Music has a magical touch. It fills silent spaces and creates an ambiance to the surroundings. It is not easy to go anywhere without hearing some form of music or the other. Step out into the road – you will hear someone singing, or you hear strains of music from a radio or television. Enter a hotel lobby, and you will most probably hear piped music in the background.
A video, likewise, is empty without music. You may create a powerful video with an equally powerful message, but carefully placed music can add impact to your video. By adding music to your videos, you can appear more professional. Here are a few tips on adding music to your videos in an appropriate manner.
Adding Music to Videos
It is easy to add background music to videos. Whether you use Windows or Mac, here are a few top video editing tools you can use to get the job done:
Filmora
Filmora is software that you can use for both Windows and Mac. It is a good software to add background to videos. It has a music library with hundreds of songs. You can make easy edits, apply effects and share your videos on other social media platforms as well as on your mobile phone, iPad, or iPod.
Ezvid
This free music software is easy to use, and you can use it to add background music to any video you create. It is compatible with formats like AVI, WMV, and MOV. But it does not support MP3 format for copyright reasons.
InVideo
InVideo gives you access to thousands of royalty-free audio tracks and sound effects for free. You can find the best background music for your video quickly by searching according to genre or mood and adding your selected track with one click.
Smilebox
Here is another software that is compatible with both Mac and Windows. You have a wide range of music to choose from, but you need first to sign in. However, adding music to your videos using Smilebox is easy to do after signing in.
iMovie
As the name suggests, this tool is only for Mac. But you can add background to the videos you create on your Mac devices. You can use a slideshow movie that nicely syncs with the background music.
Photo Story
Photo Story is software for Windows only. The additional feature of this software is adding your narration to your video. It is very user-friendly and supports the WMV file format.
Avidemux
This is a tool that is compatible with Mac and Windows. Although it is primarily a video editing tool, you can easily add background music to videos using this software. You can sort out your music files and encode them, making them compatible with your video tracks.
VirtualDub
Here again, VirtualDub is a background music software for Windows only. You can use it on any device that is compatible with Windows. By using VirtualDub, you can add a professional touch to your videos when you add background music or if you need to remove some of it.
Choosing Suitable Music
Now you know about the various tools you can use to add music to your videos. However, there is a difference between adding music and adding suitable music. You need to add the right track that suits the video playing. For that, you need to add music appropriate to the type of video that you are making.
For example, if your video introduces new products or innovative tools, you might want to add upbeat music with a positive mood. Appropriate music gives your viewers an enhanced feeling. But unsuitable music can convey the opposite. Another aspect of finding the right music is getting music that you can use legally without any hassle. You may think that you have loads of music on your phone, and you can pick any soundtrack from your collection.
However, the music that you have on your phone is only for listening, even if you have paid for it. Most of the music you have on your phone is out of bounds. For copying, reproducing, and sharing it on other platforms, you need to pay the original creators and owners of the music. Most of the music, particularly the good stuff, is copyrighted. If you use that music, you would be liable to pay money known as “royalties.” However, you do not have to worry too much about finding good music. There is a way of circumventing this issue.
Royalty-free Music
If you want to find music that you can use legally, there are several royalty-free websites where you can find downloadable free music for videos. Most of the video editing tools and softwares mentioned above comes with well-stocked libraries with royalty-free music.
But you need not stop just there – you can browse the internet and find many other websites where you can find royalty-free music. Here are a few sites where you can find royalty-free music:
- Audio Jungle
- Pond5
- Soundstripe
- Audiio
- Ben Sound
- Youtube Audio Library
- Epidemic Sound
- Artlist
- Premium Beat
- Music Vine
- Hook Sounds
- Free Stock Music
While this list includes mostly paid sites, the YouTube Library comes free as an add-on to your YouTube account. It contains hundreds of royalty-free, high-quality soundtracks that you can download and use as you wish.
The others may range from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars a month to subscribe. But you can decide on different sites to suit your budget. The advantage of using royalty-free music is that there is no chance of getting into unwanted legal hassles, whether you pay for it or not.
Conclusion
So, what have we learned here? We now know that a video is incomplete without adding appropriate music. Adding music to your videos adds the finishing touch to them. And, it is the easiest thing to do. With the help of this article, you now know various options of video editing programs that will enable you to add music to your videos and edit them to blend perfectly with the video as it plays.
But knowing how to add music to videos will not be effective enough if you do not choose the right music. The music you add to your video should sound appropriate to the content of the video. If you show beautiful natural scenery, peaceful and soothing music will compliment the video nicely.
Choosing appropriate music for your videos is a task you should take seriously. Well-chosen music can make a mediocre video stand out. Conversely, inappropriate music can ruin a well-made video. Choose the music for your videos carefully and ensure to use royalty-free music to prevent your videos from being taken down due to copyright issues or getting into a legal tangle. With well-chosen music, you can make professional-looking videos that everyone will admire.
