Product demo video from a screen recording: $0.34 on Sume

A product demo for a store listing is usually a screen recording that is too long. On the page read today, Google Play's help says a promo video is added as a YouTube URL, only the first 30 seconds autoplay, and the video can be landscape or portrait without black bars. So the job is to make the first 30 seconds count and ship the file in a shape the store accepts.

The pipeline

Four steps, each with a published price: cut the recording to 30 seconds, write a short voiceover, mix and render, burn captions. Video trim is $0.02 per job and takes a source up to 1,800 seconds; the video trim docs give the limits.

What to do with the output

Sume returns a hosted mp4. Google Play wants a YouTube URL, so upload the file to your own channel, then paste the link into the Play Console. That upload step is yours; nothing in the pipeline posts to YouTube for you.

Making the first 30 seconds count

• Open on the feature, not on the splash screen or a logo.
• Say one benefit per sentence; 400 characters is about 30 seconds of speech.
• Burn captions in, since many viewers watch without sound.
• Match the orientation to the store listing so no bars appear, using a 1080x1920 or 1920x1080 render.
• If the app name or screens change, re-run the pipeline: it is $0.34, not an editor session.

When this is not enough

A recording shows what the screen does, not why anyone cares. If the listing needs a person explaining the app, that is an avatar video, priced per second, and a different post. For the straight demo, this pipeline is cheap enough to run on every release.