A recipe is a set of rules for building a short. A campaign runs it again and again on a schedule, so the recipe decides what all of those posts look like and how many credits each one uses.
A recipe holds instructions. It contains no songs or artwork. The song is picked when each short is made, so the same recipe keeps working as your catalog grows.
Start one
Open Templates and choose New Template. Type starts on Social recipe, so you can leave it.
If an existing recipe is close to what you want, copy it instead. The copy icon on a recipe’s row makes an editable copy, named with (Copy) on the end, and leaves the original alone. The two starters, Daily clip reel and Artwork + song, are read-only, so copying is the only way to change them.
Name it for when you would use it
Basic Information asks for a Template Name, which is the only required field, and a Description.
Write the description as the occasion: “weekly catalog post” tells you when to reach for it. “Three clips with a card” does not, and the recipe already says that further down.
Choose the format
Format is the decision everything else follows from, and it decides most of the cost.
Clip reel plays several short video clips, then ends on a card showing your CTA text. Artwork + song is the song’s cover art with the artist and song name on screen and the song playing underneath.
Switching format resets the settings below it to that format’s defaults. Your CTA text, Caption (optional) and Default platforms carry over.
All recipes come out vertical, at 9:16.
What Clip reel does when it runs
When a campaign runs a Clip reel, SongPilot generates new video clips for that short, using the song and the slot’s plan, and then assembles them, ending on the card. It doesn’t need any videos in your library, and it uses credits for each clip. A clip in the slot’s plan that already points to a video in your library isn’t generated, so it costs nothing to generate.
This is a different thing from the Clip reel quick short you can start in a video project. The quick short is free and joins clips you already have. See start a music video project.
To use a video you already have on one post, attach it to that slot from the campaign timeline. See the timeline and slots.
Clip reel settings
Number of clips runs from 1 to 6. The starter uses 3.
Max seconds per clip accepts 2 to 30, and defaults to 7. Generated clips are always 3 to 15 seconds, so a value above 15 raises the estimate without making the clip longer.
CTA duration (seconds) accepts 1 to 10 and sets how long the card holds. The song keeps playing under it, and a short never runs past the end of its song.
More clips, and longer clips up to the 15 second limit, raise the cost of every short, and that cost repeats for every post the campaign makes.
Artwork + song settings
Short length (seconds) is the full duration of the post, from 8 to 45. The starter uses 15.
The song starts about 12 seconds in, so the short opens partway into the track. The card shows the artist name, the song name and your CTA text.
Artwork + song generates no video clips, so it costs far less to run than a Clip reel.
Settings both formats share
CTA text is the wording on a Clip reel’s end card. The default is Stream now. It can’t be empty: if it is, saving stops with Add recipe content (clips or artwork+audio) and CTA text.
Caption (optional) is the caption for each short. Leave it empty if you would rather write captions per post.
Default platforms sets where the campaign aims, from Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. A new campaign copies this list when it is created, so changing the recipe later does not change campaigns that already exist. Slots the campaign schedules on its own are created for the first platform in the list, and the first platform is the one you turned on earliest.
Then choose Save, or Cancel to leave without saving. Back to Templates returns to the list, and asks first if you have changes that are not saved.
What it costs
Saving a recipe uses no credits. Credits are used when a campaign runs it.
The figure to read is on the campaign’s details page. With Auto-create on, it shows the approximate credits per short and per day for this recipe. The estimate counts each generated clip’s length, plus the supporting work around it. It drops if your workspace uses its own provider key for that work. See how credits work.
A recipe campaign can keep producing for as long as it runs, so set a limit before you turn it on. Auto-create and credit limits explains how the limit works.
What a recipe needs from your workspace
Artwork + song needs at least one song in the campaign’s pool with both cover art and audio. Without one, producing the slot fails with a message that no songs have both cover artwork and audio, so add artwork and audio to a song and run it again.
Clip reel needs at least one song with audio, and enough credits. With no songs it stops and asks you to add one first. If the song has no audio, the slot fails with that reason and nothing is charged. Clips you pinned from your library don’t need generating, so a slot made only of those isn’t refused.
If a campaign produces nothing, check these before you assume the campaign is broken.
When to build rather than copy
Copy a starter when you want the same shape with different numbers, different CTA wording or different platforms. That covers most cases and takes a minute.
Build your own when you already know the format and want to set every field yourself from the start. The result is the same kind of recipe either way.
What to do next
Attach the recipe to a campaign so it runs. Create a campaign covers that step, and you can link the campaign to a release so the posts promote what they should. To edit, copy or delete a recipe later, see save and manage your templates.
