Video Sharing
You can use video sharing to send any video to our promotional channels in China even if you have not distributed your music.
If you have distributed your music with us and you have an official music video you can use Video Sharing to send your video to all our promotional channels as well as to the streaming services to be made available with your streaming audio. We can get your official music video to Netease, Tencent, Spotify and Apple.
Music Video Specifications
We recommend delivering music video files with the following format as this fits spotify, apple and all other service provider specifications.
All videos must begin and end with at least one black frame.
Only upload:
1. Official Music Videos - defined as the premium or MTV-style video and are the primary videos artists create to amplify the story of their track. Official videos have a clear audio counterpart that must also be delivered to Spotify.
2. Live Performance Videos - defined as a recording of a live music performance of a song. The audio only version of the live performance video must also be delivered.
3. Single track music video products.
Recommended video specifications
Audio:
Surround
- LPCM in either Big Endian or Little Endian, 16-bit or 24-bit, at least 48kHz
- Expected channels: L, R, C, LFE, Ls, Rs
Stereo
- MPEG-1 layer II stereo
- 384 kpbs
- 48Khz
- Included in the same file as the delivered video
Video:
Container/Codec Combinations
- ProRes video codec: MOV/QuickTime container
- Resolution: Preferred and recommend 1080p or higher, but they do support SD and 720p, but it is a non-optimal resolution for visual quality on larger screens.
- Aspect ratio: Preferred and recommend 16:9
- Colorspace: Rec.709 or Rec.2020
- Chroma subsampling: 4:2:0
- Dynamic range: Standard Dynamic Range (Rec.709) or HDR HLG (High Dynamic Range using Hybrid Log Gamma, Rec.2100)
- Frame rate: 23.97, 24, 25, 29.97, 30 FPS
- VBR expected at ~220 Mbps
- Distance between video keyframes (GOP size): approx. one keyframe per second recommended. Must have at least one keyframe per every 60 seconds.
- PTS: 50ms or less difference between first frame and time 0
When submitting HDR HLG the dynamic range will be converted/tone-mapped into Rec.709 standard dynamic range.
When submitting wide colorspace (Rec.2020) it will be down-converted to Rec.709 compatible colorspace.
If the MP4 "edit list" feature is used, there should be only one edit (which often means two entries) in the list.
Timestamps on audio should be accurate within 1ms with respect to the natural play-time of audio. Timestamps must be accurate within 100ms. Timestamps on video must be accurate within 100ms with respect to the declared framerate.
They discourage FLV and AVI as they tend to have technical ambiguities making it hard to detect delivery problems.
Required Image Asset
All videos must be accompanied by a thumbnail/video screen capture image.
This image must be a still from the Music Video. It must not be the album artwork.
Images should be in the highest resolution available, in landscape (16:9) aspect ratio, they also support 9:16 vertical images for vertical video deliveries.
iTunes Music Video Specifications
iTunes Music Video Audio Source Profile
If 5.1 Surround is available for a music video audio source, the audio should be delivered in 5.1 Surround in addition to providing a stereo version; otherwise the audio may be delivered in Stereo only.
Surround
- LPCM in either Big Endian or Little Endian, 16-bit or 24-bit, at least 48kHz
- Expected channels: L, R, C, LFE, Ls, Rs
Stereo
- MPEG-1 layer II stereo
- 384 kpbs
- 48Khz
- Included in the same file as the delivered video
iTunes Music Video HD Source Profile
Important: All video must begin and end with at least one black frame. Material that does not fit the specification cannot be delivered to iTunes
- Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) or 4444 or 4444 (XQ)
- Video FourCC: apch or icod (apcn ist not accepted)
- VBR expected at ~220 Mbps
- 1920 x 1080 Converted to ProRes from HDCAM SR, D5, ATSC or 1280 x 720 Converted to ProRes from ATSC progressive square pixel aspect ratio material
- Native frame rate of original source: 29.97 or 25 interlaced frames per second for video-sourced material
- 23.976, 24, 25, or 30 frames per second for digital-progressive or film-sourced material.
- Telecine materials will not be accepted
- Gamma values are accepted and the value must be between 2.15 and 2.25
- HD source may be delivered matted: letterbox, pillarbox, or windowbox.
iTunes Music Video 4K Source Profile
- Dimensions should be 3840 x 2160 (UHD) or 4096 X 2160 (DCI 4k). Any DCI 4k asset can have optional crop values (We strongly recommend sending crop values for DCI 4k).
