4+ Ways to Create Custom Playlist Art for Apple Music

Apple Music’s playlists might not be setting the world on fire, however, the one area in which they are excellent has to be the cover art. You might have made a few playlists on Apple Music; however, you might’ve had the feeling that the album art for your playlists is not nearly as good.

If, that is the case, don’t worry as I am going to show you how to create amazing “Apple-style” playlist covers for your Apple Music playlists. You do not need to be some sort of creative expert either; as I will be covering websites that will help you easily design free covers, as well as take inspiration from others’ work.

1. CoverX

CoverX is a website that the process of creating beautiful Apple Music covers very easy. The site features a set of gradient backgrounds that look like Apple’s official playlist covers, excluding some backgrounds from the free stock photo website, Unsplash. CoverX also grants you the ability to pick your own backgrounds.

After you have done so, you can add up to four lines of text. This could include your username or the Apple Music logo, the playlist title, or the sub-title, it could also be one line of text describing what the playlist is about, depending on you. Or, if you wish, you can choose to omit any or all of the four lines of text, which allows a greater degree of freedom when designing the cover.

You have the ability to download these covers as JPEG or PNG files, you can easily upload them to Apple Music.

Cautionary Word: If you are intending to share the playlists with friends on Apple Music, it is advised that you avoid using the Apple Music logo. CoverX warns that these covers might be removed for your friends if you do so. It is better if you send the cover image separately via email or using a messaging app, accompanied by a link to your playlist.

2. Denim

Denim is an iOS application that has a wider variety of backgrounds that the users can quickly customize to make a great playlist cover. Denim has basic gradient backgrounds; however, it also offers several different types of presets that you are quickly customizable. Note – Denim does not allow users to add as much text as CoverX, this works in favor of Denim as with the kind of covers you can create on this app you don’t need that much text. However, if you don’t really add text, then it’s no problem.

After you have finished creating your cover art on Denim, you can save the image, then tap a button in the app to open Apple Music. This is a small feature; however, it definitely makes you feel the process of adding playlist covers is smoother.

Though the app does allow you to use around 20 backgrounds for free, as expected Denim’s best backgrounds cost $1.99 to unlock. Denim app supports both Apple Music as well as Spotify.

3. Playlist Cover Art Generator

What if you are someone who does not gravitate towards artistic cover art for their Apple Music playlists? You might just prefer seeing a simple collage of album art from various songs on the playlist.

If this sounds like you, don’t worry, as even if you have an option, you can get this done very easily via the Playlist Cover Art Generator shortcut. To use this shortcut, you will have to download Apple’s Shortcuts app, also make sure that Allow Untrusted Shortcuts is enabled. To check navigate to Settings > Shortcuts on your iOS device.

When you open the Shortcuts app and run Playlist Cover Art Generator, it will ask you to select the playlist from Apple Music. You also need to select how many images you wish to have on the playlist cover, and if you want to add some text on the cover.

The shortcut supports up to 49 images, which will be a 7×7 grid, that is if your playlist has songs from those many albums. 

If an album cover is not available as a perfectly square image; Playlist Cover Art Generator will not use it. Note – Once the shortcut has completed its task, it will automatically save it to your iOS photo library. The shortcut does not send a notification stating that it is done.

4. Design an Apple Music Cover Art from Scratch

So far, I have only provided options that make it easy to create Apple Music cover art. However, if you wish to have a little more control over how the playlists look, you can design your own album art.

For Apple Music, you will require square images. As long as it is high-resolution (1000×1000 pixels satisfies the requirements) and if it is designed well, your cover art will look nice on most Apple devices.

If you want some inspiration, you can visit the Colorful Gradients Tumblr page for gradient background-related inspiration. You could also check out interesting Pinterest pages that feature Apple Music playlist covers or even Spotify playlist art to inspire you.

5. Download Apple Music Album Art and Playlist Covers

Creating Apple Music playlist covers might not be something you wish to put your efforts into. You might simply like to download Apple’s playlist covers and use them with your playlists. Thankfully, there is a very simple method to download them. iOS developer Ben Dodson has created a website that allows users to find as well as download any Apple Music playlist cover.

Visit the Apple Music Artwork Finder page, paste the link to any Apple Music playlist, then click on Get the artwork. You will then be able to see the playlist cover displayed below that. You can scroll down further to download high-resolution versions of the same image (the highest resolution of 3840×3840 pixels is usually available).

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