Turn a cover into a looping canvas.

A Spotify Canvas is the short vertical loop that plays behind your track in the Spotify app. Stack stickers, text, motion, effects and shaders over your cover on a timeline, then export a silent 8 second 9:16 loop that starts exactly where it ends.

No software needed. Everything runs in your browser.

For artists and labels releasing on Spotify who want a Canvas without hiring a motion designer.

Each of these is built around a single cover. In the studio a scene is only the starting point: change its colours, sizes and motion, then stack stickers, effects and text on top.

What you get

How to make a Spotify Canvas

  1. Start from your cover. Open Canvas and add your cover art: pick it from your library, upload a PNG, JPEG or GIF, or generate one. Then set the scene: Orbit, Monolith or another scene built around the cover, a moving backdrop such as Black Silk, a stock clip, or a video of your own.
  2. Layer it and add motion. Add stickers, logos, text, GIFs or video on top, and cut a subject out of a photo with the background remover. Give each layer cards from the Motion, Effects, Filters and Text tabs, then drag their clips on the timeline to decide when each look plays.
  3. Check it under the player. Play the loop with the Safe zone and Player UI guides on, and keep titles and faces inside the safe zone, above the controls that cover the bottom third. The project saves itself a moment after each change, so you can leave and pick it up later.
  4. Render and upload. Press Render loop and the file is made on our servers: a silent 1080 x 1920 MP4 at 60 fps, exactly 8 seconds long. Download it from your library and add it to the track in Spotify for Artists.

What is a Spotify Canvas?

A Spotify Canvas is the short, silent, vertical video that loops behind a song in the Spotify app. It lasts a few seconds, repeats for as long as someone stays on the track, and is added by the artist one track at a time. Here is what Spotify asks for, what makes one work, and how Canvas, the LimePulse studio, builds one from your cover.

Where a Canvas plays, and who adds it

A Canvas appears in the Now Playing view of the Spotify mobile app, filling the screen behind the track title, the progress bar and the play controls. It does not play on desktop or in the web player, and it is switched off for listeners who have Data Saver on. If you cannot see your own Canvas on a laptop, nothing has gone wrong.

It is added per track, through Spotify for Artists, by the main artist on the track with an Admin or Editor role on the profile. A featured artist cannot add one. You can use the same loop across a whole album or give every track its own; Spotify allows either.

Spotify Canvas size, length and format

Spotify's guidelines ask for 3 to 8 seconds, a 9:16 vertical frame, and a file in MP4 or JPG. A JPG gives you a still picture, which is allowed but misses the point of a Canvas. There is no sound: your track is the audio, and the video plays silently beneath it.

The dimensions line is the one that trips people up. It reads "720px to 1080px tall", which cannot mean the height of a 9:16 video, because the width would come out at an odd few hundred pixels. Read as the short side, everything agrees, and the size that uploads cleanly is 1080 by 1920. Spotify publishes no frame rate and no file size limit.

Canvas exports every loop at exactly 1080 x 1920, 8 seconds long, at 60 frames a second, as an H.264 MP4 with no audio track. The length is fixed at the longest Spotify accepts, so there is no setting to get wrong.

What makes a Canvas work

A Canvas is watched through a crowded frame. The player lays the track name, the scrubber and the buttons across the bottom third of the screen and a line of text along the top, so anything that has to be read belongs above the controls, toward the middle. The title and artist are already on screen, which is why Spotify suggests leaving them out of the video.

Spotify also sets content rules that catch a lot of good intentions. A Canvas cannot send people anywhere else: no web addresses, ticket links, social handles, requests to follow, brands or contests, and not Spotify's own logo. That rules out a QR code or a subscribe prompt, which belong on YouTube instead.

Most of all, it repeats. A listener sees the same few seconds over and over in one play of the song, so the join between the last frame and the first comes round again and again. Motion that flows straight through that join holds up over a whole song, and a visible jump there is the flaw people notice.

Why the loop closes cleanly in Canvas

A loop cut out of ordinary footage has to hide the moment where the end jumps back to the start. Canvas works the other way round. Every motion, effect and text animation is calculated from the position in the loop rather than from a running clock, and each one completes whole cycles, so the final frame hands straight back to the first.

The same rule covers what you add. Keyframes ease back to the first pose by the end of the loop. Text animations that reveal the words hide them again, and every one starts with the words readable. A video clip on a layer plays at its real speed, repeats if it is shorter than the loop, and dissolves back into its opening frame just before the wrap. A background clip you upload is cut to 8 seconds at a point where the footage comes back round on itself, with a short blend only when it never does.

The render is drawn by the same code as the editor's preview, stepped through the loop one frame at a time at the full 1080 x 1920. The file follows what you arranged, rather than being a second animation made to look like it.

Building one in Canvas, step by step

Start with your cover art, uploaded or generated in the studio, and set the scene around it: Tessera, Monolith or another designed scene built around the cover, a looping video backdrop such as Rain Window, a stock clip or your own footage. Then layer on stickers, logos, text, GIFs or video, and cut a subject out of a photo with the background remover if you want it to stand apart.

Give each layer motion, effects, filters and shaders, from Ken Burns to Lens Flare and Film Grain, and give your text an animation such as Typewriter or Neon Flicker. Every card sits on the timeline, where you can trim it to play for part of the loop with its own fade in and out. Turn on the safe zone and the Player UI guide to see what Spotify's controls will cover.

Press Render loop and the file is made on our servers, then lands in your library with no watermark. Download it and add it to the track in Spotify for Artists. If the release is going to Apple Music too, open the project in Motion and convert a copy to Apple's frames instead of starting again.

