How to use ArtistManager

Installing and first run

On Windows (10 or 11)

1. Run ArtistManager-Setup. Because the app is new, Windows may show “Windows protected your PC”: click More info, then Run anyway.
2. Choose where to install it and finish the installer. It needs about 750 MB free on C: while it installs (it unpacks there first), even if you install to another drive. If C: is too full it tells you.

On a Mac (macOS 12 or later)

1. Pick the right download: arm64 for Apple Silicon Macs (M1 and newer), x64 for older Intel Macs. Not sure? Apple menu → About This Mac: “Chip: Apple M…” means arm64; “Processor: Intel” means x64.
2. Open the .dmg and drag ArtistManager into Applications.
3. The first time, right-click (or Control-click) ArtistManager in Applications, choose Open, then Open again. macOS asks because the app isn't from the App Store. After that it opens normally.
4. If macOS says the app “is damaged and can't be opened”, open Terminal and run xattr -cr /Applications/ArtistManager.app, then open it again.

The first time it opens

1. The first time it opens, a short setup asks for:
   • The artist's name and colour: one profile per artist. The colour is used by looks like brat.
   • A storage folder: where songs, footage and videos go. Pick a drive with plenty of room; it shows how much is free.
   • A Pixabay key (optional) for free stock footage search. It's free: sign up at pixabay.com and copy the key from their API page. You can add it later in Settings.
   • Your first song's title (optional).

Everything stays on your computer. Nothing is uploaded unless you post something or search for footage.

Finding your way around

• The left menu is split into the song you have open (Song & Beats, Lyrics & Sync, Make Video, Batch Generator, Artwork & Promo, Song Info), your Library, Release tools, and your artists and settings at the bottom.
• Projects: one project per song. Open one to work on it; the song's pages appear in the menu.
• The search box at the top searches stock footage straight away and opens the Media Library.
• Artist (top right) switches between artist profiles if you manage more than one.
• ⓘ opens About: version, credits, privacy policy, terms and licences.
• ☀ / ☾ switches between light and dark mode.

Song & Beats

Drop your song in (WAV, MP3, FLAC, M4A, AAC, OGG, Opus, AIFF or WMA). The app finds the BPM, the beats, the downbeats (the "1" of each bar) and the transients (drum hits) by itself. Video cuts and effects follow these, so it's worth checking them.

• Press Space or the play button to listen. Turn on Click on beats to hear a click on every beat.
• Tempo: if the BPM is half or double what you hear, use Half time / Double time. You can also type a BPM and Set BPM, or use Tap tempo (tap at least 4 times).
• Downbeat & alignment: play to the first beat of a bar and click Set downbeat at playhead, or move it a beat earlier or later. Nudge grid shifts all beats by a few milliseconds.
• Transients slider: how many drum hits count (fewer = only the strong ones). Used when cuts are set to On kicks.
• Replace song swaps in a new version (lyric timing is kept); Re-analyze runs the beat finding again.

Master check

At the bottom of the page, Check this song measures your file the way streaming services and distributors do; Check another file… checks a different file, like the WAV you're about to upload, without replacing the song.

• Loudness (LUFS), true peak, loudness range, stereo and the file format.
• What happens on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube, e.g. "Turned down 6.0 dB" or "Plays 3 dB quieter than most songs".
• A list of things to fix or listen for, each with a plain fix (e.g. "set your limiter's ceiling to -1.0 dB").

Lyrics & Sync

Lyrics need timing so the words appear at the right moment. Get the words in first, then time them automatically or by tapping.

Getting the words in

• Paste them into the box (blank lines and headers like [Chorus] are ignored).
• Import LRC/SRT: a lyric file with timing, or a plain TXT.
• Find on LRCLIB: synced lyrics for songs that are already out.

Automatic lyrics

Runs on your computer; nothing is uploaded. The first time, Set up downloads the speech engine and model into your storage folder (once).

• Auto-sync my lyrics: times the lyrics you pasted, word by word. The most accurate option.
• Transcribe the song: writes the lyrics out from the song, with timing. Fix any misheard words afterwards.
• Separate the vocals first (recommended): isolates the singing from the beat before listening, so far fewer words are misheard. It adds roughly the length of the song to the wait, and the separated vocals are deleted as soon as it's done.
• The model menu: Best is the most accurate; Good and Fast are quicker. Pick the song's language for non-English songs.
• Lines it wasn't sure about get a ⚠ check badge. Play them, fix them if needed, then Mark all as checked.

Tapping along

1. Choose By line (tap at the start of each line) or By word (tap each word: slow the song to 0.75× with the speed menu).
2. Click Start syncing from line 1 (or click a line first to start there).
3. Press Space as each line (or word) starts. Backspace undoes the last tap, Esc finishes.

