I'm looking for go-to sites that have tons of album artwork at iPod-ready 600x600 or so. Google images is usually a last resort, as it requires too much digging for the most part.

This site has been very helpful: http://www.albumartexchange.com/ but is lacking on obscure stuff. My musical tastes vary quite a bit.

Any huge databases out there that you folks have found helpful?

Thanks in advance.

Are you looking for actual official album art?

Can't help you there. Well, there is this site http://2leep.com/0/1/27/ from which you'll find links to loads of different stuff including pictures - some beautiful, some obscure, and some downright weird. But that's only of use to you if you're going to make your own art from it.

Which begs the question - why don't you make your own? The amount of time and effort that's usually spent on album art these days, even if you only spend 5 minutes making your own, you'll do a better job.

Or save yourself all the hassle and don't bother with album art. After all, it doesn't change the listening experience. Or does it?

Ah, I just clicked on your http://www.albumartexchange.com/ link (which I should've done first really). So I guess you're one of those 'ridiculously obsessive' people who must have album art for everything. In which case, ignore my previous post, it won't be much use to you.

I regret hitting "Get Album Artwork" because iTunes retrieved the wrong cover for so many albums.

Especially compilations.

I use Album Art Exchange too.

If I don't find what I'm looking for there, my next port of call is Discogs.com. I might have to crop, resize and clean-up the images, but it's worth it because I'm geeky like that.

actually i bought a really awesome program called Tune-Up that does that for you. it searches your iTunes and any songs without artwork it finds and adds for you.

squirrelgrease said:

I have to tell you, I find most of my art via Google Images. I can put most anything in, specifically, and find anything from a 600px square up to 800px (I don't go much bigger than that, usually.) Gemm.com might have some, and also I've found decent consumer scans on Amazon.com at times.

If I can't find a decent cover in Google images then I scan the CD covers myself and save them as 600 x 600 pixels. I've had to do that quite a few times with my goth stuff.

I just drag mine from amazon.com

AsylumUtopia said:

Yep. That's me.

GirlBrother said:

I hadn't considered Discogs. Good idea.

ButterscotchPimp said:

I might look into that. iTunes quite often comes back with no hits for my stuff, or the wrong cover altogether.

Cinnie said:

I almost always add my own file.

ernestsewell said:

Yeah, I do the google images too when I have to. I was really looking for some more online cover art repositories like albumartexchange.com. My problem using google is that I tend to get sidetracked easily as clicking on an image link often brings me to a blog on that album with all sorts of goodies I have to peruse.

sextonseven said:

I hear ya. I just don't like to go that route. I have 7,000 CDs and I'm working very slowly towards compiling them for iPods and media servers.

Genesia said:

Works in a pinch. I like a higher resolution for my TV. Call me anal.

squirrelgrease said:

Whoa! Where do you store them all? I have around 2,000 and they take up an entire wall.

sextonseven said:

Lots of shelves in my basement.

squirrelgrease said:

Take a pic sometime.

squirrelgrease said:

I prefer bing's image search ( http://www.bing.com/images?FORM=Z9LH ) to Google's (you can just scroll, instead of clicking through pages), but both have advanced features where you can specify size/shape. Hope this helps!

squirrelgrease said:

ernestsewell said:

It's an embarrassing mess.

Ace said:

I'll try that. I've never Binged, but this may be a reason to *gasp* go Microsoft for a bit.

scififilmnerd said:

I know. I was an obsessive collector for many years, but have toned it down significantly.