Music can completely transform a video and is a powerful tool to set the mood of the video and provoke an emotional response. But for that to happen you need to choose the right background music – and that is easier said than done.
If you were hoping to finish recording a video for your blog then browse through music until something seems to fit – you could at it for a long time. Instead of that, you should plan the music that you want to use as part of your video, because that’s what it is.
Find the Right Genre to Set the Tone
Depending on the type of video content that you’re creating, you’re likely to want the music that you choose to have a certain tone. As you’ll find different genres tend to be more popular with different types of videos – and finding the right genre for your background music is a good place to start.
If you want you could look at other similar types of videos and see what genre of music they use. For example, sports videos tend to favor rock or cinematic music, beauty videos are often set to pop music, while travel videos generally have more international or ethnic music instead.
Think about your target audience and the type of music they’re likely to feel fits your video.
Decide When the Music Will Be Playing
One common misconception that people have about background music is that it has to be playing throughout the video. That isn’t true at all, and while it is one option you could just as easily use the background music as ‘bookends’ for the intro and outro.
Depending on when the music is going to be playing, you can figure out what length of music you’ll require. In some cases, you may just need two short 10-second clips of music, while in others you may need a 2 or 3-minute stretch.
Simply put this step will let you identify exactly what you’re looking for – whether it is an entire song, a short music snippet, or multiple short snippets.
Lyrics or Not?
Another important factor to consider that will help you make a more informed choice is whether or not you want lyrics in your background music or not. In the right situations, lyrics can be a powerful addition as they can provide context, drive the message of the video, and add to its storytelling.
However at the same time lyrics can be overpowering, and if your video has a voiceover you may want to steer clear of them. The last thing that you want is for the background music lyrics to distract viewers from the actual message of your video.
All said and done there is no easy answer to whether you should have lyrics in your video or not, and you need to decide whether it is more likely to help or hurt your video.
Cut the Music to Set the Pace
As mentioned previously, background music can help to set the pace of the video – but you’re rarely going to find a piece of music that fits the pace of your video perfectly right off the bat. Instead, you will likely have to cut it up and structure it so that it sets the pace in the way that you want it to.
Almost any video editor will let you cut the background music and trim or arrange its segments in the audio track. For example, you could try Movavi Video Editor with the instructions by visiting here.
In some cases, you may want to stop the background music at certain points in the video and start it up later, while in others you could loop part of it to delay the climax or remove certain bits to move it along. Don’t ever feel trapped by the duration of your music, but instead find ways to make it work for your video.
Final Words
As you can see it helps if you consider all these factors early on, and use them to find the right background music for your video. Nowadays there are lots of places to find background music, ranging from music libraries to public domain websites – and more.
Everything listed above should help you to narrow down your options and find a good track more easily. It may help if you already have some reference music on hand that you can use as a guide for the type of music that you want to include in your video.
If at any point you feel stuck and don’t know what music to choose, you should clear your head a little. Taking a break and coming back with fresh ears can make a world of difference when trying to find good background music.
This post was proofread by Grammarly