How to Create Podcast Cover Art That leaves A Good First Impression.

First impressions are very important. You might have the best content but without a good podcast cover art, no one gets to click through to find out.

This is why podcast cover art designs are extremely important.

When done correctly, they save you on your advertising budget.

A great podcast cover helps the viewer visualize in their mind what your podcast is about and therefore make a decision whether to click through or not.

Do you want to stand out among the noise?

Do you want the right people to discover your content?

Then in this article, we will talk about how to create a good podcast cover artwork and secure a first impression with your viewers.

Here are 10 tips.

How To Create Podcast Cover Artwork That Match Apple Podcast Guidelines

It’s no surprise that apple podcast (formerly iTunes) is the biggest most popular podcast directory. 

There exist other big podcast directories for example Google podcast & Spotify however, Apple podcast is the biggest by far.

Here are the different size metrics.

Therefore, it makes the most sense to have podcast artwork that will meet the specifications of the most popular podcast directory. 

Below is the Apple podcast, artwork requirements. 

Excerpts from iTunes podcast Feed and Image Requirements:

[Podcast Cover Art Dimensions] a minimum size of 1400 x 1400 pixels and maximum size of 3000 x 3000 pixels, [itunes podcast cover art requirements] in JPEG or PNG format (.jpg, .png), in 72 dpi quality, RGB colorspace. To optimize images for mobile devices, Apple recommends compressing your image files.

Podcast Cover Artwork Should Have A Clear Message.

It is increasingly hard it is to get someone’s attention in the current digital environment that we are in.

When creating your artwork, it needs to grab attention immediately while also conveying your podcast message & subject clearly.  By doing this correctly you will increase the click-through rate of your podcast which means faster growth. The better you do this the more you beat your competition. Therefore doing this correctly is extremely important!

Create  Podcast Cover Art With A Message.

Your Podcast Niche/Messaging/subject needs to match needs and spoken clearly with as few words as possible.  A good example is the ‘Crime Junkies Podcast’. They are the world’s biggest podcast with at least 35 million monthly digital downloads.

They communicate directly to their target audience, who is anyone who likes crime documentaries and they also convey the message that they are all about crime stories.

How To Create A Personality Type Podcast Artwork

If you want to create a personality podcast artwork you need to make sure it immediately grabs viewer attention and accurately conveys the message about the Host.

Pictures are worth 1000 words so let every word speak directly about the message and directly to the target audience.

How to Create Podcast Cover Art  With The Right size Dimensions.

It is important to know how to create podcast cover art with the right dimensions. You want to make sure your podcast cover art can be viewed from different technologies.

From a large monitor to an app on an iPhone screen.

This is especially crucial as your podcast grows. 

According to iTunes podcast best practices:

The optimum podcast size that will work when scaled down to thumbnail size on iPhone or mobile devices and also a requirement from iTunes store and podcast, is 3000 x 3000 pixels jpg or png file with 72 DPI in the RGB colour space.

You want your artwork to be displayed on Apple podcast, Google podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, and on different devices.

Since all these platforms require a different scale of artwork size, therefore for best practice artwork should be designed in 3000 x 3000 pixels.  This means that it can be scaled down or up to meet all these requirements.

ITunes/ apple podcast preview page.* 

 As someone clicks on your podcast cover art from any desktop or internet browser, Apple podcast then displays your art in the dimensions of 276 x 276 pixels.

 Therefore a 3000×3000 pixel design will look good when scaled down.

Itunes Store new and noteworthy section size requirements.

In this section, your podcast is displayed in their 125 x 125 pixels. This is the iTunes prime location. 

Apple podcast iTunes mobile app

Mobile dimension sizes are even smaller. When listeners search for your podcast on the mobile they will see the size of your artwork in 55×55 pixels. This means your artwork needs to look good when it’s massive and when it’s small.

While designing your podcast art try exporting it at 55 x 55 pixels to get an idea of how it looks like in smaller sizes.

Use minimal words

For the best visual representation, you need to use a few words. When your artwork is displayed at thumbnail size it will be difficult to make out what it says. A good rule of thumb is not to use more than 5 words in your artwork.

Also, be careful when selecting fonts to use. The more fonts you use the more distracting your artwork becomes.

When adding text to your artwork make sure you limit the number of fonts you use. A good rule of thumb is to you use no more than two fonts.

Avoid over the top fonts.

There are a lot of gimmicky over the top fonts that draw too much attention to themselves.

These fonts are too flashy and overused. Remember you want to use ones that express your core message acurrately.

Avoid oversaturated images

It’s very common to see a podcast cover art with a microphone.

Because of oversaturation, when people look at these images they are trained to ignore them since such covers are part of the noise.

For example, microphones, radios, speaker icons.

Stand out, and be unique while also being simple and to the point.

There is an exception to this, however. If, for example, you run a podcast about how to start a podcast, you could use the image of a microphone. Although, even this can be risky.