3 Useful Tips to Choose the Right Background Music for a Video
Background music is a powerful catalyst and if properly used it can drive emotional responses, set the pace of the video, and even make it more engaging overall. But for that to happen you need to start by choosing the right background music – which is easier said than done.
Suffice to say you shouldn’t just choose and add background music for the sake of adding it. Instead, you need to think carefully about the music that will be best for your video.
To help you to do that, there are a few useful tips that can put you on the right track (no pun intended):
- Decide on the role that the background music is going to play
Background music can either be used to support the message of your video or drive it. Both roles are mutually exclusive, however, which is why you should decide early which one yours is going to play.
If you want your background music to support the message, you will want to choose tracks that don’t distract viewers too much. It is best to stay away from vocal tracks, or anything else that could direct focus away from the message.
On the other hand, if you want the music to drive the message on its own you’ll have much more freedom. In such cases, the music will normally play throughout the video, and vocals can help add more meaning to it.
- Match the mood
If there is one key to selecting the perfect background music it is the mood that it evokes. That is why you should define the mood that you want your video to have first and select background music that matches it.
For example, you may want your video to have an upbeat mood, with energetic music. On the other hand, you may want it to be somber, mysterious, tense, happy, inspiring, or even angry.
Some genres of music may fit certain moods better than others, so you can use it to narrow your selection.
- Explore your options and try out different styles of music
Honestly, you may be surprised by the sheer amount of options that are out there and the many different styles of music that exist. To make a more informed decision you should explore them as extensively as possible and maybe even try inserting some tracks into your video to see how they fit.
A good place to start is by delving into some of the more popular royalty-free music sites that are out there. It is the perfect way to not only browse through various options but find music that you can actually use in your videos without paying a dime.
While you explore different styles of music, be sure to note down any that pique your interest. Even if you don’t want to use them it may be useful to be able to refer to them later on – or for your next project.
It should be noted that in many cases you won’t be able to use the music tracks ‘as is’, and will need to cut them to fit your video. Learning how to cut music isn’t that difficult, however, and for example, you can use Movavi Video Editor to get the job done.
Overall you should be able to find the right background music more easily using the tips listed above. In some cases, it may take some time, but in others, you may find that a track that you’re listening to just seems to click – and you’ll know immediately that it is the right one.
