How Do I Make an Animated Album Cover for Apple Music?
To make an animated album cover for Apple Music, load your own song and cover artwork in BeamTracer Studio, add a transparent FLOW LINES visualizer, and render the motion with INCLUDE AUDIO off. Then prepare the final delivery files to Apple's specifications. Check the exported dimensions and encoding before delivery. Studio's square and portrait presets need further preparation for Apple's exact album-motion profiles.
Hi, I'm Trina with BeamTracer.com. Let the song shape the movement while the cover keeps its identity. Place the colored waveform where it leaves the lettering clear, then watch several repeats before adding more effects.
FLOW LINES reacts to the built-in Orbital Blob sample track over original Night Current artwork. This eight-second Studio render contains no audio track. Use your own song for your cover; the 1080 × 1080 example is a working preview, not an Apple delivery master.
What files does Apple Music require for album motion?
Apple's Album Motion Guidelines specify separate square and portrait assets. Both must be silent, 8 to 35 seconds long, with square pixels. Confirm the requested deliverables with your release partner before making the final versions.
| Delivery setting | Apple's specification |
|---|---|
| Album Page Motion 1×1 | 3840 × 3840 pixels |
| Album Page Motion 3×4 | 2048 × 2732 pixels |
| Codec and container | H.264 or Apple ProRes 422/4444; .mp4 or .mov |
| Audio | No audio track |
| Bitrate | 45 to 100 Mbps |
| Frame rate | 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, or 30 fps |
| Color | Rec. 709 or sRGB |
Use Apple's templates to check the portrait safe area. The artwork should fill the frame, retain its cover identity, and begin with a composed image that matches the cover. Avoid promotional additions, cuts to unrelated imagery, and frantic flashing. A video that meets the file specifications still needs your release partner's delivery and review process.
How do I bring the cover into BeamTracer Studio?
Open Studio, choose the square 1:1 frame in ADVANCED → FRAME, and load your cover through LOOK → IMAGE/VIDEO → BACKDROP SOURCE → IMAGE BACKDROP → UPLOAD YOUR OWN. Hide any starter text, lyrics, or album-art layers you do not want. Keep a visualizer layer for the waveform, then check the image fit in the preview.
The cover fills the square frame. FLOW LINES sits above BACKDROP with BACKGROUND OPACITY at 0%; the starter text layers are hidden.
Use an image large enough for your working composition. COVER fills the frame and may crop edges; CONTAIN preserves the entire image and can leave space around it. Check the title and any important face or graphic near the edge before settling on the crop. STRETCH changes the image's proportions, so it needs a deliberate design reason.
If your music file already contains the cover, the embedded album-art workflow can bring it in as an editable layer. This example uses directly uploaded cover artwork with the built-in Orbital Blob sample track. Save your Studio project so the crop and motion choices remain editable.
How do I make the waveform react to my song?
Open TRACK → AUDIO SOURCE → UPLOAD YOUR OWN and choose the song that belongs to the cover. Play it before arranging the visualizer. Different songs produce different movement, so make your final composition with the track you plan to release. ORBITAL BLOB supplies the sample track used in this demonstration.
Select the existing visualizer layer under LOOK, choose CHANGE, search for FLOW LINES, and select it. This is the same visualizer available in Performer. Leave the cover on BACKDROP and set the visualizer layer's BACKGROUND OPACITY to 0% so its colored strands appear over the artwork.
Keep AUDIO ENABLED on. Flow Lines carries the live waveform along its strands; WAVEFORM DEPTH controls how far that signal bends them. The example keeps the default WAVEFORM DEPTH of 1.3, with WAVE HEIGHT following Bass. Adjust the layer's POSITION X, POSITION Y, or SIZE if the glow crosses important lettering. The Flow Lines reference explains its controls.
- Open TRACK → AUDIO SOURCE → UPLOAD YOUR OWN and load your song.
- Choose 1:1 under FRAME and upload your cover as BACKDROP.
- Hide unwanted starter text and artwork layers; keep the visualizer layer visible.
- Under LOOK, select that visualizer layer, choose CHANGE, and select FLOW LINES.
- Set BACKGROUND OPACITY to 0% and leave AUDIO ENABLED on.
- Play the song and position the waveform so the title remains readable.
- Under FRAME → ADVANCED, set TRIM FOR EXPORT to eight seconds for this working example. Move the green waveform box to choose the excerpt that fits your cover.
- Open EXPORT → RENDER VIDEO, turn INCLUDE AUDIO off, render, and save the video.
The song drives the visualizer during rendering even when INCLUDE AUDIO is off. That export choice removes the soundtrack from the saved file; it does not turn off the visualizer's audio analysis. Keep the track loaded and AUDIO ENABLED on; use the export checkbox to make the file silent.
Choose an excerpt with motion that can repeat comfortably. A trimmed section of music does not automatically make a seamless visual loop. Check the last-to-first transition and refine the timing or join in your finishing tool. For additional movement without relying on music, Drawn automation can animate a control along a time/value curve; the modulation guide covers that separate option.
How do I export a silent working video?
Open EXPORT → RENDER VIDEO, select MP4 · H.264 and 30 fps, and check INCLUDE AUDIO. It must be off for a silent file. Render the video, then use SAVE VIDEO to save the actual output and inspect that file outside the preview.
The demonstration exports a 1080 × 1080 working MP4. Studio's 4K square option is 2160 × 2160; the label does not mean 3840 × 3840. The 4:5 option also differs from Apple's portrait dimensions. Choose a working frame deliberately and retain your high-resolution source artwork for final composition work.
The video export reference explains the shared render controls. SPOTIFY CANVAS is a separate destination preset with its own frame and length rules. Selecting it does not prepare an Apple Music album-motion delivery.
What still needs to happen before delivery?
Prepare the exact final canvases and encoding in a finishing tool, then inspect the resulting files. BeamTracer's working export is useful for reviewing the motion. Resizing that export alone cannot add missing source detail or make a square design fit a portrait composition without a crop decision.
Use your high-resolution artwork to prepare each final layout. Check the required bitrate in the final encoder and verify the saved file afterward. Confirm that it contains no audio stream; a silent or muted audio track is still a track. Keep the working project and the final delivery files separate so an edit does not overwrite your accepted version.
Review the opening frame, a midpoint, and the last frame at full size. Replay the last-to-first transition several times. Look for a jumping edge or lost detail in the title. At maximum zoom, check for empty space around the crop. The first and last sampled video frames need not be identical, but their motion should join without a visible snap.
Send the finished assets through your release partner's supported process. Studio does not submit the artwork to Apple or confirm that your distributor accepts album motion. Ask about that route before committing time to final delivery versions.