Karaoke Videos on YouTube: Size, Length and Copyright

The right size for a karaoke video on YouTube, Shorts, Reels and TikTok, when an upload counts as a Short, and how copyright and Content ID apply to it.

Before a karaoke video goes on YouTube, three questions need answers: what size to render, whether it lands as a regular video or a Short, and what happens when YouTube checks the music. Here are the answers, with a checklist at the end.

The short version

• Full song on YouTube: landscape, 16:9, at 3840 x 2160.
• Shorts, Reels and TikTok: vertical, 9:16, at 2160 x 3840.
• Feed posts: square, 1:1, at 2160 x 2160.
• Every shape: 60 fps, as an H.264 MP4 with AAC audio and no watermark.
• A Short: vertical or square, and 3 minutes or less. Make it from an edit of just the chorus.
• Rights: your own songs, songs you have licensed, or songs whose owners allow it. Expect a Content ID check.

Size and frame rate for each platform

One Karaoke project can render in any of the three shapes, all at 60 fps, and you can switch between them at any time; every layer keeps its place in the frame.

YouTube's resolution guide lists 3840 x 2160, 2560 x 1440, 1920 x 1080 and 1280 x 720 among its 16:9 sizes, and a landscape render is 3840 x 2160. Upload that large file even if most viewers watch on a phone: YouTube treats a larger upload better when it re-encodes it, and the difference shows most on the flat colours and soft gradients behind the words, as the best video format for YouTube music uploads explains.

Frame rate matters for karaoke too: Wipe fills each word from left to right as it is sung, and 60 frames a second keep that fill smooth through a long held note.

Regular video or Short: what decides it

YouTube decides by shape and length. A vertical or square upload of 3 minutes or less is treated as a Short, by YouTube's own rules, and a landscape upload never is. For a karaoke channel, that has two consequences.

• A vertical render of a whole song becomes a Short if the song runs 3 minutes or less, and a regular vertical video if it runs longer, one that fills only a narrow strip of a computer or TV screen. For the full song, render landscape.
• A Short is watched on a phone and swiped past in seconds, so the whole song is rarely the right cut anyway.

Making a Short from the chorus

The chorus is the part people know and the part they want to sing, which makes it the natural Short. Karaoke renders the whole of the song you upload, so the Short starts with the audio:

1. Make an edit of the song that is just the chorus, in any audio editor, and export it as an MP3 or WAV. Keep it at least 30 seconds long, the shortest song Karaoke takes; if the chorus is shorter, start a line or two earlier.
2. Start a new vertical Karaoke project with the edit. Like any song, it is prepared the first time you open it, while you build the frame.
3. Paste only the lines sung in the edit, one line per sung line, so the screen matches what plays.
4. Move the lyrics into the middle of the frame, clear of the caption Shorts lays along the bottom and the buttons down the right.
5. Render it, post it, and point viewers to the full-length video on your channel.

What a full-song upload looks like

The landscape render is the whole song, from the first second to the last, at 3840 x 2160 and 60 fps. Karaoke takes songs of 30 seconds to 10 minutes, and the video runs the length of the song, so there is nothing to trim.

On screen, the line being sung is set large and lights up word by word, with the next line waiting underneath, smaller and faded. The first line shows a few seconds before it is due, so whoever is singing can find it after the intro.

Around the words is where your channel shows: a title with the song and artist in any of 200 fonts, your logo or the cover, a subscribe prompt and a QR code, over a solid colour, an ambient gradient, or a picture or video clip with a blur you set.

Some karaoke channels post each song twice, with no voice and with a guide. Vocal volume runs from 0, the music alone, to 100, the full vocal, and the render uses the mix you hear, so the guide version is just a second render; renders are unlimited on the Creator plan. Say which is which in the title. More on guides in practise singing with a guide vocal.

When the render is done, the MP4 waits in your library to download, or to publish straight to your YouTube channel with your own title, tags and visibility.

Copyright and Content ID

You can make a karaoke video from any song you upload. Publishing it is a question of rights. A karaoke video still carries the song's music and its words, which belong to the people who wrote and recorded them, and taking the vocals out does not change that. Post karaoke versions of three kinds of song:

• Your own songs. If your distributor registers your releases with Content ID, your own upload can be matched as well, so ask them how they handle your own channel before you post.
• Songs you have licensed. Check that the licence covers what you are publishing: a video, on YouTube, with the words on screen. If you are not sure, ask whoever granted it.
• Songs whose owners allow it. Get that permission in writing and keep it somewhere you can find it.

Whatever the song, expect YouTube to check the upload against Content ID, as it does any music. Content ID compares uploads with reference files that rights holders supply. When it finds a match, the rights holder's settings decide what happens next: the video can be blocked, have ads run on it, or simply have its views tracked. That choice belongs to the rights holder, so nobody can promise how a particular upload will be treated.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. For anything that is not your own song, the people who own the rights are the ones who can say yes.

Checklist before you upload

• Rights: the song is your own, licensed, or allowed by its owners.
• Shape: landscape for the full song, and a vertical chorus edit of 3 minutes or less for a Short.
• Timing: play it through once, singing along, and drag any line that lands early or late under the waveform. More in karaoke lyrics that light up word by word.
• Mix: Vocal volume set by ear, since the render uses the mix you hear.
• Readability: word colours that stand apart from each other and from the background, and a blur on any busy picture or clip.
• Vertical: the words in the middle of the frame, clear of the caption and the buttons.
• Title and description: the song, the artist, the word karaoke, whether there is a guide vocal, and credit for the writers.
• Last: watch the finished MP4 from your library before it goes public.

Ready to make one? Start a karaoke video with the full song and the words, or follow how to make a karaoke video from upload to render.

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