Music MarketingThe recording is over. You mixed every song. The sequencing on the album is perfect. And you’ve finished mastering it. It’s perfect now.
It’s time to distribute your music, right?
Wait… There’s one more important step! And it’s as creative as the rest of your workflow: your album cover or mixtape.
The album artwork is still important. But the truth is that it’s usually a posthumous thing during the creative process.
It makes sense: you spend enough time honing your music and you probably don’t have time to become a Photoshop wizard yourself.
Don’t stress yourself. We have created this quick guide on how to create your album cover online for free, including how to find free photos, album cover templates, and how to use online photo editors to make it your own.
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The artwork of the album is still important. But the truth is that it’s usually a posthumous thing during the creative process.
The first step is to find royalty-free images to work with. Just like audio samples, your album artwork must be copyright free.
Many free image resources provide royalty-free photos that you can download, edit, remix, crop, and mix to create album covers that feel “yours”.
Here are 8 royalty-free image resources:
Canva goes far beyond a simple photographic resource (but it is also this). It is a complete editing suite to edit your images, add text, change fonts, and pretty much do all the things you need to do before releasing.
Their free online cover creator will get you off on the right foot when it comes to adding visual elements to your publication.
Use any of the photos or layout templates for free, at any time. Just register with your email to sign in (it’s worth it considering what they offer).
You spend enough time honing your music and probably don’t have time to become a Photoshop wizard yourself.
Unsplash is “over 550,000… high-resolution photos for free” which can be used as you wish. This includes album covers for your next release.
Type a keyword, browse the results, find something you like, and edit it to fit your album. No flickering, just good, ready-to-use, hassle-free images.
PikWizard is a (mostly) free stock image and video site.
The PikWizard libraries have over 1 million stock images and videos and more are added to them on a weekly basis. All assets are premium, contemporary and completely copyright free. But what really makes Pikwizard unique is the editing tool attached called: Design Wizard
Every photo on Pexels is free for commercial or non-commercial use.
In addition, each high-quality photo is carefully selected from photos uploaded to Pexels or other free image resources to ensure a wide range of options.
Pexels is browsable via useful collection tags or keywords — perfect for when you need to match an image to the mood of your latest album.
Burst is a free photo platform from Shopify.
Although it is not as extensive as some of the other resources in this list, it provides many superb high-quality images for free.
Browse by category, collection, or keyword to find photos or inspiration for your release.
Stocksnap provides another large database of huge quality images, all covered by the CC0 license.
Which means they are all good for your album cover.
Find all kinds of album art inspiration via search, tags, or categories, edit the images to fit your vision and you’re ready to go.
Pxhere is another fantastic CC0 archive photo gallery to find the starting points for your artwork.
Search by tag or keyword, or if you’re really stuck use the random tool to generate some ideas to get started.
Your cover is the visual representation of your music on all platforms and streaming stores, so you need to take time to make it unique.
Your artwork must represent you and your music. Don’t settle for just the first raw image you find.
Each image from each of these resources is not only free to download, but it’s also free to be edited… So edit them!
You don’t even have to be a top-quality designer.
Use them to collage multiple images together, change colors, add layers, superimpose the album title, and artist name with a font you like.
It’s up to you.
Each image from each of these resources is not only free to download, but it’s also free to be edited… So edit them!
Your cover should represent you and your music. Don’t just settle for the first raw image you find.
Take the time to find the right image and edit it to make it your own.
To distribute your music on all major streaming platforms, your album artwork must meet certain criteria. Follow these guidelines and you’ll be fine when it’s time to release.
A square
Minimum 3000 x 3000 pixels
No blurring or pixelization
No URL, hashtag or handle
No pornographic images
No reference to brands
JPG or PNG format
72 Minimum PPE
Use any image editing tools available online and your cover will be ready when the time comes to publish your music.
Your album artwork counts.
These tools and tips will give you everything you need to create something meaningful and captivating in the blink of an eye.
So take the time to make a killer cover. And publish your music knowing it’s the best thing you could do, for your ears and eyes.
If you want to receive updates on new Music Marketing articles and guides, subscribe to my newsletter. It would mean a lot 🙂
Thank you!
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