How To Get iTunes Album Art Without Using iTunes

A friend shared with me an interesting tip, which allows one to get iTunes album art without using iTunes, but instead from a web browser. Since I always want to add album art to my music when I rip CDs, and don’t always find it in iTunes (select the tracks, Control- or right-click and choose Get Album Artwork), this technique, which is brilliant yet simple, will save me a great deal of time.

Start by doing a Google search for the album whose art you’re seeking. Do the search like this: [artist] [album name] site:itunes.apple.com. This restricts the search to Apple’s iTunes web site, where you can see information about items on the iTunes Store via a web browser.

You’ll get results such as the following:

Click on the link that corresponds to your album. You’ll see a web page. In most cases, the page will attempt to redirect you to iTunes. There are two ways to prevent this. The first is to press the Escape key as soon as the page loads, but before the redirect occurs. The second is to use, if you have Safari, the NoMoreiTunes extension. This blocks the redirect, but, as you can see below, provides a button you can click if you do want to switch to iTunes.

Next, Control- or right-click on the album art you see. Choose Open Image in New Tab, or Open Image in New Window.

Click in the URL in the address bar; you’ll find a section at the end of the URL like this:

170×170-75.jpg

Change the 170s to 600, so the URL ends like this:

600×600-75.jpg

Press Return. A larger image will now load:

Control- or right-click on the image and either copy it, by choosing Copy Image, or download it, by choosing Save Image to Downloads. You can now add this 600 pixel image as album art.

Note: in some cases, 600 pixel images are not available, but 700 pixel images are. If you don’t find a 600 pixel image, try using 700 in the modified URL above.

Mac OS X Lion Freezes – Is iTunes the Culprit?

I recently posted an article about Lion video freezes occurring with my new Mac mini. There were clear error messages, showing that this is related to the previous Lion video freeze problem I experienced.

Since then, I’ve a couple of other freezes, unrelated to video. And looking at the logs at the time they occurred, it looks as though iTunes is the guilty party, and, in particular, the usbmuxd process, which is a daemon used for communicating with iPods and iOS devices. My guess is that, with Wi-Fi updating, these devices remain “mounted,” as far as iTunes is concerned, and that, at times, iTunes looks for them and can’t find them.

I had a freeze this morning, but my music was still playing in iTunes, so I connected to the Mac mini via ssh. I was able to perform a number of operations, showing that, while the computer was frozen on a GUI level, this was not the case at the lower level. After about seven minutes, the Mac mini “unfroze,” and everything went back to normal.

At the time of the freeze, a number of messages were written to console logs:

11/22/11 11:42:15.758 AM com.apple.usbmuxd: _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x1012ea960): sending attach for device 5c:59:48:92:eb:ae@fe80::5e59:48ff:fe92:ebae._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
11/22/11 11:42:15.989 AM usbmuxd: _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x102f81000): IPv4
11/22/11 11:42:16.482 AM ath: _AMDDeviceAttachedCallbackv3 (thread 0x101acd960): Device ‘AMDevice 0x102b73fe0 {UDID = XXX, device ID = 86, FullServiceName = 5c:59:48:92:eb:ae@fe80::5e59:48ff:fe92:ebae._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.}’ attached.
11/22/11 11:42:16.482 AM ath: _AMDDeviceAttachedCallbackv3 (thread 0x101acd960): Device ‘AMDevice 0x102e1d840 {UDID = XXX, device ID = 86, FullServiceName = 5c:59:48:92:eb:ae@fe80::5e59:48ff:fe92:ebae._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.}’ attached.
11/22/11 11:42:16.482 AM iTunes: _AMDDeviceAttachedCallbackv3 (thread 0x11f92f000): Device ‘AMDevice 0x7fcfa64775a0 {UDID = XXX, device ID = 86, FullServiceName = 5c:59:48:92:eb:ae@fe80::5e59:48ff:fe92:ebae._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.}’ attached.
11/22/11 11:42:18.028 AM AppleMobileDeviceHelper: _AMDDeviceDetached (thread 0x19c32c0): Device ‘AMDevice 0x8df3bf0 {UDID = XXX, device ID = 85, FullServiceName = a4:67:06:45:79:cd@fe80::a667:6ff:fe45:79cd._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.}’ detached.
11/22/11 11:42:18.230 AM AppleMobileDeviceHelper: _AMDDeviceAttachedCallbackv3 (thread 0x19c32c0): Device ‘AMDevice 0xbc62dc0 {UDID = XXX, device ID = 86, FullServiceName = 5c:59:48:92:eb:ae@fe80::5e59:48ff:fe92:ebae._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.}’ attached.
11/22/11 11:42:44.522 AM com.apple.usbmuxd: _SendDetachNotification (thread 0x1012ea960): sending detach for device 5c:59:48:92:eb:ae@fe80::5e59:48ff:fe92:ebae._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _BrowseReplyReceivedCallback got bonjour removal.
11/22/11 11:42:44.522 AM ath: _AMDDeviceDetached (thread 0x101acd960): Device ‘AMDevice 0x102e1d840 {UDID = XXX, device ID = 86, FullServiceName = 5c:59:48:92:eb:ae@fe80::5e59:48ff:fe92:ebae._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.}’ detached.
11/22/11 11:42:44.522 AM iTunes: _AMDDeviceDetached (thread 0x11f92f000): Device ‘AMDevice 0x7fcfa64775a0 {UDID = XXX, device ID = 86, FullServiceName = 5c:59:48:92:eb:ae@fe80::5e59:48ff:fe92:ebae._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.}’ detached.
11/22/11 11:42:44.522 AM iTunes: _NotificationSocketReadCallbackGCD (thread 0x10dd71960): Unexpected connection closure…

