Album Art Tips

[Tony Wilson]

Here are some preliminary findings which may cause some to re-think 
their album art strategies:

While individual cover art file sizes are small, the real size change 
of the mp3/acc is much greater!

Source             	pic Size	file Size	mp3/acc file size gain

AllMusicGuide		200x200	 20kb	  52kb per

Amazon.com   	300x300	  24kb	  116kb per

WalMart.com   	500x500	  48kb	  195kb per

iTunes Store    	340x340	   ?  	  170kb per


I got these figures by measuring an album folder size before and after 
adding artwork and dividing by track file count. This was reversed in 
the files from the iTunes store; I measure the folder size then deleted 
the album art. This was done only on a small sample so others may get 
varying results.

This suggests the actual and cumulative effect of adding album art is 
much greater than just measuring the album art file size as a separate 
jpeg file. If these numbers are consistent then I will NOT be adding 
large art to every mp3/acc file. Instead I'll use the smaller AMG cover 
art on all except the first song file in an album folder. I'll only add 
huge and multiple artwork to the first song file.

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Tony