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RC002: Cover Art Quality

Our partner shops give us precise guidelines concerning cover artworks: minimum quality standards are required. This means that unprofessional covers will be definitely rejected by online shops.

Unfortunately, your release does not meet the requirements, and it was therefore rejected by shops.
Please note that all our partner stores are professional online shops that only accept high-quality content - this means that the quality of your cover should be professional. Blurred covers will not be accepted.

If you don’t have an adequate cover, you can contact our grapich designers to request your own cover artwork. You can get into contact with our designers by logging in to your account and clicking on „Bundles“ and then „Buy a Cover“.

Frequently Asked Questions:

“My cover art does meet the technical standards – why was it rejected?”
Old cover artworks with a low resolution are often scaled up to be adapted to technical standards. In this way, image quality becomes worse.

“I can’t see why my image is pixelated/blurred?”
If your image did not pass the quality check done by the stores, there must be a reason. Get a close up of your image in its original size (zoom 100%) to discover blurred/pixelated spots.

“Why do original size images need to have a good quality? Isn’t it displayed on the screen of a cellphone?”
Phone’s screens become bigger and bigger and have a higher resolution. To keep up with this progress, stores require a perfect image quality.

“What happens if I publish the same cover art again without any changes?”
When rejected releases are re-published, they undergo the same quality control done by the stores that rejected them, so it is very likely that they will be bounced once again.

Click here to see an example

Learn more:

- Your cover artwork must not be blurred.
- Pixelated photos will not be accepted.
- Added extras such as “Incl. DVD”, “Contains Lyrics” etc. that are not contained in your digital version are not allowed.
- “Digital Bundle” and “Exclusive Digital Bundle” are not allowed.
- Web links or QR codes cannot be displayed on cover artworks.
- The name “iTunes” cannot be displayed on covers.
- “CD”/“DVD” as well as corresponding logos cannot be displayed on covers.
- Price indications or any other information such as “Special Price” or “Lower Price” cannot be displayed.
- References to physical products (e.g. “Media Markt Edition”) are not allowed.
- Pornographic images (even suggestive) are not allowed.
- The depiction of violence and violent acts is not allowed.
- Only artists and/or titles included in the metadata of your release can be shown on your cover artwork.
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