How to Make a Spotify Canvas: 7 Tips and 8 Ideas
A Spotify Canvas is the short looping video that plays behind your song on the Spotify phone app. It takes the place of your cover art on the Now Playing screen. It's small, but it's the first moving thing a listener sees of your release.
What is a Spotify Canvas?
A Spotify Canvas is a 3 to 8 second looping visual that replaces your album art in the Now Playing view of the Spotify mobile app (Spotify).
Now Playing view is the full screen a listener sees while a song plays. A "loop" means the clip plays again from the start, over and over, with no break.
Each track gets its own Canvas. You can add one to any track, including songs that aren't out yet. According to Spotify, the people who can add one are:
- the first main artist on the track, or the main artist on both the track and the release
- with an Admin or Editor role in Spotify for Artists
You upload it on the web at artists.spotify.com (Music, then your track, then Add Canvas) or in the Spotify for Artists phone app.
A Canvas only plays in the Spotify phone app, not on desktop. Listeners also need Canvas switched on and Data Saver off in their settings (Spotify). It also travels: when a fan shares your track to Instagram Stories, the Canvas loops behind the Story (Spotify).
Spotify Canvas specs that upload first time
Spotify lists four requirements on its Canvas guidelines page. We added two rows people often ask about.
| Spec | What Spotify says | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 3 to 8 seconds | Aim for 6 to 8 seconds. Shorter loops repeat fast and feel jumpy. |
| Shape | Vertical 9:16 | Tall, like a phone screen held upright. |
| Size | Between 720 px and 1080 px tall | Spotify doesn't say which edge. We deliver every Canvas at 1080 x 1920; 720 x 1280 is the other common 9:16 size. |
| File type | MP4 or JPG | MP4 for motion. A JPG is a still image and won't move. |
| Sound | Not listed | Your song plays with it. We export Canvases silent. |
| File size | Not listed | Spotify's pages don't give a limit. |
Source: Spotify for Artists, Canvas guidelines and upload error pages, checked October 1, 2026. "Not listed" means neither page gives a rule.
Spotify's upload-error page adds a warning: if the length or size is even slightly off, the upload can fail. An 8.2 second file is not an 8 second file. Check the length in your editor before you export. If the web upload still fails, Spotify suggests the Spotify for Artists mobile app.
What Spotify doesn't allow
Spotify's Canvas content policy sets the hard limits. A Canvas can be removed if it:
- breaks the Spotify Platform Rules
- sends people to websites, URLs or ticket sellers
- asks people to follow or like you on social media
- promotes other songs, unrelated albums, social accounts, brands, products, deals, fan experiences, contests or sweepstakes
- uses Spotify's own logo
- is "overly promotional" in general
Text is allowed, with limits. Any text must relate to that track and must not distract from the artwork. The image stays the main focus.
The guidelines page also gives softer advice. These aren't removal rules, but they're the difference between a Canvas that looks professional and one that doesn't. They're built into the tips below.
7 tips for a Canvas that looks professional
Match your cover and lyric video
Spotify's own advice is to "create a theme" that connects your Canvas to your album art and profile. We go one step further: same palette, same type, same textures as the lyric video. One release, one look. Our lyric video color palette guide helps you pick it.No singing, talking or rapping on camera
Spotify says clips this short won't sync with the lyrics. A mouth moving out of time with the song looks broken, fast.Keep the important parts in the middle
Spotify warns that edges may get cut off on some phones, and the app shows the song title and controls over the lower part of the screen. Faces, objects and text belong in the center.Leave out the song title and your name
Spotify already shows both on the Now Playing screen. Repeating them wastes the frame.Choose your loop type on purpose
Spotify names three: continuous, hard cut and rebound. Rebound, which plays forward and then in reverse, is the easiest way to a smooth loop. The table further down compares all three.Move slowly
Spotify advises against rapid cuts and intense flashing. Slow, steady motion holds up on repeat. Fast cuts feel frantic by the third loop.Check it on a real phone
Upload, then play the song in the Spotify app. Watch it loop five times. If the seam jumps or the text sits under the controls, fix it now.
