Releasing a music video

How a video release differs from a song release, what file to send, what it costs, and the specification points that get videos rejected weeks later.

9 min read · checked August 2026

A video is a separate release
What it costs
What file to send
Cut the title card
When to send it
Vevo, and your artist channel
Rights — the part that ends releases

A video is a separate release

This is the part almost everyone gets wrong, and it changes how you plan.

Your music video is not an extra file attached to your song. In the way the industry counts things, it is a different recording — it gets its own identifying code, it is delivered separately, and it is reported on separately.

That holds even when the audio in the video is byte-for-byte the same master you released. And if you make two versions of a video, each one is again a separate recording with its own code.

You do not have to do anything about this. We allocate the video code, and we link it to your song's code so the stores show the video on the song's page rather than as an unrelated upload. It matters because it explains why the video has its own schedule and its own line in your reports.

Upload the video with the song and it goes out together.

The song goes to 45+ stores. The video goes to Apple Music and Vevo, on its own timeline, after the song is live. Plan the video as a second release, not as an attachment.

What it costs

Audio distribution here is free. Video is not, and it is not free anywhere.

Video costs real money to move. A four-minute HD file is roughly a hundred times the size of the song, and every video has to be re-encoded — twice, because Apple and Vevo will not accept the same file. That is processing time somebody pays for.

For a sense of the going rate, one well-known distributor publishes $95 per video for delivery to eight platforms, or $25 per video for Vevo only. Our pricing is set out on the pricing page; the point of quoting theirs is so you know a per-video charge is normal and not something we invented.

There is no charge to *check* a video. Upload it and we will tell you whether it can be delivered, and what is wrong with it, before you commit to anything. If the file cannot be rescued we will say so rather than take the fee and let the store reject it.

Once the video is live, it earns like the song does — Vevo monetises on views, Apple on plays — and it flows into the same payout as the rest of your catalogue, on the same split.

What file to send

Send the best version you have. Not the one you uploaded to YouTube.

The single most common mistake is sending a copy downloaded back off YouTube. That file has already been compressed once. Re-encoding it for the stores compresses it a second time, and no amount of processing puts the detail back. Go to whoever edited the video and ask for the export.

What the stores need	Detail
Resolution	1920×1080 at minimum. 2K and 4K welcome. Vertical is 1080×1920.
Frame rate	23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 48, 50 or 60. Whatever it was shot at.
Shape	16:9, 1.85:1, 2:1, 2.35:1, 2.39:1 or 2.4:1
Picture	Progressive, not interlaced. H.264 or ProRes.
Sound	Stereo. 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz.
Length	At least 30 seconds.

If your file does not match this exactly, send it anyway. Most of these we correct on our side — conforming the frame rate, de-interlacing, folding the sound to stereo, producing the two different versions the two stores want. The check tells you which points are ours to fix and which are yours.

Two things we cannot fix, and no one can. A video shot or exported below 1080p cannot be made 1080p — enlarging it adds pixels, not detail. And a heavily compressed download cannot be uncompressed. Both need a better source file.

Cut the title card

The most common rejection, and the easiest to avoid.

Vevo does not accept videos with a front or end slate — a title card, a countdown, a logo sting, a credits roll, an 'Official Video' card at the top, a subscribe screen at the end. The video has to start on the video and end on the video.

This catches almost everything cut from a film or a television master, because those virtually always open on a title. It also catches videos prepared for YouTube, where an end screen is normal practice.

Tell us if there is one and roughly where it ends, and we trim it on the encode. What we cannot do is spot it reliably from the file's technical details alone — that needs someone to watch it, and you have already watched it.

When to send it

Earlier than feels necessary.

Release the song first. The video is paired to the song's codes, so the song needs to exist before the video can point at it.
Send the video at least three weeks before you want it live. That is the standard lead time for video across the industry — encoding, delivery and the stores' own review all take real days.
Expect the two stores to go live at different times. Apple and Vevo review separately and neither publishes a guaranteed date.

Do not book press, ads or a premiere against a date nobody has confirmed. Announce the video once it is live and you can see it.

Vevo, and your artist channel

Two different things that get confused constantly.

A Vevo channel is a channel Vevo runs, carrying your videos. An Official Artist Channel is a status applied to your own YouTube channel. They are separate — Vevo cannot create an Official Artist Channel, and having one does not give you the other. They can be merged later so your audience sits in one place.

Both are requested through us, not by you directly, and neither costs anything on top of the video delivery.

If you have not set up your Official Artist Channel yet, do that first — it only takes one released track, not three, and it is worth having before the video arrives.

Rights — the part that ends releases

A video has more rights in it than a song does.

With a song you need the recording and the composition. A video adds everything you can see: the footage, the people in it, any film or television clips, any artwork, any brand visible on screen.

Footage from a film or a show needs permission from whoever owns the film, not from the music publisher. These are different owners and one saying yes means nothing about the other.
People on screen need to have agreed to appear. Dancers, actors, the crowd at a shoot.
The editor and director may hold rights in the edit itself unless your agreement says otherwise.

You warrant to us that you hold every right in the video when you send it, and that warranty passes through to the stores. A rights claim after release does not just take the video down — it can put your whole catalogue at risk. If you are unsure about any footage, ask before you send it, not after.

Where this comes from

Checked August 2026. Rules change and pages move — if something here no longer matches what you find, tell us and we will correct it.

General information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Where money or rights are at stake — a cover licence, a dispute, your tax position — get a professional who can look at your actual situation.