Adding Music To Video

Adding music to video is important.

Adding the right type of music to your video is absolutely essential if you want it to look professional and get your viewers to interact on an emotional level.

The right music on your video is just as crucial as the right video or images (If not more), because music evokes powerful emotions in your viewer.

A sad image or video will evoke some emotions in the viewer, but add the right type of music and you'll have everyone in floods of tears. We don't even think about it consciously, which makes it all the more powerful.

Next time you watch TV or a movie, pay close attention to the background music and see how the music changes the whole atmosphere of the program or film. Then try to achieve the same effect in your videos.

We often can hum a theme tune from a movie, but not remember any of the dialogue.

Every film ever made relies on music to evoke emotion (Even silent movies had an organist playing music in the theatre that matched the action on the screen).

Of course the movie genre that uses music most effectively is the horror movie. It's the music that builds up the tension, and has you reaching for the pillow before anything actually happens.

Turn down the volume next time you watch a horror film and see the difference it makes. I bet you won't even need that pillow any more ;-)

Even the stores at the mall are adding music to evoke an emotion in you. This music isn't chosen at random. The store owners are using it to get you in the mood to buy.

This is why adding music to video (The right type of music of course!) is essential, because if you don't evoke the right emotion in your viewer, you won't get the right response.

That's why adding music to video will give you a huge advantage over your competitors dull and boring videos, resulting in more visitors and higher sales conversions for you.

When adding music to video, there are essentially two primary styles used, Ambient and Soundtrack.

Ambient music is relaxing instrumental music which generally evokes a feeling of calm and neutrality in your video, whilst a presenter or narrator talks.

It creates a pleasing effect, but does not distract from the spoken message in your video. Ambient music is often very short in length as it is normally looped, which simply means it can play continuously without an obvious start or end (Click on the triangle below to hear an example of ambient music).

Soundtrack music is very different, in that it isn't normally used with voice overs and is the main audio on your video, reinforcing the style and emotion of your video.

Soundtrack music is much more dynamic and up-beat, and is often timed to match events happening in the video (Click on the triangle below to hear an example of soundtrack music used in a web video ad).

It is important you don't confuse the two when adding music to video, as a lot of beginners make the mistake of using ambient music, when they should be using soundtrack music, and vica versa.

The simple rules to remember when adding music to video are;

- If you are using any kind of voice-over or narration in your video, always use ambient music.

- If you are not using any voice-over or narration, always use the more dynamic soundtrack music.

You can buy both ambient and soundtrack music as 'royalty-free' music. 'Royalty-Free' music simply means the creator and copyright owner is giving you permission to use their music in your videos without having to pay any royalty fees.

It is illegal to use copied music from your CD collection in your videos, or any music that is not specifically labelled as 'royalty-free'.

Royalty-free music is easy and cheap to buy, with thousands of different music tracks to choose from. They are normally categorised into styles and emotions to make it even easier for you e.g. Business, religious, relaxing, urban, hip hop etc.

Good quality royalty-free music normally come in several lengths for different length videos e.g. 30 secs, 60 secs, 3 minutes etc.

Adding music to video has never been simpler. Cinescore allows you to add music to your video that has an intro, main section and ending, rather than just fading the soundtrack, which results in a more professional sounding video.

Where To Buy Royalty-Free Music

Ebay

Music Bakery

RoyaltyFreeMusic

FreePlay Music

You can also create your own royalty-free ambient and soundtrack music for your videos if you have the right software and musically gifted, or if you are tone deaf like me, you can use Sony Cinescore.

Sony Cinescore is a very cool piece of software and a great way of adding music to your videos. It allows you to create custom music for your videos. The software has a library of royalty-free music with ten variations and it will automatically change the length of the music to fit your video.

So if your video is 1:23, your soundtrack will be 1:23 as well, which means you don't have to fit the video to the music, as you do with fixed length royalty-free music you buy.

If you are interested in trying out Sony Cinescore free for 30 days, click HERE.

If you have any video related questions, please click HERE to ask Mr Video!


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