Blog · 20 October 2026

Artist profile image sizes for Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube

Your profile pictures are not cover art, and the stores treat them differently. A cover belongs to a release and travels through your distributor. Profile images belong to you, you upload them yourself, and Spotify and Apple ban text on them outright. Here are the sizes and rules for the stores artists use most, checked against each store's own pages on 20 October 2026, and a way to make them from the same world as your covers.

Spotify

From Spotify's artist image guidelines:

• Avatar: at least 750 by 750 pixels.
• Header: at least 2660 by 1140 pixels.
• Gallery images: at least 690 by 500 pixels.
• Files: JPEG, PNG or GIF, no larger than 20MB.
• Not allowed: text, advertising, busy backgrounds, promotion of a tour or a release, anything that infringes a copyright, trademark or someone's image rights, and a picture of a person without their consent.

Where each one shows, from Spotify's managing your artist images page: the avatar sits at the top of your profile in the mobile app and next to your name in search. The header shows at the top of your profile on the desktop app and in the web player, and in the Now Playing view on smart TVs; Spotify's page does not list it on the mobile app, where the avatar sits at the top of the profile. Gallery images live in the About section. With no avatar, Spotify shows your latest release art, so an artist with no profile picture gets their newest cover as their face.

Admins and Editors in Spotify for Artists can change the images. The avatar can be changed in Spotify for Artists on a computer or in its phone app, but not in a phone's browser; the header only on a computer. A new avatar can take up to 72 hours to appear in search.

Apple Music

From Apple Music for Artists' artist image guidelines:

• Size: 2400 by 2400 pixels or larger preferred, 800 by 800 minimum, and do not upscale a smaller picture.
• File: JPG or PNG at 72 dpi.
• Not allowed: marketing copy, typography, names, dates or band history on the image; third party logos; borders of any kind; album cover art; QR codes; ads; misleading images; pornography; URLs for sites that sell music or compete with Apple Music. The words Apple Music and iTunes may not appear.
• Content: a photograph, a logo or a character drawing that represents you. The upload tool crops the picture; keep the eyebrows and lips inside its guides, so a face sits in the middle of the frame with room around it.

Apple also takes an artist logo, a stylised version of your name that is laid over other artwork on your artist page: a PNG with a transparent background, on a 3000 by 1200 template, at least 2880 wide or 960 tall, and never solid black. It must be your name only, with no other text, logos, URLs or handles.

YouTube

From YouTube's channel branding page:

• Profile picture: JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG, no animated GIFs, up to 15MB. It renders at 98 by 98 pixels, so it is tiny on screen; YouTube's tips page says a square or round image works best.
• Banner: at least 2048 by 1152 pixels at 16:9, 6MB or smaller. YouTube recommends 2560 by 1440, especially for TV.
• Banner safe area: at the minimum size, text and logos must stay inside a central 1235 by 338 pixel area. YouTube says the same banner is cropped differently on each device and that larger screens show more of it. An Official Artist Channel uses this banner only on computers and phones; its TV and YouTube Music banner is a separate image, set under Profile in YouTube Studio.
• Video watermark: a square image of at least 150 by 150 pixels, under 1MB.

SoundCloud

SoundCloud's profile picture is a square of at least 800 by 800 pixels shown as a circle, and its header is at least 2480 by 520, both 2MB or less. SoundCloud says to keep text out of the header because small screens crop it. Our SoundCloud image sizes guide has the details and where each one shows.

What to show

Three things make profile images easier than covers.

No text, anywhere. Spotify and Apple ban it, SoundCloud says to keep it off the header because small screens crop it, and YouTube promises text only a 1235 by 338 pixel strip of the banner. Your name is printed next to the picture by the store. Leave the words out and the same file passes everywhere.

A face in the middle of the square. SoundCloud shows the avatar as a circle and YouTube shows it at 98 pixels. Corners are lost. A face, or a symbol, centred with air around it survives every crop. Apple's crop guides ask for the same thing.

One wide scene for the headers. Spotify's header is a wide landscape at 7 by 3, YouTube's banner is 16 by 9 with only a 1235 by 338 strip promised safe for text, and SoundCloud's is a long thin strip. A single wide photograph with the subject in the centre and quiet edges can serve all three. Do not stretch a square cover into a header; shoot or make the scene wide.

Keep them in the same world as your covers

Fans meet your profile picture and your latest cover side by side. They should look like they were made in the same light. The simplest way is to take the profile pictures at the same time as a cover, in the same place and finish, so the profile is the artist and the cover is the song, and they belong together.

Soundae makes square covers, so none of them is a header on its own: the 1920 by 1080 landscape file in Download all sizes is a video frame, and it is smaller than every header minimum above. For a header, shoot or make a wide scene at the store's size. For the avatar itself, use a photograph of you: Spotify's AI Persona badge review looks for artist imagery that is AI-generated and looks like a real person who does not exist, and a real photo keeps your profile clearly a real person.

Checklist

1. Spotify avatar 750 square, header 2660 by 1140, no text, 20MB or smaller.
2. Apple artist image 2400 square, no text, no border, not upscaled.
3. YouTube banner 2560 by 1440 with the subject inside the middle strip, 6MB or smaller; profile picture square.
4. SoundCloud avatar 800 square, header 2480 by 520, 2MB or less each.
5. One real photograph of you for the avatars, one wide scene for the headers, both lit like your covers.