Modern listeners are given more options for music consumption than ever before. Thing is, it’s still that way today.Įven in the age of endless listening for all, the cover you choose for your single or album plays an essential role in representing your music before someone even clicks “play.” Heck, having professional-looking cover art might be even more important now than it was in the physical media days of yore. Dre’s The Chronic, featuring a portrait of Dre framed in a design similar to the Zig-Zag rolling papers he used to wrap his album’s namesake.įor all these classic albums and hundreds more, the cover art is a window into the music therein. Īnd we can’t forget the endlessly imitated cover of Dr. Similarly, Joy Division’s choice of a simple data plot visualization of radio pulsar signals centered against a black background was a perfect representation for the stark, cold post-punk sound on Unknown Pleasures. One glance at the Schizoid Man on the cover of King Crimson’s landmark prog debut In the Court of the Crimson King and you know you’re in for a wild ride into the experimental side of rock. Throughout the history of popular music, musicians have chosen to adorn their albums with immediately recognizable covers.

Take a look at these covers and tell me you wouldn’t be horrified/intrigued if you came across them among the racks without knowing who the artist was:īut it’s not just Maiden - or even heavy metal - that makes iconic cover art a priority. How many unsuspecting teens in the ‘80s stumbled onto Iron Maiden in a store and bought The Number of the Beast or Piece of Mind sight unseen and sound unheard due solely to Eddie’s grisly mug staring back at them? Does cover art still matter in a streaming world?īack before streaming and even downloads, when record stores ruled the music world, an album cover was often all a shopper had to go on when they were browsing the shelves. Not only should that artwork LOOK good it also has to meet the visual guidelines of the big streaming platforms if you want your music to stay available online. In the streaming era, you need cover art for every single and album you release. Why making acceptable cover art is so important.

How to display album covers