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The Definitive Social Media Size Guide For Musicians (2022)

Social Media Sizing Guide 2022

The first step to winning fans and building a community on social media is knowing what to post and where to post it. We can help.

I don’t know of any artist making a living today without social media. They may not run it themselves, but every musician must have an online presence. More often than not, most musicians need multiple profiles spread across numerous platforms requiring all types of content in various sizes and shapes.

If you want to make the most of an Instagram account, for example, you need to know the following information:

  • Profile picture size
  • Photo thumbnail sizes for Story highlights
  • Photo and video sizes/aspect ratio for posts to a user’s feed
  • Photo and video sizes/aspect ratio for Instagram stories
  • Video sizes/aspect ratio for Instagram Reels

And that’s before we even discuss effectively marketing through the platform.

Between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, not to mention YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Linktree, Tumblr (it still exists), and the platforms we are no doubt forgetting, it’s practically impossible for anyone to remember every size and aspect ratio required to make high-quality posts everywhere an artist is expected to exist online. We know because we’ve tried it ourselves, and we bet you have.

We scoured the internet for the best guides to social media sizing, and to the surprise of nobody, countless examples exist. We tried to find the most straightforward, easy-to-follow options available and gather them here to live in perpetuity.

Facebook

ContentSizeAspect Ratio
Facebook Profile Picture400 x 400 px1:1
Facebook Event Cover Photo1920 x 1005 px1.91:1
Facebook Group Cover Photo1920 x 1005 px1.91:1
Facebook Business Page Cover1200 x 674 px16:9
Facebook Profile Cover Photo1125 x 633 px2.7:1
Facebook Photo Post1200 x 630 px1.91:1
Facebook Video Post1280 x 720 px16:9
Facebook Linked Image1200 x 630 px1.91:1
Facebook Stories1080 x 1920 px9:16
Facebook “Our Story” Cover1200 x 445 px2.7:1
Facebook Ad (Carousel)1080 x 1080 px1:1
Facebook Ad (Single Image)1200 x 628 px1.91:1
Facebook Catalog Image1080 x 10801:1

Instagram:

Type of Instagram PostAspect RatioInstagram Post Size
Square Photo1:11080 x 1080px
Landscape Photo1.91:11080 x 608px
Portrait Photo4:51080 x 1350px
Instagram Stories9:161080 x 1920px
Instagram Reels9:161080 x 1920px
IGTV Cover Photo1:1.55420 x 654px
Instagram Square Video1:11080x1080px
Instagram Landscape Video1.91:11080x608px
Instagram Portrait Video4:51080x1350px

Soundcloud:

GRAPHICSIZE
Profile Photo1000 × 1000 px
Album Cover800 × 800 px
Minimum Header2480 × 520 px

TikTok

TikTok video dimensions should be 1080×1920. Aspect ratio: The aspect ratio should be that of a standard smartphone screen, 9:16. 1:1 is also possible, but it won’t take up the whole screen.

Twitch

GRAPHICSIZE
Profile Photo800 × 800 px
Profile Banner1920 × 480 px
Video Player Banner1920 × 1080 px
Video Thumbnail1280 × 720 px
Cover Image380 × 1200 px
Info Panels320 × 200 px

Twitter

Finding information about Twitter’s content options proves slightly more difficult than options for Facebook and Instagram.

  • Profile Photo: 400×400
  • Header Photo: 1500×500
  • Image from a Tweet with shared link: 1200 x 628 pixels
  • Tweet sharing a single image: 1200 x 675 pixels (recommended, but most images with standard aspect ratios will not be cropped)
  • Tweet sharing two images: 700 x 800 pixels (both images)
  • Tweet sharing three images:
    • Left image: 700 x 800 pixels
    • Right images: 1200 x 686 pixels
  • Tweet sharing four images: 1200 x 600 pixels (per image)
    • Four is the maximum number of images available on one Tweet
  • Recommended aspect ratio is 16:9.
  • Can edit images if tweeting from Twitter iOS or Android app.
  • Maximum file size of 5 MB for photos, and 5 MB for animated GIFs on mobile and 15 MB on web.

