Ubuntu Tips n Tricks: TechSource: How to Download Album Cover Art in Linux

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

TechSource: How to Download Album Cover Art in Linux

How to Download Album Cover Art in Linux

Posted: 18 Jul 2012 02:47 AM PDT

The way we enjoy music on our computers has changed a lot over time. Earlier, in the good old Windows 2K days, people used to insert CDs and play their favorite songs on Winamp. They didn't know much about the song except for its title (which also used to be its filename). In other words, there was no organization, no grouping, and people used to scatter their music all over their hard disk. However, soon that changed with the advent of iTunes and similar music players. People started paying more attention to organization and thus music files came together to make a music library.

Many other applications switched to this form of music management, thus making metadata (that is, in simpler words, data about data) even more important. Media players like Amarok, Rhythmbox, and Banshee rely heavily on this style of music organization thus turning a computer into a huge jukebox. One of the best parts of this system, however, is that it allows users to browse through their music collections visually. By allowing album art to guide the user to his or her favorite song, applications like iTunes, Songbird, and even Amarok, have successfully managed to wow the crowd.

If you too, like many other Linux users, drool over a perfectly organized music library replete with album art and other metadata, read on as we tell you ways to download album cover art in Linux:

Rhythmbox, Amarok, Clementine, Banshee

Though these applications don't feature a dedicated cover manager (except Amarok), they are pretty much self-sufficient if you're not overly prissy about the artwork.

EasyTAG Tag Editor

EasyTAG is a free and open source application that lets users view and edit tags for MP3, MP2, MP4/AAC, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, and many other file formats. Once installed, the application lets you browse all your music files and then edit them individually or together. One of the best features of EasyTAG is the Autotag functionality, which lets users parse filename and directory to complete automatically the fields.

To get started, first install the application using the following command when using Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install easytag

Then, using the left pane, navigate to your favorite song. Click on it, and then from the rightmost pane, go to the Pictures tab and add the album cover.

Album Cover Art Downloader

Written in Python, this free application is designed solely for the purpose of downloading album covers. The software downloads cover art from various sources like Yahoo! Images, Wal-Mart, and Buy.com. Album Cover Art Downloader is pretty simple to get used to. Once installed, start the app and point it to your root music directory. Select the directory that contains your favorite album and then let the application download album covers for you.

Most of the times, you'd get the correct image; however, if you find ones that are not matching, you can re enter data for the artist and album and then search again. Overall, the app serves as a good album cover manager for Linux users.