Updated Guide: How To Tidy Up MP3 ID3 Tags

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Step 2 Importing To iTunes And Adding Artwork

Before you import your new tagged mp3 files into iTunes, remember to go into iTunes’ options and go to ‘General’ and check ‘Automatically download missing album artwork’. It is best to use artwork from the iTunes store as this is usually better quality than the artwork that most other apps find, whcih tend to come from Amazon.com.

However, when iTunes adds artwork to files it doesn’t actually add the artwork to the Id3 tag – it only adds the artwork to the iTunes database. This means that if you want to use your mp3 files in any other app the artwork will not be displayed.

One Tip A Day found a quick way of fixing this. To add iTunes Store artwork to your ID3 tags do the following:

1. Select all the tracks in each album you’ve just imported one at a time
2. In the bottom left-hand corner of iTunes click on ’show/hide artwork’ button
3. Right-click on the artwork image that is displayed in the small window and select ‘copy’
4. Now right-click on the tracks you’ve highlighted and select ‘Get info’
5. In the pop-up box that appears, go to the ‘info’ tab, right-click in the artwork field and select ‘paste’

Once you’ve done this iTunes will now add it’s high quality images to the albums ID3 mp3 tags, which will mean that other mp3 players and apps will now be able to display the artwork. Although this can take a while if you’ve imported a lot of albums, adding artwork this way will add the best quality artwork to your files.

For the albums that iTunes can’t add artwork to because they aren’t available in the iTunes music store, then a quick Google search should suffice and once you’ve found the artwork just drag it onto the blank artwork space. If you’re in a rush and want an automatic tool, then I’d recommend trying iTunes Art Importer which automatically adds missing album images from Amazon.

Step 3 Finishing Up

The only thing left to do is to add Genres to your new albums as MusicBrainz Picard very rightly doesn’t add Genres, because one man’s ‘R&B’, is another man’s ‘Soul’, which is another man’s ‘Rhythm & Blues’ etc etc. Picard can also sometimes will tag an album as a compilation, when you don’t want it listed as a compiliation because although it may be say a ‘Greatest Hits’ album, all the tracks are from the same artist so you don’t want it appearing in Compilations within iTunes.

To add the correct Genres to your albums do the following:

1. Select all the tracks in each album you’ve just imported one at a time
2. Now right-click on the tracks you’ve highlighted and select ‘Get info’
3. In the pop-up box that appears, go to the ‘Info’ tab, and type in the correct Genre information in the ‘Genre’ field and check/uncheck the‘Part of a compilation’ box as appropriate.

I hope you’ve found this guide interesting and useful. If you have any questions, or if you have any other tagging apps that you use please leave them in a comment.

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5. Why Can’t iTunes Add Album Artwork Properly?

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