When browsing your media library by genre in the new Grid View that debuted with the recently released iTunes 8, each genre folder is adorned by gorgeous genre artwork -- as long as you stick to iTunes's default genre names. When using custom genres, or if you're unhappy with the Apple-designed artwork, however, there's a way to add your own custom artwork to iTunes 8.
iTunes 8 ships with a total of 52 genre artwork images, which are plain jpeg files contained in the software's application bundle, and a property list file determines which image is assigned to which genre. Customizing iTunes's genre artwork is as simple as copying an image file into the application bundle and editing the plist file. Here's how.
Locating the genre artwork files
Quit iTunes if it's running and locate the application in the Applications folder. Then, right-click on iTunes's icon and choose "Show Package Contents" from the contextual menu. Open the Contents folder and then the Resources folder.
In short, navigate to /Applications/iTunes/Contents/Resources.
Inside that folder, you will see a list of jpeg files whose names start with "genre-" followed by a genre name like "jazz," "raggae," and "world." (Anyone ever heard of "Kayokyoku" before, by the way?) Those files that feature an uppercase "M" or an uppercase "T" in their names are being used for movies and TV shows, respectively; all others are assigned to music.
While the artwork files that ship with iTunes are sized at 256x256 pixels for music and TV shows, and 171x256 pixels for movies, you are not restricted to these formats, as iTunes will scale them as required. Also, don't worry about the round-edged bezel: iTunes adds this on the fly.
To add custom genre artwork, just copy the image files into iTunes's Resources folder.
Pairing artwork with genres
The pairings between artwork image file and genre are configured via a file called "genres.plist", which resides in the same folder as the image files. This being a standard XML .plist file, you can edit it in a dedicated plist editor like the one that ships with the Xcode development environment, but you can also open it in any plain-text editor. For this demonstration, I've used TextEdit, which ships with OS X, so you don't have to go hunting for any additional software.
Before editing the file, you should create a backup of the property list by selecting the genres.plist file and choosing "Duplicate" from the Finder's File menu. That way, in case anything should go wrong while editing the file, you can always go back to the "OEM version" that came with iTunes.
Right-click on the original genres.plist file, choose "Open with…", and select TextEdit from the list of applications. Inside the file, you will see several <dict> blocks, each of which is one pairing between a genre term and an artwork file: the former is denoted by the matchString property (which, by the way, is not case sensitive) and the latter by the resourceFile property. Thanks to this flexible approach, you can use the same artwork file for more than one genre.
To add a pairing, it's easiest to create a new <dict> block by copying and pasting an existing one, and then changing the line below matchString to the respective genre's name and the line below resourceFile to the artwork's file name. See the screenshot to the right for an example.
Note that the <dict> blocks for movies and TV shows have additional properties: both feature a kind property, and TV shows also have an exactStringMatch property. If you want to customize the genre artwork for movies or TV shows, copy an existing <dict> block for that type -- or, rather: "kind" -- of media and only change the matchString and resourceFile items as described above, while leaving all other details as they are.
When you're done, save and close the genre.plist file, launch iTunes, and check if your custom artwork appears where it should. If not, double-check that you have not made any typos, i.e., that you have entered the correct filename -- don't forget the .jpg file name extension! --, and that the genre term that you have entered in iTunes matches the one in the genres.plist file.
A special case: iTunes løçålîzëd
There is one special case that requires you to take an additional step: if you are using iTunes in a language other than English and you want to change the artwork for one of iTunes's default genres. In this case, you first need to look up the localized name that iTunes uses for the respective genre.
Inside the Resources folder, you can see several folders whose names end in ".lproj". Inside each of these folders, you can find a file called "Localizable.strings", which contains translations of text strings used in iTunes. Open this file from the "English.lproj" folder and then open the same file from the ".lproj" folder of the language that you run iTunes in.
Inside your language's ".lproj" file, search for the genre name whose artwork file you would like to replace. Alternatively, you can browse the list of 100+ default genres that iTunes knows about by searching for the text string "== Genres" inside that file.
Once you've found the genre in your language file, take a note of the number in front of the genre name -- starting with "9200." -- and look up the original genre name for that number in the English "Localizable.lproj" file.
Finally, edit the entry for that original English genre in the genres.plist file, or replace the original artwork file for that genre with your own creation.
As always, back up, back up, back up, ...
Because the genres.plist file as well as the artwork images reside right inside iTunes's application bundle, any update of the iTunes application -- regardless of whether automatic via Software Update or manual by running a downloaded stand-alone installer -- may overwrite your custom image files and most definitely will overwrite the genres.plist file with the default version. Therefore, you should backup these files so you can quickly re-create your changes after an update by copying the files back into the bundle.
P.S.: For the synth-heads among you: the custom artwork I used shows a prototype of John Bowen's Solaris synthesizer.
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thanks 4 ur effort
Ben
While I am not aware of a way to add an actual "New" tab to iTunes's Movies category, you can achieve the same result via a Smart Playlist, as described in A Virtual "New" Tab for Movies in iTunes.
P.S.: Thank's for the inspiration. :)
Michael
Thanks for the info. Japan's music culture has always been a bit of a mystery to me. Maybe Kayōkyoku could be an access point to help change that.
Just wanted to let you know that Kayokyoku is just popular Japanese music, usually not the same as J-Pop or traditional ballads. More like adult soft rock but it's varied in what counts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayōkyoku
Hi,
The "TV Shows" Library (when in the grid view) has a tab called "NEW" (in addition to the GENRES and TV SHOWS tabs); any idea how I can add one for Movies as well?
