Invite listeners into your world. Album motion artwork is a powerful way to deepen the connection between your music and your audience. It brings your album to life: adding movement, emotion, and atmosphere that reflect your unique sound.
These guidelines outline how to create album motion artwork for Apple Music and formatting requirements to ensure your work looks and performs its best across the product experience.
Where Album Motion Artwork Shows Up
Your album motion will appear on the Album Page on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, as well as on smart TVs. Motion on the album page is an opportunity to surprise and delight your fans with a beautiful and expressive moving version of your album art. Your album motion may also appear on the Home tab, which is based on a user’s music preferences.
Artwork Policies
Adhering to the guidelines ensures a smooth review process and the highest quality presentation for your work. Please be aware that Apple may reject or remove artwork that does not adhere to our policies. Artwork that doesn’t meet the formatting or technical specs will be rejected with an opportunity for resubmission.
Things to keep in mind:
Make it intentional. Blurry, misaligned, pixelated, or poor quality images that are clearly not part of a visual style or creative direction may be rejected.
Fill the entire template with art. Whether you’re using photos, illustrations, or other graphics, make sure they’re high resolution and fill the entire template. Refrain from designing artwork that mimics the Apple Music app interface. For example, a 3x4 motion asset that displays a 1x1 album cover will be rejected.
Don't add marketing or promotional content. Your artwork may be rejected if it includes promotional copy, tour dates, or other ad-like material.
Start frame. The first frame of your album motion should work as a composed static frame. For example, in situations when media is slow to load, first frame may freeze, or someone takes a screenshot, your album motion should still offer a good representation of the album. Starting on a solid color, black, or an otherwise vague visual could be rejected.
For more information on Apple artwork guidelines, including general guidance for content delivery, review the Apple Music Style Guide.
Required Deliverables
Artwork Specifications
To provide album motion artwork, download our templates and follow the guidelines to create your deliverables and provide them to Apple. Artwork must be delivered to these technical specifications.
Asset
Resolution
Codec
File Type
Length
Device
Album Page Motion 3x4
2048x2732 pixels
H.264
or Apple ProRes 4444
.mp4 or .mov
8–20 seconds
iPhone, Android
Album Page Motion 1x1
3840x3840 pixels
H.264
or Apple ProRes 4444
.mp4 or .mov
8–20 seconds
Mac, iPad, smart TVs
Ensure your artwork adheres to these specification requirements:
Container format is .mp4.
Pixel aspect ratio of all assets is 1:1 (square pixels).
Bitrate is set to 45 Mbps.
Frame rates supported for all assets are 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, or 30 fps.
Color Profile should be set to Rec 709 or sRGB.
Deliver without an audio track
Deselect the Export Audio checkbox. This will change your Preset to Custom and can be submitted.
Motion Asset Output Settings
File Name
Resolu-tion
Codec
File Type
Pixel Aspect
Frame Rate
Color Profile
Audio
Length
Device
Album Page Motion 3x4
2048x
2732 pixels
H.264
or Apple ProRes 4444
.mp4 or .mov
square pixels (1:1)
23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, or 30 fps
Rec 709 or sRGB
Deliver without an audio track.
8–20 seconds
iPhone, Android
Album Page Motion 1x1
3840x
3840 pixels
H.264
or Apple ProRes 4444
.mp4 or .mov
square pixels (1:1)
23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, or 30 fps
Rec 709 or sRGB
Deliver without an audio track.
8–20 seconds
Mac, iPad, smart TVs
Double-Check Motion Asset Render Settings
To ensure correct output settings for codec and audio output, we highly recommend matching these settings when using After Effects, Premiere, or Media Encoder.
After Effects Settings
Step 1. Select Format: H.264.
Step 2. Select Audio Output: Off.
Step 3. Click into Format Options button.
Step 4. Set Target Bitrate (Mbps) to 45. Set Maximum Bitrate (Mbps) to 45.
Premiere or Media Encoder Settings
Step 1. Select Format: H.264.
Step 2. Select Preset: Match Source - Adaptive Medium Bitrate.
