How can I update my MP3 files to have the album art within the MP3 file?

A. When you use Windows Media Player (WMP) to rip a CD to MP3 format, WMP uses its own method to save the album art, which is in the form of a number of images in the folder that the album is ripped to. This method works fine for WMP, but other applications don't understand these folder images and expect to find the album art in the MP3 file's metadata.

You can choose from a number of applications that take existing MP3 files and add album art to the MP3 metadata, which portable MP3 players and other players can then use. The application I use is MediaMonkey (http://www.mediamonkey.com). The free, basic version suits my needs just fine, but you can also choose the gold version, which requires registration.

After downloading and installing MediaMonkey, you can add tracks via the File, "Add/Rescan tracks" menu option. Once the tracks are visible, select all the tracks and select "Auto-Tag from Amazon," which will connect you to Amazon for information about the selected songs. If you don't see a match in the Amazon search area, you can type other search words, and at the bottom of the screen you'll see the matches the program makes. Check boxes are available for information you can tag to MP3 files. If, for example, you want only the album art inserted into the MP3 file, you can clear all boxes except the cover. You can then click Auto-Tag to add the information to the MP3 files. This capability is great if you have partial information about an album; this tool will add full song information to every track.