How to make a music video for your song
Last updated 2026-11-02
To make a music video, pick one idea, plan a shot for each section of the song, then film the shots or generate them. Put the finished track on a timeline, lay the shots under it and cut on the beat. Add lyrics if you want them, then color and export 16:9 for YouTube and 9:16 for Shorts, Reels and TikTok. Woven Video, a Mac editor, does the editing by chat or by hand.
Start with one idea, not a list of shots
A music video works when a viewer can say what it was about in one sentence, even if the sentence is only a place, a character or a color. Decide that sentence before you film or generate anything, and every later choice gets easier: where to shoot, what to wear, which shots to cut.
Most independent videos fall into a few shapes. Pick the one your budget, your time and your song can carry.
| Concept | What you need | Works best when |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | You or the band playing or miming the song, from several angles | The song is built on a person or a group and you have a day to film |
| Story | A short script, a few locations and someone to act in it | The lyrics already tell a story or suggest one scene |
| Mood and montage | Many short shots of one place, season or feeling | The song is atmospheric and you want a lot of variety for little effort |
| Lyric-led | The words on screen over simple footage or art | The words carry the song. The lyric video guide covers this form |
| Animated or generated | Prompts, reference images and time to review clips | You cannot film what you picture, such as a place or a creature |
Plan a shot list against the song's sections
Listen to the final master with a notepad and mark where each section starts: intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, outro. The song already tells you when the energy rises and falls, so plan the pictures to follow it instead of working against it.
A shot list is one line per shot. Write the section, what the viewer sees, the framing and a rough length. Plan more shots than you think you need, because the choruses will want quick cuts and you will drop weaker shots in the edit.
| Section | Job in the video | Shot ideas | Pacing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intro | Set the place and mood, then introduce the artist | One wide establishing shot, a detail, the first look at the singer | Slow, a few long shots |
| Verse | Carry the story or the idea | Medium shots, walking, small actions, the setting | Steady, with a cut every few seconds |
| Pre-chorus | Build tension | Closer framing, movement toward the camera, faster inserts | Cuts get shorter |
| Chorus | Deliver the biggest picture | Your best location or performance, wide and close shots, the hook line sung to camera | Fastest cuts, on the beat |
| Bridge | Change something | A new place, a new color, a slow-motion shot, or a quiet close-up | Drop back, then build into the last chorus |
| Outro | Let the picture settle | Return to the opening place or image, now changed | Slow, hold the last shot |
Where the shots come from
You can mix sources in one video. A common recipe is a day of filming for the performance shots, plus generated or photographed inserts for places you cannot get to. Match the look across them in the edit with color.
Woven does not record. Film on a phone or camera, then bring the files into the workspace. It reads MP4, MOV and M4V video, so convert WebM or MKV files to MP4 first, and it takes PNG, JPG, HEIC, WebP, GIF and SVG images.
| Source | Good for | Main limit |
|---|---|---|
| Generated in Woven from a prompt | Places, objects, textures and scenes you cannot film, with no camera needed. Some models start from an image you give them | Every clip is billed to Woven credits, and a generated face will not sing your vocal, as Woven has no lip-sync |
| Phone or camera footage | Real faces, real places, performance and the feel of a live band | You film it elsewhere, and a clip shot to playback has to be lined up with the song by hand |
| Photos and artwork | Cover art, tour photos and illustrations with a slow zoom | A still holds the screen for only a few seconds before it feels frozen |
| Footage someone else shot | Archive film and clips from friends, if they say yes | You need permission, and Woven has no stock library to fall back on |
Filming and generating the shots
If you film, shoot to the finished track. Play it from a speaker so the singer can perform in time, and shoot each setup more than once. Record each take as a short clip, since a long take is harder to cut. Hold every shot a few seconds past where you think it ends, because cuts need handles.
- Cover each section. Get at least one wide shot, one medium shot and one close detail for each place, so the edit has choices.
- Match the frame rate. Film at one frame rate for the whole video. Woven offers 24, 25, 30, 50, 60 and 120 fps for the project, and 24 gives a more filmic look.
- Shoot for both shapes. If you want a vertical version too, keep the singer and the main action near the middle of a wide frame, where a vertical crop can still find them.
- Generate with a plan. Describe the place, the light, the lens and the movement in each prompt, and reuse the same wording for the look so the clips feel related. Review each result before you place it, since faces and small details can differ from clip to clip.
- Disclose realistic AI scenes on YouTube. YouTube asks creators to disclose AI-generated content that looks realistic. It does not ask for disclosure of clearly unrealistic content or animation.
