How to make a Spotify Canvas

When someone plays your song on their phone, the screen in front of them is the Now Playing view. Without a Canvas it shows your cover. With one, it shows a few seconds of moving image that loop for as long as the song plays. It's a small thing that gives a new listener something to look at while they decide whether they like you.

This guide covers Spotify's own Canvas guidelines, the kinds of loops that work, how to upload one in Spotify for Artists and how Audora makes the Canvas for your release.

What a Spotify Canvas is

Spotify describes Canvas as a 3–8 second vertical loop that replaces your album art in the Now Playing view on the Spotify mobile app. It fills the phone screen, plays on repeat and changes with each track, so every song on a release can have its own.

It sits right where a listener's attention is while the song plays. A song with a Canvas looks finished and cared for, and the loop is something a listener might share. It also works as a bridge from your cover to your posts: the same image, now moving.

Spotify's Canvas specs

Spotify's Canvas guidelines list four requirements. Your Canvas needs to be:

• 3–8 seconds long;
• vertical, in a 9:16 ratio;
• between 720 and 1080 px tall;
• an MP4 or JPG file.

Before you upload, check your file with our Spotify Canvas checker to see how it measures up against those specs.

What works in a Canvas

Spotify's guidelines add advice on what to put in the loop, and it holds up in practice.

• No talking, singing or rapping. The clip is only a few seconds and repeats, so it won't sync with the lyrics.
• Calm motion. Spotify advises against rapid cuts and intense flashing graphics, which can overwhelm the viewer.
• Mind the edges. Phone screens differ, and the edges may get cut off on some. Keep the subject near the center.
• Leave off the title and your name. Spotify already shows both in the Now Playing view.
• Tell a whole small story. A trimmed music video can feel unfinished. A complete little moment feels intentional.
• Make a theme. Spotify suggests connecting the Canvas to your album art, profile picture and header image, or running one narrative across a release.

Loop ideas that hold up on repeat

Spotify names three kinds of loop. A continuous loop joins its end to its start so smoothly you can't see the seam. A hard cut has a clear edit point, which can be disguised. A rebound plays the clip forward and then in reverse, an easy way to get a smooth loop from almost any footage.

Ideas that suit those shapes:

• your cover art with slow movement: a drift, a zoom, light passing across it;
• a detail in motion: hands on strings or keys, a spinning record, a car window with streetlights going by;
• weather and nature: smoke, water, rain on glass, leaves in wind (they loop naturally);
• a texture: film grain, ink in water, a flickering screen;
• you, in a single quiet moment that isn't a performance.

Shoot vertically on your phone, steady it against something and let the shot run longer than you need so you can pick the cleanest few seconds. Then trim, export at 9:16 and play it on repeat for a minute. If it still feels calm after 20 loops, it's ready.

How to upload a Canvas in Spotify for Artists

Spotify takes a Canvas only through Spotify for Artists, and you add it per track. According to Spotify's upload steps, the first main artist on the track, or a main artist on both the track and the release, can add one with an Admin or Editor role.

1. Sign in at artists.spotify.com.
2. Go to Music.
3. Select your track.
4. Press Add Canvas and upload your file.

In the Spotify for Artists phone app, open Music, pick the track and press Canvas. You can add a Canvas to any track, including upcoming releases, so it can be in place on release day. Spotify notes that Canvas shows in the mobile app, and you can change it whenever you like to keep a song's story current.

How Audora makes your Canvas

On Audora, the Canvas comes with the release. The Canvas to-do on a release turns your cover into three 8-second loops on the strongest part of the song. You pick the one you like and upload it in Spotify for Artists. The upload comes up on the release's calendar on the day it matters, next to your other moves (your pitch in Spotify for Artists and the pre-save), and you check it off when it's done.

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Because the loop starts from your cover, the Canvas, the cover art and the posts in your promotion campaign all look like one release. Audora makes the cover art, a bio in three lengths and a logo too, to the stores' spec, and everything made is yours with full commercial rights. Our guide on making an album cover covers the image the Canvas starts from.

A Canvas is one step in a release done well. The full set of steps for your release, each dated to your release day, waits in your Audora account, and Audora keeps refining them (adding, dropping and retiming) as it learns what works best for its artists. Read the guide to releasing music for the whole picture, or see what every track gets.