Built for the loop

The last frame meets the first. Every motion, effect, text animation and keyframe is worked out from the position in the loop, not from a clock, so the last frame hands straight back to the first. Video clips on a layer play at their real speed, repeat if they are short, and dissolve back into their opening frame just before the wrap.

Scenes and moving backdrops. Start from a designed scene, like a ring of bars around the cover or a slab reflected in a glossy floor, or from a looping video backdrop. Every backdrop is exactly 8 seconds and already loops, and you can use your own clip or one from the stock video search instead.

Layers, keyframes and a timeline. Your cover, stickers, logos, text, animated GIFs and video clips each sit on their own layer, which you can drag, scale, rotate, reorder, hide or lock. Set keyframes and a layer moves between poses and eases back to where it started. Trim any clip on the timeline so a look plays for only part of the loop, with its own fade in and out.

Motion, effect and filter cards. Give a layer motion such as Float, Ken Burns or Swing 3D, effects such as Liquid Flow, RGB Ghost Morph and 3D Depth, and colour grades from the Filters tab. Cards stack in any order, so one cover can sway, ripple and shift colour at the same time.

Text animations. Text is its own layer, in fonts such as Bebas Neue, Playfair Display and Pacifico. The text cards move it letter by letter or as a whole, or draw an underline, a highlight or a box around it. Every card that reveals the words hides them again and starts with the words readable, so the text is in the same state when the loop comes round.

See it under Spotify's player. Switch on the safe zone, a centre cross and a preview of Spotify's Now Playing screen to see what the player covers before you render. The guides stay in the editor and never reach the file, and the render is drawn by the same code as the preview, one frame at a time at full size.

Loops made in Canvas

Your cover in a rounded card near the top, over a blurred copy of the same art, with a row of white bars rising and falling along the bottom. Like every Canvas export, the file is 1080 x 1920 at 60 fps and exactly 8 seconds long.

Your cover split into a grid of tiles, with a pulse that runs out from the centre and lifts the tiles as it passes. In the Tessera scene you choose how many tiles there are, how far they lift and how many pulses land in each loop.

A ring of glowing bars circles the cover, over a soft blurred copy of the same art. The Orbit scene lets you set the number of bars, their width and height, the size of the circle and the strength of the glow.

The cover becomes a slab that sways in 3D above a glossy floor that mirrors it, with soft lights drifting behind. In the Monolith scene the sway returns to its starting pose by the end of every loop, and the floor grid and the row of bars can each be switched off.

Works with

Motion: The same loop at Apple's frame sizes, converted in one click.

Music Visualizer: The full-length video for the same release.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make a Spotify Canvas?

Open Canvas, add your cover art, and pick a scene built around it, a moving backdrop or your own video. Stack stickers, text and motion on top, check it with the Spotify player preview, and press Render loop. You get a silent 1080 x 1920 MP4, 8 seconds long, ready for Spotify for Artists.

What size should a Spotify Canvas be?

1080 x 1920 pixels, 9:16 vertical. Spotify's guidelines say "720px to 1080px tall", but at 9:16 that figure only makes sense as the width, so 1080 wide by 1920 tall is the size to export. Spotify sets no frame rate. Every loop from Canvas comes out at exactly that size, at 60 fps.

How long can a Spotify Canvas be?

Spotify accepts 3 to 8 seconds. Every loop Canvas builds is 8 seconds, the longest allowed, which gives the motion room to develop before it comes round again. There is no length to set, so there is nothing to get wrong.

Does a Spotify Canvas have sound, and does it react to my song?

No to both. A Canvas is silent and plays under your track in Spotify's own player, which gives the video no audio to follow, so a loop that tried to react would drift out of time. The bars in Canvas scenes move as they would to a real song instead, and they return to their starting point every loop.

How do I make a Spotify Canvas loop seamlessly?

Canvas does it for you. Every motion, text animation and keyframe in the studio is calculated from the position in the loop, so the last frame leads straight back into the first. Video on a layer dissolves back into its opening frame before the wrap, and a background clip you upload is cut at a point where the footage comes back round on itself.

Can I use my own video in a Spotify Canvas?

Yes, as a layer or as the background, in MP4, MOV, WebM or M4V. On a layer, a clip longer than the loop lets you choose the 8 seconds to use, and a shorter one repeats at its real speed. As the background, you choose where the 8 seconds start and the studio looks nearby for the point where the footage comes back round on itself, so a background clip has to be a little longer than the loop. There is a stock video search built in too.

Why is my Spotify Canvas not showing?

Check where you are looking first. A Canvas plays only in the Now Playing view of the Spotify mobile app, never on desktop or in the web player, and it is switched off for listeners who have Data Saver on. Not seeing it on a laptop does not mean the upload failed.

How do I upload a Canvas to Spotify for Artists?

Download the MP4 from your library and add it to the track in Spotify for Artists. Spotify lets the main artist on the track do this, with an Admin or Editor role on the profile, so a featured artist will not see the option.

Can I put text, links or a QR code on a Spotify Canvas?

Text, yes, but keep it short and inside the safe zone, because the title and artist are already on screen and the player covers the top and the bottom third. Spotify's rules do not allow web addresses, social handles, requests to follow, brands or contests on a Canvas, which rules out a QR code too, so save those for your YouTube videos.

Can I turn my Spotify Canvas into Apple Music motion art?

Yes. Motion, the Apple Music motion art studio, is the same editor at Apple's square and portrait sizes. Open a Canvas project there and Convert makes a reframed copy for Apple's frames, leaving your Spotify version exactly as it is.

Can I make a Spotify Canvas without After Effects?

Yes. The editor runs in your browser and the loop renders on our servers, so there is no video software to learn or install. Start from a cover image, or generate one in the studio.

Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB. LimePulse is an independent tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Spotify.

Read more

More from LimePulse

See pricing · Browse the templates · Get started