Step 3. Deselect the Export Audio checkbox.
After Effects Templates
Album Page Motion 3x4 Template
This template appears only on iPhone. Keep essential elements within the safe area so they don’t intersect with the iPhone notch, UI text, buttons, and gradient. Download the template.
Album Page Motion 1x1 Template
These templates appear on iPad, Mac, and smart TVs. The entire canvas of the Album Page Motion 1x1 is safe to place artwork. There are no UI elements that need to be considered. Download the template.
Design Guidelines
Overview
Album motion art can help take your fans on an immersive journey that connects your music with captivating artwork. Bring your album to life with moving visuals that evoke the tone of your album.
The examples throughout this guide showcase how to create engaging album art that follows our standards and guidelines. Review the Apple Music Style Guide for more information on accepted artwork and guidance for content delivery.
Art
Your Apple Music album page is a dedicated space to feature your unique album cover art. Continuity between your album cover and motion art is critical for a great user experience. Follow these guidelines below to deliver motion art that takes your album art to the next level.
Motion Art
Static Art
Accuracy
The motion art should be based on the album cover art. Any motion you use must remain focused on the album cover art for the full duration of the animation. Motion cannot include cuts to other images in the edit.
Start Frame
The first frame of your album animation should match your album cover artwork. In slow connection or no internet scenarios, the first frame could freeze. Therefore, it should showcase a frame that matches the album cover. This ensures there is continuity across all of your album’s placements on Apple Music.
Creative
Use motion graphic animations in order to maintain a visual consistency between your album cover and motion art. To limit distractions, avoid using assets with an abundance of frenetic flashing.
Motion Graphics
Motion graphic animation focuses on giving movement to graphic elements within the static frame. No static imagery or stills, unless it is actively integrated into the animation or used as source material within a motion-based technique.
Frenetic Flashing
Motion album covers are featured alongside album information and other visual content. Motion covers that are too frantic or use constant flashing could distract or even cause harm to viewers.
Safe Area and Legibility
It’s important to understand and consider the motion art safe areas before creating your animations. The safe areas are a portion of the album motion art that are designated for text and any key elements, such as the artist. Creating motion art with the safe spaces in mind will ensure all of the distinctive art you create is properly showcased on an album page.
The entire canvas of the Album Page motion 1x1 is safe to place artwork. The Album Page motion 3x4 includes UI elements that need to be considered as you create your art. A safe area guide is provided in our downloadable templates for you to toggle on and off to check your artwork placement.
Album Motion 3x4 Safe Area
Keep essential elements within the safe area so they don’t intersect with the iPhone notch, UI text, buttons, and gradient. The essential elements could be typography, key element placement, or logos.
Typography
Text and titles are required to remain within the safe area, so the UI and text overlays remain legible. Don’t place typography outside the safe area, which can intersect with the Apple Music UI elements. This results in risks artwork that appears unintentional and broken.
Key Element Placement
The main subject, or key element, of your artwork should be composed within the frame so the UI and text do not conflict. Logo and symbols are required to remain in the safe area.
Parental Advisory
Artwork must not contain a parental advisory logo. The logo is no longer needed, as each song is marked “explicit” in the delivery’s metadata.
Looping
The audience should view the animation without a noticeable transition from ending to beginning. Therefore, the full animation sequence must be in a continuous loop. Please avoid using fade to color or multiple edits as a looping technique.
Multiple Edits
Motion art must not contain multiple edits, as the animation should stay on album cover art.
Technical
Be aware of the following technical aspects when creating your motion artwork.
Drop Frame
Animation must not contain a drop frame or hold frame. Check the timeline and layers before transcoding to avoid this error.
Frame Edge
Motion cover art must not have a frame or border if the artwork does not fully fill the composition space.
Quality
Avoid scaling up the resolution from low-resolution files. This will cause art to appear pixelated or blurry. Instead, try to create assets from high-resolution source files so your artwork appears high quality on displays.
Download Templates
All artwork must be delivered to the technical specifications provided in this toolkit:
