How to · Rekordbox

Add album artwork in Rekordbox.

Select the track, open the track information window on the right of the track list, click the [Artwork] tab, and drag a JPEG or PNG image onto it from Finder or Windows Explorer. Rekordbox accepts .jpg, .jpeg and .png only, and drag and drop is the single method its manual documents for track artwork. The detail most guides skip: [Reload Tag] replaces the track information you edited, so embed the image in the file itself if you want it to survive.

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Adding artwork to a track in Rekordbox, step by step.

Rekordbox picks up artwork two ways: from the tag information it reads when a track is added, and from an image you attach in the track information window. Both are documented in the rekordbox 7 manual, and the steps below cover each one.

01

Switch on the Artwork column so you can see what is missing

Click [Collection] in [Media Browser]. Right-click the column header above the track list and the column list appears; click [Artwork] to add it. Drag the header left or right to move it. Now every track without a cover is obvious at a glance, and you can work through them in one pass instead of finding them one by one during a set.

02

Open the track information window

Select the track you want to edit. Open the track information window and it appears on the right side of the track list, with the [Info] tab showing title, artist, album and the rest of the editable fields. This is the same window you use for any manual metadata correction, so fix a wrong album or artist name while you are here.

03

Drop a JPEG or PNG onto the Artwork tab

Click the [Artwork] tab in the track information window, then drag and drop an image from Finder or Windows Explorer onto it. The artwork image is added to the track. Rekordbox lists only JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg) and PNG (.png) as valid formats here, so convert anything else first. The manual documents this one track at a time.

04

Embed the image in the file when it has to travel

An image you attach in rekordbox is track information inside rekordbox. If you want the cover to follow the file into other apps, write it into the file's tag with an editor such as Mp3tag, Kid3 or MusicBrainz Picard. Rekordbox reads ID3 tags from MP3 and AIFF, the meta tag from M4A, Vorbis Comment from FLAC and RIFF INFO from WAVE files.

05

Reload the tag after any change made outside rekordbox

Right-click the track and select [Reload Tag], or use the reload control on the right side of the track information window. Rekordbox reads the ID3 tag information from the track again and reloads it into the library. The manual is blunt about the cost: after reloading, edited track information is replaced with the reloaded information, so the file wins.

06

Add artwork to a playlist as well

Playlists take their own cover. Right-click a playlist, select [Add Artwork], choose an image file and click [Open]. The same JPEG and PNG rule applies. Right-click the playlist again to display the image you added. Hot Cue Bank Lists work the same way, with [Add Artwork] on the right-click menu, which is handy when you keep separate banks per genre.

07

Check it where you will actually see it

Back in the browser, the [Artwork] column now shows the cover, and clicking it previews the track from the beginning. If you play from USB, export the track to the device and load it on the player. On a CDJ-3000 the jog display shows the artwork of the loaded track, which is the real test that the image made it out of your laptop.

The catch

WAVE files are the weak spot. Rekordbox reads tag information from WAVE only through RIFF INFO, and its manual warns that a WAVE file's tag information may not be displayed at all. If artwork has to live in the file, MP3, AIFF, M4A and FLAC are the safer formats, because rekordbox reads ID3, meta tag and Vorbis Comment from them in full.

DJ Software

Rekordbox

Import XML or Database

Serato

Import Library Database

Traktor

Import NML Collection

Engine

Import Engine Database

File System

Local Folder

Scan directory

Audio Files

Select files

The faster way

Fix the rest of the metadata in one pass, then send it back.

Artwork is one field out of many, and it is usually not the field costing you time. Vibes imports your rekordbox collection with the Import Wizard, analyzes every track for BPM, key, energy curve and sections, and lets you correct per-track metadata in Track Inspector with bulk re-analyze for the rest. When the library is clean, export playlists and vibes straight back to rekordbox. Vibes does not write artwork into your files, so keep a tag editor for that one step.

See how it works

Import Wizard reads your rekordbox collection directly, and Smart Import auto-detects which app a library came from

Track Inspector edits per-track metadata, with bulk re-analyze for BPM, key and energy across the whole library

Auto-Tagging and Vibe Sort sort tracks into vibes, with tag import from the Genre, Mood and Grouping fields

Export playlists and vibes back to rekordbox as a folder tree, with optional Camelot key or BPM sub-folders

Organize in Vibes, export to Rekordbox.

Your playlists, tags, ratings, and cue points travel back to the gear you play on, so nothing you do in Vibes is locked away.

Frequently asked questions

The honest answers, including the trade-offs.

In rekordbox, select the track, open the track information window on the right of the track list, click the [Artwork] tab, and drag a JPEG or PNG file onto it from Finder or Windows Explorer. Outside rekordbox, a tag editor writes the same image into the file's own tag, which is the version every other app and player reads. Both routes are covered in the steps above.

Artwork lives in the audio file's tag. Rekordbox reads ID3 tags in MP3 and AIFF, the meta tag in M4A, Vorbis Comment in FLAC and RIFF INFO in WAVE, so a JPEG or PNG written into one of those shows up wherever the file goes. Embed it with a tag editor, then right-click the track in rekordbox and choose [Reload Tag]. For the wider cleanup, see fixing track metadata.

Crop it to a square and export it as a JPEG or PNG. Those are the only two formats rekordbox lists for track artwork, and album art is square by convention, so a 1:1 crop avoids surprises when the image is drawn small. Any image editor will do the crop. Then drag the file onto the [Artwork] tab, or embed it in the audio file first with a tag editor.

Three practical sources. The store you bought the track from often ships a cover image in the download folder, or shows one on the release page. Community databases such as MusicBrainz host cover art for most commercial releases. For bootlegs, edits and your own productions, make a square image yourself. Whatever you use, save it as a JPEG or PNG before you bring it into rekordbox.

Same route as adding it: open the track information window, click the [Artwork] tab, and drag the new JPEG or PNG onto it. If the artwork is embedded in the audio file, change it there with a tag editor instead, then right-click the track and choose [Reload Tag] so rekordbox re-reads the file. The manual warns that reloading replaces the track information you edited, so make the file the source of truth.

For rekordbox it is JPEG or PNG, because those are the only two its manual lists for track artwork: .jpg, .jpeg and .png. JPEG is the safer default for photographic covers, since it keeps the file small and every tag editor writes it without complaint. PNG is worth it for a logo or flat-color art with hard edges. Inside rekordbox the two behave the same.

Usually the image is not in the file. Rekordbox loads tag information when a track is added, so artwork embedded after that import stays invisible until you right-click the track and choose [Reload Tag] to read the ID3 tag again. WAVE files are the other common cause: rekordbox reads only RIFF INFO from them, and the manual warns their tag information may not be displayed. Check the [Artwork] column is switched on too.

No. Vibes does not write artwork into your audio files, so the [Artwork] tab or a tag editor stays the tool for that step. What Vibes does is the rest of the prep: import your collection, analyze BPM, key and energy, correct per-track metadata in Track Inspector, then export back to rekordbox. Doing the same job elsewhere? See Serato, Traktor and Engine DJ.

From a Vibes customer

The import worked perfectly. Have created several sets now and my life is so much easier

Danny

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Methodology

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Reviewed by Ben Modigell, founder of Vibes and a working DJ in Cologne.

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Every step is checked against the current version of Rekordbox.

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Last reviewed June 2026.

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