Music is one of the most powerful creators of emotional connection between you and your audience. While music has the power to draw in a viewer, a poorly thought-out music or audio choice also has the power to turn a viewer off of your company or message.
Choose the perfect music for your video content that will keep your audience engaged and connected, by avoiding these common music and audio placement mistakes:
1. Poor quality music will cheapen your brand.
We’re all emotionally responsive to music. A customer won’t be turned off by music you’ve chosen that is well-performed and recorded, however you may lose a viewer if you have poor quality music.
If you are someone who doesn’t listen to a lot of music and who has a hard time distinguishing if music is well or poorly made, seek a music supervisor, a library, or an experienced music professional who can guide you towards musical choices that will achieve the emotional connection you’re seeking, with quality that reflects your brand.
Here’s an example of this done well:
2. A poor quality audio mix will devalue your message.
If you don’t have experience with mixing tools like audio EQ and compression to help you create a great-sounding mix, there are lots of good tutorials on YouTube for different software tools (i.e. ProTools, Final Cut, Logic, Audacity etc).
If it’s in your budget, seek the help of an audio engineer. You tend to get what you pay for in this area, and you will hear the difference. The more experienced music professional will make sure your mix sounds good on all listening devices, whether it’s laptop, phone, tablet, or home theater system speakers.
Here are a couple examples of great mixes:
3. Misunderstanding the role of music in your video can weaken the video’s impact.
Pairing your music with your voiceover is a delicate art, like pairing wine with dinner. If you want your product or brand to reflect quality, class, or distinction, then understanding this point is very important.
Music that’s too complex can pull the mind towards the music in a way that distracts the viewer from the message the voiceover is delivering. If you’re making a longer video where there are sections without voiceover, you’ll want to find music that will drive the picture in these sections, and be more prominent for the viewer.
In each section of your video, ask yourself if the role of music in your video is to support or to drive the picture.
4. The musical tastes of your demographic should not be ignored.
Keep in mind that your own personal musical tastes may not reflect the taste of your viewer.
If you have a clear and narrow demographic, then chances are it’ll be clear what genre of music you should use for the soundtrack of your video. If you’re trying to cast a wider demographic net that includes several age groups or cultural groups, don’t choose music that is culturally-specific and genre-specific. You’ll want music that will appeal to many, but that’s not so generic that it won’t speak to anyone at all.
5. Placing music that you do not have permission to use can lead to your video being removed from sites like YouTube.
Make sure that the music you are acquiring from a library or a composer includes all the rights you require. For example, not all music can be put on YouTube without getting flagged or removed, especially if it’s for a product you are advertising.
Here’s a list of a few different websites that will give you high quality music at a reasonable price, that includes licenses for all the media needs you may have:
This has been a guest post by Bedtracks. Check out what they do here.
