Where does the Album Art come from?

This may seem like a dumb question but how do you get the album artwork to display for CDs? I get the album name, artist and songs displayed (for those albums Gracenote can recognize) but I never get the album art. I get the album art for my mp3s that have it embedded but that's it.

Answers! I finally ran some tests. First, the settings & background criteria:

* This was done on a USB drive, so I can't guarantee the same results with any other media (CDs whether audio or data/MP3).

* I used MP3TAG as the tagger.

* I used an MP3 for my testing that did NOT have any embedded cover art TAGs, yet displayed artwork when played. Specifically: Artist: Jimmy Buffett, Album:Fruitcakes, Title: Uncle John's Band. It displayed the Fruitcakes cover when I played it.

* I made sure there was NO artwork on the USB drive (folder.jpg, or cover-art.jpg, etc), and I made sure there was no art work embedded to start off. In fact, I used a newly formatted USB drive to make sure it was empty.

* And just to confirm that it goes online to get the art work, I pulled my car into a garage that I know prevents a decent online signal, and no artwork displayed. I then drove out, and it popped up.

Ok, this was all BEFORE I started the tests, to set the baseline.
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First discovery, if there is cover art embedded (TAG'ed) in the MP3, it will use that first. I embedded a random JPG in this MP3, and it displayed that rather than the Fruitcake cover. So embedded Cover-TAGs override any online artwork. Removed that TAG and it went right back to the online cover it had found.

Then I checked what TAGs were already present in this MP3. ARTIST, ALBUM and TITLE were all there, along with several others. So I started playing with those three.

It turns out, and this seems obvious in hindsight, that the cover art is retrieved based on ARTIST and ALBUM. TITLE, which is the individual song title, is ignored. As long as those two were accurate, the cover art was correct. I could change the song title to anything, even random strings, and the cover art stayed correct. Whatever I changed the TITLE to was displayed on the bottom part of the screen, as it always does.

However, changing the TAGs ALBUM or ARTIST to anything else was enough to kill the art display. I haven't played around with slight misspellings, so I don't know if an exact match is required, or if there is some fuzzy logic being applied. I will try that in the next round of experiments.

It also totally ignores the actual file name. Only TAGs affect the display. I changed the filename to some random string, and all behavior remained as described above.

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My next experiments are going to include cover size/resolution, and see what affect they have on the display. Better, worse, etc. Are there limits to resolution resizing, for example. I'll also play with using my own cover art, to get artwork that I want, rather than what Gracenote wants me to see. And the fuzzy logic misspelling I mentioned above.

One thing I did not test is whether folder.jpg in the folder will override anything--either the embedded TAG or the online results. I probably won't test this, as that's a WMP default, and I don't use it or rely on it.

astrohip

Great job! Thanks.

JEG23

Originally Posted by JEG23

astrohip

Great job! Thanks.

JEG23

You're welcome. It was fun to do.

Originally Posted by astrohip

I'll also play with using my own cover art, to get artwork that I want, rather than what Gracenote wants me to see.

I want to try having a pic/JPG of my wife display on a song that I have ready to play when she rides with me. See if she notices and what she says.

astrohip you rock! Thanks for posting your findings!

-Corey

Latest round of experiments...

Amazingly, Gracenote does use some fuzzy logic on matching the song to the cover. I tried it with Jimmy Buffet (s/b two "t"s) and it still worked. Tried it with Fruitcake (missing the "s") and it still worked. No idea how far it will go, but it clearly doesn't have to be perfect.

Then I started fiddling with embedded cover art. I used everything from 300x300 up to 900x900, with several in-between. They all worked. I didn't see any difference in display quality, so anything over 300x300 is probably a waste. I even tried an 1100x900, to see how it handled non-square images. It worked too, without any noticeable stretching.

I even took a pic of my wife and embedded it. Also worked as expected. This creates the ability to have some fun with cover art.

