How to Add Album Art in YouTube Music

As part of the customizable music experience, YouTube Music has to offer, you have the option to change the cover picture of all your playlists. While this feature is available, and it can be completed in a couple of quick steps, it still isn’t possible to add album art to existing albums on YouTube Music. However, there are various other things you can do to customize your YouTube Music library.

In this guide, we will show you the different ways you can customize your playlist covers on YouTube Music on various devices.

Can You Add Album Art to YouTube Music?

If you only want to listen to music on YouTube, without random videos popping up in your recommendations, then YouTube Music is for you. YouTube Music is a separate app used for streaming music and has been quite popular in the past couple of years.

Not only does YouTube Music create automatic playlists based on your search history and preferences, but you can make your own custom playlists as well. Among other features, YouTube Music lets you customize your music experience by adding and deleting songs from your playlists, changing the name of your playlists, and sorting your music.

It is also possible to change your playlist covers on YouTube Music by choosing another song cover from the playlist. On the other hand, the option to add album art to uploaded music is not currently an option on YouTube Music.

The only way you can add album art to YouTube Music is by uploading your own music. When you upload a certain song, you can choose any album cover you want. Other than that, there isn’t an option to add a new cover to albums that had already been uploaded.

How to Change YouTube Music Playlist Cover?

Before you go through the process of changing your playlist cover on YouTube Music, there are a couple of things you should keep in mind.

When you make a playlist on YouTube Music, the app will automatically use the first song you added to the playlist as the cover. Unlike Spotify, where a playlist cover consists of four images taken from the first four songs from your playlist, YouTube Music only uses one image for the cover.

You should also keep in mind that you can only use a song cover from that exact playlist. At this point, it isn’t possible to upload a custom image as your playlist cover. Lastly, the only way you can change your playlist cover on YouTube Music is by manually reorganizing the order of your songs. There might be more options in the future, but for now, this is the only way to go.

The good thing is that you can change your YouTube Music playlist cover on both the phone app and the web version. We will show you how to do it across different devices.

Linux

We’ll start with the web version of YouTube Music. To change a playlist, cover on YouTube Music on Linux, follow the steps below:

1. Go to YouTube Music on your browser.
   
2. Choose the “Library” section from the top banner.
   
3. Click on the playlist that you want to edit.
   
4. Find the song that you want to use for the playlist cover.
   
5. Click on the song and drag it towards the top of the screen.
   
6. Refresh your page.
   

That’s it! Changing a playlist cover on the web version of YouTube Music is even easier than on the mobile app, simply because you are working on a larger screen.

Mac

To change a playlist, cover on YouTube Music on your Mac, follow these instructions:

1. Open YouTube Music on your browser.
   
2. Navigate to “Library” at the top of your screen.
   
3. Find the playlist that you want to edit and click on it.
   
4. Locate the song in the playlist for the cover.
   
5. Click on the song and drag it until it’s the first song in the playlist.
   
6. Refresh the page.

You’ve successfully changed the cover of your YouTube Music playlist. Now you can go back to listening to music with your new playlist cover.

Windows 10

If you want to change a cover of a YouTube Music playlist on Windows 10, follow the steps below:

1. Go to YouTube Music.
   
2. Head over to “Library” on the top banner.
   
3. Locate the album that you want to edit and click on it.
   
4. Find the song that you want to use for the playlist cover.
   
5. Click on the song and drag it to the top of the playlist.
   
6. Let go and refresh the page.

While this method of changing the playlist covers works just fine, it can be a hassle if your playlists contain hundreds of songs. In that case, you would have to search for the song and drag it all the way to the top of your playlist, which may take some time.

Since this process requires much less time on the web version, we recommend using your computer instead of your mobile app to do this.

iPhone

If your computer isn’t near you at the moment, or if you simply prefer using the mobile app, don’t worry. Changing a playlist cover on the YouTube Music phone app requires a couple of additional steps. The only step that might take some time is the process of reordering the sequence of the songs. Here’s how it’s done on an iPhone:

1. Open the YouTube Music app on your iPhone.
   
2. Tap on “Library” in the bottom-right corner of your screen.
   
3. Navigate to “Playlists” at the top of your screen.
   
4. Choose the playlist that you want to edit.
   
5. Go to the pen icon on the right side of the playlist cover.
   
6. Find the song that you want to use for your playlist cover.
   
7. Tap on the two lines next to the song’s name.
   
8. Press on the two lines and drag the song to the top of the playlist.
9. Go to “Done” in the upper-right corner of your screen.
   

Refresh the page on your iPhone. YouTube Music will automatically change the playlist cover to the first song cover on the list.

Android

If you want to change a playlist cover on YouTube Music on your Android, follow the steps below:

1. Launch YouTube Music on your Android.
   
2. Head over to the “Library” section in the bottom-right corner of the app.
   
3. Go to the “Playlist” option at the top of your screen.
   
4. Find the playlist for which you want to choose a new cover.
   
5. Tap on the pen icon that’s located next to the current playlist cover.
   
6. Go through your playlist until you find the song with the right cover.
   
7. Tap on the two lines on the right side of the song.
   
8. Drag the song towards the top of the playlist.
9. Tap “Done.”
   

That’s all there is to it. You can pick any song cover from that playlist. Your new playlist cover will be immediately updated.

Additional FAQs

Why Is YouTube Music Not Showing Album Art?

In certain cases, YouTube Music won’t display the album art on your device, especially on the mobile app. Try refreshing your page a couple of times. If that doesn’t work, then you might need to update to the newest version of the app. Updating YouTube music usually does the trick.

It could also happen that the album art you want to choose for your playlist isn’t available for some reason. If that’s the case, try choosing another album art for your playlist.

Why Can’t I Add Album Art to YouTube Music?

Unfortunately, it isn’t currently possible to add album art to YouTube Music playlists. YouTube Music doesn’t give you the option to upload album art for albums that had already been uploaded to YouTube Music.

On the other hand, if you upload your own music on YouTube Music, you will be given the option to choose whichever album art you want. In case you wanted to change the album art of an album that someone else uploaded, keep in mind that this option is also unavailable. You can only edit your own playlist and albums.

Customize Your Music Experience on YouTube Music

Now you know how to change a playlist cover on YouTube Music on different devices. While YouTube Music still doesn’t give you the option to add album art to a playlist or album that had already been uploaded, you can select any playlist cover from the list of songs within your playlists. Once you have changed the playlist covers and organized them to your liking, you can start streaming music.

Have you ever changed a playlist cover on YouTube Music before? Did you use any of the methods outlined in this article? Let us know in the comments section below.