A great idea that could use a few improvements:
1) I have to restart Sputnik everytime I restart iTunes.
2) Won't use the cover art I already have in iTunes. Would like to use the cover art I've saved for certain playlists, albums that don't appear on Amazon, etc.
3) Volume control would be nice.

Is there some way to close iTunes without closing the widget? I'd like for it to stay in place all the time.

It's cool, simple, and the other widgets like this mess up my computer it seems. Just needs a resize option, because it's too small for me!

Sorry - forgot to mention that the naming convention used is Amazon's own catalogue number, also known as the ASIN. It is clearly displayed on each items page.

...continued

Method 2
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1. Let Sputnik find the correct image for you.
2. Go to the folder where the image has been downloaded into. This is the 167x167 pixel size image that Sputnik is currently using.
3. Right-click on the image and choose "Rename".
4. Copy the filename and hit ESC to cancel the rename.
5. Go to the following URL, replacing IMAGENAME with the filename you just copied, but remove the ".jpg" part of the filename:
"http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/IMAGENAME.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg"
6. Amazon will present you with the 300x300px version which you want to use in i-Tunes and to attach to the file itself.
4. Right-click on this image and choose "Save As".
5. When it prompts you to name it, choose to overwrite the existing file in the folder that you are saving them to.
6. Drag this image into i-Tunes to update your Album artwork.

I've done this process on ALL my albums and it doesn't kill you and works rather well. On top of that, I am copying

..continued

Finally, to address the comments that everyone is making regarding the file sizes, there is a workaround, but you probably won't like it (please note that this is based on using Amazon.co.uk and not Amazon.com etc). In essence, you need to find the image of the album cover that you want to use and then RENAME it with the filename that Sputnik gives you as this is what it has found based on the database information it has downloaded. Easy, eh?

Method 1
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1. Let Sputnik find the correct image for you.
2. Double-click on the title of the CD and it will open up the Amazon site for you.
3. Click on the picture of your album cover. This is the 167x167 pixel size image that Sputnik is currently using. When it loads the enlargement, you will get the 300x300px version which you want to use in i-Tunes and to attach to the file itself.
4. Right-click on this image and choose "Save As".
5. When it prompts you to name it, choose to overwrite the existing file

*sigh* Mis-posted my comments over on the APPLE version of Sputnik, so here goes! This widget is fantastic, but only gets 3 stars due to the lack of ability and/or documentation on how to customise the HTML output. This may be down to the lack of support for RSS, XML and JavaScript output as per the Apple version, which I hope the developer will fix in a later release. I've looked at (for instance) intelligirldesign and she has customised her output to fit in with her style which is something I would love to be able to do.

Otherwise brilliant. I was immediately able to get the FTP working and publishing the output to my site. Also worth looking at the developers site as there is a nice little i-Tunes style flash file which also dynamically publishes your history. I haven't tried it on the Windows version so it remains to be seen if that works or not.

Finally, to address the comments that everyone is making regarding the file sizes, there is a workaround, but you probably won'

1.1 still doesn't work behind a proxy.. =(

Hi, just upgraded to 1.1. for Windows. However, color CD cases are not uploaded. Plus the ratings.gif image is missing. That gif is loaded (as the source code implies) from the server where the RecentlyPlayed.html file is placed, however, there are no other files. Please help! (Check it at http://www.adplusplus.net)

Amazing -- all it needs is the ability to adjust the size (even a second fixed size, double the current size would be great), and ability to pick up embedded in MP3 art first, before resorting to Amazon (I don't need to download every album cover AGAIN ;)).

A bonus would be the ability to star rate tracks -- but the above two things would be 99% perfect :D

Jesse, Winamp? Certainly you must be joking.

I love it, but I'd love it more if you would make it work with winamp

Now that I upgraded to 1.8.1 Windows Konfab, Sputnik says it can't find my iTunes anymore (which hasn't moved) :( -- till then it was a neat little app

Fantastic widget. My one request would be the ability to drag new art in that Amazon.com doesn't have.

How about a bigger version? That'd make me happy and I'd give it a "****"

sorry ran out of room :)

here's the url for the wall ablum cover:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000006TRV.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

So obviously, I'm not going to be able to guess the album cover....is there a trick or some sort of naming convention, or some sort of a way to figure out what the amazon album title is..?

Thanks!

This thing is great! However, I've got a lot of music ripped on my Itunes (PC), and the albums and songs are titled using the IMDB. It seems like a fair number of the records between Amazon and IMDB don't match up, and I don't get an Album cover.

For example, for Pink Floyd's the Wall, IMDB gave Itunes for Disc One, "The Wall-Disc 1". But on Amazon, the only reference I could find was..."The Wall (Deluxe Packaging Digitally Remastered)" So I wasn't getting an album cover. When I switched my Itunes album info for the songs to "The Wall (Deluxe Packaging Digitally Remastered) ", this also didn't find anything. When I changed it to simply the wall, that did the trick.

