Get Info does not allow me to manually add album artwork

Question

Hello,
I am trying to manually upload album artwork on iTunes with my Windows PC (Windows 8.1 64 bit).  I followed all of the steps for doing this as outlined here in the Help section.  I did a Google search, found the album artwork in JPEG format on the internet, and then saved it to a folder on my hard drive. I then went back into iTunes, right clicked on the album that is missing its artwork, and clicked the "Get info" button.  When the next screen opens I select the "Artwork" tab, and then I select the "Add Artwork button."  This opens up a browser for my file directory, and then I went to the folder where I  saved the album artwork and double clicked on the particular JPEG I wanted to add for the CD.  The JPEG was immediately loaded onto the screen, and everything looked good to go. However, when I hit the "OK" button to select this uploaded album artwork which is loaded on the screen, for whatever reason iTunes does not save it, and the album artwork icon for the CD remains blank. Let me know where I am going wrong, or if this is a bug that needs to be addressed.
Also, I have a program called Music Collectorz that I am using to catalog all of my CDs as I burn my collection to iTunes.  For those CDs in which the Collectorz program cannot automatically find or identify the appropriate album artwork on its own, I can open up the Collectorz program's own version of "Get Info" and select "Find Cover Art."  By doing this, the Collectorz program automatically does a search on the internet--without me having to leave the Collectorz program--and retrieves several "hits" it located for the missing artworkwhich it displays on another window within the program. I then simply double click with the mouse on the photo of the artwork file I want to upload to associate with the particular CD, and it is automatically uploaded and associated with the CD. Also, the Collectorz program will only allow you to upload artwork that is saved in file formats and sizes that are supported by the program like JPEG files. 
It seems to me that Apple should have an easy way like this to manually add album artwork in iTunes. I should not have to do a separate Google search outside of the iTunes program, then save a JPEG to my hard-drive in another folder, and then go back into iTunes to add (or try to add) it to a CD's profile.  This is a waste of time, and involves several unnecessary steps.  This process should all be incorporated through the iTunes program as a one-stop shop method.  I should never have to leave the iTunes program to add any artwork ever.
I look forward to your response on this.
Thanks,

Answer 1

I assume that there are legal restrictions on the way in which iTunes can get artwork automatically from any source apart from the iTunes Store (which is what the right-click > Get Album Artwork function uses).  For example, even though the Gracenote service that iTunes uses to match CDs and retrieve metadata (artist, album, track titles, etc.) also has artwork functions, iTunes does not make use of these.
For manual addition of artwork, there are three cases where the image you select may not be correctly embedded in your media files:
your media are in a format that doesn't accommodate embedded artwork - typically WAV files.  To embed artwork you'll need to convert to another format - Apple Lossless or AIFF if you want to preserve lossless quality, AAC or MP3 otherwise.
your media files are read only - to fix this, use Windows Explorer to find the folder that contains your files, right-click and select Properties.  On the General tab there's a check box labeled "Read-only" - if this is checked, or is grey (sometimes blue), click the box so that the flag is unchecked and the box is white.  Click OK, and then OK again when the "Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files" option selected.  Now try adding the artwork again.
Windows permissions issues are preventing iTunes from updating your media files (there's some anecdotal evidence of a change in this behavior in iTunes 12).  See turingtest2's notes on Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows for advice on fixing this, then try adding the artwork again.