- Apple ProRes 422 HQ or 4444 or 4444 XQ
- VBR expected at ~880 Mbps for 422 HQ, ~1320 Mbps for 4444 and ~2000 Mbps for 4444 XQ
- Content should be encoded using ITU-R BT.709 color space.
- Content should be delivered in the original frame rate of the source
- 4K source must be progressive scan and can be delivered in 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, or 30 frames per second
- Gamma values are accepted and the value must be between 2.15 and 2.25
- 4K source may be delivered matted: letterbox, pillarbox, or windowbox. The 4K source may be delivered in its full-frame state with metadata included to specify the crop rectangle.
- If the 4K source file is not delivered matted or if there are no inactive pixels, We recommend setting all crop dimension attributes to '0' (zero).
- All videos must begin and end with at least one black frame. In addition, videos that begin with or contain empty edits will be blocked; the file can contain an empty edit in its edit list only if it is the last edit.
iTunes Music Video Screen Capture Image Profile
Screen capture from delivered video
- JPEG with .jpg extension (quality unconstrained)
- RGB (screen standard)
- 1920 or 1280 fixed horizontal dimension
- Images must be at least 72 dpi
- Variable size vertical dimension. Must be same aspect ratio as video source. Only the active pixel area may be included.
Important:
- Do not increase the size of a smaller image to meet the minimum size standard.
- CMYK color profile images will not be accepted.
Spotify Music Video
Video types Spotify accepts:
1. Official Music Videos - defined as the premium or MTV-style video and are the primary videos artists create to amplify the story of their track. Official videos have a clear audio counterpart that must also be delivered to Spotify.
2. Live Performance Videos - defined as a recording of a live music performance of a song. The audio only version of the live performance video must also be delivered to Spotify.
Video types Spotify does not accept:
1. Lyric Videos - defined as music videos that contain lyrics within the video. They often serve as the primary means to engage with lyrics on video platforms.
2. Pseudo Videos - defined as visualizers or image captures delivered as a video.
3. Standalone Videos - defined as any video that does not have a clear association to a track that is available on Spotify. Some examples may include press videos, interviews, or behind the scenes content.
4. Videos with closed captioning.
1. Delivery
Spotify only accepts single track music video products. They do not accept mixed audio/video or multiple video albums.
Spotify Music Video Audio Source Profile
- Codec: high bitrate AAC-LC or PCM
- Sample depth: 16 or 24bit for PCM
- Sample rate: 48kHz or 96kHz
- PTS: 50ms or less difference between first sample and time 0
- Channels: Stereo or 5.1
Spotify Music Video Source Profile
Container/Codec Combinations
- For H.264 and H.265 video codec: MP4 container (ISO/IEC 14496–14:2003 [MPEG-4 Part 14])
- For ProRes video codec: MOV/QuickTime container
- Codec: H.264(MPEG-4 AVC) main or high profile, H.265(HEVC), Apple ProRes 422 HQ
- Resolution: Preferred and recommend 1080p or higher, but they do support SD and 720p, but it is a non-optimal resolution for visual quality on larger screens.
- Aspect ratio: Preferred and recommend 16:9 or 9:16 as their UI is designed for that, but they can support any aspect ratio.
- Colorspace: Rec.709 or Rec.2020
- Chroma subsampling: 4:2:0, 4:2:2 or 4:4:4
- Dynamic range: Standard Dynamic Range (Rec.709) or HDR HLG
- (High Dynamic Range using Hybrid Log Gamma, Rec.2100)
- Frame rate: 24, 25, 30, 50 or 60 FPS
- They also support 23.97p, 29.97p, 59.94p FPS
- Distance between video keyframes (GOP size): approx. one keyframe per second recommended. Must have at least one keyframe per every 60 seconds.
- PTS: 50ms or less difference between first frame and time 0
When submitting HDR HLG the dynamic range will be converted/tone-mapped into Rec.709 standard dynamic range.
When submitting wide colorspace (Rec.2020) it will be down-converted to Rec.709 compatible colorspace.
Spotify Music Video Screen Capture Image Profile
Required Image Asset
All videos must be accompanied by a thumbnail/video screen capture image.
This image must be a still from the Music Video. It must not be the album artwork.
Images should be in the highest resolution available, in landscape (16:9) aspect ratio, they also support 9:16 vertical images for vertical video deliveries.
Recommended:
- Image Height: 1080 pixel
- Image Width: 1920 pixel
- Codec type: JPEG, PNG
- Variable size. Must be same aspect ratio as video source.
- Only the active pixel area may be included.