How to make an album cover

Most people meet your cover as a small square in a playlist, a search result or a lock screen. It has about a second to say what kind of music this is and whether it's worth a tap. A good cover does that with one clear idea. A cover that also meets the stores' file rules goes live on the date you picked.

This guide covers both halves: what makes a cover work, a set of album cover ideas to start from, and the specs and content rules Spotify and Apple Music publish.

What a cover has to do

A cover has three jobs. It tells a stranger the genre and mood before they hear a note. It makes the release recognizable the second and third time someone sees it, so they know it's yours. And it ties the release to everything around it: the Canvas, the posts, the merch, your profile.

None of that needs an expensive photo shoot. Some of the most recognizable covers are a single photograph, a color and a name. What they share is a decision about what the cover is of, made before anyone opens design software.

The thumbnail test

Shrink your draft to the size it appears in a playlist on a phone and look at it from arm's length. Ask three things.

1. Can you tell what it is? A face, a shape or a strong color block survives shrinking. A crowd, a detailed landscape or a collage turns to noise.
2. Can you read the words? If there is text and you can't read it at that size, make it larger, bolder or take it out.
3. Does it stand out next to others? Put it in a grid with covers from your genre. If yours disappears, push the contrast or simplify.

Then check it at full size too. Listeners on desktop, TV apps and car screens see it large, and small flaws (stray pixels, soft edges, a visible watermark) show there.

One idea, with room around it

The strongest covers pick one subject and give it space. Crop tighter than feels comfortable. Leave plain areas where the eye can rest. Limit yourself to two or three colors that belong to the mood of the song.

If you use text, keep it to your artist name and the title. Pick one typeface, set it large and give it contrast against the image. Many covers carry no text at all, because Spotify and Apple Music already print the title and artist name next to the art.

Album cover ideas to start from

• A portrait. You, close and well lit, looking anywhere but at the camera. It builds recognition across releases. Our press photo guide covers shooting one cheaply.
• An object. One thing from the song's world, photographed plainly: a car key, a glass, a jacket on a chair.
• A place. A window, a road, a room at a specific hour. Works well for slower, atmospheric music.
• Type only. The title, big, in a face that sounds like the song. Strong for hip-hop, electronic and anything minimal.
• Texture or abstraction. Paint, film grain, a scan of fabric or a blurred light. Easy to make yourself and easy to keep consistent.
• Illustration. Drawn or painted work, if you or a friend can make it. Credit the artist.
• A series. Keep a layout, typeface or palette across a run of singles so they read as one body of work. It helps an album rollout hang together.

The store specs

Spotify's cover art requirements ask for a JPG, PNG or TIFF with a 1:1 aspect ratio, between 640 and 10,000 px on each side, in the sRGB color space at the highest resolution available. Spotify also says not to upscale images.

Apple's guidance on preparing a release recommends 3000 × 3000 px or larger, sets a 1400 × 1400 px minimum and asks for a square JPEG or PNG at 100% quality.

Before you upload, run your file through our album cover checker to see how it measures up against the store specs.

What never goes on the cover

Apple's guidance turns away advertising or marketing of any sort, URLs, logos, dates for future releases and references to competing stores. It also asks you to avoid blurry, pixelated, misaligned or rotated images unless that is the artistic intent, and not to depict an artist who doesn't perform on the release. Distributors apply the same rules to every store, and DistroKid's artwork guidelines add social handles, QR codes and prices to the list.

In practice, keep these off the art:

• website addresses, social handles and QR codes;
• prices, "out now", "new single" or a release date;
• logos of Spotify, Apple Music or any other store or service;
• an artist name or title that doesn't match the release's details;
• images you don't have the rights to use.

Your artist name and the title are welcome. Everything promotional belongs in your posts. The guide to releasing music walks through the rest of what a release needs before it goes to the stores.

Making it yourself, with a designer or with Audora

If you design it yourself, any editor that exports a 3000 px square works, including free ones. Start from a template only for the canvas size, and build the image from your own photos or artwork. A designer brings an eye and a brief. Ask for the final files at full resolution, the working file and written permission for commercial use.

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Audora works as an album cover maker inside the release. It makes cover art guided by working designers' briefs, starting from your genre, references and mood, and every cover comes out to the stores' spec. Before a release goes to the stores, Audora checks the words on your cover against the release's title and artist name. Everything made is yours, with full commercial rights, and saved in your Library for the next release. The same cover then becomes your Spotify Canvas, so the release looks like one thing everywhere.

The cover is one of the steps that come with every release, alongside the editorial pitch, the bio and the promotion plan. You'll find the exact steps for your release, dated to your release day, in your Audora account, and Audora keeps tuning them as it learns what works best for its artists. What every track gets has the full list.