Adding Artwork to Genre Listing in iTunes 11

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The screenshot below is from iTunes 11 and shows a listing of a few of my music genres under the "Genres" heading. As you can see, some of the listings don't have artwork. I created some of these genres myself such as "Jazz Neo-bop" and "Halloween". The "Halloween" listing automatically populated with the artwork from one of the albums inside it, but "Jazz Neo-bop" did not.

I've right-clicked on a genre and selected "Get Info" and attempted to add artwork, however the program then asks if I want to change artwork for multiple albums which, of course, I don't want to do.

I had the same problem under iTunes 10 and I was able to add artwork to the genres, but I don't recall exactly how I did it. iTunes 11 seems to be an entirely different animal (although I've grown to like it tremendously after using it for a few months; even better than iTunes 10).

Any clues how to add artwork to the Genres listing?

Screen Shot 2013-02-03 at 11.39.44 AM.png
 
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chas_m

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NORMALLY, if you have genres that iTunes doesn't happen to have genre art already for, it will use an example album cover as the art for that genre. However, of course, if you don't have album art in that category then iTunes has nothing to draw from, so the "fix" is to add art to the genre examples.

You could decide to lump these sub-categories into the regular "Jazz" category and that would solve the problem. You can REPLACE Apple's genre art with a preference if you like:

A quick Google search turned this up. I've adapted the Windows instructions for Mac hierarchy:

To change the genre artwork in iTunes 11:

1. Close iTunes.
2. Right-click on the iTunes program in Applications. Select "Show Package Contents"
3. Choose the "Resources" folder
4. You will see a bunch of jpg (picture) files. They will be named like this: genre-drama, genre-action, etc.
5. Just delete the picture for the particular genre that you want to change.
6. Find a picture you want to use and save in the iTunes.Resources folder. Label it [genre-whatever]
7. Open iTunes. Your genre should be labled with the picture you saved in the iTunes.Resources folder.

IMPORTANT CAVEATS:

a. You would probably be smart to size your replacement art the same size as the one you're replacing (512x512 if you're curious).
b. If you don't back up your iTunes library before monkeying around with the library like this, you're just BEGGING for trouble. Generally, you should stay far away from messing around inside the iTunes package, you can EASILY ruin the program and lose data.
c. No, as far as I can tell you can't create artwork for new genres, though I may be wrong about this.
 
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NORMALLY, if you have genres that iTunes doesn't happen to have genre art already for, it will use an example album cover as the art for that genre. However, of course, if you don't have album art in that category then iTunes has nothing to draw from, so the "fix" is to add art to the genre examples.
Thanks for responding, Chas. All my albums have artwork. I've painstakingly searched the web for nice, clear album artwork and added it to each album. So, that wouldn't be the issue for me.

You could decide to lump these sub-categories into the regular "Jazz" category and that would solve the problem.
Very true. However, I prefer having my Jazz collection sub-categorized so I can easily pick and choose the type of music I want to hear. My Jazz collection is so large and there are so many styles represented, sometimes its difficult to remember specific artists and their associated style.

You can REPLACE Apple's genre art with a preference if you like:

A quick Google search turned this up. I've adapted the Windows instructions for Mac hierarchy:

To change the genre artwork in iTunes 11:

1. Close iTunes.
2. Right-click on the iTunes program in Applications. Select "Show Package Contents"
3. Choose the "Resources" folder
4. You will see a bunch of jpg (picture) files. They will be named like this: genre-drama, genre-action, etc.
5. Just delete the picture for the particular genre that you want to change.
6. Find a picture you want to use and save in the iTunes.Resources folder. Label it [genre-whatever]
7. Open iTunes. Your genre should be labled with the picture you saved in the iTunes.Resources folder.

IMPORTANT CAVEATS:

a. You would probably be smart to size your replacement art the same size as the one you're replacing (512x512 if you're curious).
b. If you don't back up your iTunes library before monkeying around with the library like this, you're just BEGGING for trouble. Generally, you should stay far away from messing around inside the iTunes package, you can EASILY ruin the program and lose data.
c. No, as far as I can tell you can't create artwork for new genres, though I may be wrong about this.
Thanks for these tips and thank you for taking the time to search Google. Messing around in the iTunes package is something I'd not feel comfortable doing. With my luck, I'd REALLY mess something up!

Here's another question I have, however. Is the METAL genre an iTunes "default genre"? I can't recall if I created the Metal genre in my previous iTunes library or whether iTunes created it when I began ripping my Metal CDs a few years ago. I have quite a lot of Metal music and iTunes 11 doesn't display artwork on its genre label either. I might be mistaken, but I thought previous versions of iTunes populated the Metal genre with artwork. It looks like iTunes 11 doesn't do that.
 
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chas_m

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Jazz and Metal ... you seem like an interesting dude ... :)

You created the Metal genre. My copy of iTunes doesn't list it.

PS. Incidentally I figured out how to add new genres -- it's just like the "replace" steps I detailed before, but with the added bit that you also have to edit the genres.plist file to add in your new genres. I'm really going to have to play around with that sometime ... :)
 
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Jazz and Metal ... you seem like an interesting dude ... :)
Haha.. thanks! Yes, I enjoy quite a variety of music. Everything from classical to country to jazz to acid metal and everything in between... :)

You created the Metal genre. My copy of iTunes doesn't list it.
OK, I wasn't sure about that one, it's been so long since I created it.

PS. Incidentally I figured out how to add new genres -- it's just like the "replace" steps I detailed before, but with the added bit that you also have to edit the genres.plist file to add in your new genres. I'm really going to have to play around with that sometime ... :)
All I did to add a new HALLOWEEN genre was to highlight all the songs on the album, select "Get Info" and type in Halloween as the genre. Presto, iTunes created a new HALLOWEEN genre.

Screen Shot 2013-02-08 at 10.53.32 AM.png
 
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chas_m

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Nice! Apparently it will add some new genres if it recognises the term you are using (I'll bet "Christmas" would work too). I doubt that trick would work for "hip-hopera" or "funky college indie," though ... :)
 
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Nice! Apparently it will add some new genres if it recognises the term you are using (I'll bet "Christmas" would work too). I doubt that trick would work for "hip-hopera" or "funky college indie," though ... :)
I've previously replaced all my HOLIDAY-labeled songs with CHRISTMAS (using versions of iTunes prior to 11). The CHRISTMAS genre label populated with artwork from one of the albums inside it when I updated to iTunes 11, but I can't figure out why the other few genres didn't do the same. It's kind of quizzical.
 
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Change genre artwork in iTunes 11

I just have add to the iTunes/contents/resources a file genre-biography.jpg
genre-biography.jpg


and added these lines

<dict>
<key>matchString</key><string>biography</string>
<key>resourceFile</key><string>genre-biography.jpg</string>
</dict>

to genres.plist and it works!

Thanks for help.
 

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