YouTube

TYPESIZE
Channel Icon800 × 800 px
Channel Art2560 × 1440 px
Desktop Display2560 × 423 px
Tablet Display1855 × 423 px
Desktop and Mobile Display1546 × 423 px
Video Thumbnail1280 × 720 px

Video Guidelines

  • Recommended dimensions: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p), 1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
  • Aspect ratio is 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3).
  • Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
  • Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
  • Video length max is 12 hours.

YouTube SHORTS video guidelines

  • Recommended dimensions: 240×426 (240p), 360×640 (360p), 480×854 (480p), 720×1280 (720p), 1080×1920 (1080p), 1440×2560 (1440p), and 2160×3840 (2160p),
  • Aspect ratio is 9:16.
  • Video length is 60 seconds max.
  • Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
  • Music from the YouTube music library is limited to 15 seconds.
  • Title character limit: 100 characters max.
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Industry News News

Twitter Introduces Two New Revenue Streams For Artists

With the launch of Super Follows and Ticketed Spaces, social media giant Twitter is doing its part to help creators make more money online.

Twitter recently launched two new offerings that artists can earn from, though both are currently available to only a select amount of users. The first, Super Follows, enables creators to generate monthly revenue for themselves (and Twitter) by allowing users to subscribe to a feed for $2.99, $4.99, or $9.99 per month. Only users who are over the age of 18 and have at least 10,000 followers can enable the new super follows feature.

According to reports, Twitter will only take 3% of creators’ revenue after in-app purchase fees. But that’s on top of the 30% already charged by Apple and Google. Twitter also ups their cut as you begin making serious money. For example, after users exceed $50,000 lifetime earnings on Twitter, the app will take 20% of all future earnings after fees. That’s a jump from 33% to 50% of revenue taken before it enters the creator’s pocket. Compare that to something like Patreon, which only takes 5% to 12% of a creator’s earnings, with no concern about in-app purchases.

The other feature, Ticketed Spaces, hopes to leverage the recent popularity of audio-based social media for profit. Anyone eligible to create a Ticketed Space can set their ticket price between $1 and $999. Creators also control how many tickets can be sold, which might justify that near $1k price tag for a one-on-one meeting. Ticketed Spaces attendees are notified of the event through in-app notifications.

Anyone on Twitter over the age of 18 with at least 1,000 followers and three hosted Spaces can apply to use Ticketed Spaces. Access to Ticketed Spaces is limited for now, so everyone will need to apply. Twitter faces competition from Facebook, which has implemented something similar in its recently launched Facebook Live Audio Rooms.

Clubhouse, the platform that helped bring drop-in audio chats to the masses, allows users to tip anyone hosting an event. While that feature is useful, it redirects users to third-party services to complete the process. Those extra steps can be costly in more ways than one. Twitter Spaces, while tied to a fairly steep revenue share, streamlines the process.

One positive side effect of the ongoing pandemic is there more companies than ever are helping creative people make money online. From streaming platforms to social media, it seems everyone wants to be in business with people able to create digital spaces that draw users. These companies are also making a percentage of all the money everyone else makes, of course, but that’s the nature of business.

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Twitter Launches Twitter Fleets. Now What? [Video]

After months of development and speculation, Twitter Fleets, Twitter’s take on Instagram Stories, is finally here.

Competition breeds innovation. That is the lesson taught by many professors to business students around the world. Lately, however, it seems competition is breeding sameness, and that is a growing problem in social media that the newly launched Twitter Fleets won’t help.

Rolling out in many countries this week, Twitter Fleets is essentially Instagram Stories for people who mainly rely on Twitter. Users are able to share text, photos, and videos in posts that will disappear after twenty-four hours. The posts appear at the top of users’ feeds, and they’re arranged based on what the algorithm believes users want to see. Unlike Instagram, there is no augmented reality component, nor is there a ‘swipe up’ feature to link users to sites outside of the Twittersphere.

