Streaming cover art must be a perfect square, ideally 3000×3000 pixels, in RGB colour, saved as a high-quality JPG or PNG, with no website URLs, no social handles, and no logos you don't own. Get these rules right and your release sails through; get them wrong and it gets rejected, delaying your launch. Here's the full spec.
Technical specs
- Size: 3000×3000px (minimum 1400×1400; 3000 is the standard).
- Shape: perfectly square (1:1).
- Format: JPG or PNG, high quality, under the size limit (usually a few MB).
- Colour: RGB colour space (not CMYK).
The content rules (what gets art rejected)
- No website URLs or social media handles.
- No logos or trademarks you don't own (including platform logos like Spotify's).
- No blurry, pixelated, or stretched images.
- No misleading or offensive content.
- Text is allowed (artist name, song title), but keep it legible and clean.
Design tips that actually help
Your cover is a tiny thumbnail most of the time, so design for small sizes: bold, simple, high-contrast, readable at a glance. Make sure it looks good as a small square on a phone, not just full-screen. Consistent art across a body of work also helps listeners recognise you.
Get it ready before you upload
Have your 3000×3000px cover finished alongside your audio file and metadata before you start a release. Then the upload is quick — see the Spotify release guide. Rejected art is one of the most common release delays, and this checklist avoids it.