Choosing music for videos isn’t a choice you should take lightly. You might be tempted to download a free track or use YouTube’s music library — what could go wrong? Actually, quite a few things. Unless you pay careful attention to every aspect of the viewer’s experience, your YouTube channel risks fading into nothingness.
Don’t worry though, it’s easy to keep your videos fresh using pre-cleared music from Audiosocket. Read on to discover how to choose the perfect music for your videos.
1. Speak to Your Audience Demographic
The more you know about your target audience’s likes, dislikes, age and taste, the better your music for videos will be. If your target market is corporate, you’d stick with corporate tones. For example, use ambient music for background music, classic rock to get people pumped up and jazz for incidental music. This helps build your audience.
On the other hand, if you’re targeting a millennial audience, you’d choose totally different tracks. Try using dance music as background music for YouTube video content. If you want to bump up the energy, use hip hop and indie songs for intros and outros.
2. What Role Does the Music Play?
Music plays a huge role in how YouTube viewers watch and understand videos. In some cases, it signals change, other times it sets the mood and it can even generate a sudden change in emotion. The selection of music should complement the film, advert or whatever type of content you produce. When music matches the video, magic happens.
3. Learn About Musical Genres
Sometimes it’s better for content creators to break it down when trying to choose the right music for YouTube videos. Instead of trawling through free music tracks, think about the genre that works best with what you’re trying to do. Here are some ideas about emotions triggered by different musical genres.
- Cinematic: Grand, expensive, victorious
- Ambient: Calm, inviting, thoughtful
- Acoustic: Connected, empathetic, sad
- Electronic: Innovative, curious, intelligent
- Rock: Gritty, tough, confident
- Hip Hop: Aspirational, edgy, fast
4. Use Musical Interludes as Intros and Outros
Intros and outros help to define the story for your YouTube audience by signaling the beginning and the end. If you’re creating a video series, adding your brand’s logo and the series name makes it memorable.
5. Use Reference Music for Videos
If you’re signed up to a service that gives you pre-cleared music for videos, reference music is a great idea. You can find popular music that you think is a perfect fit and search for similar sounding songs in the music library.
6. Think About Tone and Frequency
If your YouTube video has a lot of talking, avoid using a sound bed that includes song lyrics. This type of audio can make it harder to understand the main content. There’s more to this bit of advice though. Cello, violin, guitar and some piano can sound just like a person’s voice, which also makes it harder to hear speech. Bass and ambient music are complementary to the human voice. It’s less likely to disrupt your flow.
Even frequency is important in your YouTube videos. Mid and low frequencies suggest power and strength. High frequencies suggest joy, a can-do attitude and forward thinking. Too high, though, and only pets will be able to hear your video’s background music.
Attract a Bigger Audience With the Right Music
Check out Audiosocket’s deep and diverse library of tracks that set fire to your videos, no matter what type of content you create. You can search by genre and length or choose specific artists. You don’t have to worry about music copyright or receiving a copyright-strike, either. All our YouTube music comes with a variety of licenses that can be adapted for your needs.