But does Fleets have a place in the music marketing ecosystem? We’ll let Music Biz host James Shotwell give you the answer:

For those unable to watch the video, the answer is complicated. Musicians who have more Twitter followers than IG followers stand to benefit the most from Fleets’ arrival. As long as fans engage with their content, artists with sizable Twitter followings can circumvent the timeline algorithm and appear at the top of every feed with Fleets. That said, without the ability to link to content outside the platform, Fleets’ power remains surprisingly limited.

This leads us to the question of why Fleets exists at all. On Instagram, Stories are where people post content from their daily lives. The pictures and videos that appear in Stories are fleeting (no pun intended) moments, while the content users post in their main feed is intended to last forever. Tweets, by and large, come with a short life expectancy. The best performing tweets are shared and mentioned for a week or two, at most, before disappearing into a person’s timeline. Far more tweets come and go without any engagement at all. So, what do Fleets offer that tweets cannot?

Given the tool’s infancy, it’s likely Fleets will undergo several changes in the weeks and months ahead. We’ll update our take as needed.

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Industry News News

Twitter is planning to delete dormant accounts in the near future

Twitter users who have not accessed their account in a long time are encouraged to log in before December 11 or risk losing their handles.

Username availability is a growing problem in social media. Much like email before it, social media has now been around long enough that new users are increasingly struggling to find unclaimed handles. For example, if your name is John Smith, you cannot use @John or @JohnSmith or @TheJohnSmith on Twitter. You also probably can’t use @John_Smith, @JSmith, @J_Smith, or @The_John_Smith. Those names are already in use, and getting someone to surrender their handle is often an uphill battle that can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Adding to the frustration is the fact that not all the usernames are in use. Someone claimed the name, but now the account sits dormant. Usernames that many would want, such as @AuxCord, sit unused on social media with abandoned accounts (or worse, accounts that never posted in the first place).

But a reckoning may be on the horizon. Twitter user Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) shared an email they received this week from the social media giant regarding an account he owns that has sat dormant for some time. In the email, Twitter informed Navarra he needed to agree to the company’s terms, privacy policy, and cookie use to continue using the platform. The letter also said they had until December 11, 2019, to access his dormant account. If Navarra failed to do so, they would risk losing their handle permanently.

Navarra, wanting to retain the dormant account, logged into Twitter using a link in the email and captured the prompts that appeared:

The decision to mass delete dormant accounts will open hundreds, if not thousands of desirable usernames to the public. Such a move would boost interest in the social media platform and likely lead to a rise in new accounts, not to mention increased engagement.

Twitter has not publicly commented on Navarra’s tweets or officially announced plans to remove dormant accounts. That said, the company is well within its rights to delete accounts that do not agree to Twitter’s new terms, privacy policy, and cookie use.

Readers hoping to claim a dormant account when they become available should consider using Handlescout. The service, which is free, tracks username availability on Twitter and sends email alerts when desired handles become available.

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News

Last week we wrote about Twitter’s continued growth in spite of rumors its importance in pop culture was starting to wane. With this in mind, it only makes sense to offer ways you can improve your Twitter activity.

The video above comes to us from Sunny Stuart Winter, a music marketer he used his time in school to study social media influence, as well as the psychology and sociology of social media behavior. Sunny uses this video to explore the following topics:

– Social media engagement
– Why the follow/unfollow trick is terrible
– The secret behind growing a following
– Advice for the content you share

No matter how good you think you are at using Twitter there is always room for improvement. Don’t be afraid. Get out there and tweet something new!

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
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Rumors of Twitter’s impending demise have been greatly exaggerated

Culture is a beast that feeds on the latest and greatest trends. In order for culture to thrive it must always be moving forward, just like a shark through water, and in the digital age its movement is persistently gaining speed. Business, however, is another story altogether.

