How much effort do you put into album art for your digital files?

I usually just lift them from Amazon, unless I have an autographed CD, which I scan--but I have to have something in there, I can't stand it when there is no artwork at all.

 

That's the secret right there!

 

I only do artwork if I really really really REALLY don't want to listen to any music right now which has happened only twice which is why I just like listen to the forkin music.

 

I enjoyed reading through the comments while scanning CD singles yesterday. Today I've been updating album art. Sometimes I feel I put in too much effort on some of the scans for how small they actually are. Can't help myself though.

 

I made a Beatles U.S. singles playlist. I know that some of the sleeve images aren't authentic.

 

I make sure every track has artwork. I try to match it to the actual release I've ripped. I scan my own if I can't find it online but my scanner is not great. I have learned just how much the artwork varies between releases of the same album - especially colours.

 

Nice job!!

 

I do a google image search for mine.

 

dBPoweramp is reasonable at getting cover art, but I find I resort to Google image searches and or scanning the cover if I cannot find the right image. For stuff like bootlegs, audio rips of Blu Ray / DVD / radio I may have to improvise a bit, but given that I have zero artistic ability and less patience I'll just get a suitable photo of the band if all else fails.

 

Thank you!

 

I take extra steps!

I scan in my own covers if I can't find high res versions online!

I try to maintain a minimum of 1000px, no less!

The only covers I create are a few of my own personal playlists and for bootlegs where there is no decent artwork. That might mean for 4-5 albums out of thousands so I didn't include that option.

 

Google search first, anything 1500x1500 and hi-res will do. Keep the large files as safety and reduce to 600x600. No jpeg only bmp or png. If all else fails CD scans or LP scans. I take it very seriously!

 

I use google images to find high quality album art for almost everything. I edit and resize if necessary and save a copy of it in the album folder. When I import into JRiver, that's the image that I use rather than what's automatically pulled from the internet. On the rare occasion that I have an album I can't find art for, I just scan it. I've also created my own art for various boots or live recordings that I have, since I'm another one that gets irritated if something doesn't have proper artwork. It just feels incomplete without it.

 

http://www.albumartexchange.com/

 

Some artwork can be found online. For early CDs I typically scan front artwork or CD as appropriate. When I have targets or other special CDs, I typical use the CD for the album art work.

 

I understand this site does what they do very well, but I really have issues with them: Security/Accountability, Community, and their Terms of Use.

I signed up quite a while ago and shortly afterwards got a phishing email sent to my unique email address for their site. I (and others) posted in their forums that their user database had been hacked and we were getting spammed. No response. They are using forum software from 2007 that is guaranteed to have known exploits and the owner won't upgrade it. I don't understand why not? phpBB is free!

This year the website has been upgraded and one of the main contributors and moderators has been venting and ranting publicly on the forums about the changes. In his cloud of anger, he misunderstood someone's post about the site and immediately banned him. That's not the kind of community I want to be a part of.

Lastly, just before I was going to upload my first cover, I decided to read their Terms. If you upload to them, you can't upload that cover to any other website. Essentially, you grant them exclusive use of your work. No thank you. That's why I use Flickr.

 

Their site can be a little controlling. I've gotten the "you're looking at too much art for a human. Are you a robot?" reply box several times.

 

Follow up; double checked my settings in MusicBee and found I had transfer art turned off...doh!

 

I want to know why, what's wrong with just looking at the album sleeve/CD booklet...I don't get it, are people staring at iPod screens when they listen....

 

That must either be new, or something no one pays any attention to. I very rarely read/post on the community message board. I just download and upload.

The new Captcha is very annoying, though. I'm a registered member, but still have to go through the captcha. But, I use the place just as I always have, and no problem.

 

It's not just for iPod screens. PC screens too. It's like stamp collecting but totally different. It's silly perhaps but once the path is chosen, there is no turning back. Artwork must be obtained in high quality at all costs...
At all costs.

 

None.

If I wanna see artwork and names of tracks I use discogs or another information service.

 

There is nothing wrong with just looking at the album sleeve or CD booklet! Not everyone wants to do that though. I don't want to go have to look at an album or CD as a workaround for not having album art for my digital files. For that matter, I don't always keep the CD.

It's nice to be able to associate a picture with the album playing. The output isn't just limited to iPods. I like seeing the album art appear on my TV screen where it's displayed larger than vinyl record sleeves.

I have my precious vinyl and some CDs, but it's my digital collection complete with high res artwork that I actually enjoy the most! You would not believe how enjoyable it is until you take the plunge! You asked and I'm giving you an honest answer!

 

I can be quite picky about this subject but I usually generate the album art from iTunes. If it looks crappy or all they have is a cover with "Remastered" or "Deluxe" on the front I'll go to AlbumArtExchange and they'll have what I'm looking for 95% of the time. Good looking album art looks great on my computer and mobile device!

 

I'm really, really insufferable when it comes to artwork. I try to find scans of every album for each artist I collect. Each image has to be 1000x1000 pixels, and I try to replicate the cover as accurately as possible. I don't like extra stuff like stereo/mono indicator or label logos or the like - to me, unless it's used creatively, I like the image and the artist name/album title where applicable. Generally I'll mimic whatever CD version I have unless I like the image I found better.

I generally start by searching Fanart.TV which generally has very good quality and every image is 1000x1000. Failing that I'll go to Album Art Exchange, and if that doesn't work, Google image search. If the cover needs resizing or any further tweaking I pull up Pixlr, a free (but incomplete) knockoff of Photoshop. This is usually contrast, brightness, vibrance, etc. It has a really good paint bucket tool with a customizable tolerance which is very useful. Using that I've managed to transform some really ugly covers (the best I could find online) into presentable images that I'm proud to see in my digital library, and while I don't mean to toot my own horn, I'm pretty sure I have the best available covers for at least 75 albums.

That said it's still really difficult to get great covers. I'm exponentially better at editing in Pixlr than I was earlier in the year but I'm still not that good. There are a number of artists who are either too obscure (Southern Culture on the Skids, Sparks, Matt Berry) or who just don't have a wealth of good available scans (Todd Rundgren, Rolling Stones) that I haven't been able to successfully make presentable. That said, there's probably only about 50 covers (out of at least 500, probably closer to 700 but I don't have a total count at the moment) that I'm really disappointed with; at the beginning of the year that number was probably 250 so I'm glad that my gallery has improved so well.