Listen to the full episode here:You already know that your podcast needstop-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.
2. RSS feed
There are two RSS tags that can hold your episode-level artwork: the itunes:imagetag from Apple's “iTunes namespace,” and the podcast:imagestag from the Podcasting 2.0 “podcast namespace.”
You'll see these (especially the legacy tag from the “iTunes namespace”) at the top level for your whole podcast (called “channel-level”), and they can also be used for individual episodes (called “item-level”). These link out to the cover art hosted somewhere.
Like with all things Podcasting 2.0, the podcast:imagestag lets you do more! You can already specify different images for different sizes. For example, an image with only an icon at 150 pixels wide, an image with the title and icon at 600 pixels wide, and an image with more at 1,200 pixels wide. There might be other features in the future, too!
Interjection: Apple Podcasts still won't display episode artwork
Ironically, Apple Podcasts doesn't actually display episode images from RSS feeds using Apple's own namespace tag! Their documentation even still encourages using it for an “episode-specific image you would like listeners to see”!
Episode tag: itunes:image
Parent tag: item
The episode artwork.
You should use this tag when you have a high quality, episode-specific image you would like listeners to see.
Specify your episode artwork using the href attribute in the tag. RSS Feed Sample .
Depending on their device, listeners see your episode artworkin varying sizes. Therefore, make sure your design is effective at both its original size and at thumbnail size. You should include a title, brand, or source name as part of your episode artwork. To avoid technical issues when you update your episode artwork, be sure to:
• Change the artwork file name and URL at the same time
• Verify the web server hosting your artwork allows HTTP head requests
Artwork must be a minimum size of 1400 x 1400 pixels and a maximum size of 3000 x 3000 pixels, in JPEG or PNG format, 72 dpi, with appropriate file extensions (.jpg, .png), and in the RGB colorspace. These requirements are different from the standard RSS image tag specifications.
Make sure the file type in the URL matches the actual fi
