Blog · 20 October 2026

Spotify Canvas size, length and rules that pass upload

A Spotify Canvas is a vertical loop that replaces your cover art in the Now Playing view of the Spotify mobile app. Make it 9:16, between 3 and 8 seconds long, between 720 and 1080 pixels tall, as an MP4 or a JPG. In practice that means a 1080 by 1920 pixel MP4 of up to 8 seconds. The specs and rules below come from Spotify's own pages, checked on 20 October 2026. The design advice at the end is ours.

The specs

From Spotify's Canvas guidelines and its upload error page:

• Length: 3 to 8 seconds.
• Shape: vertical, 9:16.
• Height: 720 to 1080 pixels. At 9:16 that is 405 by 720 at the smallest and 1080 by 1920 at the largest.
• File: MP4 for video, JPG for a still.

Spotify does not publish a file size limit, a frame rate or a codec on those pages. An H.264 MP4 at 24, 25 or 30 frames a second is the ordinary export from a phone or an editing app, and Spotify asks for nothing more specific. Spotify warns that a small deviation from the specs can fail an upload, so check the length and height in your editor's export panel before you upload, not after.

Who can add one, and where

Spotify's Adding a Canvas page says the first main artist on the track, or a main artist on both the track and the release, can add a Canvas, and the person doing it needs the Admin or Editor role in Spotify for Artists.

On the web: log in to Spotify for Artists, open Music, pick the track, click Add Canvas. In the Spotify for Artists app: Music, the track, the Edit icon, then Canvas. You can add a Canvas to a release that is not out yet, so it can be ready on release day.

A Canvas belongs to a track, not to a release. A five song EP can carry five different loops, or the same loop five times. If your music reaches Spotify through DistroKid, DistroKid points you to Spotify for Artists for the upload; your distributor does not send it for you.

What gets a Canvas removed

Spotify's Canvas content policy is short and strict about selling:

• No selling and nothing overly promotional.
• No sending listeners off Spotify: no web addresses, no ticket links, no asking people to follow you on social media.
• Any text must relate to that track. No other songs, other albums, brands, products, discounts or Spotify's own logo.
• No contests or sweepstakes.

Separately, Spotify asks you to mark a Canvas explicit if it shows profanity, violence, drug use, sexual behaviour or other sensitive topics, even when the content itself is allowed.

The guidelines add craft advice worth taking: avoid rapid cuts and intense flashing, keep important things away from the edges because some phones crop them, and leave out the song and artist name, since Now Playing already shows both.

When it does not show up

If you uploaded a Canvas and cannot see it, Spotify's troubleshooting page lists the usual causes. Spotify's artist page says Canvas plays only in the mobile app, and its listener FAQ adds a Canvas switch in the desktop app under Settings, then Display; tablets and TVs do not show it. Data Saver hides it. Canvas can be switched off in the app's settings. Listeners outside the supported countries do not see it. And a label with split rights can only add a Canvas to the versions of a track it owns.

Design a loop, not a trailer

Eight seconds is short. A Canvas that tries to be a music video looks cut off. One that holds a single idea looks deliberate.

1. Start from the cover. The Canvas replaces the cover on screen, so the jump between the two should feel like the same world. Same colour, same light, same place.
2. One movement. Smoke drifting, a curtain breathing, headlights passing, rain on a window, a hand turning a ring. Pick one thing that moves and let everything else hold still.
3. Hide the seam. Make the last frame match the first. Spotify names three loop styles: a continuous loop with no visible join, a hard cut on purpose, or a rebound that plays forward then backward. The rebound is the easiest way to get a clean seam from footage that does not loop by itself.
4. No mouths moving. Spotify says to choose footage without talking, singing or rapping, because a 3 to 8 second clip will not line up with the lyrics.
5. Keep the lower part clear. Spotify does not say where the controls sit, but open any track on your phone: the title, artist name and buttons cover the lower part of the screen. Keep the subject in the upper two thirds and away from the edges, which some phones crop.
6. Export at 1080 by 1920. It is the top of the allowed height and looks sharp on large phones.

Can a still image be a Canvas?

Yes, a JPG is allowed. A still Canvas is useful when you have no footage, but it should not be the cover again: listeners already saw the cover a second earlier. A vertical crop of a wider scene, a detail from the cover, or a second picture from the same set works better.

If you make covers with Soundae, Download all sizes on a kept cover includes a 1080 by 1920 file, but it is the square cover placed whole in the middle of a 9:16 frame with its edge colour filling the top and bottom, so treat it as a stand-in, not a Canvas. The other pictures in the set come from the same song, and one of them cropped to 9:16 can serve as a different frame.

Before you upload

• 9:16, 1080 by 1920, 3 to 8 seconds, MP4 or JPG.
• No words that send people elsewhere, no logos, no prices.
• The loop seam is invisible, or the cut is on purpose.
• The subject sits in the upper two thirds, away from the edges.
• Marked explicit if the content calls for it.
• Uploaded in Spotify for Artists before release day, then checked on a phone with Data Saver off.