Why was my artwork rejected for being "Blurry" or "Pixelated"?

Understanding quality control rejections due to image resolution.

Your artwork was placed on hold because one or more elements look blurry, pixelated, or distorted. Streaming platforms (especially Apple Music) manually check covers and reject anything that looks like a low-resolution web rip or a poorly resized image.

Common Causes:

• Upscaling: Taking a small image (like a phone screenshot or Instagram 1080x1080 file) and dragging it out to 3000x3000. This does not add detail; it just stretches the pixels.
• Low-Res Assets: Using sharp text but placing a blurry background image or a pixelated character underneath it.

How to fix:

Go back to your original design project (in Photoshop, Canva, etc.), ensure all source images are high-resolution, and export the file directly at 3000x3000.