How to · Serato DJ Pro

Add album artwork in Serato DJ Pro.

Album artwork is stored inside your audio files, not inside Serato. Fix it at the file level once and it shows up everywhere: Serato, your other DJ apps, and your whole library.

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DJ library view showing track list without active player

A clean library starts with properly tagged files.

Add album artwork in Serato DJ Pro, step by step.

Serato DJ Pro reads artwork that is already embedded in your audio files. If artwork is missing you have two options: drag a JPEG or PNG image directly onto the track inside Serato using album art view (Serato writes it to the file), or use an external tag editor such as Mp3tag or Kid3 to embed artwork before Serato picks it up.

Locate the missing artwork

Open Serato DJ Pro 3.x and browse your library. Tracks with missing artwork show a blank thumbnail in the track list. Note the file paths of the tracks you want to fix.

Add artwork inside Serato (drag and drop) or via a tag editor

In Serato: switch to album art view (the artwork view button above the crate list), then drag a saved JPEG or PNG image file from your computer onto the track's artwork area. The cursor changes to a green plus sign when positioned correctly. Serato writes the image to the file's tags directly. Alternatively, open the audio files in a dedicated tag editor such as Mp3tag (Windows), Kid3, or MusicBrainz Picard, paste or drag an image into the artwork field, and save. The artwork is then written into the file's ID3, FLAC, or AAC tags.

Rescan tags in Serato

If you used a tag editor outside Serato, force Serato to re-read the updated file. Open the Files panel (click the Files button above the library), then click the 'Rescan ID3 Tags' button at the bottom of the panel. You can also drag a selection of specific tracks onto that button to rescan only those files. Serato re-reads all embedded metadata, including the newly added artwork.

Confirm the artwork appears

Click the track to load it into a deck. The artwork should now display in the deck artwork area and in the track list thumbnail. If it is still missing, verify the image was saved correctly in your tag editor or that the drag-and-drop write succeeded, then repeat the rescan step.

The catch

Serato DJ Pro includes a drag-and-drop artwork method for individual tracks in album art view. For bulk artwork fixes across a large library, an external tag editor such as Mp3tag or Kid3 is more efficient, followed by using the 'Rescan ID3 Tags' button in the Files panel.

Mood

Euphoric

Melancholic

Mysterious

Energy

Aggressive

Peaceful

Rave

Function

Afterhours

Club

Home

Where Vibes fits

Prep your whole library, not just one track.

Vibes imports your Serato library as-is and works with the same underlying files. Sorting out your metadata and artwork at the file level means every app you use, including Vibes, benefits at once.

See how it works

Import your Serato library into Vibes (reads Serato library and .crate files directly) to see your full collection in one place

Tag tracks by energy, mood, and role using Vibes and Vibe Sort, so your library prep goes beyond artwork to feel and function

Run track analysis in Vibes to get BPM, key, waveform, cue points, and energy curves for every track, ready to export back into Serato

Export Vibes-organized playlists and crates back into Serato as .crate files, keeping your newly tagged, artwork-corrected files in sync

Organize in Vibes, export to Serato DJ Pro.

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

Track 001

Artist A

128

Afterhours

Mysterious

Introspective

Track 002

Artist B

124

Cozy Floor

Peaceful

Home

Track 003

Artist C

132

Rave

Aggressive

Festival

Build & Release

Playlists

Vibes

Mood

Aggressive

Euphoric

Melancholic

Mysterious

Peaceful

Playful

Tense

Function

Arrangement

Sets

Club Night 12/28

NYE Closing Set

Rooftop 01/04

Frequently asked questions

The honest answers, including the trade-offs.

No. Artwork is embedded in the audio file itself, and Vibes does not include a tag editor for writing artwork to files. Fix artwork with a dedicated tag editor such as Mp3tag or Kid3, then both Serato and Vibes will read it automatically.

Serato reads artwork embedded in the file's tags. If the artwork is only stored in a music player's own database (rather than written into the file), Serato will not see it. Use a tag editor to embed the image directly into the file, then reload the tags in Serato.

Not immediately. After you embed artwork with a tag editor, you need to right-click the track in Serato DJ Pro and choose "Reload ID3 Tags" to prompt Serato to re-read the updated file metadata.

Methodology