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Should you put your name and title on your cover art?
You do not have to put any text on your cover. The stores accept a picture with no words. If you do add text, the stores allow two things only, your artist name and the release title, spelled exactly as in your release form. Here is how to decide, and how to set it well if you do. Checked on 20 October 2026.
What the stores allow
The rules are close to identical everywhere:
- TuneCore: only the artist name and release title, exactly as entered, or an image with no text.
- CD Baby: text on the art must match your metadata exactly. CD Baby also says a generic cover such as a plain colour square with no text may not be accepted, and recommends identifying information on the image.
- SoundCloud: artist and title must match, including version titles, and no side by side translations of the title.
- Apple: no web addresses, logos, QR codes, pricing, or references to CD, vinyl or retailers.
Everything else is out: dates, "new single", "out now", social handles, producer tags, label logos, streaming logos. Featured artists and producers belong in the metadata, not as a credit line on the art.
The matching rule is strict. If your release form says Example Band, the art cannot say Example Band Official. A single's cover cannot show the album's title. If a remix's cover shows the title, the version has to be there too, exactly as entered.
Reasons to leave it off
- The store already says it. On every streaming screen your name and title sit right next to the cover. Text on the art repeats them.
- It is unreadable small. In a phone's library grid a cover is a thumbnail. A title in one line along the bottom becomes a smudge.
- It cannot be wrong. No text means no mismatch with the metadata, no rejected release over a typo, and no re-delivery if you rename the song.
- The picture gets the whole square. A cover without words reads as an image first, which is what makes people stop.
- It travels. A clean picture works on a shirt, a poster, a YouTube frame or a Canvas without having to remove letters.
Reasons to add it
- Your name is the brand. For an artist with a logotype, the name set in a fixed way, putting it on every cover builds recognition. It is still your artist name, so it has to read exactly as your release form.
- The genre expects it. Some kinds of record have always worn their names: metal logos, mixtape covers, many rap and dance releases. Leaving it off can look like you missed the convention.
- The picture needs an anchor. An abstract or very dark image can use a line of type to give it a centre.
- Physical releases. In a record shop rack, the spine and front need words. Streaming does not.
If you add text, set it well
- One typeface. Two at most, and only if one is your fixed name logo.
- Big or tiny, not medium. Either large enough to read in a thumbnail, or small and quiet as a detail for people looking at full size. Medium sized text is neither readable small nor elegant large.
- Away from the edges. Stores reject cut off text, and many players round the corners. Keep a margin of at least a twentieth of the width.
- Over calm areas. Put the words over sky, wall or shadow, not over a face or a busy texture.
- Check spelling against the form. Copy the title from your release form, letter for letter, accents and capitals included.
- Keep a clean version. Save the picture without text too. You will need it for merch, the Canvas, the YouTube frame, and the deluxe edition.
Text and AI images
AI image tools can still misspell or distort letters. Apple's style guide, in its rules for animated covers, says AI processing must not introduce distorted text such as titles. The safest approach is to make the picture with no words, then set the type yourself in any design app, where you control spelling, font and placement.
That is how Soundae works: pictures are made with no title, name, logo or lettering, so you add type yourself if you want it, or release the picture as it is. The one exception is merch, where the song title can go on the back of a shirt.