Critics of culture and those who obsess over numbers look at engagement booms for new products as being more meaningful than the slower, steady growth of more mature brands. You can see this in the way Snapchat has been treated over the last few years in the media compared to Instagram, or how Instagram was treated before that in comparison to Twitter.

While it is important to stay on top of emerging trends, especially where such things can be applied to your business, there is no need to abandon tried and true platforms of promotion. Just recently a fresh wave of criticism against Twitter came to light, with critics claiming the social media giant had long past its peak and was beginning to slide into the abyss where MySpace and Friendster currently reside. Those rumors, which were never anything more than that, are wrong.

While it’s true that Twitter’s revenue fell 8% last quarter, the drop was smaller than expected and sent the stock up 11% in pre-market trading Wednesday. Twitter also added 9 million new users in the last 3 months, which is the biggest quarter-over-quarter user jump for Twitter since early in 2015; and brings total users to 328 million.

Twitter also recently reported that daily active users are up 14% over the same quarter last year, which mean that users of the service are coming back more often. The reasons for this are numerous and likely tied to the recent election and the aggressive, evolved news cycle that has come from it. Regardless, the fact remains – Twitter still matters.

These numbers tell us Twitter is going to be around for the foreseeable future, but whether or not it is the place to focus your marketing efforts is something you have to figured out for yourself. Every fan base is different, as are the social media platforms they prefer. If your fans are active on Twitter and constantly engaging with your new posts then you should absolutely continue to develop that community. If your fans are engaging you more on other platforms, say Snapchat or Facebook, then you should focus more of your efforts there. Just don’t abandon Twitter altogether.

You can follow Haulix on Twitter for more news and advice columns geared toward life in the music business.

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News

Twitter’s new, longer tweets are coming September 19

The Verge confirmed earlier this week that some big changes are coming to Twitter in the weeks ahead. The news and opinion publication published a report yesterday that claims the social media platform is preparing to cut down on exactly which types of content count toward the platform’s 140-character limit. Beginning September 19, Media attachments such as images, GIFs, videos, polls, and quoted tweets will no longer reduce the count. Links, on the other hand, will still count for 23-characters.

Another change will be the exclusion of usernames from character counts on replies. When tweeting at or in response to another users that person’s Twitter handle will no longer count against the total number of characters allowed in a tweet. 

It is unclear whether or not all these changes will happen simultaneously or if they will be spread out over a series of updates, but Twitter will at least begin the transition process next Monday. 

“This is the most notable change we’ve made in recent times around conversation in particular, and around giving people the full expressiveness of the 140 characters,” CEO Jack Dorsey told The Verge in May. “I’m excited to see even more dialog because of this.”

Twitter previously considered extended the length of tweets beyond 140-characters, but the company later decided against the move. This change should satisfy those needing a bit more space without changing the way most people use/experience Twitter. We’ll bring you more news on any additional changes that may be happening as soon as more information is made available.

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A look into the mystery of Twitter Verification

The following post was created by our personal hero, Christopher Biachi. Heed his advice.

For many years it’s proven time and again a pure mystery of sorts. Every day I’d log in to twitter, post my tweet and read around- always coming across the accounts with those different blue things next to the name. After doing a quick google search and finding out what it was, I was immediately intrigued. The almighty twitter badge. How could I myself as well as my artists achieve this I thought?

After a bit further obsessively researching- I found a seemingly  repeating pattern on almost EVERY PAGE that had to do with the one golden question… “How Do I Get Verified On Twitter?” with the end result being little to nothing at all. Still leaving the reader completely in the dark. No real direction.

I’m writing to speak of my journey and how it ended up working out for me. To let  you know that with a little bit of luck, persistence and determination- The puzzle CAN BE SOLVED.

To begin let’s take a look at the qualifications to having a verified account:

“Twitter verifies accounts on an ongoing basis to make it easier for users to find who they’re looking for. We concentrate on highly sought users in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business and other key interest areas. We are constantly updating our requirements for verification. Note, verification does not factor in follower count or Tweet count.”

