4 Essential Tips To Optimize Videos For Mobile Screens

As the future of video continues its move into our pockets, all artists and musicians should keep in mind how their videos will play on a mobile platform. Here we look at four different tips for optimizing your video to make sure it will hold up to a phone or tablet.

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Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

One of the things that we have to be aware of when making a video these days is how it will play on a mobile device. Here’s an excerpt from the YouTube chapter of my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that provides 4 tips to make sure that your video is effective on a phone or tablet.

“Mobile viewers watch videos a lot longer than they do on their desktops. In order to maintain that attention, it’s important to observe the following:

1. Avoid using tiny text. Make sure that any text you use is readable on any screen that the video might be viewed on, especially a smartphone.

2. Make sure the audio is clear. Great audio is always a plus, but even more so when viewing on a phone. Remember that the speakers are small, so you’re not going to hear many of the low frequencies, but that’s okay as long as everything is intelligible. Also remember that there’s always a lot of ambient noise around a phone if the user isn’t wearing earbuds, so make sure that the audio is able to cut through it.

3. Use lots of close-ups. Close-up shots work great on small screens – wide shots don’t.

4. Test the video on your own phone before you upload it. What good is the video if it doesn’t get the point across? The only way you’ll know for sure is if you test it, and your personal phone is a great place to start.

These are all good tips to keep in mind the next time you create a video. Remember that it’s more than likely that a great number of your viewers will now be watching on their phone, so compensate for the small screen right from the beginning.

People Watch Longer On Phones And Tablets
While most people watch at least a couple of YouTube videos on their laptop or desktop during the day, it turns out that tablet users actually have the longest video engagement. Video distributor Ooyala did a study that determined that tablet users watched 28 percent longer than the desktop average. They also found that tablet viewers are more than twice as likely to finish a video than on a desktop, which was about 30 percent higher than that of mobile devices.

The study also found that desktops and laptops are more likely to be used for short video clips, whereas videos that are 10 minutes or longer make up 30 percent of the hours watched on mobile devices, 42 percent on tablets, and nearly 75 percent on connected TV devices and game consoles.”

The bottom line is, if you make a video, be sure that it plays well on a phone and tablet.