Album Art Downloader is a free Windows tool that searches many online music databases at once to find cover images for a collection, then saves them into album folders under names players already expect.
Album Art Downloader is a Windows application that fills the missing covers in a digital music collection. You give it an artist and album name, and it queries a long list of online sources at once, showing every candidate image it finds with its dimensions and origin so you can compare them side by side. Its second mode is more useful for large libraries: point the file browser at a folder of albums, and the tool reads the tags, groups tracks by release, and walks you through each one. Selected images are saved into the album folders using naming presets, so media players, portable devices, and servers pick them up without extra renaming.
Album Art Downloader exists because cover art is often the first thing lost in a collection that has been ripped, re-encoded, and moved between drives. Online databases rarely agree on which scan is authoritative, so the program does not decide for you: it collects options, flags weak results, and lets you judge. You can also install extra source scripts, which matters because music services keep changing their pages and the community repairs those scripts rather than waiting for a new release. Downloads of large lossless albums tend to be the ones with the messiest artwork metadata, so pairing this tool with a download manager such as Motrix keeps the queue moving while you tidy covers in another window.
A tidy collection matters more than it sounds, because artwork is what most players, phones, and car stereos use to identify a release at a glance, and a missing picture turns an album into a folder of anonymous tracks. Album Art Downloader handles that chore in bulk rather than one album at a time, which is the difference between a weekend of manual searching and an hour of reviewing candidates. Because every result is shown with its size and source, you can aim for a consistent look instead of mixing a 300-pixel thumbnail with a 1500-pixel scan, and the resizing and format options let you standardise whatever you keep. Saved files follow naming conventions that players recognise automatically, so nothing needs renaming afterwards. The program is free and open source, and its source scripts mean it keeps working even as the sites behind it change.
Key capabilities and highlights.
Queries many online music databases at the same time and lists every candidate it finds, with image dimensions and the source name beside each result, so you can compare scans properly instead of opening a browser tab for every store.
Point it at a folder tree of albums and it reads the tags, groups tracks into releases, and presents each album that still needs a picture, letting you work through an entire library without typing artist names by hand.
Sources are defined by plugin scripts, so new shops and databases can be added and broken ones repaired without waiting for a program update, and extra scripts can be dropped into the sources folder whenever you need them.
Presets control the file name, target folder, image format, and size limit used when saving, so a single click can place a correctly named cover into every album folder according to rules you define once.
Candidates appear as thumbnails with their pixel dimensions and file size printed alongside, and keyboard navigation moves through the list quickly, so telling a genuine high-resolution scan apart from an upscaled thumbnail takes seconds instead of guesswork. Repeats from the same source stay grouped, which keeps long result lists readable.
Saved images can be converted between JPEG and PNG, re-encoded at a chosen quality level, and capped at a maximum width or height, which keeps file sizes sensible for portable players and satisfies software that refuses oversized or unsupported artwork. The same settings apply across a batch, so a whole library ends up consistent.
Where a source supplies them, back covers, disc art, booklets, and artist photos appear alongside the front cover in the results list, so an album folder can carry a fuller artwork set than the front image alone. Each type can be saved with its own preset and file name.
Covers are written using the conventional file names that players, media servers, and portable devices look for, and any custom pattern can be defined, so artwork shows up in your software without editing a single tag afterwards. That makes it practical to repair a library another ripper left half finished.
Browse historical releases and previous builds.
No old versions have been added yet.
Common questions about Album Art Downloader.
It searches online music databases for cover images and saves the one you pick into the correct album folder, so a collection that lost its artwork while being ripped or converted can be repaired in bulk.
Yes. It is open-source software released under the GNU General Public License, with no paid edition, adverts, or account required, and the extra source scripts are free downloads as well.
It is a Windows desktop application. There are no official macOS or Linux builds, so other operating systems need a different tool for the same job.
From a set of source scripts that query online shops and music databases. Those scripts are separate files, so they can be updated or added independently whenever a site changes its layout.
Yes. File Browser mode scans a folder structure, groups the tracks by album, and lets you step through every release that lacks a cover, which is far quicker than searching album by album.
No. It writes image files into your album folders. Most players read a file named folder.jpg or cover.jpg automatically, but embedding a picture inside each track still requires a tag editor.
Yes. Save presets set the output format, quality, and maximum dimensions, and the file name pattern is configurable, which keeps artwork consistent across an entire collection.
Yes, wherever the underlying source provides them. Back covers, disc images, and similar extras can be collected alongside the front cover, which helps when you want a complete set for an album.
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