itunes artwork not modifiable - is there a fix

Posted by: HuwJ on 01 June 2010

I'm recording my CD collection on my Mac in itunes using the .wav format.

I had one or two CDs with the 'artwork not modifiable' label to start with and now every other CD seems to have the message. I've recorded about 200 and maybe 10 won't show artwork or let me import artwork.

A typical example is Bob Dylan's 3 disc version of Dylan and The Eagles Hotel California. Both are pretty common and the artwork has downloaded on my PC in 320.

I've Googled it and it seems pretty common but no answers seem to be available. Anyone here got any ideas.

I've added an artist, tried changing names (had a few problems there with Dylan Winker).

Regards,
Huw
Posted on: 01 June 2010 by Eloise
iTunes doesn't manage artwork with WAV files very well. Only if the album is found in the iTunes Store will you get artwork.

Either use AIFF (uncompressed Apple equivilent to WAV) or Apple Lossless. Or on a PC (edit: sorry you said Mac - I didn't read that) don't use iTunes - use Foobar or J.River or Media Monkey.

I would also recommend using XLD to rip which is just as easy (once set up) as iTunes but gives you some confidence the rip is made successfully with SecureRip reporting after the rip is complete.

Eloise
Posted on: 01 June 2010 by HuwJ
Hi Eloise,

I'm using my Macbook Pro as the front end at the moment. In the past, where no artwork was available I could still download and paste from a Google search. That option seems to have gone now. It's tempting to think it is iTunes store related but I don't think that is the root of my problem.

I don't seem to have the same issue on my PC in iTunes. All my artwork is present and correct.

Regards,
Huw
Posted on: 01 June 2010 by HuwJ
Just tried Dylan with AIFF and it downloaded the artwork (so it is on the store). I thought I'd use .wav to be as portable as possible and to allow easy import to the new Naim ripper when I get it.

Regards,
Huw
Posted on: 01 June 2010 by Eloise
[QUOTE]Originally posted by HuwJ:
I thought I'd use .wav to be as portable as possible and to allow easy import to the new Naim ripper when I get it./QUOTE]
The problem with that plan is that when you start to transfer WAV files to another player, because of the lack of tags you can end up with

Artist 1
...Album 1
......Track 01
......Track 02
......Track 02

etc. with nothing correctly labeled. Using ALAC (or FLAC with XLD) which support tags will ensure you get track details/tags when you transfer them to another player. Edit: just looked and the HDX and UnityServe both support AIFF - not sure if they will read the tags from AIFF as this isn't 100% universally supported.

Eloise
Posted on: 01 June 2010 by HuwJ
As it happens I have most of my CDs in FLAC on my PC but they won't play through iTunes or I would just move them to the Mac. I was hoping to move the .wav physically on a USB drive and not have to import them.

Regards,
Huw