When you don't have album art for all the albums in your music collection, you can download artwork from free websites. However, if you need to update a lot of music in your library, this method can be tedious. Software media players like iTunes (now Music) and Windows Media Player can help locate album cover art without visiting album art websites and downloading the artwork manually. Still, even these can be slow or inaccurate.
One way to speed up this task is to use a dedicated album art downloader. These tools search sources of album art from all over the internet, so there's a greater chance of finding the correct artwork.
Album Art Downloader
Supports custom scripts for expanded functionality.
Automatic mode saves you the hassle of searching for images.
No support for tags or renaming files.
Takes some time to configure to your preferences.
Album Art Downloader is a free open-source tool that is regularly updated and regarded by many as the go-to utility for downloading cover art.
It uses an impressive array of sources to find album art and might make the difference when trying to find the correct cover art—particularly for rare albums.
Platform: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP (last updated April 2018)
Bliss
Automatically embeds downloaded album art.
Convenient web-based interface.
No support for multiple library locations.
Limited advanced search options.
The Bliss album art downloader runs in the background as you add music to keep your album art up-to-date. It comes with 500 free album art fixes, after which you are asked to purchase additional fixes. Bliss is iTunes/Music-compatible, but it doesn't support multiple library locations. You'll have to direct it to a single library at a time.
Bliss does more than locate album art. You can use it to define rules by which your library is organized, fill in missing information, and correct inaccurate data.
Just go to the Bliss website and download the version of the software for your operating system. The website offers a quick start tutorial to teach the basics.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, Synology, Docker, Vortexbox, QNAP
TidyMyMusic
Painless installation and set up process.
Import lyrics for many tracks.
Automatically replaces cover art you already have.
Trouble identifying songs not in the Gracenote Database.
TidyMyMusic from Wondershare uses Gracenote, the world's largest music database, to find and fix missing album cover art. You can use it with iTunes/Music and other libraries, including music from CDs, the radio, and YouTube.
Additional features include identifying duplicate music on your computer. It can also add the correct title and artist information to your tracks.
Platform: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP, Mac OS X 10.6-10.11
Cover Retriever
Quick and lightweight.
Free and open-source.
Hasn't been updated in a while.
Fewer features than other programs.
Cover Retriever is freeware that locates album art for MP3s. It uses data from the tags of the music files to search for the art using Google's search engine. Download the application and select the folder where you keep your MP3s. The app seeks missing album covers and saves them on a disk or in an audio file. If it finds several options, the tool asks you to choose the best solution from the album art found.
Save the album art in two ways:
- In the folder with the audio files with the name "cover"
- In a selected audio file as "frame"
Platform: Windows—requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (last updated April 2012)
The Crab
Automatically organizes your albums.
Thorough tutorials and documentation available.
Won't organize your entire music library as a whole.
Extra plugins required for tags and other features.
The Crab is open-source software that finds and downloads cover art for albums. It uses Amazon and Discogs to search for the correct artwork.
Add album art to songs using locally stored images. The program also offers a music tag editor so you can edit specific song metadata information.
Platforms: Windows (last updated April 2012)