Been a bit lax in tagging your music with artwork? Well if you get a new iPod, you are going to notice just how important artwork is to the interface. The Nano and Classic interface has advanced astonishingly and features artwork on the righthand side of the screen in menu mode and thumbnails in list views. The Touch will use artwork even more strikingly, filling most of the screen with a cover in portrait mode. And it should be obvious how critical artwork is to CoverFlow, now standard on three of the four iPod models.
It’s not like you don’t have options. The easiest is to update to the latest version of iTunes (which you really should do often) and check the option Automatically download missing album artwork in the General tab of the Preferences. When you import a CD, iTunes will try to find a match in the iTunes Store and will automatically download it. You can do the same thing for CDs you’ve already ripped by clicking one of the tracks and selecting “Get Album Artwork”.
I’ve covered the subject of artwork before. It’s near and dear to my heart. I don’t want to see these new iPods with missing artwork because you will be missing out on the full experience as these iPods are more visual than ever before.
*PS: Get some high-quality artwork from my own site, Album-Art.net. The interface is crude (folder listings) but the artwork is good. My standard is 1000 x 1000 pixels, 100% JPEG quality, colour-corrected. A lot of the artwork is currently at this standard. I’m always adding new covers and upgrading older ones, so you’ll find some useful stuff.
Posted by tunegardener 
