Discover media - contacts photos and music album art?

[matchboy]

So basically all / a lot some of the music I've bought eg iTunes won't show the cover art - even though its been bought legally.

Yet if I had downloaded illegally and then downloaded the cover art it would?  WTF!

[Gryzor]

So basically all / a lot some of the music I've bought eg iTunes won't show the cover art - even though its been bought legally.

Yet if I had downloaded illegally and then downloaded the cover art it would?  WTF!

Streaming from the iPhone, no idea.  But, from SD card, if the album art is not embedded it may not show.  Besides, I've got loads of music purchased from other sites where the album art is embedded.  Part of the reason I prefer it this way is that you can take any single track or combination of tracks, throw them into a folder, and the correct album art will always show.

[matchboy]

So basically all / a lot some of the music I've bought eg iTunes won't show the cover art - even though its been bought legally.

Yet if I had downloaded illegally and then downloaded the cover art it would?  WTF!

Streaming from the iPhone, no idea.  But, from SD card, if the album art is not embedded it may not show.  Besides, I've got loads of music purchased from other sites where the album art is embedded.  Part of the reason I prefer it this way is that you can take any single track or combination of tracks, throw them into a folder, and the correct album art will always show.

So this will work 'straight out of the tin' as it were for all music purchased apart from music bought via iTunes?  So if you've bought via Amazon for eg it will show the artwork - but iTunes won't.  That's ridonculous.

On the plus side, this will now occupy my time converting my library while the long wait continues! 

[mcmaddy]

thats why ianything is sh4te 

[Sootchucker]

It's just how apples iTunes works (rightly or wrongly).

Firstly, any music downloaded officially through iTunes will normally have a DRM (digital rights for media), protection applied to it, which only allows playback through another authorised IOS device (iPod, iPhone, iPad etc.)

So if you want to dump them onto an SD card, the DRM protection first needs removing. And there's plenty of good free software available to do this.

Secondly, as stated by others, iTunes doesn't embed a jpg thumbnail of the album art into the music file. The thumbnails are stored in separate hidden folders either in iTunes or on the IOS device itself. Therefore when you copy some tracks from iTunes onto an SD card, it won't by default have the image already imbedded.

If your music comes from others sources (CD rips, downloads etc), then usually you won't have to bother with removing the DRM protection, but will still need to embed the jpg thumbnail for the album art.

It's a really easy process and I have the freely distributed software to do this on my home PC (however I'm on holiday at the moment), but if anyone needs it when I get back home, just give me a shout.

[Bill_the_Bear]

Firstly, any music downloaded officially through iTunes will normally have a DRM (digital rights for media), protection applied to it, which only allows playback through another authorised IOS device (iPod, iPhone, iPad etc.)

So if you want to dump them onto an SD card, the DRM protection first needs removing. And there's plenty of good free software available to do this.

This isn't *strictly* true.  I've found, much to my pleasant surprise, that both Samsung made mobile phones I've owned will happily play iTunes .m4p files.  Presumably the music players on those phones were able to unlock the DRM somehow?  Saved me a lot of effort, possibly including acquiring "illegal" copies of the very music I'd legally bought, just to get it to play.  DRM is the devil.

But yes, in many cases you need to get the DRM removed first.

However, I've now just paid Apple the subscription they want so that all my music now and future is converted to non DRM so I can avoid the issues I was having with other devices.  However, I resent that I am forced to pay for music and then to pay an annual fee just to be able to use that music.  They try to mask this by claiming that the subscription does other things, not just remove the DRM.  Yet it doesn't change the fact that I was forced to either pay up to use something I already paid for, or go down the illegal route just to get what I paid for... Hardly surprising some people just resort to piracy really!

[Gryzor]

considering android now outsells icrap by at least 3 to 1...

thats why ianything is sh4te 

Mmmm, such strong opinions.  Pointless, and contribute nothing to the thread, but still... 

For those who care or actually have an interest, I must admit, as much as I like their products and OS, I do find Apple's "lock you in approach" rather annoying, which is why I refuse to buy any music from within iTunes.  I just like to be in control of things right off the bat, so the quality of the music, embedding quality album art, proper tagging and file naming etc.  Just means that things like this where I want to copy a chunk of music to an SD card for my car become so much easier.

As already said though, there is a lot of free software out there that lets you remove DRM, embed album art and even re-size it.  Most of it can be done in bulk as well.

[mcmaddy]

considering android now outsells icrap by at least 3 to 1...

thats why ianything is sh4te 

Mmmm, such strong opinions.  Pointless, and contribute nothing to the thread, but still... 

For those who care or actually have an interest, I must admit, as much as I like their products and OS, I do find Apple's "lock you in approach" rather annoying, which is why I refuse to buy any music from within iTunes.  I just like to be in control of things right off the bat, so the quality of the music, embedding quality album art, proper tagging and file naming etc.  Just means that things like this where I want to copy a chunk of music to an SD card for my car become so much easier.

As already said though, there is a lot of free software out there that lets you remove DRM, embed album art and even re-size it.  Most of it can be done in bulk as well.

Not pointless and ianything is sh4te. Why do you think android now outsell iphones more than 3 to 1? Anything that forces you to only purchase from one supplier is plainly just wrong. i wouldnt touch Iphone, ipad, ianythnig with a barge pole. My preference of course.

[Gryzor]

Not pointless and ianything is sh4te. Why do you think android now outsell iphones more than 3 to 1? Anything that forces you to only purchase from one supplier is plainly just wrong. i wouldnt touch Iphone, ipad, ianythnig with a barge pole. My preference of course.

Absolutely it's your preference.  I would also have thought that common sense would tell you why Android outsells iPhone by more than 3:1...it's because Apple are the only manufacturer of iOS devices.  Every other manufacturer makes Android phones, so hardly a statistical surprise is it?!  Yet still they own a significant chunk of the market...  You are not forced to buy music from iTunes, you can buy it from anywhere, and just like Android, if you want apps for it, you are locked to that particular store, so not really sure what your point is, apart from to vent about Apple with no real substance.  At the end of the day, both are great operating systems, both have some great hardware available, and both do the same core tasks we expect of smartphones with ease.  Personal choice and prejudice dictate it really.

[GolfTi]

Time to give up and go for a drive...

I've done the following

Converted all files to mp3
Added tags
Resized cover art to 400x400
It works great on an SD card - but not on the iphone cable or bluetooth (exact same mp3 files).