Got some new music on the way? In order to distribute your release, you're going to need some artwork!
If you don't have any image-editing software and don't want to pay someone to design the artwork for you, consider designing your own using the media library.
Here we'll explain how you can turn an existing photo or stock image into album artwork.
Step 1: Upload a high resolution image
Open up your media library and drag and drop your photo to upload it. Make sure it's a high resolution image, or it may result in your whole release being rejected by the streaming platforms!
Step 2: Adjust the shape
All album artwork needs to be square, so select your image, hit the edit button, and click 'Transform'. From here you can either manually drag the resolution, or choose from a number of standardized resolutions.
Click the Square option, then drag your square over the part of the image you want to keep.
Hit the arrow button in the bottom left to return to the main editor screen.
Step 3: Add text (if you want to)
It's not compulsory to add any text to your album artwork, but if you do want to, we recommend you keep it simple. Again the streaming platforms have various rules about what text is permitted!
Your Artist Name and the name of the Release is probably as much text as you'll need on the image.
Choose the 'Text' option from the toolbar.
From here you can type in your text and choose a font and text size. Make sure you pick a combination that's easy to read!
Your text will need to exactly match the metadata (information) that you submit with your release. You won't be able to include anything that is not in the metadata.
You can change the text colour by selecting the foreground option, or add a background to make your text stand out more. Drag the slider at the top to change how see-through the background is.
Step 4: Save your image and organize your library
Hit the save button when you're happy with your artwork!
You can now rename and add tags to your image so it's easier to find in the media library.