• Hold mode: hold Space for as long as the line is sung, so lines also get an end time.
• Snap to transients: nudges each tap onto the nearest drum hit, so slightly early or late taps still land tight.
• Tap delay: if all your taps land late, enter a delay in milliseconds to take off.

Fixing timing and words

• On the waveform, drag a lyric block's edge to change when it starts or ends, or its middle to move it. Hold Shift to snap to beats.
• In the line list, click a time to type a new one, ▶ play to hear the line, clear to remove its timing.
• edit (or double-click the words) fixes one line's words in place. Its timing is kept.
• Edit text edits all the lyrics at once. Timing is kept for everything you didn't change; brand-new words get a best guess and a ⚠.
• Shift all lyrics moves every line a little earlier or later.
• Export saves LRC (line or word timing) or SRT files, e.g. for Spotify, Apple Music or Musixmatch.

Put a word in ~~tildes~~ to show it struck through in the video, like on the brat cover.

Media Library

Your footage lives here, grouped into mood sets (e.g. "night drive", "grunge bedroom"). Videos draw their backgrounds from a mood set.

• + New set makes a mood set; Rename and Delete set manage it. Deleting a set keeps the clips in your library.
• Search stock: type an aesthetic and search free footage from Pixabay (and Pexels, if you add a key). Choose Videos or Photos; Vertical first puts portrait clips at the top. AI-generated stock is filtered out. Add results to the current set.
• Your files & links: Add files, Add a folder, drag clips or photos in, or Paste a link to an image, a video or a Pinterest pin (video pins come in as video).
• Pinterest boards: import pins from your own boards (needs a Pinterest developer app, set up in Settings).
• Whole library: everything you've imported.
• Set focus: click the part of a clip that matters (a face, say) and Save focus. The vertical crop keeps that part in frame.

Clips from links show a rights warning: make sure you're allowed to use them.

Make Video

Builds one video at a time with a live preview. Every setting is saved with the song.

Format

• Vertical 9:16: TikTok, Reels and Shorts.
• YouTube 16:9: a full-song lyric video for YouTube (it switches the clip to the whole song).

Style

Clip

• Pick a length (7s, 10s, 15s, 30s) or Whole song.
• Suggest a clip finds a strong part (usually the hook); click again for the next idea. Snap to bar lines the start up with a bar.
• Type a Start and End, or play to a spot and click Start at playhead.

Visuals

• Choose the mood set to use.
• Cuts: when the footage changes: Follow the energy, every few beats, every bar, On kicks (with how strong a hit must be), on lyric lines, or No cuts (one clip). min sets the fastest it's allowed to cut.
• Slow zoom on photos: a gentle zoom and drift on still photos so they don't look frozen. Videos never move.
• Shuffle clips: same cuts, different clips in different places.

Look, saved looks and stickers

• Look has the style's settings (colours, font, size, blur, effects…). Reset goes back to the artist's defaults.
• Save this look names and keeps the current settings; pick a saved look from the list to apply it to any song.
• Sticker: text on top of any style, like "out now", "3 days" or "pre-save now", at the top, centre or bottom.

Preview and export

• Play and scrub the preview. Show app UI safe zones shows where TikTok and Reels buttons cover the video.
• Choose 30 fps or 60 fps, optionally name the file, and click Export. Finished videos are listed below with Show in folder.
• Export Spotify Canvas: a silent loop of up to 8 seconds, without lyrics, for Spotify for Artists.

Batch Generator

Makes lots of videos at once from your settings, so you can keep the best and post them over time.

What to make

• Styles and Lengths: tick as many as you like. Each style starts from the look you set up in Make Video.
• Parts of the song: Just the best part or the Top 2–5 parts are chosen for you, or choose I'll pick the parts myself:
  • The song's waveform, playhead and lyrics appear. Each part is a red range: drag it to move it (hold Shift to snap to beats).
  • Click the waveform to move the playhead, then + Add a part at the playhead. You can also type a start time, use Move to the playhead, or ▶ Play a part.
  • Each part is cut to every length you ticked.
• Footage: the mood sets to use (empty sets can't be ticked). Cuts: one or more cut styles, including No cuts (one clip). Photos: Slow zoom on photos.
• Versions of each and Mix up the look between versions: more variety. At most caps the total.

Picking and rendering

1. Click Generate. A grid of previews appears; click one to watch it with sound.
2. ★ Fave the ones you like and ✕ the ones you don't.
3. Render favourites or Render all not rejected. At once sets how many render together.

Files are named artist_song_style_01.mp4 and saved in the song's renders folder.