8 Canvas ideas that fit a lyric video release
A lyric video release already gives you most of what a Canvas needs: a palette, a font, backgrounds and a hook. These ideas reuse that work.
1. The hook, set in your lyric video's type
One short phrase from the chorus, held still or moving gently. Works when the phrase is 2 to 5 words and the type is big. Skip it as a sung line animated in time: the loop won't sync with the song.2. Your cover art, brought to life
One element of the cover moves: smoke drifts, light flickers, hair or water sways. Works for almost any release, because fans already know the image.3. The lyric video's background, no text
Lift a textured or scenic stretch from the lyric video and loop it. Works for atmospheric songs. Skip it if the background only makes sense with words on top.4. A slow push into the artwork
The camera drifts toward the cover or a key scene, then rebounds. Works for detailed art. Skip the hard cut back to the start, which looks like a skip.5. Performance footage without the mouth
Hands on a guitar, a slow walk, a dancer's turn. Works when the motion is continuous. Skip it if the performer is clearly singing.6. One gesture, rebounded
A head turn, a hand opening, fabric lifting. Forward then back reads as smooth motion. Works with 3 to 4 seconds of footage.7. A color field from the release palette
Light leaks, gradients or ink moving through your release colors. A safe, clean default for singles, and the easiest Canvas to match to a lyric video. Think of it as a tiny visualizer: motion and color, no words.8. A tiny story
Spotify suggests telling a full story in the loop. A candle lit and burning down, a door opening, a sky turning from day to night. Works when the end frame flows back into the first.
Four Canvases from our studio
Here are real Canvases we made for client releases. Each one is a single idea that loops, built from the release's cover art or video, and delivered at 1080 x 1920.
How to cut a Canvas from your lyric video
You can make a Canvas in any editor that exports vertical video, on a phone or a computer. Make Lyric Video's self-serve tool exports widescreen 16:9, so the vertical crop happens in your editor. If you don't have a lyric video yet, see how to make a lyric video.
Pick the loop moment
Find 3 to 8 seconds around the hook
Scrub through the lyric video. Look for a stretch with steady motion and no hard scene change in the middle.Prefer a moment with little or no text
A full lyric line spans most of a wide frame. A vertical crop keeps only the middle strip, so long lines get cut off.Or pick one short phrase that holds
If you want lyrics on the Canvas, find a moment where a short phrase sits still in the center.
A vertical crop keeps a lot less than people expect. From a 1920 x 1080 widescreen frame, a 9:16 crop is about 608 x 1080 pixels. That's only 32% of the width.
What a vertical crop keeps
A 9:16 window inside a 1920 x 1080 widescreen frame.
608 x 1080
Only the middle strip survives. Pick a moment with no text, or one short phrase in the center.
Our arithmetic: 1080 x 9 / 16 = 608 px, about 32% of 1920. Illustration, not a real frame.
Hide the seam
The seam is the moment the loop jumps from its last frame back to its first. On an 8 second loop, a listener sees it every 8 seconds, so it has to be invisible or look deliberate. Spotify names three ways to loop.
| Loop type | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous loop | The last frame flows into the first with no visible join. | Drifting smoke, light, color fields, slow camera moves you can match up |
| Rebound | The clip plays forward, then in reverse. Spotify calls it an easy way to a smooth loop. | A single gesture, a slow push-in, fabric or hair moving |
| Hard cut | A clear edit point where the clip jumps back to the start. | Beat-driven loops where the cut lands like a hit. Disguise it with a flash of motion. |
Loop types from Spotify's Canvas guidelines. "Best for" is our studio practice.
Crop, export and upload
Crop to 9:16
Set a 9:16 project, place the clip, and slide it so the subject and any text sit in the middle.Remove the audio
Your song plays with the Canvas anyway.Build the loop
Use a rebound for the easiest seam. For a continuous loop, cross-fade the last half second into the first. Trim so the total is between 3 and 8 seconds.Export an MP4
Use 1080 x 1920 or 720 x 1280. Check the length is inside 3 to 8 seconds.Upload and check on a phone
Add it in Spotify for Artists, then play the track in the Spotify app.
