How to Make the Most of Music
When producing marketing video for website and social media use getting the soundtrack right is a critical part of how powerful the final film will be. Music can drive our emotions in such a way that it can multiply the power of your video’s message and engage the viewer in a much more emotional way. Let’s face it, people can talk passionately about music more than any other art form or medium out there. How many times have you got involved in a “top 5 albums ever!!” debate with friends? Or passionately argued why music today “isn’t as good as it used to be”? Because music forms the soundtrack that wraps around the sights, experiences and emotions of our lives we are connected to it in a way that’s very powerful.
So if we get the music right when producing marketing video for website and social media viewing we effectively amplify the power of every other single element within the film. Music can drive excitement, drama, suspense, tenderness and many other of the common messages that we may need to convey when producing video for businesses and organizations.
Powerful use of music
There are a few really useful tips when it comes how you use your chosen music within your video marketing production that we apply to a lot of the work we produce. These are:
Don’t be afraid to use dramatic music.
Big powerful scores can really lift a production to a higher level and are not the sole reserve of Hollywood epics.
Use 2 or even 3 pieces of music within your film. Changing the music within the film will do 2 great things.
It will make the film feel shorter (this is a great way to maintain viewer engagement). When producing marketing video for website and social media viewing we know that our potential customers attention spans are short. Therefore using this trick prevents the films from “dragging” and keeps our viewer for longer.
And it will allow you to change the tone/message/scenes as the film unfolds (useful when the brief requires you to convey multiple messages)
Balance your vocals.
In many cases we want the music to feel full and powerful throughout the film. However we don’t want it to make the vocals or voiceover in-audible. So always use a limiter type tool on your vocals to ensure they sore above the background music (a limiter works by pushing up all the quiet parts of the vocal while limiting the volume increase on the louder parts to generate an even level throughout).
Edit the music to fit your needs.
Rather than simply fading down the music at the end see if you can edit the track by removing a bar here and there so that the rises and falls within the track match your footage. This is tricky if your are using a vocal track but if your using an instrumental and you can tap you foot to a rhythm then it should be achievable.
Avoid using dance music.
Its lazy, obvious and we’ve seen it too many times!
Sourcing your music
When sourcing music for our films there are several options that we could go down depending on budget and desired response. In some cases we can have music specially composed for our video, or we could use one of the fantastic music licensing sites (such as premiumbeat) which offer a huge choice of music for all moods that we can license for a one off fee.
However, it can get tricky if your client wants to use a “known” piece of popular music. The legal and financial aspect of doing this can be a minefield. And if you client wants to use a track by a worldwide artist such as Bruce Springsteen then they will need a mortgage sized budget.
In most video marketing we work with smaller budgets but that’s not to say that “known” popular music is out of reach. There are some great resources and companies (such as Ricall) who can provide you with some well known tracks (although admittedly mostly from a good few years ago) complete with legal and licensing aspects all taken care of. Its a good option if you need this kind of thing.
Above all, use the music within your film to help drive the message and bring the viewers emotions and senses into play. This will ultimately engage them and drive home the key messages from your brief in a much stronger way. Its the key to producing the most powerful marketing video for website and social media marketing.
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