[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Interesting that you still refer to “iTunes”. Is it still called that on Windows and is it still developed.

Actually yes. I know it’s discontinued in MacOS, but iTunes is still maintained (I wouldn’t say “developed”, but it still gets updates) on Windows. You can also use iTunes to buy music from Apple, but I never did that, as it was never lossless. (Not sure if that’s changed now.)
I also use iTunes because, despite all its flaws, it does some things very well. I started my digital music collection with iTunes in 2013, when I started to transfer all my CDs to hard drive, and even though I don’t use iTunes to rip or play music anymore, it’s still a central point for a number of reasons for my “maintenance”. However, I know iTunes is basically a “dead end” for Apple at this point, but I also have MusicBee already in the lineup, which can do everything iTunes can on a local library and then some, so I could “leave” iTunes any time and just continue.

And a warning: I don’t know about the Windows version but the macOS one is also the player for the streaming service Apple Music. Even if you don’t have that it offers some re-imports from there. It gets everything wrong and does not recognize things correctly. I thought I could re-import some cover. But not only the cover were wrong, it even change the titles at times. Avoid clicking on that at all costs if the Windows version has that…

The Apple Music store is still part of iTunes on Windows, though it doesn’t “mix and mingle” as much as Apple Music does. I do have the U2 album “Songs of Innocence”, which is the only album in my collection in 256bit AAC, as it was a giveaway from iTunes, so I got that.

If they are not in the files itself but just added to the album they got lost.

That’s why all my metadata — including cover art — is in the files. Every single file has cover art, I don’t have any folder images.