Is the Resolution of Your Podcast Album Art High Enough (or Does it Look Horrible)?
Earlier this week I came across some information in Apple’s podcast specs that caught me off guard. I find out my podcast album art looks horrible on Apple TVs! Is yours ready for prime time? This affects both audio and video podcasters. If you want to look top notch…
Make Your Album Art 600×600 Pixels
When I refer to album art I’m talking about the image file indicated in your feed with the <itunes:image> tag. You can see my album art for The Podcasting Underground included in this post. You’re probably using PodPress or FeedBurner to include your art in your feed.
Your podcast album art is an important part of your shows “packaging.” It’s one of the first things people will see. It can also greatly affect whether or not Apple will feature your podcast in the iTunes music store.
Previously it was sufficient to have album art that was only 300×300 pixels in size. But the Apple TV displays a larger version of your art. Resolution is also getting better on iPods and iPhones. If you want your art to look professional, then you need to upgrade it to be 600×600 pixels. This can be either PNG or JPG format.
You can bet I’ll be updating mine right away.
March 3rd, 2008 21:01
I have uploaded a new 600 x 600 pixel podcast logo image to my website, but iTunes is still showing the old image. With the new 600×600 requirement, I took the opportunity to change the logo, but iTunes is still showing the old image.
May 8th, 2008 16:46
Phil - the same thing happened to me. In general, it may takes a few weeks for iTunes to catch up with any image changes you make. If it seems to take too long (or if you’d like to speed things up) try using the “Report a Concern” function on your own podcast and ask that the image be re-cached. I did this, and my new image was changed in a few days.
August 8th, 2008 09:44
I have found the turnaround to be faster lately, but some I know of simply re-upload their podcast with the new image, understandably, not an option for all.
Great blog Jason, I’ll be linking!
LB
eCoverSource.com