As humans, we have a strong connection between music and its visuals. When you listen to the theme song of ‘Game of Thrones’ it immediately takes you to imagine the medieval times and all the characters you saw as heroes and villains come alive. You listen to ‘My heart will go on’ and the titanic appears with Jack and Rose on it.
This is the power of music and how they complement the story of every video. Your choice of music sets the tone of your video. The right music can elevate a picture from good to great. It is your chance now to stay with your viewers forever. But, how to choose it? Keep reading till the end.
Understand the type of Video
The first step is to identify the type of video you are making. The type of content it uses will define the genre of music that suits the video. Always keep a subtle outlook of what type of emotions do you want to pamper inside the viewer’s mind with the video. What type of music can exactly reinforce this emotion, the character, and the images? You must be clear inside your head first.
There are many types of films. Starting with informational and educational films, you need to maintain the viewer’s attention at all costs. Or you might be telling a story, the music will need to be something that advances the plot, heightens the emotions, and plays its part well in telling the story. If you are just making ads or promotion videos or maybe announcements of some kind, you must look into something that grabs attention with a preferably easy call to action. For a twitch stream or a daily vlog, you should use exciting music that compliments the situation. It may demand multiple sets of music though.
Identify your audience
Now you need to understand the probable audience or maybe your followers. Prepare a list of a small set of audiences from understanding their habits. Then you’d know what excites them and grabs their attention, maybe a piece of new viral music or maybe an old tune. Careful understanding of the demography is important. Putting up music just for the sake of it can turn disastrous. Take your time, think like an RJ making a favorites playlist and then put the music.
Musical genre
Some of us are not experts in identifying the genre before we search the music. We have a tune in mind but are unable to find our exact words or need. Here are few genres that you can put down as a chart of reference, every time you begin your search. These genres will work as background music and the type of videos each genre would fit.
Cinematic: It is a sort of music that heightens the emotions, holds on the eyes of spectators, and builds it up towards a climax. This genre works best with narrative films, travel, landscape, and anything that is shot outdoors.
Ambient: You want calm and soothing attention that is needed in either shot of a romantic story or a horror movie that soothes the senses before scaring them, you must use ambient music. It has the power to make viewers both easy and relaxed or uneasy and tensed like in psychotic thrillers.
Acoustic: Acoustic music is always great for storytelling. It has a minimum interference in the background and dialogues are heard easily. It may be melancholic, contemplative, uplifting, or positive. It is a very versatile genre that drives a story well.
Jazz & Classical: If your scene or narrative, demands certain sophistication, a romantic side, or a walk into history, both genres help it very well. It has a very long selection of music available, so research and use the right one, otherwise, you will end up alienating your audience.
· Electronic: It is a very broad category, with a wider appeal than you may think. A thought-provoking, industrious, and curious feel might come with it. Electronic background music is used majorly in action films.
· Holiday: Travel videos or the holiday season promotions widely use this genre of music in the background.
· Hip Hop: It is a highly energetic music type and appeals to the younger crowd. Certain demography is much impressed by it, but some are not. This is an excellent music choice of sports videos.
· Rock: Another type of music that is good for storytelling and making a sustainable impact with the audience.
· Funk: An upbeat and fun genre that immediately appeals for marketing purposes. It can stick to the customer psyche for long after they’ve watched your content. It works excellent with commercial videos.
· Country, Reggae, Latin, Indian, and World: These have a cultural element and suit very certain kinds of videos where the otherwise music won’t give the feel of the content so well.
What inspires the video?
Sometimes we are inspired by a piece of music and it keeps moving in our head till we use it in some video. Be careful with the instinct but let the creativity flow. License the music or find some music on similar ground and use it anyway. You owe this to your passion and sense of creativity, nothing else.
Vocals
The vocals of the song that you use might interfere with the conversation in the video or the lyrics may come out to be the opposite of the video’s intent. Either you may like to reverse engineer this case and use visuals that complement the song. Or you should find an isolated piece of the same music with no lyrics, it works as well. Keep a check on the volume as well and neatly control how the voices slowly appear ad vanish.
Timing
You need to be very careful about the pace of the music and time it well according to your scene. The volumes must be timed smartly as well. You will want the tempo of the music to match the pace of the film. It is worth thinking about the crescendos and pauses too. A peak in volume followed by a pause is the perfect background for a big reveal or a pivotal moment in your story.
Intros and Outros Music
It is nothing short of a branding activity to keep your presence going for a longer impact. If your viewers begin to associate your intro and outro music to the quality and brand of your work, they will also associate the product and message you want to give in the longer run.
Copyright & Licensing
This can get tricky if you are new. Your favored music may not be available for free all the time. Try and have a genre-wise playlist of free music. This may be used when the time comes. To learn more about Copyright Music and How to figure it out, check out our other blog. You will definitely learn a lot.
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