I’ve personally come across people who swore up and down the amount of followers you had- would depend on if you could get verified. Well the statement above proves that to be an incorrect assumption. They also make sure to state this:

“We do not accept requests for verification from the general public. If you fall under one of the above categories and your Twitter account meets our qualifications for verification, we may contact you in the future.”

Now this IS another true statement. Anyone can’t just reach out to twitter and expect to be verified. I’ve also heard the rumor that if a verified profile DM’s the Verified page that your account can be verified. I have NEVER seen that happen.

“Why hasn’t my account been verified?
If you think you meet the criteria for verification and have not yet received a badge, please be patient. We are working within key interest areas to verify accounts that are sought after by other Twitter users.”

Upon further research I was able to dig up a friend of a friend who happened to work at the platform. They were able to help guide me in the right direction- that was our “in” From those few hints I was able to unlock the puzzle. With that being said, there ARE certain qualifications for each brand in order to be considered. Since I specialize in the Music department that is where our focus was for this process.

If you are a signed artist and or touring on a regular basis- this can and will help!

It never hurts to buddy up with your publicist or your record label 🙂 They might have the magic ticket.

I will say that they were high traffic profiles but had no advertising budgets spent, nor did our clients need to be “Kardashian famous”. It was a matter of having the proper items in place, timing and ensuring that the platform is ACTUALLY USED and INTERACTED WITH. That is a BIG KEY!

At the end of the day- if you seek, you can find.

To get you started- here are your puzzle clue’s:

1. Use the platform regularly! Support your post, use hashtags and interact with fans! This let’s Twitter know that you actually use and enjoy what it has to offer.

2. Being a signed or notable musician is a BIG KEY. Again from my outlook as I work with musicians for my career. Proving who you are and what you have done will help greatly!

3.  Find an expert. Again as a musician or artist perhaps barking up the Publicist tree, the record label or the companies Social Media wizard can help you.

4. The form. That is all there is to say on this topic. It might still exist and might still work. If you are every lucky enough to meet the right person with granted access- befriend them for help.

While this does not give away the EXACT answer to the ultimate mystery. Some things are better left unsaid and when or IF the time if right for you, then the badge will come! Can you solve the mystery?!

I’ve heard as of recent that twitter will offer the verified badge to any page for $1.00 per year in the upcoming future.

What do YOU think of this and would you buy it if everyone had access then?

Christopher Bianchi is an Artist Manager at Mercenary Management who has been involved with the business side of music since he was just 14. Now in his late twenties, Chris lives with his wife, Kayla, in Ohio and spends his days helping artists of all sizes reach the next level(s) in their careers.

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This is why automated Twitter promotions are (always) a bad idea

Ah, Twitter. Where would our culture be without you? After all, Twitter is one of, if not the best place in the world for people to gather and discuss the events of the day while using names other than their own. You can choose to use your actual name of course, but most people prefer for a humorous or clever nickname instead, and therein lies the problem with any automated Twitter promotion. 

You would be hard pressed to find a single artist, brand, or company that doesn’t rely on Twitter every single day for their marketing efforts. The approaches these entities use to engage their audience varies drastically, but they all aim to accomplish the same goal of keeping people interested in whatever product, song, movie, or related offering the account has to promote. In theory, those that feel connected to a brand are more likely to support it, and if they have fun engaging with a brand they’re likely to share their enjoyment with others who in turn may start following the brand as well. This is the entire concept behind social media marketing: Make something people want to click and share, make it easy for them to do those things, then create more content with the same goal in mind and repeat. It has been this way since the dawn of the digital age and it will likely remain as such for the foreseeable future.

