why I am cursed with this awful update.)

Personally, I think it's just a bug in how iTunes pulls the artist artwork. It is annoying.

Chances are it will be corrected in the next patch.

What I do not understand is why they keep taking away my options for editing tags and such. I would gladly add my own artwork if I could.

I just deleted the microphones and in Album View List (not Grid) I have the same view as Artist View but without the microphone pictures. All my album artwork is shown and can be enlarged to 14" x 14". In the Album List view, the artwork is the same size as in Artist view. I just didn't like the microphones as they were too distracting. It is cleaner without them.

Bob Foss wrote:

I just deleted the microphones and in Album View List (not Grid) I have the same view as Artist View but without the microphone pictures. All my album artwork is shown and can be enlarged to 14" x 14". In the Album List view, the artwork is the same size as in Artist view. I just didn't like the microphones as they were too distracting. It is cleaner without them.

I'm not as bothered by the microphones, especially since monochrome versions of the same microphones have been around for several years.

My question is: how did you edit them? Did you go back to a previous version? The Artist View is formatted so it's particularly difficult to change.

I have no doubt this "issue" is not a bug but rather one of Apple's tactics to get us bit into their master plan!

Most of us like the layout of the previous versions of iTunes (OSX) and Music (IOS) and being able to select music by artist. Over the years, we have become accustom to beautiful layouts and clean interface. As explained above, the only way to keep the layout clean, is to navigate through your music with Album view (which lengthen the list obviously). As such, we will become more selective in the music we import, get ride of albums after few months, and import new ones, kind of like you would do with movies, series...etc. Apples want us to consider music like a consumer good, and not a collection that you cherish and improve over the years. In fine, they wants us to give up on importing our own music and rather start using their paid "Apple Music" offer.

I might be wrong (I hope I am actually), but I would not be surprised if this was a planed strategy...

Any thoughts?