Well-placed background music is great for setting the tone and creating the mood for your video.
Choosing background music for your videos, whether you’re making a narrative film or a travel video for your YouTube channel, can be tough. To set the right mood, you need to choose music that has the same emotional impact that you want your video to have. A great ambiance can make all the difference for a video of any kind.
In this post, we’re going to help you create ambiance in your videos using music. Follow these tips and you’ll be able to select the perfect music to fill out your story every time. It’s all so much easier when you have the right tools at your disposal.
Understanding the Mood Of Your Video
Before you can start thinking about choosing music for your video, you need to have a good understanding of what you’re going for. This is important for any type of video, whether it’s a student film or a product commercial. Music is capable of completely altering the ambiance of a scene, so the better grasp you have of your own vision, the better musical decisions you’ll make.
If your scene is joyful and full of energy, for instance, then you’ll want to choose something more upbeat. In this scenario, it’s probably better to have music set in a major key. For more thoughtful, pensive videos, you’ll want slower music, perhaps set in a minor key.
There are all sorts of elements that’ll impact how the music interacts with the video. Whether or not there’s dialogue will determine the prominence of the music, for example. Likewise, the business of the scene will direct where the music should go.
Considering the Ambiance of Different Music Styles
Now that you’ve thought long and hard about the mood that you’re trying to convey with your video, it’s time to look at different musical styles. There are many genres to choose from, all of which bring a little something different to the table. Here are a few of the most popular genres for background music:
Orchestral
Orchestral music can be huge and brash or soft and sweet. As background music, it helps to grab the viewer’s attention right away and shows that you mean business. You’ll notice that a lot of grandiose brands will use orchestral music in their most epic commercialsbecause the right piece can really help you draw the desired emotion out of the consumer.
Ambient
If you’re looking to create ambiance, then you’ll probably first turn to ambient music. Ambient music is calm, soothing, and simple, allowing you to deliver your message without the music overpowering it in any way. If your video has a lot of dialogue, ambient music might be the way to go.
Pop
Pop music is great for videos where you want your core message to hit home, especially if you’re trying to sell a product with your video. Songs with vocals are best suited for videos that are relying more on images than talking, but a good instrumental pop song is a great backdrop to almost anything.
Electronic
Electronic music is one of the more popular genres among young people. Although it can be quite a busy-sounding genre, it doesn’t have to be and the use of electronic instruments really lends itself to a modern aesthetic in videos.
Rock
For the upbeat video directors out there, rock music is a classic for bringing energy to your scenes. There’s a unique intensity that only loud guitars and drums can give you.
Acoustic
In this opposite direction is acoustic music. This is a much gentler option for scenes that are trying to evoke more sensitive emotions. It’s also very unobtrusive, so it works well as the backdrop to dialogue or as background music for your visually arresting scenes.
Jazz
Jazz is a classic genre that is as elegant and commanding as orchestral music but with a more current flare. You can use it with a wide range of video subjects and it brings instant sophistication to whatever you’re portraying on screen.
The Role of Background Music
Once you’ve selected the genre for your background music, you need to use it in the most effective way to create the ambiance you’re looking for. Depending on what you’re trying to convey, you may want the music going throughout the entire video or you may want to choose your spots to get the most out of it.
The best way to figure this out is to decide what the role of the background music is going to be. If you’re doing a promotional video, you need to grab the viewer’s attention fast, so a good rock or pop song might be the best choice. In a YouTube explainer video, it might be best to let the music bookend whatever you’re explaining.
You can get inspiration for your own videos by looking at what other creators are doing. Look to bigger corporations with lots of successful ad placements if you’re creating an ad for your small business. Look to successful, like-minded YouTube channels to see how they present their content.
Creating ambiance with music is about striking the right balance between the background music and the actual content that you’re creating. You never want to overdo the music to the point of distracting from the goal of your video, but you also don’t want your video to fall flat because you didn’t utilize the music enough.
How to Find Royalty Free Background Music
Are you looking for royalty-free background music to create ambiance for your video creations? Now that you know a bit more about how to use background music, it’s time to select the perfect sound to bolster your visuals and dialogue.
A subscription with Comma Music gets you all of the royalty-free background music, intros, outros, and SFX that you could possibly need to make your videos. Whether you’re a business, an individual creator, or a student director, we’ve got monthly plans to suit your creative needs. Visit our site today to learn more about what we do and browse our wide-ranging catalog of amazing music.