How to add album art with ffmpeg?

Question

I've been stuck in adding album art to mp3 files.

I've already researched and Googled this issue but haven't found a solution yet. The ffmpeg documentation recommends this script to add image (album art) to mp3:

ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -i cover.png -c copy -map 0 -map 1 -metadata:s:v title="Album cover" -metadata:s:v comment="Cover (Front)" out.mp3

But it doesn't work. My console output is:

Unrecognized option 'c'
Failed to set value 'copy' for option 'c'

I looked for another solution and got this:

ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -i cover.png -map 0:0 -map 1:0 -c copy -id3v2_version 3 -metadata:s:v title="Album cover" -metadata:s:v comment="Cover (Front)" out.mp3

This returns the same output:

Unrecognized option 'c'
Failed to set value 'copy' for option 'c'

Anybody can help me, please?

I am using ubuntu 12.04 and ffmpeg version 0.8.6-4:0.8.6-0.

Thanks.

Answer 1

With Recent version,

ffmpeg -i in.mp3 -i test.png -map 0:0 -map 1:0 -c copy -id3v2_version 3 -metadata:s:v title="Album cover" -metadata:s:v comment="Cover (front)" out.mp3

Use -map to associate input stream to the output
Use -c copy to directly demux/remux
The -id3v2_version 3 is what is missing in your command line. Note that that wil write an IDV2.3 but you can ask for a 2.4 (-id3v2_version 4)

with the -id3v2_version 3 option the -metadataoption will be well interpreted

Note: the metadata comment is case-sensitive.

Answer 2

There is an important thing to notice here, that made me loose an hour of work:

ffmpeg -i in.mp3 -i test.jpeg -map 0:0 -map 1:0 -codec copy -id3v2_version 3 \ 
-metadata:s:v title="Album cover" -metadata:s:v comment="Cover (front)" out.mp3

The f in comment="Cover (front)" must be lowercase. If not, the picture type in the ID3 header will not be set !

Another hint that might help somebody: To avoid that a JPEG cover image is converted to png, you have to set -codec copy.

Answer 3

the problem is that you are not defining what codec you want to copy. In case of the audio should be -c:a copy the cover is recognized as video (go figure!!), so -c:v copy

ffmpeg -i audio-in.mp3 -i picture.png -c:a copy -c:v copy -map 0:0 -map 1:0 -id3v2_version 3 -metadata:s:v title="Album cover" -metadata:s:v comment="Cover (front)" audio-out.mp3

Answer 4

This is how I converted a different input/source format (in this example video.ts) to MP3 and also added cover art to the result MP3 all in one go (one command):

ffmpeg -ss 5 -to 13 -i video.ts -i logo.png -map 0:a -map 1:0 -c:1 copy -b:a 320k -id3v2_version 3 -metadata:s:v title="Album cover" -metadata:s:v comment="Cover (front)" result.mp3

NOTE

If ffmpeg fails with error, try to omit -metadata:s:v title="Album cover" -metadata:s:v comment="Cover (front)" from the command.

Description of options used in the command:

Option	Required?	Description
-ss 5	OPTIONAL	specifies the start time (in seconds) from the input
-to 13	OPTIONAL	specifies the end time (in seconds) from the input
-i video.ts	-	the first input (file to convert)
-i logo.png	-	the second input (album/cover art)
-map 0:a	-	from the input 0 (aka video.ts), selects the audio (a)
-map 1:0	-	from the input 1 (aka logo.png), selects the first stream (0)
-c:1 copy	OPTIONAL	sets the codec for second input (image) to copy (no conversion)
b:a 320k	OPTIONAL	sets the bitrate for audio stream to 320k; see accepted values in footnote 1

Thanks to konsolebox for this Stack Overflow answer.

1: Valid bitrates for b:a option:
8k|16k|24k|32k|40k|48k|64k|80k|96k|112k|128k|160k|192k|224k|256k|320k