AFAIK there is nothing you can do to stop album art arriving with your file. There is now way of knowing it is there until the file arrives.
I do not share any files with album art, as I seem to find that it messes the imformation up on the tag and this does not display properly 1.e Album/artist etc.
If you use iTunes it is no problem to delete albumart, or otherwise I gather there other tag programmes you can use. LOTR is the expert on that.
Otherwise .. what's the problem with albumart? It doesnt take up much space or cause any problems unless you stick on a huge great Full size CD cover ... How do I know?
As far as 4.9.23 is concerned I haven't come accross this (yet) but If you use iTunes or some other tag programme you should be able to delete the art like I said