I have a heap of movies (over 200), some of which I have seen and some of which I haven't; and I'd like to add a tab for the movies I have not seen.
Cheers,
p.s. and yes! I want to keep all 200 movies!
Thanks for posting that
@ Frederik De Zutter
there's a file called genres.list but windows doesn't show the ending so it's just genres.
And another tip: If you use Vista, cut and paste it to the desktop or elsewhere while writing it over and put it back in after that.
For you Windows users out there:
Over at the iLounge website, there's this forum post about adding custom genre artwork to iTunes on a Windows machine.
Also, you might want to give Daniel's iTunes Genre Art Manager a try, which handles all the behind-the-scenes editing for you, and runs on both Mac OS X and Windows.
Any idea how I can accomplish this when I'm running iTunes on a Windows machine. There doesn't seem to be a genre.plist file in the recources directory.
I've been tryin to do this now, however it doesn't seem to come up. No typos in syntax, file correctly saved in the map, file edited correctly, using iTunes 8.1, just like anyone else here.
Main difference, I'm using Windows; however I don't think this may cause it not to work, of course.
Some idea? I know I'm quite some time after the orriginal topic...
Hi all!
I've wrote a little tool that makes it easier to change the genre images. Works for both Windows and Mac OS X. Requires Java.
http://d-gfx.kognetwork.ch/genreman
Enjoy!
Dan:
I haven't used the application myself, but judging from this screenshot, the utility GimmeSomeTune can apparently store artwork it downloaded in a folder instead of inside the music files. More info on the utility is available on its product page.
Maybe this is a feasible work-around for you?
Something which annoys me greatly about iTunes which I have yet to find a solution is the fact that when applying custom artwork to an mp3 it patches it directly into the file. This means a lot of redundant data for artwork that only needs to be applied to an album.
Artwork downloaded from the iTunes store seems to be kept in a separate system... has anyone worked out how to add custom artwork to this so that it is only stored once?
Sorry, a bit off-topic but this has been bugging me forever!
matt:
The ampersand "&" is a reserved character in XML. Try renaming the entry in the genres.plist from "genre-drum&bass.jpg" to "genre-drum&bass.jpg", i.e., replace "&" with "&" to "escape" it (keep the actual file's name as is).
I am trying this for the first time. im certain that there are no typos but im having either the same problem as dave d or the original genre images show but my updated one doesn't. im trying to add a drum and bass image.
the file is called drum&bass.jpg and this is the code i have edited. can some one please tell me why this isn't working
entries
matchStringdrum & bass
resourceFilegenre-drum&bass.jpg
matchStringaction
resourceFilegenre-actionM.jpg
kindmovie
matchStringadventure
resourceFilegenre-actionM.jpg
the rest is unedited so i didn't paste all of it
please please help
thanks
vincent4108:
There's some pretty awesome artwork in that Flickr group. Thanks for the pointer, Vincent!
Custom genre art available here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/itunesgenres/pool/
The new iTunes 8 is now screen reader friendly on both Mac and PC, or use your screen reader to purchase or download content from the iTunes Store. I got it from here: iTunes 8
[Edited URL to point to the official iTunes page, as Apple does not allow distribution via 3rd-party download sites -- Ed.]
Travis Q:
I'm afraid you've found an issue that I forgot to properly mention in the blog post: since the genres.plist file and the genre artwork images are stored right insight the iTunes application bundle (basically, a folder that appears as a single file in the Finder), updating iTunes may overwrite any changes you've made. Hence, you need to make backups of the changed files -- particularly the genres.plist file -- so you can easily re-create any such changes after installing an update.
I'll update the post with a note about this. Sorry I did not cover this initially!
Dave D:
My guess is that you have made a typo somewhere in the .plist file. To make sure that the file is formatted correctly, you can have it checked by using a service like the Validome XML validator.
The "House" genre is explicitly defined in the genres.plist file, linking it to the genre-dance.jpg image. To assign a different image, just change the entry for "House." Generally, before adding your own genres, you may wish to search genres.plist first to avoid double entries.
So I updated to iTunes 8.0.1, and now I can't make custom genre artwork for Grid View. Any one else have this issue?
I have a problem with this;
I added in one or two to see it they worked, and everything went fine. I did the same thing again, adding perhaps 10 more genres, and when I opened iTunes, NONE of the icons showed up, only the assorted cover art, as though no genre icons existed whatsoever.
I can reset this by replacing the original file, but I have done this 3 times, very careful to not make mistakes, and nothing sticks.
Also, is it possible to redirect presets? For example, by default iTunes sets the "House" genre to the "Dance" icon.
That's a very good point,Larry.
Yes, modifying the application bundle will break that application's code signature. Here's a great article at MacNN on codesigning, including information on how you can verify an application file's signature and -- if you have the required access permissions -- how you can re-sign a modified app.
If you do not have any admin access to the machine you're using, I'd suggest not to implement the genre art modifications as outlined in the blog post.
Won't having changed the application bundle screw the application-signing mechanism that's used with Leopard's firewall?!? (My needs: user is not admin; firewall active; iTunes needs ports for Bonjour and AirTunes)
(Background: Right now, if you have your firewall active, any application that listens on a port and isn't digitally-signed will ALWAYS query for an admin password upon launch.)