Cover Art
The square image that represents your song or album everywhere it's sold or streamed.
Why this matters
What is it?
Cover art is the image tied to your release across every store and streaming service. It's the square you see next to your song on Spotify, in Apple Music search results, on a smart speaker screen, and on the little thumbnail in someone's recently played list. Every single, EP, and album needs one.
Stores require it to be a square, usually at least 3000x3000 pixels, in RGB color, saved as a JPG or PNG, with no visible text besides the title and artist name if you choose to include them (some artists leave text off entirely and let the image speak). It can't contain logos of streaming platforms, contact info, or anything that looks like an advertisement.
Think of it as a billboard the size of a postage stamp. It has to work small, on a phone, in black and white if someone has night mode on, and it has to instantly hint at the mood of the music. A moody piano ballad probably shouldn't have neon party colors, and a high energy dance track probably shouldn't look like a funeral.
A simple example
Why you should care
When you'll use it
Common mistakes
- Uploading a low resolution image that looks blurry or pixelated once it's resized by stores.
- Including streaming platform logos, explicit content warnings, or promotional text like "out now," which many stores reject.
- Reusing the exact same stock photo everyone else uses, which makes the release blend in instead of stand out.
Zoom your cover out to the size of a thumbnail on your own phone before you submit it, since that's how almost everyone will actually see it.
Keep reading
A unique numeric code assigned to an entire release (single, EP, or album) that identifies it across stores and streaming platforms, similar to a barcode on a physical product.
A unique identifier assigned to a specific recording of a song, used to track plays, streams, and royalties for that exact version, distinct from the song's UPC.
The set of text information attached to your release, like song title, artist name, genre, and release date, that DSPs use to display and organize your music correctly.
A promotional tool that lets fans save an upcoming release to their streaming library or playlist before it's even out, so it appears automatically on release day.
A running list of every task that needs to happen before a song can go live, used to make sure nothing gets missed.
The recurring payments you earn every time your song gets streamed, sold, played on the radio, or used somewhere else.
The royalty paid to songwriters whenever their composition is reproduced, including every stream and download.
The royalty paid to songwriters when their composition is performed publicly, including radio, live shows, and some streaming plays.
The business of owning, registering, and collecting income from the songwriting side of your music, separate from the recording.
A simple written document that records who wrote what percentage of a song, signed before disputes can happen.
The organizations, like ASCAP and BMI, that collect performance royalties on behalf of songwriters and pay them out.
The company that takes your finished song and delivers it to Spotify, Apple Music, and every other store or streaming service.
DSP stands for Digital Service Provider, the industry term for streaming platforms and download stores like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
A widely used digital distributor known for its subscription-based pricing and fast turnaround from upload to release across DSPs.
One of the earliest and longest-running digital music distributors, offering artists a one-time payment model with no subscription required.
A long-established digital distributor offering distribution, publishing administration, and other artist services, historically priced per release.
The specific day (and often time) you choose for your music to go live on streaming platforms and stores, set in advance through your distributor.
The full schedule of everything that needs to happen between now and release day, and after it, laid out with dates.
Playlist pitching is the process of submitting your song to curators, whether that is Spotify itself or independent playlist owners, hoping to get added.
Editorial playlists are playlists curated by a streaming platform's own staff, like Spotify's 'New Music Friday,' rather than by an individual listener.
An EPK is a one-page digital packet with your bio, photos, music links, and contact info, built so anyone from a journalist to a booker can learn about you fast.
How and roughly how much artists actually get paid for streams, and why the amount per stream varies so much between platforms.
The number of unique people who played at least one of your songs on Spotify in the last 28 days, shown on your artist profile.
The final audio polish applied to a finished mix, making it loud, consistent, and ready for release across all platforms.
Put this into a real release plan
Diamond Release turns terms like this into dated steps for your single, EP, or album — with the full 160-article Encyclopedia inside.