Cut on the beat
Cuts that land on the beat make a video feel built around the song. Put the strongest cut on the first beat of each chorus, change shots on the downbeat of a bar and let a bridge breathe by holding one shot longer than any other.
Woven doesn't detect beats or tempo, so it can't cut to the music on its own. You find the beats and mark them, or you give the agent the times. If you made the song in a music app, you already have the tempo and where the first beat sits, and bar lengths follow from that. Otherwise play the track, watch the waveform on the audio clip, where loud hits rise as peaks, and note the times of the kicks and snares that matter.
- Vary the length. Longer shots in verses, shorter in choruses. Shots that all run the same length make the cuts feel mechanical.
- Cut on movement. Cut as the singer turns, a door swings or a hand moves, so the eye follows the action across the cut.
- Skip a cut. You do not need to cut on every beat. A shot that holds across four bars and then changes on the downbeat hits harder than a cut on every beat.
- Slow motion. A constant slow-down, such as half speed, suits a bridge or a final chorus shot. On a clip of the singer, slow motion no longer matches the vocal, so use it on shots without a mouth in frame.
Lyrics, color, transitions and effects
Lyrics are optional in a music video. If you add them, treat them like a lyric video for a few lines or for the whole song, and keep them out of the screen areas the platform covers with its own buttons. Meta's Reels ad guide advises leaving at least 14% at the top, 35% at the bottom and 6% at each side free of text.
- Lyrics. Captions can carry the words. They can also highlight a hook line or the title. Timing and style are covered in the lyric video guide.
- Color. Grade every shot toward one palette, so footage from different days and generated clips sit together. The color grading guide covers contrast, warmth and saturation.
- Transitions. Hard cuts do most of the work. Save glitch, flash and whoosh transitions for section changes, and use them rarely.
- Effects. A glitch hit on the first beat of a chorus or a VHS look for a throwback verse can suit a song. Pick one look for the video and place effects on purpose, because overusing them makes every part feel the same.
- Titles. Put the song title and artist name near the start, and the release name or link at the end. Text animation covers entrances and exits.
Sizes for YouTube, Shorts, Reels, TikTok and Canvas
Plan two versions. A full music video suits a 16:9 video on YouTube. A 9:16 cut of the chorus or the best minute suits Shorts, Reels and TikTok. YouTube says Shorts can be up to 3 minutes long.
Make the vertical version a new layout. Reframe each shot so the subject sits in the middle of the tall frame, and move any text clear of the platform's buttons. For the looping clip on a Spotify track page, see the Spotify Canvas guide for its size and length.
| Where | Shape | What the platform says |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 16:9, such as 1920 by 1080 | 16:9 is the standard on a computer; MP4 with H.264 is recommended |
| YouTube Shorts | Vertical, such as 1080 by 1920 | Vertical video up to 3 minutes, at up to 1080p |
| Instagram Reels | 9:16, such as 1080 by 1920 | Meta's Reels ad guide lists 9:16 at 1440 by 2560, in MP4 or MOV |
| TikTok | 9:16, such as 1080 by 1920 | The ad specs recommend vertical 9:16 at 540 by 960 pixels or larger |
Rights: use songs and footage you own or have permission for
A song is two works. The US Copyright Office treats the musical composition, which is the music and its lyrics, as separate from the sound recording of a performance. A music video uses both, so you need the right to each.
If you wrote, performed and produced the song yourself, you likely hold both. A co-writer, producer, engineer, label, publisher or beat license can each hold part, so check those agreements first. A video for someone else's song, including a cover, needs their permission as well.
On YouTube, the copyright holder decides what happens to a video with claimed music. YouTube's help page says the holder may run ads on it, mute it or block it, and that YouTube cannot grant you the rights. The same goes for footage and photos: use only what you shot, made or were given permission to use.
Make a music video in Woven
In Woven, put the song on the timeline first and build the picture under it. Bring in your own footage and photos, or have the agent generate images and video clips from prompts, which land in the workspace and are charged to Woven credits. The agent can also place and trim the shots, add effects and transitions, and export. For cuts on the beat, give it the times, or the tempo and where the first beat falls. Captions are burned into the exported MP4.
Ask in chat
- Make a 16:9 reel with my song on the audio track. Put the clips from my footage folder under it, one for each section, in the order of my shot list.
- My song is 96 BPM and the first beat is at 0.4 seconds. Start a new shot every 4 beats in the verses and every 2 beats in the choruses.
- Generate a wide shot of an empty highway at dusk, then turn it into a short clip for the intro.
- Cut to a new shot at 42.1, 44.5 and 46.9 seconds, then add a glitch effect on the first beat of each chorus.