Start from the sharpest file you have. A 9:16 crop exported at 1080 x 1920 gets enlarged about 1.8 times from a 1080p file, and about 2.7 times from a 720p file (our arithmetic). The 720p crop will look soft.
Does a Canvas help streams?
A little, by Spotify's own 2020 test: +5% streams on average.
Spotify has published figures, and they're Spotify's own numbers from its own test. In November 2020, Spotify reported that during the Canvas beta, listeners who saw a Canvas were more likely to take these actions than a control group that didn't (Spotify for Artists).
What Spotify says a Canvas changed
Lift vs. a control group in Spotify's Canvas beta.
Source: Spotify for Artists blog, November 19, 2020. Spotify's own beta test, not an independent study.
Read the chart carefully. The big number, 145%, is shares. Streams went up 5% on average. Some sites quote "145% more streams". That misreads Spotify's figure. Spotify's earlier metrics guide also mentions best cases of "up to 120%" more streams for a high-quality Canvas. "Up to" means the best result, not the typical one. Spotify's current Canvas page doesn't repeat any of these figures.
In Spotify for Artists you can track Canvas views. Spotify counts a view when someone opens the Now Playing view and sees your Canvas, at most once per stream (Spotify).
Get the Canvas made with your lyric video
A Canvas is one piece of a release's visual kit. The others are cover art, the lyric video, vertical clips for Reels, TikTok and Shorts, and YouTube thumbnails. Our checklist of every visual a release needs walks through the full set.
- Done for you. The Gold package on Make Lyric Video Pro includes a Spotify Canvas and cover art designed with your lyric video, plus 3 vertical lyric videos and 3 thumbnails. A creative director keeps it all in one look. You see a preview first. Silver can add a Canvas as an add-on.
- Do it yourself. Make a lyric video free to test the look. It's full-length 720p with a watermark on every frame, no account or card. It's fine to post but not to monetize. When you like it, $29 gets the clean 1080p file with no watermark and commercial rights. That's the file to crop your Canvas from.
Then plan when each piece goes out with our release week plan.
Get the Canvas, cover and lyric video in one look
Gold includes a Spotify Canvas, cover art, 3 vertical clips and 3 thumbnails, designed with your lyric video. Preview first.
Rather try it yourself first? Preview your lyric video free: full-length 720p with a watermark on every frame, no account or card. It's fine to post but not to monetize. $29 gets the clean 1080p file with commercial rights.
FAQ
What size is a Spotify Canvas?
Spotify's guidelines say a Canvas must be a vertical 9:16 video between 720 and 1080 pixels tall, as an MP4 or JPG. Spotify doesn't say which edge it means. Our studio delivers every Canvas at 1080 x 1920 pixels; 720 x 1280 is the other common 9:16 size. If the size or length is even slightly off, the upload can fail.
How long can a Spotify Canvas be?
Between 3 and 8 seconds. It loops for as long as the song plays. We aim for 6 to 8 seconds, because very short loops repeat so fast they feel jumpy.
Can a Spotify Canvas have lyrics on it?
Yes, if the text relates to the track and doesn't distract from the artwork. Spotify advises against footage of someone singing, since a 3 to 8 second clip won't sync with the song. One short lyric phrase that holds still works better than an animated sung line.
Why was my Spotify Canvas rejected?
Upload errors usually mean the file is off spec: longer than 8 seconds, not 9:16, the wrong size, or not an MP4 or JPG. Removals after upload come from the content policy: links, social handles, brand logos, promotions, contests, or anything that breaks Spotify's Platform Rules.
Can I add a Canvas to a song that's already released?
Yes. Spotify lets you add a Canvas to any track, including upcoming releases, and you can change it whenever you like. Labels with split rights can only add a Canvas to the version they own.
