Published Fri Feb 10 2023

How to Create Good-Looking Spotify Playlist Covers

You don't have to worry about design skills. There are many powerful tools that allow you to create awesome cover designs in a short period of time.

Design
Editing
Spotify app interface

Playlists play a vital role in your overall Spotify experience. As of 2023, there are 456 million monthly active listeners. Many of them listen to playlists every day. And it is much better when you use a unique and visually appealing cover image for your playlist. In this way, you draw people's attention to your playlist, and more people tune in to see what you have to offer them.


Besides, designing your custom playlist cover is fun, and it is a great way to connect with your audience and make your listeners vibe.


You don't have to worry about design skills. There are many powerful tools that allow you to create awesome cover designs in a short period of time.


Even though there are plenty of cover designs on Spotify, you can still create covers that stand out in the crowd and grab a listener's attention.


In today's article, you will learn some easy but actionable tips for creating quick and good-looking Spotify playlist covers.


Why Do Covers Matter?

Spotify allows users to add covers to playlists.


So, why not make use of this opportunity and add a personal touch to a particular playlist? People's attention span is limited. You have a few seconds to make an impression. The best way to do this is to use powerful visuals.


As we have already mentioned, you don't have to be a graphic designer to be able to create a nice cover for your Spotify playlist. All you need to have is good graphic design software that offers a lot of interesting templates and enables you to customize them the way you want.


5 Useful Tips to Create Awesome Spotify Playlist Covers

1. Choose the Right Size

In order to create a great playlist cover on Spotify, you need to take certain technical requirements into consideration. This is the case with other channels too, including YouTube. You need to learn about design tips, the right size, the best fonts for YouTube thumbnails, branding tips, etc.


First of all, your image has to be square. Your image can have a different shape, but it is going to be cropped square when uploading it. Therefore, it's recommended to create it as a square image, which has a 1:1 ratio.


Next, the maximum size of your file is 4 MB, and the recommended resolution is 300 x 300 pixels. However, it is encouraged to go beyond this to make sure your image has good quality on high-resolution displays.


File format should be taken into account too. Your file should be a JPEG. This implies that this format does not support animated images and transparency.


Now that you know what the best size for Spotify playlist covers is, it is high time to learn how to design your image.


2. Pick a Nice Font

Font selection is an important step. Before choosing any font, make sure to take a few things into consideration.


First, you need to ensure that it is readable regardless of its size. Script fonts and heavily stylized fonts are not the best choices as they are not easy to read, especially when the text is written at a smaller size. Light fonts, on the other hand, lack contrast, which can also negatively affect the text's readability.


A set of different font types on a pink background


So, you need to do some research before choosing any font type. Most importantly, you need to choose a font that best reflects your playlist.


In case you don't want to stick to some basic and well-known fonts available in your computer's operating system, you can look for fonts in other places. There are many websites offering free fonts. However, if you do not want to get too creative with fonts, you can use basic fonts.


3. Add Text

Once you have chosen the font, you can add text to your playlist cover. It is recommended not to add long text. Keep it short, and make sure it describes your playlist's content well. Also, keep it in the center so that people can immediately see what's written on your cover image.


4. Use Colors

A rose with colorful petals


To create a visually appealing design, you need to use appropriate colors so they stand out and look well on different devices. As Spotify's interface has a dark color scheme, you can use either light or bright colors for your cover art. However, you cannot choose random colors. They should match the content, vibe, and energy of the songs included in your playlist.


If you are still in doubt about what a well-designed cover art looks like, make sure to check out some Spotify cover templates to get a basic understanding and inspiration.


5. Add High-Quality Images

Since your image is going to take up the most space of your artwork, you should have a high-quality image. When choosing an image, make sure it contains enough space to include your text and other graphical elements.


However, you cannot use any image you find on the Internet. There are many websites that offer copyright-free images and visuals. Check them out and choose an image that best suits your Spotify playlist.


As we have already stated, it is important to find an image that best reflects your songs. For example, if your playlist contains mainly songs from the 90s, you need to find a picture that can best describe this decade for music.


