Album cover sizes for every platform
The exact dimensions Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Bandcamp and social need — and the one file size that covers most of them.
Cover art gets rejected for the wrong dimensions more than for anything else. Here are the numbers.
The specs
| Platform | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Spotify | 3000×3000 | JPEG or PNG, minimum 640×640, sRGB |
| Apple Music | 3000×3000 | 4000×4000 preferred, RGB, no text errors |
| YouTube Music | 3000×3000 | Inherits from your distributor |
| Bandcamp | 1400×1400 min | 3000×3000 recommended |
| SoundCloud | 800×800 min | 3000×3000 recommended |
| YouTube thumbnail | 1280×720 | 16:9, not square. Crop, do not squash |
| Instagram post | 1080×1080 | Square works directly |
Render once at 3000×3000
Every streaming platform accepts it, and everything else crops down from it cleanly.
Do not render at 1400 and upscale later. Distributors reject soft artwork, and the rejection usually arrives after your release date is locked.
Watch the safe area
Streaming apps overlay controls on your cover. On mobile, the bottom third gets covered during playback.
Keep the title and artist name in the upper two thirds. Test it by looking at your art at 200×200. That is roughly how most people will actually see it.
The thumbnail is a different image
A square cover cropped to 16:9 loses half its composition.
Generate the thumbnail separately, with the composition built for wide. The subject sits left, text sits right, and it still reads at postage-stamp size.
Common rejections
- Blurry or upscaled. Render native at 3000×3000
- Text errors — misspelled artist or title names get rejected by Apple
- Wrong colour profile — sRGB, not CMYK
- Borders or frames — several platforms reject artwork with added borders
- URLs or social handles — not permitted on streaming artwork
Vocaler exports every size from one render, so the crops are composed rather than cut.