Export for Spotify Canvas, Shorts and Reels

Every platform wants its own file: a Spotify Canvas is a silent loop of a few seconds, a Clip carries the song and stays under 30 seconds, a Short or a Reel is vertical, Apple Music's motion art is a silent square or tall loop, and a music video is 16:9. Export for makes each one from the same edit, at its own shape and length, then reads the finished file and checks it against the platform's rules.

Open it in Classic's Timeline, beside Export the cut, or in the music video maker's Cut-downs. Each row says what you will get before anything renders: how long it is, where it starts and whether it is silent. Press Export on a row; the result says Ready, or each rule the file breaks, in plain words.

• Open Classic's Timeline
• Make a music video

Every file is made on your device. Nothing is uploaded to the platform for you: you upload the file you download.

• Spotify Canvas (Spotify): 9:16, made at 608 by 1080, 3 seconds to 8 seconds, silent, H.264 (MP4), or a JPG for a still. Confirm on the platform: the size, the length, the sound and the file types.
• Spotify Clip (Spotify): 9:16, made at 1080 by 1920, over 3 seconds and under 30 seconds, with the song, H.264 with AAC sound (MP4). Confirm on the platform: the size, the length, the sound and the file types.
• Spotify Countdown video (Spotify): 9:16, made at 1080 by 1920, over 3 seconds and under 30 seconds, with the song, H.264 with AAC sound (MP4). Confirm on the platform: the size, the length, the sound and the file types.
• Song preview (30 seconds) (Spotify's preview feed and anywhere you share a taste of the song): 9:16, made at 1080 by 1920, 15 seconds to 30 seconds, with the song, H.264 with AAC sound (MP4). Confirm on the platform: the size, the length, the sound and the file types.
• YouTube Short (YouTube): 9:16, made at 1080 by 1920, the whole edit, up to 3:00, with the song (the app takes a silent one too), H.264 with AAC sound (MP4), or WebM.
• Instagram Reel (Instagram): 9:16, made at 1080 by 1920, the whole edit, up to 3:00, with the song (the app takes a silent one too), H.264 with AAC sound (MP4). Confirm on the platform: the size, the length and the file types.
• TikTok (TikTok): 9:16, made at 1080 by 1920, the whole edit, up to 10:00, with the song (the app takes a silent one too), H.264 with AAC sound (MP4). Confirm on the platform: the size, the length and the file types.
• Apple Music motion art (square) (Apple Music, through your distributor): square, made at 3840 by 3840, 8 seconds to 35 seconds, silent, H.264, or Apple ProRes 422 or 4444 (Convert & Compress makes ProRes).
• Apple Music motion art (tall) (Apple Music, through your distributor): 3:4, made at 2048 by 2732, 8 seconds to 35 seconds, silent, H.264, or Apple ProRes 422 or 4444 (Convert & Compress makes ProRes).
• Music video (16:9) (Spotify's music video upload, YouTube and every video site): 16:9, made at 1920 by 1080, the whole edit, with the song, H.264 with AAC sound (MP4), or MOV. Confirm on the platform: the size, the sound and the file types.

A vertical or square file is not a crop of the 16:9 picture. A music video from the maker is rebuilt at the new shape from the same shots and seeds, as the cut-downs are; any other edit is drawn at the new frame by the same visualizers, which lay themselves out for the shape they are given. A loop or a hook is whole bars of the song and starts on the beat: from the chorus in a music video, or anywhere else from the downbeat nearest the playhead, so put the playhead where the hook starts. A hook near the end of the edit starts whole bars earlier, so it still fits. A loop or a hook carries no intro or outro card, so a Canvas loops cleanly; a Short, a Reel, a TikTok and the music video are the whole edit and keep yours.

A Canvas and Apple Music motion art are silent: the song still moves the picture, but the file carries no sound track, as those apps ask. On a phone the largest sizes are made smaller to fit the phone's memory, and the result says so; export on a computer for the full size.

Each app covers part of the picture with its buttons and captions: Spotify's player sits along the bottom of a Canvas, and TikTok, Reels and Shorts have a column of buttons on the right and the caption along the bottom. Turn on Show the safe area in Export for to see the chosen platform's covered parts over the preview, with a dashed box where the important things go.

The safe area shows when the preview is the platform's shape. If it is not, Export for offers to show the preview at that shape, and Back puts the project's shape back. These areas are approximate: no platform publishes exact numbers.

Export for lists each platform's rules beside its row. The ones a file can break by its shape, size, length, sound or file type are checked; the rest are yours to keep.

• Spotify Canvas: Text that is not about the track, or that takes attention from the artwork; Links, web addresses, ticket sellers, or asking for follows or likes; Logos and brands (Spotify's too), products, discounts, contests and other promotion; Promoting other songs, albums or social accounts.
• Spotify Clip: Selling anything, or being overly promotional; Reusing a video watermarked by another app; Sending listeners to outside websites or ticket sellers.
• Spotify Countdown video: Selling anything, or being overly promotional; Reusing a video watermarked by another app; Sending listeners to outside websites or ticket sellers.
• Song preview (30 seconds): Selling anything, or being overly promotional; Reusing a video watermarked by another app; Sending listeners to outside websites or ticket sellers.
• Music video (16:9): On Spotify: visualizers and lyric videos; On Spotify: videos without music, and concerts of several songs.

Spotify's music video upload does not take visualizers or lyric videos. When most of an edit is visualizer or lyric clips, the 16:9 music video says so before and after it exports; it still exports, and YouTube and other video sites take it. For Spotify, add footage, scenes or photos to the edit. A visualizer suits a Canvas, a Clip, a Short or a Reel.

Each row names its sources and the date they were read: the platform's own help pages, or, where one could not be opened, third-party pages. A rule read from a summary or a third-party page is marked for you to confirm on the platform before you post. Ask SW Agent "will Spotify take this video?" after an export and it answers from the same rules.