Note that I have replaced my device’s UDID by “XXX.” The device in question is my iPod touch; it’s the same UDID that shows up in every message.

So, is iTunes Wi-Fi syncing causing freezes? Anyone else seeing this?

Update: I’ve had about one freeze per day, and the last few freezes show GPU debug info in the Console logs, as described in this post, so I think it’s safe to rule out iTunes as the guilty party.

Update 2: It turns out that there is something wrong with the video card – since I get GPU debug logs in Console – but also, perhaps, a problem with the SSD. Apple is exchanging the Mac mini for a new one, and I should have the replacement in a week. In the mean time, it freezes several times a day…

iTunes Match Feature I’d Like to See: CD Matches

While I have some issues with iTunes Match – notably the fact that it doesn’t match very well – I was ripping some CDs today, and realized that there is one feature that could be very useful.

I got a 12-disc set of Murray Perahia playing Mozart’s piano concertos, and had to spend a long time ripping the CDs. Wouldn’t it be great if you could insert a CD on your computer, have iTunes match it, then have it added to your library without needing to rip the discs? While you’d have to download the music, it’s still less labor-intensive than ripping CDs, at least for multi-disc sets.

I can see the reason why this wouldn’t work – it’s too easy for a friend to bring their CD collection to your home, and for you to insert one CD after another, matching them, then downloading the tracks. But since you could also just rip that friend’s CDs, it’s not that much of a difference, other than the time saved.

You may ask why I am buying 12-disc sets of music on CD rather than from the iTunes Store or Amazon? It turns out – paradoxically – that most classical box sets are much cheaper than they are by download. I bought this set from Amazon FR, for €30; on iTunes, it’s €60, and it’s not available by download from Amazon FR. Go figure.

How Many Matches Does iTunes Match Match, When iTunes Match Does Match Matches?

Apple introduced iTunes Match earlier this week, and I haven’t written anything about it, given that my colleagues at Macworld have done such a good job. I’m also busy working on an update to my Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ, which I hope to have finished very soon. (I also have some criticism of iTunes Match, which I wrote about for Macworld: iTunes Match shouldn’t shun those with big libraries.)

In the meantime, what has perplexed me in my experiments with iTunes Match is the number of tracks that aren’t matched. In some cases, a single song may not be matched, even though the rest of an album is matched – Lex Friedman, writing at Macworld, pointed out that in many cases, one song on The Beatles’ Abbey Road (She Came In Through the Bathroom Window) wasn’t matched, even though all the others were. (It turns out that in Lex’s survey of people who tried to match that album, I was the only person who did see that song matched.)

But it’s very odd that some things match and others don’t. I don’t think it has to do with Apple’s recognition algorithm, and suspect that it’s more of a bug. I’ve seen a number of cases where one or more tracks won’t match, even among items that I had purchased from the iTunes Store.

This morning I did an experiment for the people at Hyperion Records (who are one of my sponsors). They asked me to check two albums: one that is sold on the iTunes Store, and has sold quite well, and another, a compilation, that is not on the iTunes Store, but whose individual tracks are all available from the iTunes Store on different discs. The results were surprising: in both cases, some, but not all tracks were matched. In the first example, two of 14 tracks were not matched and had to be uploaded; in the second example, only 8 of 20 tracks were matched. The screen shot below shows the results (click to see a larger screen shot).

I’m perplexed by this, and I wonder how exactly Apple matches tracks. The album above that is sold on the iTunes Store uses exactly the same tags as in the files I tried to match, so if Apple were only matching by tags (which they are not), it would be a perfect match. I know they use some sort of acoustic fingerprinting, and I wonder what causes certain tracks to not be matched.

I have no answers here, simply evidence of the oddity of iTunes Match. If you have other interesting examples to share, feel free to mention them in the comments.

Addendum: it’s worth noting that if you have iTunes match files with poor or non-existent tags, you won’t get tagged versions of those tracks when you redownload them. iTunes stores your tags, and doesn’t supply tags based on their matches.

