How to choose background music for a video

The modern world is hard to imagine without music. Music surrounds us everywhere – when we shop in a store, dine at a restaurant, watch our favorite TV show, or a popular movie. In each case, the music fulfills a certain role necessary to fulfill the goal that the creators of the video have set for themselves. Thus, marketers, using certain music, are trying to create the right mood for the listener when visiting a store, restaurant, watching a commercial, etc. And this is not without reason, since musical accompaniment has a huge impact on the behavior and psychological state of a person.
In video production, special attention is paid to sound design, the same as the video sequence itself. What kind of background music to choose for your video and how to use it correctly?

Video type

First of all, you need to determine what type your video belongs to. It could be:

Marketing video

Promotion of products, services
Upcoming, Event Coverage

Narrative or Overview

Podcast. Interview, News video,
Product Overview

Demonstration

Tutorial Video,
Documentary, History

Celebrative Video

Wedding film,
Birthday, Anniversary

Corporate Video
Film, Movie

Then you need to determine what audience the video is intended for. If your video is intended for a certain age category, then the search for appropriate music can be significantly reduced. So, for example, playful, cheerful, light music will be used for children. For a youth audience, it is desirable to use tracks of modern and trendy styles. And for older people, a more calm, classical performance is suitable.

The nature and pace of the video sequence

Particular attention should be paid to the ongoing actions in your video. Analyze how dynamic your video is. How often plans change, how quickly or slowly people, objects, objects move. The average tempo of the soundtrack should match the pace of changes occurring in the video sequence. The same applies to the nature of the events taking place: joy, sadness, inspiration, anxiety, etc. If events of different dynamics and nature occur in the video, it is necessary to use different musical fragments for them. As a rule, professional tracks created for music libraries have parts of different development that can be used in different fragments of the video.

Choice of music genre

What emotions should your video evoke? Choosing a musical genre will help narrow down your search for the right track considerably. In musical production, there are already established traditions and principles by which certain genres and styles are created. Each genre, to a greater or lesser extent, corresponds to the expression of any emotion.
The most common genres and musical styles used in video production are:

Cinematic

Inspirational and dramatic music. Often used in commercials, trailers for games, movies.

Ambient

Atmospheric, calm and even music. Suitable for a relaxing mood, a background for frames of natural phenomena, landscapes. In addition, ambient music goes well with the voice.

Electronic

As a rule, not dynamic music, which has a smooth looped character using modern sound effects. This music fits well as a background. Suitable for reviewing modern technologies, news blocks, podcasts.

Jazz

Jazz music has a wide range of applications for various types of videos. A slow Jazz Swing track can be perfect for a romantic story, a video with elegant outfits, interiors and accessories. Jazz Bosa Nova or as it is often called in music libraries “Elevator” is well suited as a background to any looped, monotonous action or movement. To a greater extent, jazz is something strict, serious, rich and luxurious.

Acoustic

Light and transparent music with acoustic instruments. Basically it is an acoustic guitar, ukulele, percussion. Often used to express positive emotions and feelings of joy. This style is suitable for educational, commemorative videos, as well as in commercials of the appropriate nature.

Modern Genres:
EDM, Drum & Bass, Urban, Trap

Bright, dynamic music with lots of sound effects. Ideal as a background for dynamic actions, movement, where it is necessary to emphasize the modernity of ongoing events. Often used in the fashion industry.
As a rule, such music is not used simultaneously with the voice, since it is dissonant with the human voice and interferes with the perception of the text. However, these styles attract attention very strongly and are well remembered.

Corporate

A popular style in video production, typical for video clips with business, serious content. Such music emphasizes the business character and encourages action and decision making. Often used in marketing and promotional videos of companies, enterprises.

Rock Music

Dynamic, explosive music to accompany fast, emotional videos. Used to give the video a sense of strength, power and self-confidence. Often, rock music is used in logos, screensavers, as well as in commercials with sports, car timatics.

Music search while watching video

If you are in doubt about choosing a certain genre or nature of musical accompaniment, then a good solution would be to listen to songs and watch videos at the same time. Use the Music Library and simply listen to tracks while playing your video until you find the right mood or the right music genre. Also, look at similar content videos on the network. This will help you imagine what the final cut of your video could look like.

Use of intro and ending

Regardless of the type of video, it’s best to use intros and outros. If your video is released under a certain brand and has its own corporate logo, most likely you will use it as an intro to the beginning and end of the video. However, this is not an intro to the next video. Remember that your logo and the theme of your video can be very different in mood. In such cases, it’s best not to use sound in your logo, or use the musical intro of the main soundtrack.
Below are examples of the structure of the video using different musical parts.

Logo / Intro / Main Part / Culmination / Outro / Logo

Intro / Main Part / Outro

Logo / News Block 1 / Short Audio Element / News Block 2 / Logo

Use short intros to separate parts

If the video is a review, or a news podcast, an interview with several thematic parts, then it will be better to separate such parts with small audio fragments. It can be short (3 – 6 sec.) musical parts or just sound effects. Such fragments can be found in music libraries under the names: Ident, Logo, Intro, sfx. Professional authors create such fragments with the necessary variations that can be used both in logos, intros, endings, as well as intros, effects in shorter versions.

Using Contrasting Techniques for the Most Emotional Impact

To enhance the emotional impact and attract more attention, special techniques are used in musical production. These techniques are based on the use of contrasting, unexpected changes.

Sudden, unexpected stop

As a rule, such stops of musical accompaniment are used at the end of the growing material in anticipation of the subsequent emotional explosion. To make this effect sound harmonious, special effects are used at the end of such parts: cymbals, explosive barrels, bright short sounds with a fading ending, or just a reverb tail from the previous fragment.

Audio Exemple

Contrast between quiet and loud parts

If you think in advance of a video sequence with two or more parts of a different nature, then you can emphasize such places using music at different tempos and degrees of saturation. This technique is often used between the introduction and the main (culminating) part.

Audio Exemple

No music or minimalistic sounds

A technique often used in cinematography. With the help of silence, you can also create an unusual, interesting mood for the viewer. For example, if the video contains live sounds of nature, the distant noise of the city outside the window, or certain actions that suggest the upcoming development of events. Such actions may parallel change with musical development. From silence to minimalistic sounds (for example, individual, infrequent piano sounds) to full, rich sound or contrast change.

Audio Exemple

Explosive intro and ending

Start your video with a bright sound effect, such as a reverse cymbal rising, ending with an explosion effect. Next is the main track with development and growth, which will end with the same explosive effect with a fading tail.

Audio Exemple

Audio editing and mastering

When searching and selecting the necessary musical fragments, you should remember that you have to edit them. Connect different parts, apply effects and voice, find the right balance. Mastering may also be required for correct and comfortable listening. If you don’t have experience with music software, this can be a daunting task. In this case, it is better not to use a complex structure for your video, but to choose a ready-made professional track with a certain duration and the necessary variety that suits you. Then edit the video frames in such a way that they match the musical content of the audio track.
In some cases, you can use the services of a professional sound designer. On our website Jammaudio.com you can choose the appropriate composition, as well as, if necessary, order editing of a music track from our library. Just select the track you like and we will prepare it for your video with the necessary changes, apply the necessary sound and noise effects to highlight certain frames, create or change the duration of individual parts, intros, endings; make the right balance in frames with speech or mix an additional voice track; Let’s do the mastering.
Read more about Jammaudio services.