How do you add cover art to Google Play music?

Google Play Music is a popular streaming music service where users can upload their personal music library and stream tens of millions of songs from the Google Play catalog. Cover art is the image that represents an album or song and is usually displayed alongside the music title and artist name. Cover art is an important part of the listening experience, helping users identify and recognize albums and songs. With streaming services like Google Play Music, cover art takes on an even greater significance since users don’t have physical albums with artwork. In the digital space, cover art provides visual flair and context that enhances music discovery and navigation. This guide will explain how to easily add or edit cover art for your uploads in Google Play Music using either desktop or mobile apps.

Why Add Cover Art?

Adding cover art to your music in Google Play serves several useful purposes. Most importantly, cover art makes your library look far more organized and aesthetically pleasing. Seeing album covers neatly displayed for each artist gives your library a polished look compared to just having a list of track names.

As one blog discusses, album art enables you to “visualize your digital music library.” Having cover art makes it “easier to skim through your library and find what you’re looking for.” The visual element allows you to “connect and rediscover forgotten albums.”[1]

Cover art also helps identify songs when listening on shuffle or radio mode. Glancing at the art provides an instant reminder of what you’re listening to. Overall, adding cover art improves the aesthetics and functionality of your Google Play music library.

Finding Cover Art

The easiest way to find high-quality cover art for your music is to search online. Many services like iTunes, Amazon Music, and Discogs have official album artwork that you can legally download and use.

A quick Google search for “[album name] cover art” or searching directly on one of these sites will usually turn up what you’re looking for. For older or more obscure albums, you may need to dig a little deeper, but official cover art is out there for most releases.

Services like iTunes and Amazon tend to have the largest selections of cover art. For very niche music, specialty databases like Discogs can be helpful. Just make sure the artwork you use doesn’t have any watermarks or text overlays showing it’s from a particular service.

Using clean, original album artwork helps give your music library a polished look and avoids any issues with low-quality or unofficial art. Taking a few extra minutes to find official cover art is worth the effort.

Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQZ6yRNPLY8
https://www.plexopedia.com/plex-media-server/general/edit-library/

Adding Art in the Desktop App

You can easily add or edit album art in the Google Play Music desktop app. Here are the steps:

1. Open the Google Play Music desktop app and select a song or album you want to add art to.
2. Right click on the song/album and choose “Get Info.”



3. In the info popup, click on the blank art space.



4. Choose “Add…” and select the image file you want to use from your computer.



5. Click “OK” to set the new album art.
6. The art will now appear for that album/song in your library.

That’s it! The desktop app makes it easy to customize your library with album art.

Adding Art in the Mobile App

Adding custom album art directly through the Google Play Music mobile app is easy. Just follow these steps:

1. Open the Google Play Music app on your Android device.
2. Navigate to the album or song you want to add art to. Tap on the three dots in the upper right corner.
3. Select “Edit info” from the menu that pops up. This will open the editing screen.
4. Scroll down and tap on the empty album art icon. This will give you the option to choose a photo from your gallery or take a new photo to use as the art.
5. Select your image and crop it if needed. Tap “Save” when you are done.

The new album art should now be updated on the album or song. You may need to close the app and re-open to see the new art populate.

Here is a screenshot showing the editing screen:

And here is the option to select a new photo:

Editing Metadata

To edit the metadata of songs in Google Play Music to include cover art, you will need to edit the ID3 tags. This can be done using desktop apps like Star Music Tag Editor or Automatic Tag Editor. These apps allow you to add cover art images to the tags of MP3 files stored locally on your computer.

Here are the general steps to edit ID3 tags using these apps:

1. Install and open the desktop tag editor app
2. Add the MP3 files you want to edit to the app
3. Edit the metadata like song title, artist, etc
4. Click the cover art tab and add your image file
5. Save the changes which will write to the ID3 tags

Once the edits are saved, the updated metadata with cover art will sync to Google Play Music when your music is uploaded. This allows you to customize the info displayed in your library.

Troubleshooting Tips

If you are having issues getting cover art to show up properly in Google Play Music, here are some common troubleshooting solutions:

Make sure the cover art is saved in the correct metadata format. Google Play Music looks for images saved as .jpeg or .png files in the music file’s metadata tags. Check that the image is the right file type and is actually embedded in the track metadata.

Double check that the app has permission to access storage on your device where the music files are kept. Go to your phone settings and confirm Google Play Music has storage permissions enabled. If not, enable it and see if that fixes missing artwork.

Completely uninstall and reinstall the Google Play Music app. Sometimes clearing the app data and cache isn’t enough and a fresh install of the app is needed. After reinstalling, make sure to sign into the same Google account that has your music library.

If you recently added new music, try restarting the app or your device. This forces Google Play Music to rescan your library and pick up changes. Newly added albums sometimes don’t show cover art right away until the app rescans files.

As a last resort, delete the app data and/or unlink then relink your Google account. This will clear your library and download a fresh copy of all your music and metadata from the cloud.

Check the Android Central forums or Reddit for other users experiencing similar problems and solutions.

Automating the Process

Instead of manually adding cover art one album at a time, you can use automation tools to quickly add artwork to multiple albums or songs. Here are some apps that can help:

Album Art Changer is a free app that can search for and download album art, then automatically add it to your music files. It lets you batch edit cover art for multiple albums at once. The paid version unlocks additional features.

Album/Cover Art Finder is designed specifically for fetching and applying missing album covers. It can scan your music library and find art for each album with one tap. This makes it easy to add art for your entire collection.

Using automation tools is much faster than manual per-song edits, especially for large music libraries. They provide an efficient way to finally add that missing cover art you’ve been meaning to fix.

Alternative Music Apps

While Google Play Music is a solid option for streaming your music library, there are several other popular streaming services to consider as well. Each one has its own pros and cons.

Spotify is one of the most widely-used music streaming services, with over 400 million active users as of 2022 (Source). The free ad-supported tier gives you access to Spotify’s full music catalog. The premium version removes ads, enables downloads for offline listening, and has added features like higher quality audio. However, Spotify has faced criticism for how little it pays artists per stream compared to competitors.

Apple Music has over 90 million subscribers as of 2022 (Source). It integrates tightly with iOS devices and focuses on expert-curated playlists. The audio quality is excellent. But the mobile app is not as polished as Spotify’s, and Apple Music does not have a free tier.

YouTube Music allows ad-supported streaming from YouTube’s catalog of official songs, covers, and remixes. The paid version removes ads, enables downloads, and includes YouTube Premium for ad-free video streaming. However, YouTube Music lacks some features available in other services like Spotify Connect.

Overall, while alternatives exist, Google Play Music still holds its own as a top option for enjoying your personal music library across devices. The choice comes down to your specific needs and preferences.

Conclusion

Adding cover art to your uploaded music in Google Play Music can greatly enhance your listening experience. With just a few simple steps, you can add eye-catching album artwork that will display in the mobile and desktop apps.

The process involves uploading the artwork file, editing the metadata to link it to your songs, and saving the changes. This can be done manually track by track, but there are also options to speed up the process for entire albums.

While Google Play Music keeps getting replaced by YouTube Music, the same principles for adding art still apply. The artwork makes your library feel more complete and personalized. Just be sure to use high quality images that properly represent the music.

With the power of metadata editing, you can truly make your music shine and stand out, even within the confines of a streaming service. Album art remains a staple of the listening experience. So spruce up your Google Play and YouTube music libraries with some visual flair through custom artwork. The tools are there for the perfect playlist aesthetic you want.