The only drawback to tweaking my own music is the inability to access Gracenote's db. When I come across MP3s that don't display a cover, if I could get to their db, I could figure out what I need to change. Without that access, I will have to embed JPGs to get cover art.

You know that the Gracenote database lives on the harddrive in the CIC and can be updated ?

Originally Posted by gicamuci

You know that the Gracenote database lives on the harddrive in the CIC and can be updated ?

Did NOT know that. Are you sure? I had assumed that there was a cellular connection getting this artwork, but that was an uneducated WAG. I can certainly see how having it reside on the hard drive would make sense. Although the amount of data it would have to hold, to have that many songs, albums and artists would be immense, plus artwork images.

Updated? By the user, or BMW only?

You could always edit the details of the songs by going to the property if u have windows or in itunes, search the song on itunes copy the song details and manually put it on the song that dosent have any artwork after that, go to the option on iTunes to update artwork.

Works every time, the best part is, I don't have to pay a single penny for a song
I do this everytime I download a new song.

Originally Posted by AutoUnion

Nope. A2DP doesn't have that support

That's incorrect. Some applications simply send the artwork and track information, some don't. For example, the "media player" on my Samsung Galaxy Blaze 4g sends all the info (artwork, title, artist) whereas Spotify does not.

Originally Posted by gstephens

I just purchased a 2013 F11 and have been copying my music libary via a USB stick onto the internal storage. I had assumed that it was using a local Gracenote database to display album art but after running some tests, I'm not so sure that Gracenote is used for artwork with music on the internal storage or USB storage.

I'm using mp3tag to inspect my mp3 files and the artwork metadata in particular. I found some mp3 files that had the cover art but the art was not being displayed by the BMW either from the USB stick or internal storage. After running some test, I think that the issue is the size of the image. Some recent music I downloaded had cover art with an image size of 1605x1490 that was not being displayed in the car. When I replaced the cover art metadata with mp3tag, to a smaller 300x300 image the car would now display the cover art.

Technically, it makes no sense to me that they would use Gracenote for CD info but not mp3 files but I'm beginning to believe that's the case. Maybe BMW only licensed Gracenote for use with CD's figuring they could save money but not also paying to license it for use with mp3's.

How do you copy from USB stick onto the storage?! I know how to do it off of CD but can't figure out off of USB.

Originally Posted by K-A

How do you copy from USB stick onto the storage?! I know how to do it off of CD but can't figure out off of USB.

Under Media and options through the arm rest USB port I believe.

I get art work from my hard drive but not from Sirius in the extended split screen. Not sure why.

Originally Posted by gicamuci

You know that the Gracenote database lives on the harddrive in the CIC and can be updated ?

The more I think about this, the more this makes sense. The time it takes to display artwork is very consistent--7 seconds. If it was cellular, the times would vary. The question is... how does it get updated?

Originally Posted by kk22

I get art work from my hard drive but not from Sirius in the extended split screen. Not sure why.

Sirius never displays artwork. Artwork is based on Album & Artist, with no regard for the Track (song). Sirius is Track & Artist based, but not associated with an Album. Therefore no artwork to match with it.

Originally Posted by astrohip

the question is... How does it get updated?

CD-ROM

And for whoever is interested in more details, here's a PDF about the CIC.

Just noticed something weird...

If you have split screen mode on, the artwork takes 7 seconds to appear. Always 7 seconds. It doesn't matter if the split screen has the media display on the left or right, or even on both, it takes 7 seconds.

However, if you have full-screen media display, it comes up instantly. Within 1/2 second.

Weird.

Originally Posted by astrohip

Just noticed something weird...

If you have split screen mode on, the artwork takes 7 seconds to appear. Always 7 seconds. It doesn't matter if the split screen has the media display on the left or right, or even on both, it takes 7 seconds.

However, if you have full-screen media display, it comes up instantly. Within 1/2 second.

Weird.

Its probably running something to interpolate the image correctly.


Astro - Great work. This is good information, and I am totally borrowing your customer art idea. I see lots of applications, not just with the SO, but as a gag, etc.