one more iTunes artwork question...

[ghanwani]

When I download artwork from iTunes, the sizes of the song files don't change.

When I get the artwork from elsewhere and add it (a) I get a warning from iTunes that this cannot be undone, and (b) the sizes of the song files get changed. So, if I want to change the artwork on such files at some future date, does it mean I would pretty much need to re-rip the CD?

Is it not possible to add external artwork without changing the song files?

Thanks,
Anoop

 

[tkermit]

Huh? I've never seen that warning. But anyway, you should be able to change the artwork as often as you'd like. It's true that iTunes's automatically downloaded artwork is not added to the files while manually added artwork is written as metadata to the song files themselves. But that doesn't mean that you're permanently stuck with artwork once it's been written to the file...Unless we're talking about some weird-ass format here, that I'm not aware of.

It should be pretty easy to try and reproduce this yourself by the way

 

[ghanwani]

Huh? I've never seen that warning. But anyway, you should be able to change the artwork as often as you'd like. It's true that iTunes's automatically downloaded artwork is not added to the files while manually added artwork is written as metadata to the song files themselves. But that doesn't mean that you're permanently stuck with artwork once it's been written to the file...Unless we're talking about some weird-ass format here, that I'm not aware of.

It should be pretty easy to try and reproduce this yourself by the way

OK...I will give it a try...wish I had save the original file. In that case deleting the artwork should have returned me back to the original file size. So I'll have to re-rip the CD and test.

 

[ghanwani]

I discovered 2 things.

(a) It is not possible to delete the artwork at an album level (even though when adding it I can add it to all items under an album). This means one has to go in to each individual song and perform the delete.

(b) The file size after deleting the artwork from the song is larger than before the artwork was added. Here is the file in question:

Before adding:
-rw-r--r--@ 1 anoop staff 26635166 Feb 14 15:32 01 Summer Night City.m4a

After manually adding non-iTunes artwork to all songs in the album:
-rw-r--r--@ 1 anoop staff 26779879 Feb 14 15:41 01 Summer Night City.m4a

After going into the song and deleting the artwork for just that song:
-rw-r--r--@ 1 anoop staff 26637691 Feb 14 18:32 01 Summer Night City.m4a

After going back in and adding the same piece of artwork to the song:
-rw-r--r--@ 1 anoop staff 26779879 Feb 14 18:42 01 Summer Night City.m4a

The last one was a relief.

 

[keaide]

Maybe you could consider some external program to add/delete/modify artwork?

I love mp3tag (Windows program) and run it via WINE (created an icon in the application folder) and it works just fine. I'm sure there are also some native OSX apps for that.

After changing the artwork, simply uncheck the album songs in iTunes and then recheck them again. Did work for me.

 

[ghanwani]

Maybe you could consider some external program to add/delete/modify artwork?

I love mp3tag (Windows program) and run it via WINE (created an icon in the application folder) and it works just fine. I'm sure there are also some native OSX apps for that.

After changing the artwork, simply uncheck the album songs in iTunes and then recheck them again. Did work for me.

Is this similar to the widgets referred to in this thread?
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1096183/
e.g. http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/music/albumartwidget.html

 

[tkermit]

It is not possible to delete the artwork at an album level

That seems to work for me without problems. The change is reflected in the file sizes as well.

The file size after deleting the artwork from the song is larger than before the artwork was added.

Is that a problem though? I'm honestly interested in why you're concerned about this at all?

 

[ghanwani]

That seems to work for me without problems. The change is reflected in the file sizes as well.

I must be missing something then...when I right click on the Album and do a "get info", I don't even see the artwork, let alone an option to remove it. I pretty much have to go to the song to view/remove artwork.

Is that a problem though? I'm honestly interested in why you're concerned about this at all?

Don't like the fact that I can never get back to the original file size. It is a REAL problem? Probably not...but I kind of like knowing how to "reset" things and in this case it's not possible.

 

[tkermit]

I must be missing something then...when I right click on the Album and do a "get info", I don't even see the artwork, let alone an option to remove it.

Simply check the box.

Don't like the fact that I can never get back to the original file size. It is a REAL problem? Probably not...but I kind of like knowing how to "reset" things and in this case it's not possible.

Fair enough.

 

[ghanwani]

Simply check the box.

That worked...thanks!