Cover art is one of the most common reasons a release gets held up, so it's worth getting right the first time.
Technical requirements
- Minimum size: 3000×3000 pixels, and it must be perfectly square — not close to square, exactly square. A 3000×2998 image will be rejected.
- Format: JPG or PNG.
- File size: under 5MB.
- No transparency: PNGs with transparent backgrounds will render incorrectly on most stores — use a solid background.
Your cover art's dimensions are validated the moment you upload it in the release wizard, not after you submit — if it's too small or not square, you'll see an error immediately with the exact pixel dimensions we detected, so you know precisely what to fix.
Content rules
Beyond the technical spec, stores enforce content rules that we check for before delivery to avoid rejections downstream:
- No store logos or trademarks (Spotify's logo, Apple Music's logo, etc.) anywhere on the artwork.
- No website URLs, social media handles (@yourhandle), phone numbers, or QR codes.
- No explicit imagery unless the release is correctly flagged with the matching content advisory.
- No blurry, pixelated, or obviously AI-upscaled artwork — if you upscale a small image to hit 3000×3000, the softness is usually visible and can still get flagged by store review teams even though it passes our automated check.
Practical tip
If you're commissioning artwork or generating it yourself, start at a minimum of 3000×3000 (larger is fine, we'll downscale as needed for different formats) and export as a flat JPG with no layers or transparency. This avoids nearly every common rejection reason in one step.