[LarsHP]

Over the years I have spent litterally hundreds of hours getting high quality album art / cover art for my music files. Usually I search the net for a good sample in at least 700 x 700 pixels and even though I may find a good one after a thorough search, I almost always edit it to straighten it up, remove dust and specks, get the contrast and colors correct etc. etc. To me, high resolution files like 1500 x 1500 is pointless if the file is full of dust, blurry, way too contrasty or otherwise bad.
 
Many times I even edit the pictures embedded in the hi-res files (24-bit music files with cover art) that I buy at respected online stores, because they have often less than wonderful album art. When the album is a CD rip, I can of course scan the cover, but the cover is not always in good condition and in the end it's much easier to just search the net and download a good sample.
 
Now I want to upload my pictures to a site where all this work could be offered to others: high quality album art for everyone! I actually did find a site that is dedicated to this: 
http://www.albumartexchange.com/
- and the album art at that site is REALLY of very high quality.
 
However, it seems that the site might not survive without people donating ...
http://blog.albumartexchange.com/?p=6549
... and I don't want to do all the work uploading the pictures, if it's going to be taken down anyway.
 
I have of course no commercial interest in this - only an interest as described above. I will donate, but hope that others will do the same so we can all benefit from the more than 361.000 cover art images in the database.

 

[LarsHP]

 
Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 w Claudio Abbado, Berliner Philharmoniker, Sony
 
This album art is scanned, however the gold becomes black when scanning. I have then photographed the album cover too and cut out the golden logo and inserted it to the scanned image. Click on the image for larger picture.

 

[LarsHP]

 
Brahms - Violin & Double Concert / Violinenkonzert & Doppel Konzert w Herbert von Karajan, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Antonio Meneses & Berliner Philharmoniker, DG
 
Cover art is photographed for gold to show. Click on the image for larger picture.

 

[LarsHP]

 
Schumann & Greig - Piano Concertos w Krystian Zimerman, Herbert von Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker, DG
 
As mentioned above: For the gold to show, I have photographed the cover / album art.

 

[LarsHP]

 
Holst - The Planets w Herbert von Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker, DG
 
Album art photographed for gold to show.

 

[LarsHP]

 
 
Mozart - Great Mass in C Minor / Grosse Messe C-Moll w Herbert von Karajan, Barbara Hendricks, Janet Perry, Peter Schreier, Benjamin Luxon, Berliner Philharmoniker, DG
 
Album art photographed for gold to show.
 
(Edit: New image with corrected color and tone.)

 

[linglingjr]

Wow I'm the same exact way. Super ocd about album art lol.  I've spent plenty of time in photoshop removing dust and watermarks when there's no better scans online.  
 
Thanks for sharing the site, I'll upload all the stuff that I couldn't already find, but what's the point of posting them in this thread? Just to bump it?  I hope they stay online.

 

[LarsHP]

 
Pie Jesu - a Decca compilation with works by Duruflé, Fauré, Webber, Massenet, Mozart, Schubert, Dvorak, Verdi, Gounod, Berlioz and Britten. Various artists.
 
Again: Album art photographed for gold to show.

 

[LarsHP]

  Wow I'm the same exact way. Super ocd about album art lol.  I've spent plenty of time in photoshop removing dust and watermarks when there's no better scans online.  
 
Thanks for sharing the site, I'll upload all the stuff that I couldn't already find, but what's the point of posting them in this thread? Just to bump it?  I hope they stay online.

 
Well, I thought I wanted to upload the pictures to make them available for everyone and because the mentioned web site apparently doesn't allow more uploads.

 

[LarsHP]

Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade & Russian Easter Ouverture w Yuri Temirkanov, New York Philharmonic, Glenn Dicterow (violin)
 
Photographed for gold to show.

 

[LarsHP]

 
Elgar - Enigma Variations, Falstaff, Grania, Diarmid, Incidental Music & Funeral March w Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
 
(Map of UK & Ireland in gold)

 

[LarsHP]

 
Berlioz - Te Deum w Sir Colin Davis, London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
 
Photographed for gold to show.

 

[ElectricWarrior]

You should check out http://fanart.tv
They're always happy to have OCD contributors there.
 
Cover quality there is rather good and the site is accessible via API, so that Media Centers and other software can download covers automatically - unlike AAE, where they're trying to prevent that kind of stuff.

 

[LarsHP]

  You should check out http://fanart.tv
They're always happy to have OCD contributors there.
 
Cover quality there is rather good and the site is accessible via API, so that Media Centers and other software can download covers automatically - unlike AAE, where they're trying to prevent that kind of stuff.

Thanks for the tip.
 
However, they only accept 1000 x 1000 pixel images and most of my album art is 700 x 700 pixel, so I can't contribute (much) there.

 

[ElectricWarrior]

 
Thanks for the tip.
 
However, they only accept 1000 x 1000 pixel images and most of my album art is 700 x 700 pixel, so I can't contribute (much) there.

You're welcome.
1000x1000px sure can be a bit overkill, but I guess in times of high definition phone screens they've become a necessity.
I usually can't get that much resolution from a CD cover, but I do scan them at 600dpi to be able to descreen them properly. So my original files are a fair bit larger than 1000x1000.
Vinyl scans at 1000x1000 look a lot better - they're so worth the effort!
 
Maybe you could keep fanart in mind for future covers? I'd love to see your stuff there!