How to Use Background Music to make Engaging Videos

It’s important to use background music properly in your videos because when you do, it makes your videos far more engaging, which can lead to greater watch time and rankings in search and related videos. Adrienne joins us to share tips and advice for how to best use background music in your videos to achieve greater results with your YouTube videos.

One of the most underrated aspects of any successful online video is the audio and the music that accompanies it. A lot of viewers will be very forgiving of video quality that’s less than perfect, but not so much with the audio. That will make or break your entire video, especially if you don’t do the background music right. So I want to tell you guys how you can get unlimited access to royalty free music from this video sponsor, audioblocks.com.

But first, let me introduce you to my friend Adrienne from YouTube.com/xoxocooks. She does a fantastic job of using background music in all of her videos. So I asked her if she would share some of her advice with you guys about how you can use royalty free music to increase the professionalism and the credibility of your YouTube channel from using background music from sites like audioblocks.com Here’s Adrienne.

I just wanted to talk a little bit about production music or background music that you can use in your videos. Because I really think it takes it up to the next level, and I have definitely noticed a big difference in how professional my videos feel since I’ve been using a lot more background music in what I do.

Why Use Background Music?

So why use background music? It takes a lot of time. I don’t want to spend the time on it. I already edited the video and did all this other stuff. Hold on. It’s worth it. It sets the tone of the emotion of the story that you’re trying to tell for your viewer. And you really notice this a lot in reality television, especially. They use so much music in a 30 minute thing. It shows if there’s romance, it shows if there’s a fight, it shows if there’s tension. Just start to notice that and you can use those tricks in your own videos to really just show the viewer how they’re supposed to be feeling at any moment while watching your video.

Disguise The Hiss

It can disguise the hiss if you have a little bit of hiss from your microphone or if you have some room noise. And you hear a little bit less of that background sound when there’s a light background track underneath. Whatever the different sections are of your video try different music for each one. Or alternate between different tracks because it can really let people subconsciously know that it’s transitioned to something else.

Filling Silent Moments

Music is also great for just filling silence if you’re doing a montage of a how-to video and you’re showing all the different steps of some little craft that you’re making. Or with mine, I’m doing cooking videos. Then it’s not just silence and you heavy breathing while you make your craft. It’s just a little bit more interesting for the viewer.

So my process with music is that I pretty much edit the whole video. And it’s ready to go, shortened down to about the time that I want it to be. And then I start to think about what kind of emotions do I want at different parts? And I go into my audio library and I just do some searches for different kinds of stuff. I listen to a bunch of different tracks and think about what’s going to work the best, download a couple of them, and then just drop it in there and see how it goes. If I have a section that there is sort of a punchline, that’s kind of a funny part, I’ll often just drop the music out completely for a second. And that shows that there is something to take notice of. It’s super subconscious. As the viewer you might not even notice, oh the music dropped out there. But you hear the punchline and it makes it more funny.

Also if I have a moment that is– I’m trying to make it fake dramatic. It’s funny to just see the juxtaposition of the silly moment and something really intense. Because as the viewer, it takes you along on that ride. And you’re really nervous about drinking the ginger juice, or something. And it’s funny because you just realize how dumb it is that this person on YouTube who is making chicken just made you all worried.

Using Sound Effects

I like to use sound effects sometimes. If there’s somebody like, popping into the frame, you might want– bing! They popped in. Or if something is really beautiful I’ll have harp flourishes that I pair with some sort of a lens flare in the transition, or just cheesy stuff. And I don’t know. If you want your videos not to be cheesy you can also just use it to accentuate other moments.

Keep The Volume Low

Something really important to remember is that you should keep the volume of the music low enough that you can hear what people are saying. Because ultimately the message of your video is the speaking or the other elements of it, and the music is just there to enhance that. And so you don’t want it to be so loud or so crazy that it’s distracting from your actual message. So keep that in mind and experiment with different volume levels to just see how understandable the rest of your content is with it. I err on the side of too quiet rather than too loud, because you really don’t want to obscure the rest of the stuff that you’re doing.

And then once I’ve dropped the music in through the whole video I go through it one more time. And I just tighten it up. I’m always trying to cut as much out of my videos as I can to keep them as short as possible and still tell the story that I want to tell. And once the music is in I can tighten up each of those sections to line up with the music. And listen to the rhythm of the music so maybe I have two beats on the pouring and then two beats on the stirring and then two beats on the dumping, or whatever it is. So try to line it up with the music if you can, but also don’t overthink it. This can be a lot when you’re first starting out. Just try to drop something in there and see how it feels. You’re not going to do all this stuff right away. Don’t get overwhelmed by it.

So what are the next steps for starting to use music in your videos? I say start to really notice what other people are doing with music. When you’re watching your favorite YouTube channels or watching television or movies, notice how the music is used. You can really learn a lot from how other people are using it.

So there you go. Now you’re ready to start adding some more music to your videos. Turning up the drama, turning up the romance. It’s going to be awesome.

Thank you, Adrienne. That was so helpful. The rest of you guys, make sure you go check out her channel. It’s linked up below. And you will have a lot of fun over there learning how to make simple recipes at home that just make you feel great. I love it. I subscribed, you guys will, too.

Now a common issue that goes along with using music on YouTube is all the copyright issues and the content ID. Even if it’s completely 100% you’re own, original music that you made sometimes you still have issues with it on YouTube. So that’s why I’ve been, lately, using a site called audioblocks.com And I personally have had no issues with any of the music or the sound effects or the audio loops on that site here on YouTube. Check them out. There’s a link below this video that goes over to the website where you can learn more. But basically, you will get unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of music tracks, audio loops, sound effects that are all royalty free. You can download as many tracks as you would like and use them both for personal and commercial use.

But here’s the best part, guys, of why I like them. You can continue to use those unlimited number of times in unlimited number of videos for eternity. And that’s not true about most royalty free music websites out there. Most of the time, you purchase a license to use one track, one time, in one video. That’s it. If you use it again in another project, you have to go back and buy another license. Not so with audioblocks.com. You pay an annual fee and then you can use anything on their website as many times as you want, however you want, without restrictions and no hidden fees. All the tracks you download are yours to keep and use forever, which is awesome.

I would love to hear from you guys in the comments below about tips, ideas, strategies, advice you have, or how to best use background music in your videos in a way that really increases the value of your video in its overall feel, the emotion and everything overall.

I really look forward to learning from you guys down there in the comments.