They say you should not judge a book by its cover.

Everybody does anyway.

Cover art is often one of the first things somebody sees when they encounter your music. It appears on streaming services, artist profiles, playlists, social shares and plenty of very small phone screens.

Good music cover art should represent the release, fit the artist and meet the technical rules required by the services receiving it.

Here are a few things to think about before you send it to your distributor.

DO: Start with the right file

Different digital service providers (DSPs), meaning streaming and download services such as Spotify and Apple Music, have their own artwork specifications.

For distribution across multiple services, a good standard is a high-quality square image at 3000 by 3000 pixels in RGB or sRGB color.

Apple currently recommends 3000 by 3000 pixels and requires square artwork. Spotify accepts square artwork between 640 and 10,000 pixels wide and tall and asks for the highest resolution available.

Do not take a tiny image and enlarge it just to hit the dimensions. That does not create detail that was never there.

Start with a high-quality original.

DO: Stay on brand

A well-built music career has some kind of visual identity.

That does not mean every release needs the same font, photograph or color palette. It means the artwork should feel like it belongs to the artist and the music.

Photography, illustration, typography and graphic design can all work.

Ask whether the cover tells people something useful about the release before they ever press play.

If you are still figuring out who the music is supposed to reach, our guide to defining your target audience can help with the larger picture.

DO: Match the metadata

Metadata is the information attached to a release, including the artist name, release title, song titles, contributors and release date.

If you put an artist name or release title on the artwork, make sure it matches the information you give your distributor.

Do not submit artwork that says:

The Best Day Ever

while the metadata says:

Best Day Ever

That may look like a tiny difference to you. To a DSP reviewing thousands of releases, it can look like conflicting information.

Apple specifically requires artwork to accurately represent the release and can reject misleading or mismatched content.

If you are using a waterfall release strategy and carrying artwork across several stages of the same project, coordinate that with your distributor so the artwork and release metadata still work together.

DO: Make it readable at thumbnail size

Your beautiful 3000-pixel artwork will often appear on somebody’s phone at a fraction of that size.

If you use text, zoom way out before approving the design.

Can you still read it?

Use enough contrast between the text and background. Avoid overly complicated fonts. Give important elements enough room to breathe.

You do not have to put the artist name and title on the cover at all.

But if you do, make them useful.

DO: Make sure you can use everything in the image

Use photographs, illustrations, fonts and other visual material that you have permission to use.

An image being easy to find online does not make it yours.

The same applies to somebody else’s logo, artwork, celebrity image or other protected material.

Your cover is part of a commercial music release. Treat it that way.

DON’T: Turn the cover into an advertisement

Album artwork is not a flyer.

Do not add things such as:

• website addresses
• QR codes
• streaming-service logos
• retailer logos
• prices
• “available now” messaging
• future release dates
• technical badges such as “Hi-Res” or “Dolby Atmos”

Apple expressly prohibits many of these elements in music artwork, and similar restrictions are common across distribution platforms.

Let the artwork represent the music. Use your marketing materials to advertise it.

DON’T: Make it distracting

Good cover art draws attention toward the music.

Bad cover art can become the entire conversation.

Look at the finished design from different angles and get another person’s opinion before delivery.

Does something in the image unintentionally resemble something else? Is the crop awkward? Does the design create an emotion that has nothing to do with the song?

Sometimes you have been staring at a project for so long that you cannot see the thing everybody else notices immediately.

DON’T: Reuse the same photo for everything

Try to create enough visual material that every piece of the campaign does not use the exact same image.

The single artwork, album artwork, artist profile, social content and publicity campaign do not all need the same headshot.

A consistent visual identity is good.

Copy and paste is something else.

If you are planning a photo shoot, our guide to creating a strong artist press photo can help you get more useful material from it.

DON’T: Be plugin happy

Photoshop is a tool, not a challenge to see how many effects you can use at once.

People can usually tell when an edit is bad.

Your windblown headshot probably was not photographed on a mountain beneath an abnormally pink sunset. Especially when the last single used the same headshot on a beach.

There is nothing wrong with editing, compositing or manipulating an image.

Just do it well.

Check the cover before you distribute

Artwork should not be an afterthought you finish five minutes before submitting the release.

Make sure the file is large enough. Check the spelling. Compare any visible artist and title information with the metadata. Look at it as a tiny thumbnail. Make sure you have the rights to everything you used.

Then ask the simplest question:

Does this actually look like the music?

If the answer is yes, you are probably headed in the right direction.

Our music distribution checklist covers the other pieces worth checking before you send the release out.