That's all fine and well, but I tried to "guess" a couple other albums, and wasn't able to get it....for example changing IMDBs Mermaid Avenue Volume II to Amazon's Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, didn't retrieve the album cover....

I went "The Wall" page on Amazon, and this is the url of that particular image:

A very good and promising widget :) As others have mentioned, I'd love for this widget to check for local MP3 art before checking Amazon, and a choice of sizes would be great too. But it's looking good!

Very Cool Widget! It's a bit small for my screen resolution and it would be even cooler if you could adjust the size.

Resizing would be great ! Most covers are at least 400xsomething and on 1600x1200 Sputnik is real tiny...

Great Great Program! I love it, but I think it would be a better widget if it didn't have to download the cover-art to your computer.

Great!, but could you add the "Use cover in mp3 folder" function, please?. Then it will be perfect for me.

Thanks for your work. :)

It should work through a proxy server ... but it doesn´t!
Otherwise it would be great!

This seems like a great app! However, I don't think its been tested from behind a proxy server. I'm at work and Sputnik isn't able to get any album covers.. =( Does it check the internet config settings? Also would be nice if it first checked the mp3 file for the album cover. I've got half of my collection already with the album cover but Sputnik doesn't know that. =)

Great Widget ! Some suggestions so... I would be grat if the widget would check for local album art first because that is most likely the best match.

yeah it's a cool widget, but from the point of view of an Macuser or Apple enthousiast. On a Mac, iTunes is the musicPlayer by default but on Windows I don't like it so much, look good but heavy "windowing", slow reactions... I think iTunes is interesting for thoses who have an iPod. So, I'd rather to use other musicplayers as Winamp or WMP10...
So, maybe this widget could be greater again if it could let user have the choice of the Musicplayer, no ?

Way to go! Awesome widget! Now I don't have to download each album's artwork individually. Thank you!

The only thing keeping this widget from getting 4 stars is customization. Like to not include stars or smaller/larger pics, and some albums get pulled wrong. For example, the Weezer self-titled CD always comes up as Pinkerton for some reason... but it's great and I love it! Keep up the good work!

Great app, but it needs a volume control, too.

As Chris sad it doesn't work trough proxy :(

Great, just as the others said, can it be made to read from the Itunes stored covers? a lot of my music is not in Amazon, and I have either scanned or found the cover for Itunes. Also, as it is, if it does not find the song, it tends to stay in the last one it found a cover for...at least in my case, rather thatn giving me a blank square or something like that.
Keep up the good work!

Great widget!
Hopefully you will keep on making this better :)

When changing from Linkin Park to Freedom Fighters, it will not automatically find the music. Also, if iTunes has the album art stored with it, why does it not show up in the widget? Nevertheless, great job!

I really like this widget would it be possible to get the art via CDDB or itunes itself instead of Amazon. I find Amazon doesnt have quite a few titles that I have

This is super-cool - the fact that you can now have album art while playing CDs (and radio, too!) just blows my mind - it's exactly what I've been wanting.

One suggestion, though - on a few CDs, Amazon has both the domestic version and the import version, and as luck would have it, it grabbed the version with no cover art - it would be nice to be able to drop the correct art in, replacing the black 'no image available' cover.

Yep like everyone has said, its awesome. You should program an option for maybe bigger sizes, also maybe more skins (like for themes (mac ones ;)). Also maybe include an animation or two. Like for instance, make the cd cover flip around or something, displaying the track info. These are just suggestions, take them how you will. Awesome work, and thank you for this :)

Very Nice :) I just wish it would add it to the song in the iTunes library.

Doesn't seem to be able to work through a proxy server. Any way to make that work? Not seeing the artwork when behind a proxy/firewall, unless I'm missing something.

This is very nice! Unfortunately, ~85% of the music I listen to isnt sold on Amazon.com, therefore, I don't see many covers! I am going to add something like "Album Art Not Found" instead of having it blank.

COOL AND HOT!
album artwork is good idea and even control button.
great work!

Pretty, pretty cool!!. I really love it. Just one thing...

Can you please add the option of choosing an image (i.e. folder.jpg) from the folder instead download from Amazon?. There are a lot of country-local bands that Amazon doen't know.

Anyway it's one of the best widget around.

The best thing since sliced bread!!!

By far the best widget ive seen in ages, keep up the good work!

this is pretty cool, but would it to be possible to let it use an external stylesheet for the ftp publishing? I would like to use this on my page, but i want it to be placed on a dark background using white characters. I can edit the html file, but the stylesheet is internal so everytime it updates the song information the original stylesheet is put back.

This is hot. I was just looking for something like this, in iTunes visualizer form. Could it be ported to a visualizer plug-in? I'd love to see album art and track information, running full screen, without all of the trippy, processor intensive colors that the iTunes default visualizer has. I’m addicted to my AirPort Express and both this widget and a visualizer port would complement it nicely.

Go Sputnik, go!