Automated promotions, in theory, make it possible to engage more people without doing more work. The idea is that these campaigns, which usually offer followers the ability to create shareable gifs or images, is that brands are giving fans something they will want to share with others that reflects positively on the brand. The most popular approach to this idea so far has been custom jerseys using followers’ Twitter handles, which is an approach that has been disastrously utilized by both the New England Patriots and, more recently, the Montreal Canadiens. Both teams didn’t see the harm in making it possible for any fan to create a jersey with their name on it, but neither team could have imagined the type of ridiculous handles some fans would use to align themselves with their organization(s). Here are a few examples of what happened next…

The above images are all incredibly offensive, but truth be told they are not even the worst examples of automated promotions we’ve seen. Some tweets we discovered were too offensive to even post on the blog! 

Both the Patriots and the Canadiens were quick to apologize for any offensive tweet that may have been seen, but the damage to their brands was already done. There are literally hundreds of screenshots from these campaigns circulating online, and they will more than likely continue to appear in searches for custom jerseys for the foreseeable future. Like everything else, once these images were available online they were part of the internet forever, and there is no way any organization will be able to fully erase them for the digital landscape.

while we have yet to see any record labels just on the automated promotion bandwagon, it’s not hard to imagine a point in the near future when some type of similar campaign is mounted by one of the majors or an independent artist who is trying to further utilize their strong online following. If and when that time comes I promise there will be more disastrous results, and there is really no way that can be stopped. As it stands now, there are no tools available for filtering automated promotions, and because of that anyone who chooses to use such marketing techniques is making themselves and their brand incredibly vulnerable. 

Learn from those who have tried and failed to make these promotions work in the past. Automated Twitter promotions are simply a bad idea.

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Making The Most Of Twitter In 2016

My last piece ripped apart Facebook, and now I’ll throw shade at my favorite social media network: Twitter. I joined Twitter back on July 22nd, 2006. Yes, 10 years ago, when it was called Twttr.

I got this question recently, relating to Twitter:

“How should a music blog, or other online brand, organize it’s following / followers on Twitter for maximum exposure, clarity of branding and credibility?“

Organize nothing, and play like you’ve got nothing to lose with the followers you got.

Exposure? There’s a lot of brands on Twitter all shouting for attention, clicks, RTs, and video plays. Your updates sit between TMZ gossip, sports scores, political news, and photos of cats. You’re competing with everyone in your field, and every other field ever. All the time. Forever.

Also, look what Twitter has been doing. Have you seen the Moments ads on TV? The promoted Tweets below replies? The suggested follows, and the polls, and the new animated heart… er, I mean “Like” thing, apps to install, the “while you were away” feature that will never go away.  Count on Twitter to add even more distractions in 2016.

All this fluff aside, you need to use Twitter in 2016 to speak with people directly and honstly. You’re the singer in a band? Reply to the fans. You’re the owner a studio? Talk with other producers and band folk. Run a music blog? Have conversations with your readers.

That’s where branding and credibility come in. Could an unpaid intern – without your knowledge and experience to draw from – have those same honest, intelligent conversations on Twitter? Most likely not.

An unpaid intern can automate Tweets from the RSS feed on your blog. They can find some stock photos, or RT someone that said, “I love your stuff,” but that’s just “social media by numbers.” That is amatuer hour in 2016, and it’s a house of cards because everyone – small businesses, bands, record labels, Best Buy, and Oreo cookies – EVERYONE is doing that.

You need to do what they can’t do. They can’t be you. They don’t have your humanity, your humor, your dread, or your sense of humor. They don’t observe the world the way you do. They can’t be charming like you, or cute, or sassy, or studious.

Forget the social media tips, tricks, and techniques that everyone and their uncle’s hardware store are using. In 2016 you just need to go full bore you on Twitter.

Seth Werkheiser is the quiz master of metal trivia at Skulltoaster. He’s also the founder of some music sites you may have heard of, including Noise Creep (2009) + Buzzgrinder (2001). He’s anti-Facebook, anti-clickbait, and anti-growth hacking. You should most definitely follow him on Twitter. Yes, right now.

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