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Last updated on August 29th, 2022 at 09:00 pm
Are you searching for the perfect images for your Spotify playlist covers, social media feed, or online store? Perhaps you are too busy to take your owncover photos or you’re not skilled in photography. So you search widely for free stock images for commercial use but you keep getting lame results?
Fortunately, today the internet offers a wide variety of cool free pictures for commercial use. You only need to know where and how to search for websites that offer free photos for your aesthetic album cover art.
What size is Spotify Cover Art?
Spotify playlist cover art should be 640×640 pixels. As long as the dimensions are 1:1 aspect ratio, a perfect square, you’re good to go.
Find Spotify Cover Art
We have made the work easier for you by compiling a list of top websites that offer stock pictures you can use in your aesthetic Spotify playlist covers.
These sites contain cute images that can help you build your business brand.
Here are the top seven stock image websites where you can download free pictures to use in your Spotify cover art. (P.S. – our favorite site is listed last!)
Also, if you’re looking for completely custom and unique playlist cover art, you can find some really exceptional and affordable artists on Fiverr!
#7. Every Pixel
Every Pixel is a special search engine used for searching and filtering out bad pictures.
Also, it enables users to compare the various pricing that different stock image websites offer.
Every Pixel amasses all stock images, whether premium or free, to provide you with a collection of legally acceptable pictures for your design purposes.
It’s a little confusing at first when you download an image, because it takes you to Vectorstock to complete the download.
#6. Deposit Photos (Freebies)
Deposit Photos provides a collection of free pictures that a user can use in a playlist cover.
This free stock image library is recognized globally and contains more than 200 million collections of pictures.
Brands such as Subaru, TripAdvisor, and Forbes are some of the brands that use album artwork from Deposit Photos.
However, most images on this website are for sale, and you can find Deposit Photos price listings for those interested in buying unique and high-quality images.
Fortunately, the website provides more than 69,000 high-quality pictures for users to download under their royalty-free licensing for free images.
#5. Adobe Stock (Freebies)
Adobe Stock price is one of the most highly regarded platforms that offer high-quality stock pictures for purchase.
Fortunately, Adobe Stock also provides a collection of royalty free stock images and videos too.
Here, you can search for a variety of images, including those with themes of landscapes, sad emotions, and chill conditions.
You can also sample out its selection of 3D assets, free illustrations, and templates you can use in your playlist cover ideas.
#4. Shutterstock (Freebies)
Shutterstock is typically a paid subscription-based stock photo website. However, they do have thousands of free images available at no cost to you.
If Shutterstock’s free downloads aren’t doing it for you, they have an affordable entry-level plan that gets you 10 images per month for $29.
Still on the fence? Take advantage of Shutterstock’s free one-month trial.
#3. Pexels
Pexels free images and videos resource provides its photos for use under the Pexels license, which resemble that of the Creative Commons Zero license.
That means users can download, alter, copy, and share pictures from this website for use in their album cover art.
This royalty-free stock images website comprises millions of pictures uploaded by the Pexels community of photography enthusiasts.
All Pexels pictures are tagged and searchable. Thus, users can easily find them using the website’s discovery pages.
#2. Pixabay
Pixabay is a free photo resource that contains more than 2.2 million free album covers, videos, and music clips.
Pixabay free images are accessible and downloadable by users.
The website provides free album covers from contributors, and anybody can alter and use them without including attribution to the contributor or seeking any permission.
Royalty-free stock pictures on Pixabay are available to users under the Pixabay license, which resembles that of the Creative Commons CCO. However, Pixabay’s license is somehow a bit restrictive.
#1. Unsplash
Unsplash is our absolute favorite site to find free high res images. This free photo resource comprises more than 2.5 million free pictures taken by a global community of photography enthusiasts.
Unsplash images are all available for free download and use for whatever purpose, including fun for those who like to express themselves on Tumblr.
All Unsplash images are available under the Creative Commons Zero license, which allows them to copy, alter, share, and use.
With this license, users don’t need to give attribution or seek permission to use the images, but it’s encouraged.
Stock Image License Types
Usually, there are many types of licensing that come with the use of images and videos whether they are for purchase or free.
Stock image licensing types include royalty free, creative commons, commercial, public domain, and non-commercial. Their restrictions can be a bit confusing, so we’ve explained the differences below.
1. Royalty Free License
Today, royalty free is the most popular form of licensing for stock pictures that are for sale.
This license offers flexibility to the user since they can buy a photo only once but use it for multiple applications.
Nevertheless, this license has its limitations. For instance, you’re only allowed to make printouts of up to 500,000 copies of the royalty-free stock images in a publication.
However, you’re not permitted to produce a derivative product with the picture; you’ll require an extended license for that.
2. Creative Commons License
This encompasses a series of license types established by an NGO to assist photography enthusiasts in licensing their free stock images for commercial use.
Creative Commons enables photography enthusiasts to safeguard their cute pictures in easy to comprehend terms while still offering them free usage.
Free photos under Creative Commons license must have an attribution (credit to the individual who took the image).
3. Public Domain
A public domain license typically implies that the images of concern don’t actually have any license agreement.
That is, the photographer has agreed to place their album artwork in the “public domain”, and any user can use it for whatever purpose they like.
4. Commercial License
A commercial stock image usage license can be described as a consensus between the creator of the image and a different party who wishes to make use of the picture for their commercial purposes.
Usually, this license elucidates the permissible usage and the kind of usage that isn’t permitted.
5. Non-commercial License
Nearly all features of the Creative Commons licenses are self-explanatory, except the “non-commercial use aspect.”
A non-commercial license is one that doesn’t allow usage of stock free images for purposes that are of commercial nature or that result in monetary gains.
For instance, you can use images that are available under the non-commercial license in school/work presentations, decorations, or research.
The Significance of Looking at Licensing Before Downloading and Using Stock Images
If you’re a webpage designer, online store owner, or photography fan who likes downloading images from the web, check the licensing before using any image!
If you’re not careful, you can end up in a court of law or get hefty fines for using an image without the necessary license.
Because stock image licensing is written in legal terms, it may be challenging for a layman to comprehend them.
Also, since licensing varies from one stock image website to the other, you have to be keen and ensure you check the licensing of an image before using it.
Enjoy styling your Spotify playlists with cool album art!
