How to Make Episode Artwork Show in Podcast Apps (even in Apple Podcasts!)

39 Plays3 years ago

You already know that your podcast needs top-level cover art to look great in all the podcast apps and directories. You can also further enhance the experience for your audience, create promotional assets, and reinforce your branding by making unique artwork for each episode. But you need to compensate for how each app might display the episode image (especially Apple Podcasts).

Please share this episode with anyone struggling to make their episode artwork appear!

Quick tips for episode artwork

There are a bunch of different images you could make for your podcast and individual episodes (I've previously talked about 7). Here are a few quick guidelines for episode images.

Follow the same specs as podcast cover art: 1,400- to 3,000-pixel square, RGB color, JPEG or PNG, and smaller than 512 KB (preferably closer to 200 KB).
Keep your branding as consistent as possible: fonts, colors, layout, icons, mood, and such.
Include your logo or podcast name, but it doesn't have to be as prominent.
Focus the artwork on the episode's title and simple imagery that supports that title and the episode's content.
Ensure the most important parts can be understood if you shrink the artwork to a 1-inch (2.5-cm) square, but most episode artwork will display almost as wide as your smartphone's screen.
Remember that this artwork will show most prominently in the “now playing” interface of the app, possibly the lock screen, and possibly an attached device (like a smartwatch, TV, or in-car display).

Now that you have episode artwork, there are three places you should put it to make it show up in podcast apps.

1. ID3 tags

Audio files can have metadata embedded in the files through the “ID3 tags.” This includes the title, author, chapters, other text, and images.

(Aside: I couldn't find that “ID3” actually stands for anything!)

Overcast and several other podcast apps use the image inside your ID3 tags. Some automations (such as Zapier, Repurpose.io, webpage-embedded players, and platform importers) also use the image in the ID3 tags.

Any ID3 editor should let you add at least one image (and I recommend adding only one to your ID3 tags). Here are the ID3 editors I recommend:

ID3 Editor from PA Software ($15, Windows and macOS)—This was the best $15 I've spent in podcasting!
iTunes (free; Windows, OS X, and macOS up to 10.14) / Apple Music (macOS 10.15 and later)
Mp3Tag (free for Windows, $19.99 for macOS)
Your podcast-hosting provider's built-in tagging tools

This should be the first and most important place for your episode artwork. Even if you don't make unique images for each episode, make sure your episodes always include your main podcast cover art in the ID3 tags.