Promo Director Skill

Generate professional promo videos for social media from mastered audio. Creates 15-second vertical videos (9:16, 1080x1920) optimized for Instagram Reels, Twitter, and TikTok.

Purpose

After mastering audio, generate promotional videos that combine:

• Album artwork
• Audio waveform visualization (9 styles available)
• Track title + artist name
• Automatic color scheme extracted from artwork
• Intelligent segment selection (finds the most energetic 15 seconds)

When to Use

• After mastering complete, before release
• User says "generate promo videos" or "create promo videos for [album]"
• When album has mastered audio + artwork ready

Position in Workflow

Generate → Master → **[Promo Videos]** → Release

Optional step between mastering-engineer and release-director.

Workflow

1. Setup Verification

Check ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -filters | grep showwaves

Required filters: showwaves, showfreqs, drawtext, gblur

If missing:

Error: ffmpeg not found or missing required filters

Install ffmpeg:
  macOS: brew install ffmpeg
  Linux: apt install ffmpeg

After installing, run this command again.

Check Python dependencies:

Call get_python_command() to verify the venv exists. If venv_exists is false, show the warning and suggest /bitwize-music:setup.

2. Album Detection

Resolve audio path via MCP:

Call resolve_path("audio", album_slug) — returns the full audio directory path including artist folder.

Example result: ~/bitwize-music/audio/artists/bitwize/albums/electronic/sample-album/

Verify contents:

• ✓ Mastered audio files (.wav, .mp3, .flac, .m4a)
• ✓ Album artwork (album.png or album.jpg)

If artwork missing:

Error: No album artwork found in {audio_root}/artists/{artist}/albums/{genre}/{album}/

Expected: album.png or album.jpg

Options:
  1. Use /bitwize-music:import-art to place artwork
  2. Specify path manually: --artwork /path/to/art.png

Which option?

3. User Preferences

Check config defaults first:

Read promotion section from ~/.bitwize-music/config.yaml for defaults:

• promotion.default_style - Default visualization style
• promotion.duration - Default clip duration
• promotion.include_sampler - Whether to generate album sampler by default
• promotion.sampler_clip_duration - Seconds per track in sampler

If config section doesn't exist, use built-in defaults (pulse, 15s, sampler enabled, 12s clips).

Ask: What to generate?

Options (default from config or "both"):

1. Individual track promos (15s each) + Album sampler (all tracks)
2. Individual track promos only
3. Album sampler only

Ask: Visualization style?

Default from promotion.default_style or pulse if not set.

Default recommendation:

• Electronic/Hip-Hop → pulse
• Rock/Pop → bars
• Folk/Acoustic → line
• Ambient/Chill → mirror

Ask: Custom duration?

Default: 15 seconds (optimal for Instagram/Twitter)

Options:

• 15s (recommended, Instagram Reels sweet spot)
• 30s (longer preview)
• 60s (full clip, less common)

For sampler:

Default: 12 seconds per track

Calculate total:

Total duration = (tracks * clip_duration) - ((tracks - 1) * crossfade)
Twitter limit: 140 seconds

If over 140s:

WARNING: Expected duration {duration}s exceeds Twitter limit (140s)

Recommendation: Reduce --clip-duration to {140 / tracks}s

4. Generation

Individual track promos:

generate_promo_videos(album_slug, style="pulse", duration=15)

Single track only:

generate_promo_videos(album_slug, style="pulse", track_filename="01-track-name.wav")

Album sampler:

generate_album_sampler(album_slug, clip_duration=12, crossfade=0.5)

Handle errors:

Common issues:

• ffmpeg filter error → Check ffmpeg install includes filters
• Font not found → Install dejavu fonts or specify custom font
• Artwork extraction fails → Use default cyan color scheme
• librosa unavailable → Fall back to 20% into track for segment selection
• Audio file corrupt → Skip track, report, continue with others

5. Results Summary

Report generated files:

## Promo Videos Generated

**Location:** {audio_root}/artists/{artist}/albums/{genre}/{album}/

**Individual Track Promos:**
- {audio_root}/artists/{artist}/albums/{genre}/{album}/promo_videos/
- 10 videos generated
- Format: 1080x1920 (9:16), H.264, 15s each
- Style: pulse
- File size: ~10-12 MB per video

**Album Sampler:**
- {audio_root}/artists/{artist}/albums/{genre}/{album}/album_sampler.mp4
- Duration: 114.5s (under Twitter 140s limit ✓)
- Format: 1080x1920 (9:16), H.264
- File size: 45.2 MB

**Next Steps:**
1. Review videos: Open promo_videos/ folder
2. Test on phone: Transfer one video and verify quality
3. Populate social copy: Fill in promo/ templates (twitter.md, instagram.md, etc.)
4. [Optional] Upload to cloud: /bitwize-music:cloud-uploader {album}
5. Ready for release workflow: /bitwize-music:release-director {album}

Technical Reference

See technical-reference.md for:

• Output specifications (resolution, format, bitrate)
• Visualization styles (pulse, bars, line, etc.)
• Platform compatibility (Instagram, Twitter, TikTok)
• Dependencies (required and optional)
• Troubleshooting common issues