topic Re: Album artwork is faded and washed out in Content Questions

Album artwork is faded and washed out

maxartist23 — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 14:04:27 GMT

I am a graphic designer for a record label.

I noticed that the artwork on a recent album is appearing very faded compared to the file we supplied to Spotify.

The original is vibrant but in the player it looks considerably muted and washed out.

Why is this happening?

Re: Album artwork is faded and washed out

user-removed — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 03:59:57 GMT

Hello,

Do you have a link or a screenshot by any chance? Lots of factors could be impacting this, but a good start would be to have a look.

Thanks!

Re: Album artwork is faded and washed out

maxartist23 — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 16:34:36 GMT

thanks for the reply.
here you go:

Re: Album artwork is faded and washed out

AlejaR — Mon, 20 Feb 2023 18:41:27 GMT

Hey @maxartist23,

Thanks for your reply and for the info shared.

Apologies for the late response; we were checking this more thoroughly and with the right team.

That being said, we can confirm this is expected. The images are adjusted slightly when uploaded. We'd recommend you change the color profile of the original file. This can be changed from RGB to sRBG or viceversa. It should be possible to do this in an image editor software, such as Photoshop.

We really appreciate the time you took to report to us on this. We hope you found this helpful. We're always here to help.

Re: Album artwork is faded and washed out

maxartist23 — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 16:58:58 GMT

Thanks.

Please let me know, as we need to get this resolved and sorted out.

The file is already RGB - so this does not help or explain what is going on.

Why do the colours look so washed out and a lot worse to what we supplied to Spotify?

I look forward to your reply.

Re: Album artwork is faded and washed out

Eni — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 21:34:11 GMT

Hey @maxartist23,

Thanks for your reply.

We're afraid we don't have any more info to share about this. In this case, you can try exporting a new file and submit it to change the cover to your distributor to see if that makes the difference.

If you have any further questions about this, we'd recommend reaching out directly to Artist Support here.

If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.

Re: Album artwork is faded and washed out

maxartist23 — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 14:13:53 GMT

thanks eni.
how can i escalate this to someone at spotify who will actually know what is going on with this behaviour, and be able to give me a clear answer/help?

i need to get to the bottom of this.

Re: Album artwork is faded and washed out

maxartist23 — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 11:34:10 GMT

"you can try exporting a new file"

What settings or colour profile should I use when exporting a new file?
I need to get ot the bottom of this ASAP.

Re: Album artwork is faded and washed out

maxartist23 — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 16:22:18 GMT

Any futher word on this please? I'd like to get this fixed and resolved.

Re: Album artwork is faded and washed out

Mr_B3 — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 23:19:50 GMT

I had the same problem, sRGB colour space/colour profile was the answer for me. As long as I stayed in sRGB in photoshop and exported in sRGB it no longer washed out the colours when uploading 👍🏻😊

Re: Album artwork is faded and washed out

alyar — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 11:57:25 GMT

I've had the exact same thing over the past few days - also a graphic designer/art director as well as a musician and i can absolutely tell incremental changes from outer space. Noticed the other day that my PFP/Bio image which i've had for 3 years straight - the very same image is crunched in res with faded colors and definitely loss of detail. I was asked to do this by Spotify Artists support while trying to fix an issue which caused this as an extra.. Hoping it's a bug cause it looks good on the desktop app.. Makes no sense, also the recommended dimensions they give you are cap, if you know how to crop and process an image theres no reason to stoop down to 72dpi.