Posted on September 16, 2022 | By Shawn Spence

Why Album Artwork Is So Important When Releasing New Music?

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In today’s competitive music industry, it’s critical to grasp the ins and outs of how to distribute your music to the audience. When executed properly, publishing a single or an album may be a difficult but rewarding process.

Before releasing your single or album, you must have a well-planned strategy and timeframe in place. One of the first things you’ll need to consider is the album cover image.

Because it will be released alongside your music, your artwork must be completed as soon as possible. 

How Can You Create Your Next Album Cover?

Hire A Professional Photographer

You may hire a photographer to take expert images of the band or hire a local artist to create something special. There are many more photographers than there used to be because of the growth of “prosumer” photographic equipment. 

For photographers, however, there is no formal accreditation or licensing procedure, so anybody may make this claim. That implies that before paying someone to take your photos, you should conduct some investigation. You might start by asking your friends in the scene who have outstanding band shots who they worked with.

Online Image Editing Software

Use online image editing and design software to produce your artwork for a quick and low-cost solution. 

Canva offers a variety of themes for album artwork and is incredibly user-friendly. In order to use royalty-free photos in your artwork, you can also find them on free websites like Pexels and Pixabay

You might include lovely graphics to make something distinctive and eye-catching.

Go To Your Fans For Support

Organizing a contest among your followers and inviting them to submit artwork for the release may also be an option. A reward including merch and music could be given to the artist who created the winning piece of art. In addition, when you release your song, they would become very well known.

Why Is An Album Cover Art So Important?

It’s important to create engaging record cover graphics. 

  • It serves as its visual entrance to your art.
  • First impressions; It catches the eye, especially on digital music streaming services.
  • Potential fans are more inclined to listen to your music.
  • Music promotion and music marketing.
  • Builds your brand and niche.

Album Cover Guidelines

To achieve the standards of the majority of significant music retailers and streaming services, your album cover art should adhere to these guidelines. 

Any cover art that doesn’t adhere to these rules will frequently be rejected by music distributors. 

Additionally, these best practices provide advice on how to design outstanding album covers.

  • A size of at least 3000 × 3000 pixels
  • 72 dpi as the minimum resolution
  • JPEG file format 
  • For optimum quality, use RGB color mode.
  • Images must not be pixelated, fuzzy, out of alignment, or have any other quality problems.
  • Include only the release title and the artist’s name in the text.
  • Your release information and metadata must exactly match the copy.
  • Never include wording that specifies a time frame, such as “Exclusive,” “Limited Edition,” “New Release,” or the release date. Keep the cover art memorable.
  • Cover art cannot include any references to record labels, websites, digital service providers, or other companies in the form of logos, URLs, or other graphics.
  • Do not include any contact details, such as email addresses, social network icons, URLs, or email addresses.
  • Don’t mention prices anywhere in your text. For instance, “Low Price,” “Available for $1.99,” or “For Promo Use.”
  • Improper pictures are not permitted in the cover art.
  • Avoid ISRCs and UPC barcodes. They will be offered by the music shop or distribution provider. Additionally, those codes could alter if you re-release.
  • Cover art cannot be deceptive. Using an artist’s name who is not included in the release, for instance.

Last Words Of Advice About Album Artwork

The first idea isn’t always the best idea.

The most significant component of developing your album artwork? Even if it seems cheesy, try to have fun! Experiment. 

You’d be amazed where your imagination may lead you if you tried to harness the type of creativity that made us like drawing and painting so much as children.

We constantly keep one step ahead of the curve and have a solid grasp of branding. We take great pleasure in the work we do and always treat your projects seriously. MPT Agency can create expert album artworks that are compatible with the most popular platforms for display advertising campaigns and cleverly attract new listeners to your tunes. To find out what other services can boost your musical career, make sure you check our blog regularly and follow us on Instagram for more music marketing-related updates.


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