Song length is a design decision, not just a technical limit — the right length is the one that matches how and where the audience will actually hear it. Here's a rough guide by platform.
Short-form video: TikTok, Reels, Shorts
These platforms reward an immediate hook, since a viewer decides whether to keep watching within the first couple of seconds. You rarely need a full song here — a 15 to 60 second clip built around your strongest hook, usually the chorus, outperforms a slow build. Generate the full song, then use the cut tool to isolate the strongest section rather than trimming from the start.
Full releases: YouTube, Spotify and streaming
There's no hard rule here, but the informal industry norm most listeners are used to sits around 2:30 to 3:30 for a mainstream pop-structured song, with plenty of legitimate variation either side of that depending on genre. A song that runs unusually long without a structural reason (key change, bridge, instrumental section) risks losing casual listeners partway through.
Podcasts, ads and functional audio
These use cases are usually much shorter and driven by a strict slot length rather than musical convention.
- Podcast intros/outros: 5-15 seconds.
- Radio or video ad jingles: typically 15, 30 or 60 seconds to match standard ad slot lengths.
- Corporate/explainer video beds: matched exactly to the video's runtime, often 60-120 seconds.
- Game loops: variable by design, but built to loop cleanly rather than to hit a fixed target length.
Autunes' length limits by plan
Standard song generation on Autunes covers most of the above comfortably: up to 3 minutes on Free and Pro, and up to 4 minutes on Creator. If you need something longer — a concept album track, an extended cinematic cue, a long-form devotional or meditation piece — Long Form generates well beyond the standard limit and automatically splits the result into parts rather than forcing it into one capped-length file.