Programs to automatically download album covers and insert them in to ID3 tags?

Question

Let us assume that I have a perfectly tagged MP3 collection - at the very least Artist and Album Name are all intact. The only lacking thing is the album covers.

What tool should I use? I note there are many but it's difficult to figure out their quality.

I am specifically looking for a batch approach - push play and let it go, taking hours or days if necessary.

Solution 1

I chose the Album Art Downloader because this mostly suits my needs. Unfortunately it grabs files to an external file but I will have to embded them later.

Solution 2

Taghycardia performs automated cover art downloading and embedding for large MP3 libraries.

It first looks if a cover is present in an MP3 folder itself. If yes, it embeds the locally found cover art, otherwise it performs an online search.

The program analyzes the pictures already present in the tracks for inconsistencies so the user could unify cover art across a folder or leave it as is.

Comments

[Canadian Luke]

In Super User, and all the StackExchange sites, shopping or product recommendations are considered off topic and open ended, and sometimes even too localized. Try to reword your question in a way that you are not asking for products, but more of processes; this will help keep it on topic

[Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007]

related: What's the easiest way to update album art?

[Anup Dey]

I'm definitely looking for a batch approach, I am not familiar with iTunes - are there any 'lock-in' issues to be afraid of? Will edit my question to clarify.

[Am1rr3zA]

@Andrew: iTunes will create a database of album artwork, to reduce file size. However, there is a script (dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=embedart) that will embed the artwork into the file directly. The database might be a for of "lock in" for you, but will go quick. My collection is probably smaller than yours, but I prefer MediaMonkey because I can directly embed the artwork, and it it was worth it to go album by album. A few nights through the process of a week and I was done.

[juanmah]

It works for folders, but some program exists to do the same but to single songs?