How to Add Album Art in Windows Media Player

Add missing album art or customize WMP music with your own images

Stacks of album covers from The Beatles

swedewah / Getty Images

by Mark Harris
Brings music expertise, including a background as a music producer and composer, to digital music articles.
Updated April 15, 2019

If Windows Media Player doesn't download the correct album artwork with an album or you want to add your own custom images, you can do it manually. Check your music library to see which albums are missing cover art. Then, find replacement album art and paste it into the correct album.

How to Add Art for Album Covers

  1. Click the Library menu tab at the top of Window Media Player 11 main screen.

  2. In the left panel, expand the Library section to view the contents.

  3. Click on the Album category to see a list of albums in your library.

  4. Browse the albums until you see one with missing album art or with art you want to replace.

    Windows Media Player showing current albums.

  5. Go to the internet and locate the missing album art by typing the name of the album and the artist into a search field. If you already have the image you want or made a custom image of your own, locate the image on your computer.

  6. Copy the missing album art from the internet. To do that, locate the album art and then right-click on the album art and select ​Copy Image.

  7. Go back to Windows Media Player > Library.

  8. Right-click the current album art area and select Paste Album Art from the drop-down menu to paste the new album art into position.

    Pasting album art in Windows Media Player

  9. Verify that the correct image pasted into the box.

Album Art Requirements

To use an image file as new album art, you need an image in a format that's compatible with Windows Media Player. The format can be JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, or TIFF.