How to Make a Cover People Stop Scrolling For

A cover is an advertising creative for the release, and a creative only works if it catches the eye. What catches the eye is not polish — it is novelty.

The eye stops at what it has not seen

Think about how you react to images online that you would never encounter in ordinary life. You are surprised, because you are seeing them for the first time. The eye stops, starts examining, and once it is examining it wants more — which is when someone goes to your profile. That is the whole mechanism, and it is simpler than people expect.

Strange beats impressive

The same reaction is what makes a video of a cat opening a door work. It is not quality that stops the scroll, it is the fact that the thing on screen is not supposed to exist.

Most artists play it too safe

Only about one in ten artists comes to us with a genuinely wild idea. Those are the ones that produce the wow effect, and the wow effect is what converts a viewer into someone who actually plays the track. Do not be afraid of an idea that sounds ridiculous when you say it out loud — the audience reads it as a joke they are in on, and it gives you an advantage on the visual side that a safe idea never will.