User:Reosarevok/How to Add Cover Art

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Through the Cover Art Archive

Adding cover art is usually done through the Cover Art Archive. For that, go to the page of the release you want to add art to and click the "Cover Art" tab. Press the "Add Cover Art" button and you'll be taken to a form:

cover-art-add-01.jpg

Press "Choose File" and select the file you want to upload. Currently only .jpg files are allowed, up to a limit of 15 MB per file. Both original images (for example, the ones included with a digital download) and scans are allowed; if you're planning to scan your releases, we recommend doing it at 300dpi.

Then select the type or types that apply to the image: see our list of types. You can select more than one type by pressing Ctrl while clicking, for example if an image includes the back of a CD with its spines. There is also a field for adding a short comment if you want to specify something about the image (like "misprinted first pressing").

You can also indicate the position the image should be stored and shown in, for example to keep a booklet in order (when adding the first image to a release, you can obviously ignore this). Just move the image to the desired position with the arrows:

cover-art-add-02.jpg

The image with type front which is closest to the first position will be used as the release front cover (and displayed in the sidebar). The image with the type back which is closest to the first position will be used as the release back cover when fetching art, and in the future might be also available from the sidebar in some way.

Enter an edit note and submit your edit.

Through other means

If for some reason you can't add the image to the Cover Art Archive, you can create a relationship between a release and Amazon, using the "has Amazon ASIN" relationship, or create a relationship to one of our other supported cover art sites.

Note: It is important to only add cover art from sources that have given us permission to do so. See our list of cover art sites to see which domains are supported and how to go about adding support for additional domains.

To create a new cover art link, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the release you'd like to add cover art to.
  2. Click on 'Relate to URL'
  3. Select the 'has cover art at' link type (Note: Use 'has Amazon ASIN' if adding an Amazon URL)
  4. Enter in the URL

In most cases when entering the URL it is important to paste it, not type it, or the server may not be able to parse it properly.

Domain specific notes

Amazon

When adding Amazon cover art do not use the 'has cover art at' link type, use the special 'has Amazon ASIN' link type instead.

The URL will be parsed by the server and modified upon pasting, make sure it is in the following form:

http://www.amazon.tld/gp/product/ASIN.
Where tld is the country code and ASIN is the 10 or 11 character ASIN code.

Do not link to a cover art image directly, the URL should always be in the above form.

Things to remember:

  • Do not add URLs to products that are only sold by custom sellers (those that don't have an Amazon price).
  • Use the right regional Amazon! Don't link to amazon.de if the release is British, link to amazon.co.uk
  • Be careful to add the right ASIN to the right release version. You should not link a CD release to a vinyl or MP3 page! You should also make sure the Amazon page is for the right barcode; you can use Nikki's nice ASIN to barcode converter for it.

For more information see the Amazon relationship type page.

CD Baby

Enter the URL of the release page, e.g. http://cdbaby.com/cd/esposthumus.

Jamendo

Enter the URL of the release page - taking care to remove any language specific path, e.g. http://www.jamendo.com/album/1003/ not http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/1003/

Internet Archive (archive.org)

Archive.org requires linking directly to the image file, but since it does not have a consistent scheme for music URLs and cover art URLs you need to add a separate 'get the music' link to the music page, e.g. http://www.archive.org/details/xgn017_-_dissident. You may choose any of the 'get the music' link sub-types. This will link in the cover art and make sure the 'info' link below the cover art goes to the right place.

Other sites

When adding cover art from a supported site enter the URL to the image itself (i.e. ends in .jpg or .jpeg) Cover art can be added from a restricted number of other sites, using the CoverArtRelationshipType. For any of these sites, follow the instructions at CoverArtSites as to the type of URL to add.

Related How Tos

Further Information

How-To Pages
Introductory Guides
Basic How-Tos
Specific How-Tos