Video sizes for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube: a simple guide for musicians
Every time you post a clip of a track, you have to decide what shape the video should be. Get it wrong and Instagram crops your cover art, or YouTube sticks black bars down the sides and it looks like a mistake.
This is what I use for each platform, and why. I’ve kept it short. You’ve got music to make.
The short version
If you’re only going to make one video, make it 9:16, the tall shape that fills a phone screen. It works on TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and Facebook, which covers most of the places people will actually see it.
| Where you’re posting | Shape | Pick this in the tools |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok | 9:16 | 9:16 TikTok / Reels |
| Instagram Reels | 9:16 | 9:16 TikTok / Reels |
| Instagram feed | 4:5 or 9:16 | 4:5 Instagram feed |
| YouTube Shorts | 9:16 (square works too) | 9:16 TikTok / Reels |
| YouTube, normal videos | 16:9 | 16:9 YouTube |
| 9:16 | 9:16 TikTok / Reels | |
| Spotify Canvas | 9:16, 3 to 8 seconds | 9:16 TikTok / Reels |
All four tools make every one of these: the vinyl, CD, cassette and shape video makers. Pick the shape at the top, under Video size.
TikTok
TikTok is built around 9:16, so use that and nothing else. A square or wide video plays with empty space around it, and it looks like you’ve reposted something from somewhere else.
Keep your track name and artist name away from the bottom of the frame and the right-hand edge. That’s where TikTok puts the caption, your username and the like and comment buttons, and they’ll sit right on top of your text.
For Reels it’s 9:16, same as TikTok, so one video can go to both.
Instagram now posts videos as Reels, so even a video you share to your feed ends up as a Reel. You can still make a 4:5 video if you want it to sit neatly in people’s feeds, and that’s what the 4:5 option in the tools is for. I’d still go 9:16 most of the time.
The bit that catches people out is your profile grid. Instagram shows every post on your profile as a tall rectangle (3:4), so it trims the top and bottom off a 9:16 Reel, and a little off the sides of a 4:5 or square post. Whatever shape you use, keep your artwork and text in the middle and nothing important gets cut off. You can also choose a cover for each Reel, so pick a frame where the record and your track name look good.
YouTube
YouTube has two sides to it, and the shape of your video decides which one it ends up in.
Anything square or taller, and up to 3 minutes long, becomes a Short automatically. So a 9:16 clip of your track goes into the Shorts feed, which is where most new people will find you.
A 16:9 video, the wide shape that fills a laptop or TV screen, is a normal YouTube video whatever its length. Use that for full tracks, mixes and anything people will sit and watch. A spinning record playing the whole track works really well here.
Facebook now treats every video as a Reel, so 9:16 is the safe choice here too. You don’t need a separate version. Post the same 9:16 video you made for Instagram.
There’s a 4:3 option in the tools as well, which suits a wider post in the feed, but most of the time the 9:16 version is the better bet.
Spotify Canvas
Canvas is the short looping video that plays behind your track in the Spotify app, instead of your cover art. Spotify asks for a 9:16 video between 3 and 8 seconds long, at least 720 pixels tall, as an MP4. You add it to a track in Spotify for Artists.
A spinning record makes a great Canvas, but because it loops, any jump where the record snaps back to the start is really noticeable. To get a smooth loop in the vinyl video maker:
- Choose 9:16 and 1080p.
- Leave the audio empty. Canvas doesn’t use the video’s sound, because your track is already playing.
- Set the speed to 45 rpm and the video length to 8 seconds.
At 45 rpm the record does exactly 6 full turns in 8 seconds, so the last frame flows straight back into the first and you can’t see where it loops. 33⅓ rpm doesn’t fit evenly into 8 seconds, so you’d get a little jump.
720p or 1080p?
Go for 1080p for anything you’re posting. It’s sharper, and it’s what most platforms expect for full-screen video.
720p is there for two reasons. It lets you make much longer videos, up to 12 minutes compared with 5 minutes at 1080p, which is handy for mixes. And it’s easier on phones, which can struggle to make long, high-quality videos.
MP4 or MOV?
MP4. Every platform takes it. MOV is only really worth it if you’re putting the video into editing software, especially on a Mac. If you’re not sure, MP4.
How long should it be?
The length limits on all of these keep going up, and most of them now take videos that are several minutes long. That doesn’t mean you should use it all.
For a clip of a new track, I’d aim for 15 to 30 seconds and start on the best part: the drop, the hook, the bit people will want to hear again. Nobody sits through a long intro on their phone. Save the full track for YouTube, or for the link in your bio.
When you add a track to one of the tools, the 15, 30 and 60 second buttons set the length for you, and you can drag the clip along the waveform to the part you want.
Before you post
- 9:16 for TikTok, Reels, Shorts and Facebook
- 16:9 for normal YouTube videos
- Text and logos away from the edges and the bottom
- MP4 at 1080p
- Start on the best part of the track
These platforms change their rules all the time, so I’ll keep this page up to date. If you spot something that’s out of date, let me know through the contact page.