YouTube video specs for music
YouTube's recommended resolutions and aspect ratios, what to upload for a music video, the upload limits, and why a 4K upload looks better even on a 1080p screen.
YouTube accepts a wide range of files and re-encodes everything you send it. What you can control is what you hand over, and that decides how good the re-encode looks.
YouTube's recommended resolutions
| Name | Resolution | Aspect |
|---|---|---|
| 2160p (4K) | 3840 x 2160 | 16:9 |
| 1440p (2K) | 2560 x 1440 | 16:9 |
| 1080p (Full HD) | 1920 x 1080 | 16:9 |
| 720p (HD) | 1280 x 720 | 16:9 |
What should I upload for a music video?
3840 x 2160 at 60 frames a second, which is what the Music Visualizer and Compose, the visualizer builder, export in landscape.
Why upload 4K if my listeners watch in 1080p?
Because YouTube assigns a better encoder and a higher bitrate to larger uploads. A 4K upload watched at 1080p generally looks cleaner than a 1080p upload watched at 1080p, and the difference shows most on exactly the things a visualizer is made of: flat colour fields, gradients and thin moving bars, which are where compression artefacts appear first.
The full explanation is in the best video format for YouTube music uploads.
Upload limits
YouTube's limit is 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less. A new account is capped at 15 minutes a video until it is verified, which catches people out on their first album upload. Source: YouTube upload limits.
What about YouTube Shorts?
A Short can be up to 3 minutes, and must be square or vertical. This matters in a way that surprises people: a video uploaded with those dimensions is classified as a Short automatically. If you want a vertical video to be a normal upload rather than a Short, it has to be 16:9. Source: YouTube Shorts requirements.
Common questions
What size should a YouTube music video be?
3840 by 2160 in 16:9 if you can, which is what LimePulse exports. 1920 by 1080 is perfectly acceptable and is what most channels upload.
Does a higher frame rate matter for a visualizer?
Yes, more than for most video. A visualizer is continuous motion, and 60 frames a second keeps bars and rotation smooth where 30 makes them strobe slightly.
Should I upload a vertical music video to YouTube?
Only if you want it to be a Short. Vertical and square uploads are classified as Shorts automatically, so a full-length song is better uploaded in 16:9.
Related reading
Last updated 2026-09-15
LimePulse is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by Spotify AB or Apple Inc. Product names are used only to describe what the software makes files for.