Before I had Roon, I was using different software (Plex, Emby, Logitech Media Server). That’s why I “historically” always embed the artwork also in the flacs/mp3s, in addition to the cover.jpg. Not all the softwares could be configured to read cover.jpg, sometimes folder.jpg is wanted, some read first jpg in the album folder, in alphabetical order …
Typically, I get wav file from either dbpoweramp (CDs) or a Tascam recorder (LPs). Then I convert to flac and mp3 and put the tags with mp3tag. Fortunately, Roon combines flac and mp3 versions of one album, with flac preferred.
One of the many things that right and good about Roon is how much easier it is to deal with artwork. If the database can’t come up with the album cover, just take a photo with an iPhone, clean it up, resize and save as jpeg; then drop it into the appropriate box and Bob’s your uncle. I haven’t bothered to save to the backup drive, but I do have a laptop folder of jpeg covers.
I always embed. I create my library to be clean and transferable to any service. I don’t want to rely on an internet service to fill in the art. If, heaven forbid, Roon is at some point no longer an option I don’t want to have a lot of my library missing the album art.
I recently deleted all my cover.jpg. ROON already taken care of the covers, so why I would need them?
Some years ago (partly took me through corona lockdowns) I ripped some 1100 cd’s I used DBPoweramp (purchased version) for ripping CD’s to WAV. DBPoweramp included artwork etc. If not on CD from online sources). Roon included this in the imports. I do not agree with “skipping these to save disk space”. These files are extremely small compared to music files.