Do you know about the importance of music in a video?
Music is one of the key elements in audiovisual content, which includes video production and video editing. Combining songs and sounds in harmony with images makes all the difference in the success of a video.
Music hits our brains deeply. When we watch a movie, an informative video or any other audiovisual media, music is always present. In an unconscious way, music interferes with our emotions and changes our concepts and our view about what we watch.
The production of a video gains emotion when you add a song or a music track to it, making the video more engaging. So, music is the key for a video to have a good final result. By working directly with emotion, music captures the viewer’s attention.
If you work with video production or with video editing, in this post you will discover how to choose background music for videos, no matter what’s the video style!
Let’s get started.
Choosing the right music for your video
In case you’re responsible for the production of a video (the recording phase), the first thing you can do is shoot extra takes (versions) of the same scene because at the time of editing you will have enough material to synchronize with the music you choose for the video.
To choose the right music for a video, first you need to know what emotion/state-of-mind the video will communicate: joy, sadness, fear or other. So when you’re listening to different songs to choose one, pay close attention to the feeling that the song communicates. The feelings of viewers about a video will be determined by its music.
Observe the style of the video you are producing. Be very careful not to add a music track to a video that doesn’t match the images. The music style you choose has to match the visual style of your video.
The most popular styles of background music for videos
Background music has no vocals (no people singing) and this type of music is very common for all types of videos. When you’re on a website that offers many music tracks to download, you will most likely find a filter to sort music tracks by music style, by music genre or by music mood, which all mean the same.
Those are the five styles of background music that are very popular for video production:
Cinematic Music
For videos that communicate strong feelings like courage, dedication and enthusiasm to the viewer, the best and most complete background music style in Cinematic Music. One example of this style of music to work on strong emotions is the Power Ballad.
Corporate Music
Music for institutional videos and business videos has to be welcoming and act as a smooth complement of the video without overloading its content. Corporate Music is a style of background music for corporate videos. When you’re choosing one of those, remember that the music track should keep the viewer interested without distracting its focus from what is being shown in the video. A good suggestion of music for corporate videos is the modern Orchestral Music that has beautiful tones and is a slightly different style for companies that want to stand out.
Ambient Music
In the videos produced to support a cause or pass a message forward, Ambient Music works very well. This type of video needs background music that captures the viewer’s emotion in the foreground. Usually, this type of video starts directly with the music before any image. A tip is to choose a track similar to Blues that progressively speeds up the rhythm, offering smooth beats without outshining the video message.
Acoustic Music
Acoustic Music is produced by an instrument. This music style is used in many types of video. The sounds of the guitar chords, the strong beats of the drums, the refined sound of the violin, the blowing of the saxophone that turns into melody and many other acoustic instruments bring scenes from multiple productions to life, from the most upbeat videos with a lot of action to the most smooth and quiet productions. You can be sure to find the ideal Acoustic Music track for all types of videos.
Upbeat Music
YouTube is full of funny and exciting videos that are watched by many viewers. Each video has its background music that harmonizes with the scene giving life to each feeling and, in that case, making the viewer laugh a lot. If your video theme is comedy or something upbeat, then you should search for Upbeat Music tracks, which are usually instrumental tracks. You can also find this style of music by searching for other names and categories:
- Happy Music
- Positive Music
- Funny Music
- Funky Music
- Jingle Music
- Pop Music
- Indie Music
Pay attention to audio quality and volume
If you want the music of your video to cause the right emotion, you need to pay attention to the audio quality when you’re choosing a music track and also when you’re editing your video. Do not use songs with poor sound quality or poorly made recordings, as they can confuse the viewers about the purpose of your video and make it look like poorly made content.
In addition to the quality of the audio material, it is necessary to pay attention to the volume of the soundtrack added to your video, so that the atmosphere that was created with the inclusion of that song is kept steady all through the video.
A poorly regulated volume can confuse the viewer’s understanding of other important sounds or dialogues, it can also be very distracting and mess up the main message of your video. Too loud volumes can annoy the public and should be avoided.
Where to find free music for your videos
To use music in videos you need to know what type of licenses allow free use with no copyright requirements:
Public Domain License
This type of license is available for public use in any project without any restriction.
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons is an institution that regulates copyright. Creative Commons Licenses will give you the right to use songs without having to pay. However, you must attribute the song author in your project (name the author). Each Creative Commons License has its specific author attribution rules.
Royalty-Free License
With this license you will need to pay for the song only once, if you need to use it again in another project it will be royalty free, meaning you don’t need to pay again and you don’t need to attribute the author. This type of license is usually for songs and music tracks that you purchase on content marketplaces and each one of them has specific usage rules.
To get a complete list of the best sites to download thousands of free music tracks and sound effects for videos, see our posts:
In those posts we also explain to you how to use the free music of those websites without breaking any rules, so don’t miss it out!
Conclusion
Great! Now you know how to choose the right music for your videos! You also know which are the most popular styles of background music for videos and which are the licenses that allow free use of music tracks without breaking any copyrights! So don’t hesitate to go check out the posts linked above where we show you the best sites to download free music for videos, free audio samples and free sound effects!
You can also share your thoughts in the comments below!
