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Cover art for singles, EPs and albums: one release, many covers
Give every release its own cover. A single, the next single and the album that collects them are separate releases in every store, and DistroKid says duplicate art across releases may be rejected, and CD Baby says no two releases can use the exact same cover image. The trick is to make the covers different pictures that clearly belong to one world, so a listener who saw the first single recognises the album. Checked on 20 October 2026.
How stores count a release
Streaming services decide whether something is a single, an EP or an album from the track count and running time. DistroKid's summary is the common rule:
- Single: 1 to 3 tracks, each under 10 minutes. Most stores add "Single" after the title themselves.
- EP: 4 to 6 tracks totalling 30 minutes or less, or 1 to 3 tracks where one runs 10 minutes or more, still 30 minutes or less in total.
- Album: 7 tracks or more.
The cover rules are the same for all three. One square image, 3000 by 3000 pixels, and no extra pages. DistroKid says artwork must be one image file with no extra pages, whatever the release type. Our sizes guide has every store's limits. The booklet you might want for an album has no place on streaming.
The single comes first, then the album
The usual path is to release singles first, then the album with those songs on it. DistroKid explains that you upload the album as a separate release, and that reusing the singles' ISRCs, which needs its Musician Plus or Ultimate plan, with identical audio and metadata may help keep play counts and playlists on some services, without a guarantee.
For artwork, that means a rollout of three singles and an album needs four covers. Plan all four before you release the first one, because the first cover sets the look the other three must answer to.
Text must match the release it sits on
This is the rule to check first. TuneCore's requirements say that if you upload a single whose art shows the album title, that is a conflict: the cover must show the single's title, or no title at all. CD Baby says the same: the single cover shows the single title, the album cover shows the album title, and the album title stays off the single's art.
So the album cover with the album name cannot be reused for a single, even cropped. Either give each single its own title on its own art, or leave text off all of them and let the store show the names.
Changing a cover after release
Get it right before delivery. DistroKid accepts edit requests for artwork and says changes can take one to two weeks to reach every service. CD Baby locks artwork once a release is delivered: a change, even a typo, means cancelling and resubmitting. TuneCore allows changes to a distributed release but says it cannot guarantee every store will make them: Spotify, iTunes and Amazon Music generally take up to 2 weeks, other stores weeks or months, if at all, so it recommends a takedown and a new release instead. Check your distributor before release day.
Making covers that belong together
Here is what to keep the same across a rollout, and what to change.
Keep:
- The light. Same time of day, same kind of source. If the first single is lit by a streetlight, the album should feel like the same night.
- The finish. Painted, photographic, grainy film, clean digital. Mixing finishes reads as different artists.
- The type, if you use any. One typeface, one position, one size relationship.
- The camera distance, or a deliberate progression of it: close, closer, then wide for the album.
Change:
- The scene. Each song gets its own picture, found in its own words. A song about a phone call and a song about a drive should not share a picture just because they share an album.
- The colour that floods the frame. Let each single own its colour, from what is in the picture rather than from the light: a wall, a coat, a car. When the album arrives, the singles sit next to it in the artist profile and the colours tell them apart at a glance.
The album cover then has a choice. It can be the scene the whole record circles around, or the place where the singles' worlds meet. Either way, it should not be a collage of the single covers: at thumbnail size a grid of four small pictures reads as clutter.
Deluxe editions, remixes and sped up versions
Each is another release, and each needs art that is not a duplicate. A small, real change works: a different crop, a different colour flooding the same scene, the same place at a different hour. CD Baby's restrictions ban the word "new" and any other time-sensitive reference, such as a year, and TuneCore allows no text beyond the artist name and release title, so mark the edition in the title field, not as text pasted on the old cover.
Where Soundae fits
Soundae makes each song's cover from that song: it reads the lyrics, and every picture in a set is a scene the words describe. With Your taste from other songs on, which is the default, what you kept on earlier songs shapes the next covers a little, and each song still comes first, so the singles from one record can share a look without repeating a picture. For each kept cover, Download all sizes gives a zip that includes a 3000 by 3000 JPG release file made from the original, so each single and the album has its own file to upload.