Lyric video, visualizer, Canvas or lyric card: which one to make
In short
Each format answers one question about the post, and the question is per post, not per song. A lyric video is for a hook people will read and sing back, vertical for TikTok, Reels and Shorts. A music video is the 16:9 asset for YouTube. AutoCut is footage cut on the beat with no words. A visualizer is for a section with nothing to show. A Spotify Canvas is the silent three to eight second loop behind the track in the Spotify app, and it cannot be synced to the music. A lyric card is a still image with one line for feeds and stories. Cover art is the square the release ships with. One song upload and one analysis feed all of them.
One song upload can become seven things in Revori, and the most common mistake is picking the format by habit: the artist who always makes a lyric video, the producer who always posts a visualizer. The formats are not interchangeable. Each one answers a specific question about a specific post, and the right way to choose is to ask that question for each post you plan, not once for the song.
Here is the whole set in one place, then the question each one answers.
| Format | What it is | Shape | Where it goes | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lyric video | Words timed to the vocal, over footage | 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9, 1080p; 4K on Studio | TikTok, Reels, Shorts; Instagram feed; YouTube | 50 per render, 100 for 4K |
| Music video | Footage or photos cut to the song, lyrics optional | 16:9 | YouTube | 50 |
| AutoCut | Footage cut on the beat, no words | 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9 | TikTok, Reels, Shorts | 50 |
| Visualizer | Audio-reactive motion over your own backdrop | 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9 | TikTok, Reels, YouTube | 40 |
| Spotify Canvas | Silent loop, 3 to 8 seconds | 9:16, 1080x1920 | Behind the track in the Spotify app | 25, Starter and up |
| Lyric card | A still image carrying one line | 1:1, 4:5, 9:16 or 16:9 | Feed posts, stories, X | 5 |
| Cover art | The release image | Square, 3000x3000 for Spotify and Apple Music | The distributor, every profile | From 18 |
Analysis runs once per song at 1 credit per second of audio and is shared across all of them. Editing, previewing and saving are free on every plan. The credits above are for renders only.
Start from the post, not the song
The question that sorts every format is: what is the listener going to do with this post? Read along and sing back. Watch a picture move to a sound. Glance at something in the corner of an app while the track plays. Screenshot a line. Recognise the release in a grid of other releases.
Those are different jobs, and the same song needs a different format for each of them, usually cut from a different section.
A hook people will sing back: lyric video
The words are the reason to stop scrolling. A chorus, a line that carries the song, a bridge everyone quotes. The lyric video shows those words timed to the vocal so the viewer reads and sings at once, over footage that sets the mood without competing with the text.
Vertical 9:16 for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, from the 20 to 30 seconds that carry the hook. A 1:1 cut for the Instagram feed and a 16:9 cut for YouTube are separate renders rather than crops, because a crop moves the text out of the safe area. The order of work that saves the most time is in how to make a lyric video.
Not for: instrumentals, heavily processed vocals where the words are texture, or a section with no lyric worth reading. Those are visualizer territory.
The full song on YouTube: music video
YouTube is the one platform where a full-length, landscape video is the native format rather than a repost. The music video module is 16:9, built from your footage or a set of photos cut to the song's structure, with lyrics as an option rather than the point. It is the asset that goes on the channel, gets linked from the streaming profile and lives as long as the song does.
Not for: vertical short-form. Post the lyric video there instead of a crop of this.
Footage but no words: AutoCut
You have clips, the song has a beat, and the words are either absent or not the point. AutoCut places footage against the beat grid so every cut lands on a musical boundary, with no lyric layer at all. It is the lyric video's editor minus the lyrics, which is why it costs the same and exports the same shapes.
Not for: a section where the listener should be reading. If they should, that is the lyric video.
Nothing to show: visualizer
No footage, an instrumental, a producer tag, the sixteen bars before the vocal comes in. A visualizer draws the audio itself, frame by frame, over a backdrop you choose: the cover, a photo, a video clip, one colour, a gradient. It skips transcription entirely, so there is no transcript to correct. Five styles, each drawing the sound differently, are described in the visualizer guide.
Not for: a hook with words. Motion over a line people want to read makes the line harder to read.
In the Spotify app: Canvas
The short vertical loop that plays behind the track in the Spotify mobile app, replacing the static cover while the song plays. Three to eight seconds, silent, looping without a visible seam. It does not need the song upload at all: a Canvas is built from a clip trimmed to a loop or a generated shot, and the crossfade at the loop point is applied for you.
The one thing it cannot do is follow the music. Canvas is not tied to playback position, so a loop timed to the chorus will land somewhere else for a listener who skipped in from a playlist. The full requirements and the loop-point craft are in Spotify Canvas requirements.
Not for: anything with a beat you want hit. Also not available on the free plan; Canvas renders start at Starter.
A line for the feed: lyric card
One line of the song on a still image. It is the cheapest format by a distance, at 5 credits, and it does a job none of the video formats do: it gets screenshotted, reposted to stories, quoted, and it loads instantly in a feed that autoplays everything else. Four shapes: square for the feed, 4:5 portrait for the feed with more height, 9:16 for stories, 16:9 for X and headers.
Not for: replacing the lyric video. A card is the line; the video is the line arriving on time.
The release itself: cover art
The square image the release ships with, 3000x3000 for Spotify and Apple Music, plus a 1:1 and a 9:16 for profiles and stories. Generated from a prompt on one of three engines, priced by engine at 18, 60 or 90 credits per image, with the most expensive being the one to use once you have found the direction on the cheap one. It does not need a song upload.
Not for: anything that moves. It is the one still the platforms require.
A release week, in formats
The formats stop competing once they are placed in time.
Weeks before, the cover art, because the distributor wants it first.
On release day, at the moment the track goes live, the Spotify Canvas, since it appears in the app immediately. Then the lyric video of the hook, vertical, because it is the post that gets shared and sung.
In the days after, a lyric card of the line people are quoting, a second lyric video from a different section if the first one travelled, and a visualizer for the intro or the instrumental version.
When the channel needs it, the 16:9 music video, or AutoCut over footage from the shoot.
Every one of those comes from the same upload and the same analysis. What changes is the section of the song and the question the post is answering.
Questions people ask about this
- Do I need a separate upload for each format?
- No. One song upload is analysed once, at 1 credit per second of audio, and every format built from that song reuses the vocal separation, beat grid and transcript. A lyric video, a visualizer, a lyric card and a Canvas from the same track share the one analysis; you pay per render after that, and rendering is the only other thing that costs credits.
- Can a Spotify Canvas be synced to the beat?
- No, and not because of the tooling. A Canvas is not tied to playback position: a listener who starts the track from a playlist or a skip sees the loop from an arbitrary point, so any motion timed to a musical moment lands on a different moment for every listener. Make the loop join cleanly and let it be ambient. Timing to the music is what the lyric video and the visualizer are for.
- Which format should be ready on release day?
- Cover art, because the distributor needs it weeks ahead, and the Spotify Canvas, because it appears the moment the track goes live. A lyric video of the hook is the first thing to post, since it is the one that gets sung back and shared. The visualizer, the lyric cards and any full-length video are the following days and weeks, cut from different sections of the same upload.
- Can I try every format on the free plan?
- Mostly. The free tier has 500 lifetime credits and three exports, with editing, previewing and saving free and unlimited, so you can build everything and export three times. Spotify Canvas renders need the Starter plan or above. Free-tier video exports carry a small "Made with Revori" mark; paid tiers export without it.