Apple Podcasts Art: 1400–3000 px Square Without Last Season’s Type

Directories still show Season 2

Apple Podcasts for Creators documents show covers as square art. The preferred size is 3000×3000. RSS artwork is accepted from 1400×1400 through 3000×3000, PNG or JPG, RGB, with no transparency or alpha channel. Hosts still have a flattened PNG that says “SEASON 2” while they are shipping season five. Redesigning the mascot is a week. Clearing the stamp is this afternoon. The job is to paint out the dated line, keep the host or icon, and letter the new season in a layout tool on a solid square — then rename the file so the RSS URL actually changes. Apple’s RSS notes say to change the artwork filename and URL together or the old square sticks in apps that cache by URL.

Paint the season, keep the mascot

Upload the square to text removal. Brush the season number, a one-off guest nameplate, and an expired network tagline as one block. Zoom to 100% on illustrated linework and skin. You want the original grain. Do not flatten a transparent PNG for Apple by leaving checkerboard; export onto a solid field first. Alpha channels are a documented reject. A semi-transparent network bug is a watermark after the type is gone — one routing sentence, then back to letters. Do not run full-image auto if the show title is drawn into the illustration; paint only the dated line. If auto already ate a letter of the title, you need the layered file, not a second pass.

Before

After

Size versus the upload cap

Work inside 1400–3000 px square. Uploads here accept up to 10MB and 6000×6000 px, so a 3000 px master is inside the product cap. A 3000 px JPEG under 4MB typically returns in under 60 seconds. Then export RGB JPEG or flattened PNG with no alpha. Spotify and YouTube will downsample; they still want the same square habit. Do not upload a 640 px Instagram crop and stretch it to 1400. CarPlay thumbnails will show the blur. Name files `show-art-base.png` without type and `show-art-s5.jpg` with type so next season is a lettering job, not another reconstruction.

Episode art versus show art

Show art is the forever square. Episode art can carry a guest name if you export a new file each week from an untitled base. Do not reconstruct episode type on the show master or you will fight this again next season. Skip the tool when the title covers most of a face, when the file is a screenshot of a screenshot, or when you do not own the illustration. Clearing your own season stamp is production. Lifting another show’s cover is not. If reconstruction leaves a soft rectangle across a cheek, relink the layered file. A second auto pass will not invent pores.

When Connect is waiting

Update the RSS enclosure URL and the filename in the same sitting. Directories that cache by URL will otherwise keep Season 2 until a listener force-refreshes. Keep the dated original in a folder named for the show, not for the guest. When the directories still show last year’s guest banner, clear the overlay, export a 1400–3000 square with no alpha, and change the filename in the feed.

RGB, no alpha, and why checkerboard fails

Apple rejects transparency. Designers export PNG with alpha because Figma defaults to it. Flatten onto the brand field before upload. If you already reconstructed season type on an alpha PNG, flatten after, not before — otherwise the checkerboard becomes grey mush in some hosts. YouTube podcast surfaces still want a square; do not letter a 16:9 episode title onto the show art. Spotify will downsample; a 640 px Instagram crop stretched to 1400 will look soft on CarPlay. Stay inside 1400–3000 px square, RGB, no alpha, as Apple documents.

Filename is the cache buster

Change the artwork filename and the RSS image URL in the same sitting. Apple’s notes say apps cache by URL; a query string is not a reliable bust. Listeners on old app versions will otherwise keep Season 2. Keep `show-art-base.png` without type. Episode art can carry a guest name from that untitled base; show art should not. If reconstruction left a soft rectangle across a cheek, relink the layered file. When Season 5 is live and the square still says Season 2, clear the type, export a 1400–3000 square with no alpha, and ship a new filename in the feed.

Guest nameplates belong on episode art

A one-off interview should not live on the show square. Export episode art from the untitled base, letter the guest once, and leave show art alone. Hosts who reconstruct every guest onto the forever square spend the next season painting names off again. If the only 3000 px file is a screenshot of Apple’s own page, go back to the design export. Reconstruction will not restore linework that was never in the JPEG. Stay RGB, square, 1400 to 3000, no alpha — then change the filename in the RSS.

When Season 5 is live and the square still says Season 2, clear the type and ship art that matches the RSS you actually published.