Make your first music video

By the end of this guide you'll have a complete music video — a storyboard, AI-generated keyframes, and video clips cut to the beat of your song. It takes about five minutes of setup; the AI does the rest. Uploading, chatting with the AI director and planning are free; your keyframe images and the video render use credits — the $14.99 30-Second Teaser pack covers both for your first finished clip.

Before you start

• A song you own, or one of the three free demo songs seeded into every account.
• That's it. You don't need any editing experience — you describe the video in plain language and the AI directs it.

1. Sign in

Go to melodious.ai and create an account. You can continue with Google, or enter your email and set a password.

New accounts land on the create screen — the "What should we create?" page above, with the composer at the centre. This is where every video begins.

2. Pick or upload a song

The video is built around your song, so start there. Open the + menu next to the composer and choose Song.

You have two options:

• Upload your own track — MP3, WAV, M4A or FLAC, up to 50 MB.
• Try a demo song — click one of the three seeded tracks (Summertime Groove, Rhythm in the Night, Eternal Light) shown under "Don't have a song? Try one of these."

As soon as a song is attached, the AI analyses it — tempo, energy sections, and lyrics — so the storyboard can sync to the music. This analysis is free.

Tip: Use a demo song for your very first video. It's the fastest way to see the whole flow end to end before you commit your own track.

3. Pick a director style (optional)

Before you type anything, you can set the lens the AI directs through. Open the + menu again and choose Director style.

Pick a preset, write your own with Custom, or leave it on None for the default look. The style shapes the whole storyboard and every shot — the same song under "Moody cinematic" and "Hip-hop video producer" produces visibly different videos.

| If you want… | Pick | |---|---| | Rap / trap / high-energy performance | Hip-hop video producer | | Slow, atmospheric, film-grade scenes | Moody cinematic | | Warm, intimate, handmade feel | Indie / lo-fi | | Live-feel fast cuts and stage energy | High-energy performance | | Abstract, otherworldly visuals | Surreal / dreamlike | | Grounded, naturalistic, real-world | Documentary-realist |

4. Describe your vision

In the composer, type what you want to see. Be specific about mood, setting, and style — for example:

"A cinematic music video with dramatic rain scenes at night, neon reflections on wet streets, and a lone figure walking."

If you want to appear in the video or keep a consistent look, attach Photos (up to 4 character photos, up to 10 style references) from the + menu before you send.

Check the line under the composer before you press send. It tells you what this costs — "Sending builds your storyboard and first images — about 48 credits" — because there's no approval step after this point. Pressing send is the decision.

Press send and leave it alone. Melodious writes the storyboard and starts generating your keyframe images in one run — it picks the length (30 seconds), the pacing and the shot count from your song's tempo and sections, so there's nothing to answer and nothing to approve. See One-message storyboards for what it decides and how to change it.

5. Review the storyboard and keyframes

The storyboard is a scene-by-scene plan synced to your song. Each scene has a time window, a description, and the visual prompt that drove its keyframe. The storyboard panel opens on the right, and the keyframes fill in as they finish.

This is the cheapest place to make changes — fix the stills here and you never pay for a video render that was wrong from the start. You can:

• Edit any scene's title or prompt (changes save as you type).
• Add or remove scenes.
• Regenerate a single keyframe that missed (about 12 credits) without touching the others.
• Reply in the composer to refine the whole plan ("make it darker," "add a city skyline," "make it 60 seconds").

Analysis, the conversation and the storyboard plan itself are free. The keyframe images are the first thing that costs credits — roughly 8% of the video's total, charged when you sent your first message.

6. Generate the video

Your keyframes already exist, so one stage is left — and it's the one that still needs your say-so:

Generate Videos turns each keyframe into a video clip, then merges them with your audio into the final cut. This reserves the remaining ~92% of the credits and is the expensive step, which is why it has its own explicit approval and never starts on its own. The full render takes 3–10 minutes depending on length.

When it finishes, hit Export Final Video to download your music video. Your keyframes, clips, and the final video are all auto-saved to your Assets library — you won't lose work if you close the tab.

Note: Rendering uses credits — the $14.99 30-Second Teaser pack covers one 30-second clip (one per account). Non-subscriber renders carry a small Melodious AI watermark; longer durations (Standard, Extended, Full song) and watermark-free exports need a Pro plan or the Single Release Video pack — see Credits & plans.

Common questions

How much does my first video cost? $14.99. The 30-Second Teaser pack (600 credits) covers exactly one finished 30-second clip — you pick which 30 seconds of your song it covers. That 600 covers both stages: about 48 credits of keyframes and the rest for the video render. Analysis, chat and the storyboard plan are free.

When am I actually charged? For the keyframes, when you send your first message — the cost is stated under the composer before you send. For the video, when you approve the render. Nothing else spends credits.

Do I have to upload a song? No. Every account comes with three free demo songs you can use immediately.

Can I change the look after I've started? Yes. Edit scene prompts or change the director style, then regenerate. Changing the style never silently rewrites scenes you've already approved.

What if a keyframe comes out wrong? Regenerate just that one scene (~12 credits) instead of redoing the whole video. Fix keyframes before the video stage to avoid wasting credits.

Will I lose my work if I close the tab mid-render? No. Outputs auto-save to your Assets library as they're generated.

Troubleshooting

My song won't upload → Check it's MP3, WAV, M4A or FLAC and under 50 MB. Convert or trim if needed, or use a demo song to keep going.

The storyboard doesn't match what I described → Reply in the composer with a correction, or edit individual scene prompts in the storyboard panel, then regenerate. The plan is conversational — keep steering it.

I ran out of credits mid-flow → Planning is free, so the storyboard is written and saved either way. To generate images or video, top up or upgrade on the billing page.

Next steps

• One-message storyboards — what the first run decides for you, and how to change it
• How Melodious works — the mental model behind director → storyboard → keyframes → clips
• Director styles — steer the whole video before you type a word
• Assets library & @mention — reuse a character, style, or song across videos
• Credits & plans — what each action costs
• Start creating →