Get your next album cover for less than $25. Five creative Graphic Artists on Fiverr.com

If you're reading this blog, you are probably a musician like me, that knows exactly how to spend hundreds of dollars on studio gear, instruments and software, but when it comes to marketing, even the expenses under $100 seem to hurt. Have you ever asked yourself any of the following questions or statements?

1. I wish I could find a graphic artist for my new album cover that costs less than $300 and will actually give me something I want.
2. I am broke and I need an album cover, but I don't know anyone.
3. A lot of album covers that I've seen these days look cheap and simple, why is that?
4. I just need a simple album cover for a cheap price, I am broke.
5. I don't know what I want on my album cover, that's why I'm calling you.
6. Why do graphic artists take my deposit for an album cover and then disappear for two weeks?
7. I know I explained to this graphic artist, exactly what I wanted for my album cover, and they made something totally different and now they want to charge me to make changes.
8. I heard that there are people overseas that are graphic artists that will work for cheap, unlike the spoiled local college brats that are over charging me.
9. Hello Facebook friends, can anyone recommend a graphic artist for me?
10. OK, five bucks, I think I can pay $5 to get a cover for my next single, I just need something basic.

Well, I think you've come to the right blog post? Fiverr is an amazing place, where people across the world offer services starting at $5. You can find graphic artists, translators, musicians, SEO web specialists, graphic designers and more. So why did the title of my blog post say “... less than $25?” Because the truth is, at fiverr, the prices for gigs start at $5, but you probably need a few “extra gigs” to get exactly what you need. But before you start comparing fiverr sellers, there are a few things that I recommend you get, no matter who you hire to design your album cover.

• Get a square version of your album cover that is 3000 x 3000, 300 dpi, .jpg less than 15mb.
• Make sure that you either have the ability to resize your own image, or you pay your graphic artist to output different sizes, based on the table above.
• Make sure to get the source file (photoshop, illustrator, or whatever program they used) 

Getting your source files important, because, you may want some small change later on, two years from now and you can't expect your graphic artist to have archived this file. Save yourself from a huge headache later. The following is a list of some of the artwork dimensions that you need for some of the main distributors. You would think that this is an industry standard, but it seems like every distributor wants something a little different.

Distributor	Dimensions	File Types Accepted
Band Camp	700 x 700 minimum	.jpg, .gif, .png
cdbaby	1400 x 1400	.jpg
Distro Kid	Not Published / Public	Not Published / Public
Loudr.fm	3000 x 3000	.jpg, .jpeg, .png
Mondo Tunes	Not Published / Public	Not Published / Public
Reverb Nation	1000 x 1000	.jpg or .png
Symphonic Distribution	2000 x 2000	.jpg, .jpeg, .png
Topspin Media	600 x 600 min - 1200 x1200 max	.jpg
Tunecore	1600 x 1600 min - 3000 x 3000 max	.jpg, .png, .gif

You'll notice, that on fiverr, some graphic artists charge a little extra for each of the three rules stated above, which is why the $5 simple album cover is rarely a viable option. $25 is more reasonable, and depending on the seller, it may cost you up to $50, but keep in mind … most retail graphic artists are charging anywhere from $200-$500 for album covers. Keep your options open.

Here are five great sellers on fiverr that I have found:

Hatimbahia Team from Morrocco

williamw1987

ateljestudio

kidslikefran

jigs33

The Topspin Media “Email For Media” Widget is pure genius.

Topspin Media is a service for musicians and filmmakers that has been around since 2007, according to wiki. When I started looking for ways to promote and sell my music in late 2012, Topspin came highly recommended from a friend. He told me that it was a cutting edge tool that major artists and labels were using and is now available to lowly peasants like myself. At first, it all seemed too good to be true. They offer a customizable store, where you can sell merchandise, digital downloads and concert tickets in one interface and get direct deposits to your bank account for $9.99 USD per month and a small commission (15% Sales Fee.) All you have to do is embed the code on your artist website. Pretty amazing and straightforward without a bunch of Topspin branding everywhere. Unlike using a distributor that helps you get onto iTunes, Amazon and the big retailers, when you sell direct with Topspin, you get to actually keep the emails of your customers, which is a great feature. Direct email marketing is so important that the creators of Topspin created another tool that is included in the monthly subscription price, called the “email for media” widget.

A “widget” is an application, that enables a user to perform a function or access a service. The Topspin “email for media” Widget is a little app that offers fans a free song download in exchange for their email address. You can customize and post this widget on Facebook or on your own website. I knew a band that did an interview with a local online blog, and was allowed to embed their widget at the bottom of the article. They collected 335 emails from that one interview during the first three days. Email addresses are, by far, a more effective direct to fan marketing tool compared to social media “followers.” If you are serious about staying in touch with your fans, this widget may be one of the most effective tools to convert those social media contacts into direct email contacts.

In my opinion, Topspin is a great service for an artist or band that is serious about music and is actively marketing, playing shows and recording. Eventually, Topspin is where you want to be when your band is geared up and running on all cylinders. Collecting email addresses at the shows and selling bundles of merchandise, downloads and tickets could lead to serious money. Check out the "What is Topspin?" youtube video, it is very informative.

As with all subscription services, eventually the subscription costs start to add up. So if creating music is a part time hobby, and you're releasing just a few singles per year, you probably want to go with a service that has a “one-time” setup fee to distribute your music with like Symphonic Distribution or CDBaby. Or, if your funds are really low, Loudr.fm will put your music on top retail sites with no upfront costs at all. (15% commission on the back end.) I feel like Topspin would be able to attract more entry level artists, if they offered the “Email for Media” widget with the free account for your first 500 email addresses. This would give entry level musicians an opportunity to “grow” into being a full Topspin Media subscriber. There are actually three levels of Topspin subscription services that are offered.

Reverb Nation's Fan Reach program has a simple widget called Fan Collector, which does not offer free media for download like the Topspin widget. However, you can collect up to 500 email addresses from fans with this simple tool, which can be embedded on your website or on Facebook for free.