Zune Marketplace Higher Res Album Art

[ZuneRevolutionary]

I don't know if anyone has heard anything about higher res album artwork in the Marketplace....but I've had to re-download some albums and noticed crisper, higher res artwork.  I do a lot of graphic artwork and like the way Zune30 displays such large artwork...however, I've been unimpressed by the low resolution look of the album covers.  Lately I've notice that album artwork is looking much, much better.

[Trastan]

What?! *goes to check it out*

YOU'RE RIGHT! They're huge now! I opened up a song from Crystal Method's Vegas album, and the artwork filled the entire "Now Playing" screen (with my monitor resolution being 1680x1050)!

Fricking heck, it's about time. They've just silently addressed a HUGE issue that I've had with the marketplace since the beginning. Man, now I'm looking forward to my new 80 much more.

Thanks for the heads up!

[Trastan]

All right, I've just gone through my Zune Pass songs and re-downloaded the ones that I've had low-resolution artwork. So far I've found that every single song I've looked up has gotten high resolution artwork added (looks fantastic, by the way!)

I have found, however, that certain albums/artists seem to be leaving and returning from the marketplace temporarily recently, likely to get the higher-resolution artwork treatment. For instance, Enya completely disappeared a few weeks ago, and now her entire catalog is back. Right now I'm missing some albums from The Crystal Method, as well. Just a little heads-up to those who suddenly can't find their artist/album on the marketplace anymore; it'll be back soon enough, and looking better than ever. 

Way to get your act together, Zune team! I can't wait for Nov. 13th.

[thermodynamic]

Cool, MS seems to be gearing up for the new Zune firmware.

[Scarpad]

Will this carry over for albums ripped? Will the Zune 30gb display the artwork better?

[Ricardo Dawkins]

about time...!

[MrJoe]

I'm going to try to get those on my ripped albums.  I'll try to update my ripped albums with the artwork and let you guys know if all of them have the high res album art.  The new Zune marketplace looks very promising.

[pbg4life]

This is great news.  Glad to see some action on the Zune Marketplace.  Can't wait for the update.

[Topher]

Very nice.  I'm glad MS is finally reacting to our complaints!

[Lord Moon]

I'm going to try to get those on my ripped albums.  I'll try to update my ripped albums with the artwork and let you guys know if all of them have the high res album art.  The new Zune marketplace looks very promising.

And the verdict is?  99% of my music is ripped albums.

[ZuneRevolutionary]

I'm glad to know I'm not crazy...  They definitely preparing for the new Zunes and the new upgrade.  This rocks since I'm a album art fanatic...  The only problem is now I want to just stare at the "perty" artwork...burnin up the battery   It's all good.

[lulbat]

Isn't the display on Zune 320x240?  What difference does it make? 

[Lord Moon]

Isn't the display on Zune 320x240?  What difference does it make? 

Quite a bit actually.  I've notice that songs that have small artwork are fuzzy/blurry while those that have big are nice and crisp.  I'm actually slowly going back through my songs and replacing artwork.

[lulbat]

I used mediamonkey to tag, so I think most of the pics were a good fit for the Zune.  If you replace it with a larger picture, won't it resize to the max on the Zune?   

[Lord Moon]

I don't know for sure. 

Until I rediscovered Media Monkey I mostly used album artwork from AllMusic.com which is kinda small, but looked fine on iPod's lil' screen.  Now that I've moved up to the Zune, I need to redo my artwork.