How Apple is Changing Cover Art
SPECIAL ENTRY 05: apple’s new features should change how you design album art
Explore the intersection of sights and sounds with GLASSES, a deep dive into the expansive world of music graphic design.
Album covers are very important to me. As a graphic designer in the music industry, it used to be my main focus, until eventually sliding into the role of a full-time merch designer. Tech is also really important to me, and something I try to keep up with, despite the hyper speed it can move at.
Cover art hasn’t really changed all that much since its inception. I’ve tried to track changes in the make up and composition of covers over time, but even with the evolution from 12” vinyl to tiny phone screens, we still get visually complex covers just as much as simple iconic ones. When CDs were introduced, obviously the visual artists behind the covers had to consider the more-than-half size reduction users would experience with this new format, but not much changed. In the 1960s there was Sgt. Pepper’s, and in 2015 there was To Pimp a Butterfly. Visually intricate covers will live on as long as humans have eyes to look at them.
All this being said, with the advent of iOS 17, Apple Music users noticed a big change in how many album covers were displayed. There was more animation, more moving parts, and just more motion everywhere. We’d had animated cover art show up on the album page itself, but never in the actual player. Now, when you play a song with an animated cover, that same cover shows up seamlessly in the song player. Have a look for yourself what it looks like without animation versus with.
Album motion makes your album artwork come alive. Motion artwork provides a richer experience for your audience by helping set a mood or accentuate the concept of an album, before anyone presses Play. - Apple
Now, I may be a huge shill for Apple, but I think they look so so good. It seems like something I would’ve previously been against, maybe because I would’ve called it cheap, or because I was (and very much still am) too afraid to learn animation and was afraid I’d be out of a job!!!
This is such a gorgeous and immersive way to display album art, and it really truly does bring you deeper into the covers. I find myself leaving my phone unlocked while listening to music a lot more now, just so I can stare at it, similar to how a kid in the 70s would’ve done with their new shiny record sleeve. In this way, this is a huge step in the right direction for album art. It feels like an actual development in the space that we’ve not only never seen before, but one that grants digital formats a truly proprietary experience. Maybe you bought the album on vinyl or CD, but now you wanna see if it was well animated on Apple Music!
This should hugely affect the way album covers are conceived, drawn up, and designed. Of course the artist doesn’t have to include an animated version of their cover, the square ones have worked fine for almost a century now, but for me it definitely does add a huge edge to the playing experience. Artists should consider how the cover may be formatted differently, and how it might translate to this new aspect ratio. Some covers remain true to the static image with some moving flourishes here and there (Beyoncé’s RENAISSANCE, Michael Jackson’s Thriller), whereas others change entirely and show various shots of the artist or simply other visual effects (most notably Drake’s Take Care). Some are done absolutely terribly and detract from the overall quality (Oasis’ Be Here Now, Post Malone’s beerbongs & bentleys), but most are faithful recreations of the covers with this new exciting visual embellishment.
Luckily though, there are so few so far I’ve come across that look like this, most of them really are done well, and I’m excited when an album gets this treatment. Feels more premium!
I really wanna know what any other Apple Music users think of this change, and if you’re into it or not. Do you think this alters the visual artists’ responsibilities from now on? Do you think it should?
This is sweet and as a almost 10 year spotify user this would be sweet to have and would almost switch for this reason