How Do I Embed Album Art in MP3 Files?

By Aramenta Waithe

Many portable music players display album art.
i Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News/Getty Images

MP3 files have the ability to store more than just audio data. Using the built-in tagging capabilities of the MP3 file format you can add data such as artist and song names and genres. You can also embed album art in an MP3 file. Most software media players can show album art when you play a song, as can many personal media players such as the iPod. Embed album art using Media Player in Windows 7 or iTunes on a Mac.

Windows 7

Run Windows Media Player from the Start menu. You can also double-click an MP3 file to run Windows Media Player if it is your computer's default music player.

Locate the MP3 file in the Media Player library. If the song that you want to add album art to is not in the library, drag it to the Media Player window and drop it.

Right-click the MP3 file and then select Find Album Info. Media Player searches online for music matching the selected MP3 file and displays thumbnail images in a new window.

Click the thumbnail containing the correct album art, and then click "Next."

Click "Finish" to add the album art to the MP3 file.

Mac OS X

Run iTunes from the dock or the Applications folder.

Click the Advanced menu at the top of the window, and then select Get Album Artwork to have iTunes find the artwork for all the songs in the iTunes library. Alternatively, right-click a single MP3 file and select Get Album Artwork to have iTunes find the album art for that song only. If iTunes finds the correct album art it modifies the MP3 file automatically. If iTunes is unable to find the album art, continue to the next step.

Right-click the MP3 file and select Get Info.

Click the Artwork tab.

Drag an image file to the Artwork tab and drop it. Alternatively, click the "Add" button, locate an image file on your computer and double-click it.

Click "OK."

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