Apple Lossless Codec Goes Open Source

Apple’s Apple Lossless codec, or ALAC, used to create lossless music files that are compatible, has gone open source, and is available under the Apache license. This is a very big event for music fans. While the FLAC format is widely used to distribute music in lossless format, it is not compatible with iTunes (or rather iTunes doesn’t accept FLAC files).

Apple created the Apple Lossless codec to be able to provide a lossless format with iTunes, deploying it in April, 2004. In my opinion, they created their own lossless format rather than use FLAC out of the fear that FLAC might have been encumbered by patents, which would leave Apple open to patent trolls. (Microsoft does not support FLAC in their Windows Media Player software either, undoubtedly for the same reason.)

Very little music is currently sold in Apple Lossless format, and music distributed in FLAC format needs to be converted to ALAC for iTunes compatibility – many programs can do this, including the free XLD, but it’s an annoying additional step. I had heard from several classical music labels that Apple had harassed those that had tried to sell in that format some time ago. (It’s worth noting that Kirkville sponsor Hyperion Records recently started selling their music in Apple Lossless format, together with FLAC and MP3, and met with no problems.) Now, with ALAC being open source, it is likely that we’ll see much more music sold is this format; I would expect any online dealer of lossless files to offer this format in addition to FLAC, because so many people use iTunes, and these files can be added to an iTunes library immediately with no conversion.

Apple Lossless provides full lossless quality, in files of similar sizes as FLAC. As a lossless codec, there is no loss of sound quality when converting CDs or other master files into this format. Apple Lossless supports high bit rates and sample rates, and according to an Apple forum post, can handle up to 24 bits and 352.8 kHz. (I have converted files in Apple lossless at up to 24/192.) And I note that Gimmell Records is selling Apple Lossless files in up to 24/176.4, as of today.

It will be interesting to see if other software and hardware start offering support for Apple Lossless. If they do, this format could potentially overtake FLAC in the music market.

Two New Macworld Articles: Ripping CD Box Sets and a Review of Dragon Dictate

I’ve got two new articles on Macworld today. In the first, I look at issues that arise when you rip box sets of CDs. And in the second, I review Dragon Dictate 2.5, the speech recognition program that lets you talk instead of type.

iTunes, Full-Screen View and AppleScript Applets

One of the marquee features in OS X Lion is full-screen view. Using this, your menubar withdraws from the screen, and your window takes up a tad more space. I don’t use this much on my 27″ iMac – may main computer – with the exception of for iTunes. Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a big music fan, and have a huge iTunes library. (Currently about 75,000 tracks.) With iTunes in full-screen view, I can eke out a bit more space to view my music.

I’m also an obsessive tagger. Whenever I add music to my iTunes library, either by ripping CDs or by adding downloads, I ensure that the tags fit my personal tagging scheme. To do this, I use a number of AppleScripts from the Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes web site.

Doug Adams recently updated a script I use often, Remove n Characters from Front or Back, turning it into a nifty applet which is far more useful than previous incarnations. Unfortunately, when using iTunes in full-screen mode, applets simply don’t work well. Since they spawn their own windows, they can’t display over the iTunes window, and bounce to another space. This is a shame; when I want to use such applets, I need to take iTunes out of full-screen mode.

This behavior can be confusing. Fortunately, Doug came up with a dialog explaining this to users. His applet detects when iTunes is in full-screen mode, and, if so, shows the following:

This means that users have to either move the applet’s window back to the iTunes space, but it’s actually easier to take iTunes out of full-screen mode. It’s a shame that AppleScript works this way. This will be the case for a number of applets, and is especially unfortunate because AppleScript, in Lion, can access Cocoa frameworks, and create applets that can do much more than previous versions of AppleScript.

iTunes Store Gripe: Why Do I Have to Download Files I Don’t Want?

I grabbed a couple of free TV show episodes from the iTunes Store today, and I was faced with a problem that’s existed since the iTunes Store started offering TV episodes in HD. I had to download not only the HD versions, but also the SD versions. So, for the three shows I downloaded, I had to also download nearly 2.5 GB of files that I will simply put in the trash as soon as they’ve finished.

Why, oh why, does this continue? I understand the reason for offering both formats when you buy or download HD shows: some older iPods, or the iPod classic, can’t handle HD. And you may want the HD files for your computer or Apple TV, and the SD files for those devices. But, heck, can you let us decide if we really want to download all those files? I, for one, don’t want the SD files. I watch TV shows on my MacBook Air or my Apple TV. And every time I grab something on the iTunes Store, it’s the same story: one or more hours of downloading that I don’t want. There’s no way to tell the iTunes Store that, no, you don’t want a file. If you delete it from the Downloads playlist, it simply respawns the next time you launch iTunes.

So, Apple, let us choose to not download these files. Even though I have fairly good bandwidth, it’s still a couple of hours that I don’t need to waste on downloading files I don’t need.