Matching music to your cut: how to pick the length
The length of a track is a production decision, not a musical one. Pick it from the edit, not from the genre — and most editing problems disappear before they start.
Start from the cut, not the track
Before choosing a tempo or a mood, answer one question: how long is the piece of video the music sits under?
- Is it the whole video, or one section?
- Does it end on a hard cut, or fade to black?
- Is there a voice-over that needs room at the start?
The answer tells you the duration. Everything else is secondary.
A rough map
| 5–15 s | Idents, stings, logo reveals. Usually you want no intro at all. |
| 30 s | Social clips, product teasers. The most common length we see. |
| 45–60 s | Explainers, ads, podcast intros. Enough room for a phrase to resolve. |
| 75–90 s | Narrative beats, menu loops, longer intros. |
Leave room for the fade
A 30-second track under a 30-second cut has nowhere to fade. Either the music stops abruptly or it fights the picture.
Two habits that fix this:
- Ask for the exact length and let the tail fade inside the last second;
- Or cut the music 1–2 seconds before the picture ends.
What you should never do is stretch a 28-second track to 30 — the pitch drifts and the rhythm drags.
If the edit is longer than 90 seconds
Generate a loop instead of a longer track. A seamless loop repeats without a seam, so a 30-second loop can carry a three-minute scene. This is standard practice for menus, ambient beds and interactive scenes, and it costs far less than generating minutes of unique music.
The catch: loops work best when the scene length divides evenly by the loop length. 30 s into 90 s works; 30 s into 100 s does not — the seam lands mid-phrase and you hear it.
What about cuts that change length?
Every editor knows the feeling: the picture is locked, then it is not. Two ways to stay ahead:
- Generate one length longer than you think you need, and trim the tail yourself;
- Or generate the loop version first, and only commit to an exact length once the cut is locked.
Silence is a length too
Not every second needs music. A track that starts two seconds in, after a line of dialogue, often works better than one that starts at 0.000 — and it is easier to make, because the start no longer has to land on a beat.
Pick a length and generate →