When MC displays Album Art, it seems to use the cover art metadata from one of the files in the album. But which file? I'm guessing the first, but is that derived from the physical file name, the name in the MC database, track number, or something else? I'm not suggesting there is an issue, just wanting to know how it works. Cheers
My take on it:
1) Individual images in flac files only.1.1) You can embed different artwork in each track of an album, as you know.
1.2) MC's Playing Now displays the track's
recognized embedded artwork when the track is played.
1.3) Cover art for the Album Thumbnail is taken from the first track in the album (ordered by track number) which MC
recognizes as containing embedded artwork (does not have to be Track #1, but usually is). If there is no recognized embedded artwork, then
3) Other Locations below comes into play for both the Track Thumbnails in Playing Now and the Album Thumbnail.
2) Recognition and Caveats for case 1):MC has rather limited capabilities wrt storing multiple images in a single track file and labeling them per
https://id3.org/id3v2.3.0#Attached_picture. MC is limited to one image per file. The program Mp3tag is far more capable in this regard. It can embed multiple images and assign each image a standard Cover Type label, including "Front Cover" (the default).
2.1) If you use Mp3tag, MC will recognize the first image of type "Front Cover" embedded in each file, and ignore the rest. Images labeled as other types are completely ignored and skipped over by MC.
2.2) If a track has no embedded artwork, or no embedded artwork labeled "Front Cover", then no artwork will be displayed in Playing Now or other listing for that track, even if MC finds "Front Cover" artwork per 1.3), except...
2.3) Exception: If there is an image
Folder.jpg in the album directory, then MC will use it as the artwork for any track which does not have a recognized Front Cover embedded. The Album Thumbnail will still be displayed per 1.3), i.e. the first embedded Front Cover takes precedence over
Folder.jpg for the Album Thumbnail.
2.4) If you use only MC to embed single images per track, I presume each image defaults to "Front Cover" type (untested by me).
3) Other Locations.Some of the above may be overridden if MC finds valid cover artwork in other search locations, specified under
Options > File Location > Cover Art, as in the 2.3) Exception. I have not explored all possibilities, but suspect they behave similarly to 1.3) and 2.3).
5/4/2025: Edited for clarity multiple times and added 2.3).
Win 11 64-bit | MC 34.0.23
