Album cover size guide + free resizer

What size should album cover art be?

Album cover art should be a square, 3000 x 3000 pixel JPG in RGB color. That one file fits every major distributor and store: Apple Music recommends 3000 x 3000 or larger, UnitedMasters requires at least 3000 x 3000, and TuneCore and CD Baby cap uploads at 3000 x 3000. Minimums run lower, from 1000 x 1000 at DistroKid to 1600 x 1600 at TuneCore, but a cover that barely clears the minimum looks soft on a big screen. These specs come from each service’s own help pages, checked Sep 24, 2026.

Why 3000 and not the minimum? You upload your cover once, and your distributor sends that same file to every store on the release. So the strictest store sets the bar, and a cover built to the biggest common requirement never gets bounced for size. It also means you can switch distributors later without redoing your art.

That’s why the resizer above flags anything under 3000 pixels as a fail, even though most distributors would take it. It’ll still make you a file. It just won’t pretend a 1200-pixel phone screenshot is fine when it’s been stretched to 3000.

Honestly, the worry isn’t the number. It’s getting a rejection email the week your single is supposed to come out. Size is the part you can fix in a minute, so fix it now and save your nerves for the rules below.

The exact limits change from service to service, so here they are side by side.

Album cover size by distributor and store

Every major distributor wants square cover art, but the minimum size, maximum size and accepted file types differ. DistroKid takes 1000 x 1000 and up as a JPG. TuneCore wants 1600 to 3000 pixels, CD Baby 1400 to 3000, Ditto a JPG of at least 1400 under 10MB, Amuse 1400 to 6000, LANDR 1500 to 6000, and UnitedMasters 3000 to 6000. A 3000 x 3000 JPG in RGB color falls inside all seven ranges. Each figure comes from the distributor’s own help center, checked Sep 24, 2026.

All sizes are in pixels and must be perfectly square. “Not stated” means the help page doesn’t give one.

Color mode. Use RGB. DistroKid, TuneCore and CD Baby all say so, and TuneCore adds that this applies to black and white images too. Spotify asks for sRGB with the color profile applied to the pixels, not embedded in the file. If your designer sends a CMYK file meant for print, convert it before you upload.

DPI. It barely matters. DPI is a print setting, and what distributors check is the pixel count. The three that mention it all accept 72 and up: CD Baby lists 72 to 300, Ditto accepts 72 and above (300 preferred), and UnitedMasters sets 72 as the minimum.

Apple Music and Spotify. You won’t upload to either one yourself. Those specs are what your distributor delivers against, which is why the distributor rules are the ones you follow. They’re still worth knowing: Spotify says outright not to upscale images.

Size is the easy part. Most rejections come from what’s on the cover.

Why cover art gets rejected

Cover art gets rejected most often for a website address or QR code, social media handles or logos, store and brand logos, a blurry or pixelated image, or text that doesn’t match the release details. DistroKid, CD Baby, Ditto, Amuse and Apple Music all list these in their artwork rules. Text on a cover is safest when it’s only the artist name and release title, spelled exactly as entered on the upload form. Prices, mentions of CDs or vinyl, and a Parental Advisory logo on a release that isn’t marked explicit also get covers sent back.

The full lists are on DistroKid’s artwork requirements page, CD Baby’s cover art restrictions, Ditto’s artwork format page and section 7 of the Apple Music Style Guide. A few rules catch people more than the rest:

• Text that doesn’t match. TuneCore’s formatting page allows the artist name and release title exactly as entered, or no text at all. Amuse is a bit looser: a label name, featured artists (smaller than the main artist), a producer credited on the release, and a “designed by” credit are all allowed. If the cover says “Midnight Drive” and the form says “Midnight Drive (feat. Sam)”, fix one of them.
• Your @handle in the corner. It feels like free promotion. It’s the fastest way to a rejection. Same for “out now on Spotify” and a store logo.
• A photo you found online. DistroKid lists unlicensed stock photos as a rejection reason. UnitedMasters’ rejection guide asks for proof of purchase for third-party images and a source link for royalty-free ones. Keep that receipt.
• Reusing art. DistroKid says duplicate album art may be rejected, and LANDR lists duplicate artwork across releases as a problem too. Each single needs its own cover.
• Borders and tilted images. Amuse won’t approve an image shifted inside the frame so it leaves a border, cropped so only part of a head shows, or rotated. CD Baby adds that a plain solid color square with no text may not be accepted.

If DistroKid rejects your art, its page on rejected releases says to click “Replace Artwork” on the release page instead of starting over. The fix restarts review, so the guide to how long DistroKid takes to upload is worth a look before you pick a release date.

If you’re on DistroKid, you might be wondering whether it just fixes the size for you.

Does DistroKid have a resizer?

DistroKid fixes cover art that’s too small or not square automatically when you upload it, and its artwork help page warns that the fixed version may not look the way you intended. DistroKid lists 3000 x 3000 as the ideal size, JPG as the format and RGB as the color space. TheDebutRoom’s free cover resizer does the same job before upload, so you see the result first: it crops non-square art from the center, scales it to 3000 x 3000, and saves an RGB JPG in your browser without uploading the image anywhere.

The point of resizing it yourself is control. An automatic fix has to guess what matters in your image. You know the face, the title or the logo that has to stay in frame. DistroKid’s requirements page also says the art must be one image, with no extra “pages”, whether the release is a single or an album.

One catch with any center crop, including the one above: if your subject sits near the left or right edge of a wide photo, it can get cut. Crop it square yourself in any photo app first, then run it through the resizer to hit 3000 x 3000.

Already released and want different art? DistroKid’s page on changing artwork has you open the release, click Edit Release, replace the image under Album cover and submit the edit request. Don’t mix this up with your Spotify profile photo, which lives somewhere else entirely. The guide to changing your Spotify profile picture through DistroKid sorts out which image changes where.

A resizer can change the shape and the pixel count. It can’t add detail that was never there.

How to resize album art without losing quality

TheDebutRoom’s rule for cover art: design at 3000 x 3000 or bigger and only ever scale down. Shrinking an image keeps it sharp, while stretching a small one to 3000 pixels just makes bigger blurry pixels. Spotify’s cover art requirements say not to upscale images, and Amuse warns that enlarging art to meet its size rules is likely to hurt the quality. Blurry and pixelated covers are on the rejection lists at DistroKid, CD Baby, Ditto and Amuse, so a stretched 800-pixel image can clear a distributor’s size check and still get sent back.

Here’s how that plays out, depending on what you’re starting with:

• You’re designing from scratch. Set the canvas to 3000 x 3000 before you place anything. UnitedMasters suggests free tools like Canva or Adobe Express for this. Keep titles and faces away from the edges, since UnitedMasters rejects covers where text is cut off.
• You have a big photo that isn’t square. Crop it square yourself, choosing what stays in, then bring it down to 3000 x 3000. The resizer above does the scaling and saves a JPG.
• Your only copy is small (a screenshot, an old Instagram post, an 1100-pixel file from a friend). Go back to the source. Ask the photographer or designer for the original export. If there isn’t one, rebuild the cover at full size instead of stretching it.
• Your file is a transparent PNG. The resizer fills transparent areas with white. If you wanted black or a color behind your logo, add that background in your design app first.

Last check before you upload: look at the cover at thumbnail size, the way it’ll show up in a playlist on someone’s phone. If you can’t read the title, neither can they. Then pick your distributor. The roundup of the best music distribution services compares them, and the free tools hub has the rest of the release helpers.