RGB describes colour as mixes of red, green and blue light, for screens, while CMYK describes it as cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink, for printing presses; a file in one has to be converted to look right in the other.
Check a cover for CMYK and size before you upload it.
Also used in: Print Size Calculator, Batch Image Resizer
Screens and ink can't show exactly the same colours, so the colour mode decides how an image will look where it ends up.
Anything for screens, including social media, websites and streaming stores, should be RGB: Spotify asks for sRGB cover art and Apple Music for RGB, not CMYK. Many photo labs also want RGB (usually sRGB) files and convert them for their own printers, while commercial printers working on presses may ask for CMYK. Ask the printer before converting, because each conversion can shift colours.
A musician's designer sends the album cover as a CMYK file made for the vinyl sleeve.
Uploaded to the distributor, the same file is rejected for the streaming stores because they ask for RGB. The designer exports an sRGB version for streaming and keeps the CMYK file for the printer.
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