Blog · 20 October 2026

Apple Music animated cover art: Album Motion specs and rules

Apple Music's animated cover art is called Album Motion. It is two silent videos made from your cover: a square one at 3840 by 3840 pixels and a tall one at 2048 by 2732 pixels, each 8 to 35 seconds long, looping without a visible join and starting on a frame that matches the still cover. Your distributor or label delivers it to Apple. The files and the rules below come from Apple's Album Motion guide and its Music Style Guide, checked on 20 October 2026.

The two files

• Square: 3840 by 3840 pixels, 1:1, shown on Mac, iPad and smart TVs.
• Tall: 2048 by 2732 pixels, 3:4, shown on iPhone (Apple's table also lists Android).
• Length: 8 to 35 seconds each.

Both files share the same technical rules:

• Codec and container: H.264, or Apple ProRes 422 or 4444, in an MP4 or MOV.
• Bitrate: 45 to 100 Mbps.
• Frame rate: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97 or 30 frames a second.
• Colour: Rec 709 or sRGB.
• Pixels: square pixels.
• Audio: none. Export with audio switched off.

The tall version must be a full frame picture. Apple says it must not be the square cover shrunk down and placed inside the tall frame, because that breaks playback. Plan the tall frame as its own composition from the start.

What Apple rejects

The rules below come from Apple's Album Motion guide. Its Music Style Guide lists most of them again under Motion Album Artwork in its artwork section:

• It must be your cover. Motion is based on the album cover and stays on it for the whole loop. No cuts to other pictures and no multiple edits.
• It must move. No static stills, unless the still is part of an animation technique.
• First frame equals cover. The loop starts on a composed frame that matches the cover. Starting on black, a solid colour or a vague image can be rejected.
• Seamless loop. No noticeable jump from the end back to the start, and no dropped or held frames.
• Safe area. On the tall version, titles, text, logos and the main subject stay inside the safe area of Apple's template, clear of the iPhone notch, the interface text and buttons, and the gradient. The square version has no safe area; Apple says the whole canvas is safe.
• No frame or border, and the art fills the whole canvas.
• No frantic flashing or flicker.
• No Parental Advisory logo. Explicit status travels in the metadata, not on the art.
• No promotion. No tour dates, ads or copy that reads like an ad, and nothing that imitates the Apple Music interface.
• No upscaling. Build from high resolution sources.
• AI must not damage the art. If AI touched the motion, it must not distort titles, bend limbs or faces, or add uncanny movement or artefacts.

Who can deliver it

Album Motion is delivered to Apple with the release itself, so it goes through your label or distributor: Apple's Apple Music for Artists page says to work with your distributor to deliver it, and offers no upload of your own, unlike a Spotify Canvas, which you add yourself in Spotify for Artists. Build the loop with whatever you like, then check it against the templates and specs in Apple's Album Motion Toolkit. Whether your distributor offers it, and on which plan, varies, so ask before you commission a loop. Apple's guide talks about album motion; check with your distributor whether they deliver it for singles too.

Plan the motion from the still

Album Motion is not a music video. It is the cover, breathing. The easiest way to get one approved is to decide what moves while you are making the still.

1. Pick the one moving thing. Water, smoke, a flag, hair in wind, a flickering sign, light crossing a wall. A cover with one obvious candidate for motion animates well. A busy cover animates badly.
2. Keep the light source in frame. A visible lamp, window or screen gives you something natural to animate: a flicker, a slow dimming, a passing shadow.
3. Leave room for the tall crop. The 3:4 version is taller than the square. If your subject fills the square edge to edge, there is nothing above or below it for the tall frame. Shoot or make the scene taller than you need, with room above and below the subject.
4. Keep text small and central. If your cover has a title, it must sit in the safe area of the tall template. Apple says the whole square canvas is safe, so a title that works on the square cover can still collide with the iPhone controls at the top and bottom of the tall one.
5. Loop by design. A cycle that returns naturally (a breath, a sway, a turning light) loops better than a camera move that has to be reversed.

Album Motion or Spotify Canvas?

They are different things. A Spotify Canvas is a 3 to 8 second vertical loop you upload yourself, per track, and it does not have to be your cover. Album Motion is per release, delivered by your distributor, much larger, and has to be your cover in motion. If you only have time for one, the Canvas is the one you control.

For the still cover itself, sizes and store rules are in Cover art sizes for Spotify, Apple Music and other stores.