- Caption the song, one sung line per caption, in a heavy white font with an outline.
- Slow the bridge shot to half speed and add a flash transition into the last chorus.
- Grade every shot warm with slightly lifted shadows, then export 1080p.
Or do it by hand
- 1Pick the canvas. Open the Format menu in the toolbar and choose Horizontal 1920x1080 for YouTube, or Vertical 1080x1920 for Shorts, Reels and TikTok. A reel made from a video starts at that video's frame rate, snapped to the nearest one Woven supports; change it under Frame rate on the Settings page, shown when nothing is selected.
- 2Add the song. Choose Add, then Audio, and pick the final master. Woven reads MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC and FLAC. The song arrives as an audio clip on the Audio track, with its waveform.
- 3Add the shots. Choose Add, then Video or Image, or drag files from Finder onto the timeline. An image arrives 3 seconds long at 35% of the canvas width and set to Fit, so in its Crop tab set Fit to Fill and raise Scale until no edge shows. Mute or turn down the sound on footage that has its own audio, so only the song plays.
- 4Line up performance footage. For clips filmed to playback, play the song and the clip together and move the clip until the singer's mouth matches the vocal, then mute the clip's own audio. Woven doesn't line clips up to the song for you.
- 5Cut on the beat. Play the song and watch the waveform on the audio clip. At each beat you want to cut on, park the playhead and click Split. Drag a clip's edge to trim it, and delete the pieces you do not need. You can also ask the agent to place the cuts at times you give it.
- 6Add lyrics, if you want them. Choose Add, then Generate captions. Woven times the sung words to the vocal when the song is the only voice in the reel. Read every caption against your lyrics and fix misheard words in chat or by hand. Style them with Caption style on the Style tab.
- 7Color, effects and transitions. Use the picture color controls (Saturation, Brightness, Contrast and Warmth, with B&W, Warm, Cool and Faded presets) on each shot. Add an effect such as Glitch or Flash in the editor or by chat, and add a transition between two video clips on the same row where they overlap. Check the result in the preview.
- 8Export. Click Export and choose 1080p or 1440p. You get an H.264 MP4 with the captions burned in, which you upload yourself. For Shorts, Reels and TikTok, switch the canvas to vertical and reframe the shots, or ask the agent to reframe the wide version.
Common questions
Pick one idea, plan a shot for each section of the song, then film or generate the shots. Lay them under the finished track on a timeline, cut on the beat, add lyrics if you want them, color the shots to match and export 16:9 for YouTube and 9:16 for vertical platforms.
Plan the shots first, then generate each one from a prompt that names the place, the light and the movement, and check every result. In Woven, the agent generates images and video clips with hosted models, charged to Woven credits, and you place them under your song and cut them to the beat.
No. Woven has no lip-sync, so it can't make a generated character mouth your vocal. Use generated clips for places, objects and moments where no one is singing on camera, and film yourself or the band for performance shots.
Mark the beats you care about, usually the first beat of each chorus and the downbeat of each bar, from your song's tempo or the waveform. Then split the shots at those times by hand, or give the agent the times. Vary shot length so the cuts do not feel mechanical.
16:9, such as 1920 by 1080, for YouTube. 9:16, such as 1080 by 1920, for Shorts, Reels and TikTok. YouTube says Shorts upload at up to 1080p, and Woven exports 1080p or 1440p as an H.264 MP4.
Yes. Add them as captions. Woven times sung words to the vocal when the song is the only voice in the reel, so read each caption against your lyrics and fix any misheard word. The lyric video guide covers styles.
Only with permission. The music and lyrics are one work and the recording is another, so you need the right to both. On YouTube, claimed music can be monetized by the holder, muted or blocked.
Any editor that can place clips under a track can make a music video, and some are free. Woven is a paid Mac app with a free trial, and its generation uses credits. It has no stock footage or music library, so use your own song and shots or generate them.
Sources
- Recommended upload encoding settings - YouTube Help, checked November 2, 2026
- Get started creating YouTube Shorts - YouTube Help, checked November 2, 2026
- Awareness Video Ad Specs on Instagram Reels - Facebook Ads Guide, checked November 2, 2026
- TikTok Auction In-Feed Ads - TikTok Ads Manager, checked November 2, 2026
- Disclosing use of altered or synthetic content - YouTube Help, checked November 2, 2026
- Circular 56A: Copyright Registration of Musical Compositions and Sound Recordings - US Copyright Office, checked November 2, 2026
- Restrictions on claimed music - YouTube Help, checked November 2, 2026
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