Blog · 20 October 2026

Premade, custom or made from the song: choosing cover art

There are three ways to get a cover today. Buy a premade design and add your name. Commission an artist to make one. Or have one made from the song itself, by reading its words. Premade is fastest and cheapest, custom fits best and costs most, and covers made from the song aim for the fit of custom at close to the speed of premade. Which one is right depends on how much the cover has to say about this particular song.

Premade covers

A premade cover is a finished design made before any song, usually with space left for your artist name and title. Some sellers sell a design once; others sell it to anyone who pays.

Good for: a quick release, a tight budget, a beat tape or a one-off track where the music matters more than the image, and genres with a strong shared look where a well made generic picture is enough.

Watch for:

• Exclusivity. Ask whether the design is sold once and then removed. If it is sold many times, another artist may release with the same picture.
• Rights in writing. You need the right to use it on streaming, on merch and in ads. Ask for a licence that says so.
• Stock sources. DistroKid lists "unlicensed/stock photography" among the things streaming services reject. If a premade design is built on stock images, the seller's licence must cover your release.
• Text edits. Your name and title must match your metadata exactly. Make sure the seller will change the text, or gives you a version with none.
• Size. You want a square file of exactly 3000 by 3000 pixels: TuneCore and CD Baby take nothing larger, and DistroKid and Apple's asset guide call 3000 the ideal. Our sizes guide has the limits for Spotify, Apple Music, the main distributors, Bandcamp and YouTube.

The weakness of premade is fit. The picture existed before your song did, so at best it shares a mood with it.

Custom covers

A custom cover is commissioned: a designer, illustrator or photographer makes it for your release.

Good for: an album, a debut, a release with a budget behind it, or a song whose story a stranger could not guess.

Watch for:

• The brief. The cover is only as specific as what you tell the artist. Send the lyrics, not only the genre and a mood board.
• Rounds and milestones. Agree how many sketches and revisions you get, and when.
• Who owns what. Agree in writing whether you own the artwork or license it, and whether the licence covers merch, ads and future reissues.
• The files. Ask for the 3000 by 3000 release file, a version without text, and the vertical and wide crops you will need for Canvas, stories and video.

The weakness of custom is time and cost. A good commission takes days to weeks and is priced for that work.

Covers made from the song

The third way starts where a good custom brief starts: the song. The lyrics are read, the scenes the words describe are found, and pictures are made of those scenes. This is how Soundae works. You upload the track, Soundae transcribes and reads it, and makes three covers at a time, each one a scene from the song: two from different parts of the song and one for the song as a whole. You keep the ones that fit and pass on the rest, and what you keep shapes the next set.

Good for: singles on a steady release schedule, artists who want each song to have its own picture, and anyone who wants a cover made for the song without waiting weeks for it.

Watch for:

• The rules for AI art. As of October 2026 no store page we read bans AI-made cover art; the normal artwork rules apply, and Apple has a disclosure tag your distributor may send. We read the pages from Spotify, Apple Music, DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby and Bandcamp in Can you use AI cover art on Spotify and Apple Music?.
• Likeness. A real person's face, a brand or a famous work on the cover is a rights problem whatever made it.
• Ownership. On Soundae you may publish, sell and license what you make on every plan, including the free one.

A quick way to decide

Ask three questions.

1. Could a stranger guess what it is about from the genre alone? If yes, a premade cover in the right genre can work. If no, you need something made for the song.
2. How many releases are coming this year? One album justifies a commission. A single every month is easier with a way to make covers per song.
3. What will the cover do besides sit on Spotify? If it will be on shirts, posters or a vinyl sleeve, get rights that cover all of it, and a file that holds up when large.

What to check whichever way you go

• A square 3000 by 3000 pixel RGB JPG.
• Text that matches your release form exactly, or no text.
• No web addresses, logos, prices or social handles. Our sizes guide lists what the stores we checked reject.
• A different cover for every release. DistroKid says duplicate album art may be rejected.
• Written rights for every place you will use it.
• A look at it on your phone, small, next to the covers in your library.

If you want to see what your song looks like before you decide, Soundae's free credits cover a song read and a set of covers.