Using images in a minimalistic style works well. If the image is too messy and chaotic, people won't click on the playlist to learn more about the songs and the artist.


However, there is no necessity to use a photo. You can work with plain color backgrounds too.


3 Apps to Use for Creating Spotify Playlist Covers


1. Coverify

Coverify is a free website enabling users to create beautiful playlist covers. This platform allows you to look for and get pictures from Unsplash. Then, you can add text to a picture to create the cover art. It provides users with different options to customize the cover art and upload it to Spotify with one click.


To create cover art on Coverify:


  • Open Coverify
  • Click 'Log in with Spotify' and sign in with your Spotify credentials. After, give Coverify permission to gain access to your Spotify account.
  • When you open the Coverify website, you can see the cover art editor. There are also 'Background image' and 'My Playlists' sections on the homepage. The 'My Playlists' section retrieves your Spotify playlists and displays them here. The 'Background image' section shows trending photos from Unsplash. You also have a search option to look for other pictures.
  • To make a new cover art, click the edit button on the playlist's cover image.
  • Go to the 'Background image' section and choose a picture you want to use for the cover. Use the search option to look for other photos. After picking a photo, it will appear at the top of the cover editor.
  • There are two text labels on a photo. Click and edit those text labels. Choose a font from the right side, alter text alignment, and pick the font size and color scheme.
  • Once you are done with customizing the cover art, apply the updated cover image to the corresponding Spotify playlist by clicking the "Update on Spotify" button.
  • Besides, you can select a photo without choosing a playlist, create beautiful cover art, and download it in JPG image format.

2. Fotor

Fotor is another famous visual content editing platform. You can use this platform not only for creating playlist covers but also Spotify album covers, podcast covers, banners for SoundCloud, logos, and other visual content. Fotor provides a lot of editing features, too. You can change the size or crop images, remove backgrounds, add text to photos, and more.


To create a playlist cover, follow these steps:


  • Open Fotor
  • Select the "Album Cover" template layout.
  • Pick one of the templates. There are various template styles available on Fotor.
  • Upload your images into the template.
  • Edit the colors, text, and more to customize your playlist cover, so it matches your needs.
  • Once you are done editing your playlist cover, save and download it in JPEG format, or you can share it on social media platforms.

Picmaker

This is a free AI-powered photo editing tool allowing you to create an awesome Spotify playlist cover in a few easy steps:


  • Open Picmaker.
  • Log into your account.
  • If you don't have an account, click “Sign Up.”
  • Pick a custom Size. As we have already mentioned, the suggested resolution for the playlist cover is 300x300 pixels. Therefore, tap the "Create" button and look for "custom-size," then enter the right size.
  • After choosing the size, press the "Create Design" button.
  • Choose a color scheme. Use bright or light colors for your artwork, as Spotify has a dark interface.
  • Upload Image. Find the best photo for your cover art, upload it and drag it right into your design. To upload an image, go to the left-hand sidebar and upload an image from your computer. After uploading your image, it will appear in your files library. You can also use Picmaker's stock library. There are many watermark-free images.
  • Add Filters. If you want to get creative with your playlist cover, you can make use of the available effects to get the right look for your artwork.
  • Pick a Font Style and Add Text. We have already discussed how important it is to choose the right font, as it has a huge impact on your text's readability. So, think twice before making a decision.
  • Add some graphics. To make your artwork fun and interesting, you can use graphical elements. Click the objects menu and then the Search button to explore Picmaker's Graphics Library. Search for graphics that best meet your playlist's mood. You can also change the color of your graphics if you want them to match your playlist cover.
  • Once you are happy with your artwork, click the "Download" button and save your design in JPEG, PNG, or PDF format.

Summary

Now that you know the importance of creating awesome Spotify playlist covers and learned how to create cool designs, you can get started and create your own artwork.


Use one of the above-mentioned graphic design tools and start creating playlist covers today!


Thanks for taking the time to read the article, and good luck!

Mery Content Manger

Meri Minasyan

Content Manager

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