How to Change an Album Cover

Most CDs come embedded with their own album art, for easier transfer to your audio software.

Album art is the artwork displayed on the physical cover of a musical compact disc or album. When ripping or downloading music to audio software such as iTunes or Windows Media Player, the software often connects to the Internet and automatically installs the correct album art for the song or album. If the album art that the software installed is incorrect, or if you want to change it for some other reason, you can change it quite easily to whatever you want.

Instructions

Selecting the New Album Art

1. Determine what graphic you'd like to use as your album's new cover art in your software. Ensure that you know its location on your hard drive.

2. Right-click and save it to your hard drive first, if it is an image you found on the Internet.

3. Open the directory containing your new album art in Windows Explorer. Click the "Start" button. Select "Computer" and navigate to the directory on your hard drive that contains the graphic image.

4. Double-click the directory folder and scroll until you find your image in the folder.

In Windows Media Player

1. Launch Windows Media Player.

2. Click the "Library" tab in Windows Media Player and browse to the album whose cover you wish to change. Click on its album art once to highlight it.

3. Right-click and copy the new album art in your Windows Explorer window.

4. Click on Windows Media Player in the task bar. Right-click and paste the copied image onto the album you desire. The new artwork should now appear as the album cover.

In iTunes

1. Launch the iTunes software and click the "Browse" tab to launch Browse view.

2. Browse your album library. Click the album whose cover art you wish to change.

3. Click "File" in the upper menu and select "Get Info."

4. Click "Yes" when prompted to indicate if you'd like to change the information of multiple items. Check the box next to the "Artwork" field. This will enable you to edit the album artwork for multiple items.

5. Drag the new album art from your Windows Explorer window into the "Change Artwork" window in your iTunes. Resize both windows until Windows Explorer is over iTunes. Click on the new artwork, and--holding the left mouse button down--move the cursor to the iTunes artwork dialogue box. Release the button. Click "OK" in the pop-up dialogue box, then click on "Yes" to confirm the changes. Your new album should feature your new selected cover artwork.

References

• Microsoft: Add or Change Album Art in Windows Media Player
• Dummies: Adding Album Cover Art or Images in iTunes
• Download Squad: How to Fix Your iTunes Artwork