Artwork & Promo

Cover art check

• Choose cover… to check your cover against store rules: square, at least 3000×3000, JPG or PNG, RGB colour (not CMYK), no transparency.
• Check by eye: rules that get covers rejected but can't be measured (no links or handles, no "out now", no store logos…). Tick them off before you upload.

Promo graphics

• Choose a Look (Cover, brat or Minimal) and a Size (Square 1:1, Feed 4:5, Story 9:16).
• Type the text or pick one ("out now", "out friday" from your release day, "pre-save now"…), and choose whether to add the song and artist name.
• Save PNG or Save all 3 sizes. They're saved in the song's promo folder.

Song Info

Keeps the song's details in one place: ISRC, UPC, label, genre, credits (writers, producers, featured artists…), splits (who owns what share; the total should be 100%), links and notes. Export split sheet (PDF) makes one for everyone to sign. Saved automatically.

Publish

Posting straight to TikTok or Instagram needs a free developer account on each platform; Settings → Connected apps walks you through it. Instagram needs a Creator or Business account. Until TikTok reviews your developer app, posts go up as private and you make them public in the TikTok app. Send to phone needs no setup.

New post

1. Pick a rendered video.
2. Write the caption, or Use a template…. Fill-ins are replaced for you: {lyric_line}, {song}, {artist}, {release_date}, {presave_link}, {hashtags}. Save as template keeps a caption for later. It warns you if a caption is too long for a platform.
3. Tick the accounts to post to. Each account can have its own caption and options: on TikTok Who can watch and comments, duets and stitches; on Instagram whether to share to your feed; the Cover frame at moment for both.
4. Post now, or Schedule for a date and time.

Send to phone

Shows a QR code: scan it with your phone (on the same Wi-Fi) to download the video, with the caption ready to paste. Post it from the TikTok or Instagram app to use your official sound.

Queue

Everything scheduled, uploading, posted or failed. Retry failed posts, Cancel scheduled ones, View posted ones.

Scheduled posts only go out while ArtistManager is running. When you close the window with posts waiting, it keeps running in the system tray on Windows (by the clock) or the menu bar on a Mac. Use its icon there to quit.

Release Rollout

Plans your posts from two weeks before release day to two weeks after.

1. Open the song you're releasing, set the Release day and How much to post (light, normal or heavy), then click Plan my rollout.
2. Each slot says what to post and when: teasers, a "new music soon" or "out [date]" snippet, pre-save pushes, countdowns, release day and follow-ups. A reminder slot tells you when to upload your Spotify Canvas (Make the Canvas).
3. Fill with my videos puts your rendered videos into the lyric and pre-save slots (favourites first). For teasers and countdowns, Make a video for this opens Make Video with the right sticker already on.
4. Change any slot's time, video or accounts, then click Schedule … ready slots to send them to the Publish queue.

Stats

Views, likes, comments, shares and saves for everything posted through the app, and which styles, lengths and accounts do best. Click Refresh stats to fetch the latest numbers.

Artists & Accounts

• Brand: each artist's name, colours, font and default hashtags. New videos and looks start from these.
• Social accounts: add each TikTok or Instagram account (e.g. your main page and a lyric page) with a label, then connect it to post to it.
• Press kit: a photo, bio, contact and links. Export press kit (PDF) makes a one-page EPK with your songs and release dates.
• Share a pack: Export pack saves the artist's colours, font, hashtags, caption templates and saved looks as an .ampack file; Import pack… loads one from someone else.

Settings

• Stock footage keys: your Pixabay (and Pexels) key for stock search.
• Connected apps: the developer app details for TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest, each with step-by-step setup.
• Storage folder: where projects, footage and videos are kept. Move it to a bigger drive here (the app restarts).
• Updates: your version. On Windows, new versions download in the background and install when you restart. On a Mac, download new versions from the store page.

Keyboard and mouse

If something goes wrong

“This app can't run on your PC”

The install didn't finish, usually because C: ran out of space while installing. Free up some space on C: and run the installer again.

The app or shortcut shows the wrong icon

Windows sometimes keeps an old icon. Restart the PC (or in Task Manager, right-click Windows Explorer → Restart).

Automatic lyrics are slow

The Best model with vocal separation takes a few times the length of the song on a typical PC. Untick Separate the vocals first or pick a faster model for a quicker (less accurate) result.

A video came out with a plain background

The mood set has no ready clips. Add clips in the Media Library, and check the clips have finished importing.

My TikTok posts are private

That's TikTok's rule until your developer app has been reviewed. Make them public in the TikTok app, or use Send to phone.

A Pinterest link came in as a photo

Photo pins come in as photos. For a video pin, paste the pin's link again. Video pins import as video.

Questions

Message Rosary on Instagram, @0rosary.