Please note: This guide is for content providers only. If you deliver your content via a distributor, please reach out to them for help or check out our FAQ here.
I’m a music provider
Tip: If any terms in here are unfamiliar, refer to the Spotify Service Level Guidelines.
If you are interested in what files we accept and prefer for audio and artwork then please see the below;
Audio
Accepted audio formats are the Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) or Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or more commonly known as WAV). Audio shall be 16-bit or 24-bit 2-channel with a 44.1kHz or higher sample rate. WAVE files must only use format code 0x0001(WAVE_FORMAT_PCM) and never 0xFFFE(WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE). WAVE files must have valid fmt and data subchunks, and contain nothing other than audio data after the beginning of the data subchunk. Only full tracks are of interest and “sample clips” shall never be delivered. FLAC format is strongly preferred over WAVE.
Images
Images should be delivered in the highest resolution available, preferably in a format using lossless encoding. The minimum dimension in either width or height of a cover art image asset is 640px. Do not upscale images. For cover art, the preferred aspect ratio is 1:1. To guarantee ingestion, all images should be RGB encoded using 24 bits per pixel. If transcoding to the format used in delivery is a lossy operation, please raise the issue in tech-to-tech discussion prior to doing so. Accepted formats in order of preference are: TIFF, PNG or JPEG.
If you are interested in learning about how we normalize audio at Spotify, and what advice we provide at the mastering stage then please see the below blog site. https://artists.spotify.com/faq/mastering-and-loudness
For anything else please submit a support request for the Operations team.