Album Art Specs: Size, Dimensions & Common Rejections

What are the exact album cover dimensions?

Start with the one rule that never bends: the cover is a square, 1:1. Rectangular images get rejected on sight. After that, the numbers differ by platform, but they all point the same direction, which is bigger and square. Here’s what each one actually asks for.

You don’t want to manage two files for two platforms, and you shouldn’t have to. Export one master at 3,000 x 3,000px, JPG or PNG, in sRGB, at full quality, and you’re inside every spec on this table at once. One thing worth being clear about: that 3,000px number isn’t a Spotify rule. Spotify only publishes the 640px floor and the 10,000px ceiling. The 3,000px figure is the distributor standard people settled on so a cover still looks sharp on high-DPI screens, the TV apps and car displays where a 640px file would look soft.

JPG or PNG, and why CMYK gets your cover bounced

For format, JPG or PNG is the safe answer because both Spotify and Apple take them. Spotify also accepts lossless TIFF, Apple does not, so if you want one file for both, skip TIFF and use JPG or PNG at full quality.

Color is where people get caught, and it’s worth knowing why. Your screen and the streaming platforms work in RGB (Spotify wants sRGB specifically, at 24 bits per pixel). Print works in CMYK. If you, or your designer, built the cover in a print layout or exported it from a print-first tool, the file defaults to CMYK without telling you. Spotify and Apple both reject CMYK outright. It’s not “usually fine” and it’s not auto-converted for you. So convert it to sRGB in your editor before you submit, and don’t just assume the file is already in the right space. One more Spotify-specific detail: Spotify doesn’t support embedded color profiles, so apply the profile to the image and export without embedding it.

And resolution. Don’t take a small image and upscale it to reach the pixel minimum. Upscaling stretches the pixels you already have, it doesn’t invent new detail, so the cover comes out blurry, and blurry gets rejected. Spotify states it directly: don’t upscale images. The fix is never a bigger export from a small source. It’s a better original. Build or commission the art at 3,000 x 3,000px from the start so you’re never tempted to fake the size.

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What content gets album artwork rejected?

This is the part that surprises people, because the file can be perfect on every technical spec and still get bounced for what’s in the image. DSPs, and the distributors enforcing the rules on their behalf, reject a specific set of things. Here’s the list to check your art against before you upload.

The logic ties it all together once you see it. The artwork slot is for the release identity. That’s the image, and in a design sense the artist name and album title. DSPs won’t let it turn into an ad. A URL, a handle, a QR code, another platform’s logo, all of it points a listener somewhere off the platform, and that’s exactly what they block. Your Instagram goes in your bio. Your cover stays the cover.

One practical note on the pipeline. You submit artwork through your distributor, not straight to Spotify or Apple, and a distributor can set stricter limits than the DSP itself. DistroKid, for example, takes JPG only and wants at least 1,000 x 1,000px. A 3,000 x 3,000px JPG at full quality in sRGB clears all of them, which is the other reason that’s the file I tell people to export. And once it’s live, the cover is locked on most platforms. Changing it means going back through your distributor and waiting days for the update to propagate, so get it right the first time.

The one file that clears everyone

Here’s the whole thing in one breath. Export a square 3,000 x 3,000px image, JPG or PNG, in sRGB, at full quality, with no embedded color profile. Don’t upscale a small source to get there. Check the image itself for URLs, handles, QR codes, logos, prices, and physical-format references, and pull anything that points off-platform. Do that and your cover passes Spotify, Apple, and every distributor in between, on the first try.

Artwork is one field on a release that has plenty more that can get you rejected. The copyright lines decide where your master’s royalties go, and your audio file has its own format and resolution rules. For those two, see the P line vs C line guide and how to prep your audio file for distribution. For the full field-by-field walkthrough, start with the release metadata guide.

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