Who here uses iTunes album art?

[Teqnilogik]

I experimented with adding album art in iTunes to my MP3 collection. After I was done I noticed that all the album art boosted my collection's file size by 100-something MB. I didn't get an exact number but I know there was 100 MB or more added to my collection. Now I am ripping my entire collection into AAC since I just bought my iPod and want to get the most out of it. I decided not to use album art because 1) it takes time to put all that album art on each album and 2) it takes up unnecessary space on my iPod. Now I'm curious to how many people on this board use album art in iTunes. Post your thoughts on album art :)

[Storm_of_War]

I attach the album art to all of my mp3s.
When I locate the art, I use imageready 7.0 to make everyone of them 300x300, and then save it as a high quality jpeg. It usually takes around 18k. Sure that adds up but nothing major.

[noogabooga]

I grab my art images from amazon.com and the max filesize is 30KB each, so my collection of 4000 songs with album art would add an extra 120MB which is insignificant on a 30G iPod.

I anticipate, in the future, that Album Art will be integrated into mp3 players (displayed while song is playing) and used frequently in media management programs.

[Nobody]

iTMS has become my primary source for music, and all that music comes with album art. I rarely add it to other music, though.

[jerrodh]

I use it. It's nice to have while listening in iTunes... especially with visualizations.

Plus... we never know what features future iPods/iTunes may have that involve album art... and I'd rather do the work as it comes in than all at once when we have the capability to do something cool with it.

[IlIlIlIlIl]

I use mainly album arts from buy.com and walmart.com (really good quality). i feel that album arts add an identity to your songs and makes browsing alot easier.

[alpharuin]

Screw album art. Absolutely pointless.

[jerrodh]

Originally posted by azdude_15GB
I use it. It's nice to have while listening in iTunes... especially with visualizations.

Plus... we never know what features future iPods/iTunes may have that involve album art... and I'd rather do the work as it comes in than all at once when we have the capability to do something cool with it.

Quoting myself:

I can't wait for this feature. It looks sweet!

http://www.ipodlounge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22686&highlight=album+view

[MOCKBA]

I like to keep arts and music in one place. I do not care about extra size.

[Darrell]

It's pointless for me. Perhaps in the future?...

[John_K]

I try to add it as I add a new CD to the library.
Granted it's current uses are limited, but it works for me.

With the release of 4.5, I do like the print feature, and having the art and using mosaic for a cover is a fun feature :-)

[tarheel]

I used to use the "large" images from Amazon.com (or Buy.com or Walmart.com), but found that the files sizes varied quite a bit. Many images were 60-80k and other were well over 100k.

I now use allmusic.com, where all images are a standard 200x200. They also have many albums that others don't have. If I have to get something elsewhere, I resize to 200x200 before adding. All of my albums now have artwork.

[Operator99]

One nice thing about having album art is if you are going to print out your collection (Itunes 4.5) and use the album criteria - btw, make sure your itunes list is sorted before you print or you'll get multiples of the album. The album art will show next to all the tracks - AND for those of you worried about size, the album art only needs to be on one track in the album for it to show in the printout. It is a nice way to able to view you collection. I just print to Acrobat so I can view either on screen or print out.

BTW, otherwise I don't see much use for it until it can become eye candy on the ipod itself.

[ashawley]

I second allmusic.com as the best source for artwork IMO.

Don't use it in iTunes though because you're forced to have the art stored in the mp3/aac file.

My primary media app (JRiver's MC10), allows you to store the art either in the file or externally. So, I use it to store all my artwork external to the file so I don't increase the size.

I've only got a 15giger, so the extra 100MB makes a big difference to me--man, that's 2 albums! :D

Adam