How It's Made Background Music

Video is essential for educational activity, grooming, sharing cognition, and explaining concepts. No matter who your audience is, video helps them learn better.

Humans are hardwired to procedure visual content, but adding great visuals to a video is just one-half the battle.

Groundwork music can add more interest to your videos, making them even more engaging and entertaining. The practiced news is that adding music to videos is pretty simple.

How do you add music to a video? Where can you find music? Read more to larn how to add music to a video.

Use this guide to learn how to add music to your video, how cull the correct kind of music for the mood of your video, and where to find music (fifty-fifty for gratuitous).

1. How practice I add music to a video?
two. How practice I choose the right music for a video?
3. Where can I find music for a video?

How do I add music to a video?

It's pretty simple to add music to a video. In this section, nosotros'll assume you accept the music file you want to use, but afterwards in this article we'll share tips on where y'all tin can observe music for your videos.

In fact, it'll probably take y'all more time to cull your music than it will to actually add it to your video.

I use Camtasia to create and edit all my videos.

Want to add music to a video?

Download a free trial of Camtasia to add any music track into your video.

Download a costless trial

Step ane: Open up your video

This may seem like a no-brainer, simply I wanted to be thorough. In your preferred video editor, open the video project to which you want to add together music.

Pace 2: Import your media

In Camtasia, there are several ways to import video and audio files into your Media Bin. You can select Media from the bill of fare, right-click in the bin, and select Import Media from the menu.

Or, you lot can choose File > Import > Media from the bill of fare.

If you're into shortcuts and hotkeys, you lot tin choose CMD+I.

No matter which method y'all cull, navigate to the file you want to import, select it, and choose Import.

Annotation: You can also find music from TechSmith Avails for Camtasia in the Libraries folder. More well-nigh that later!

Step 3: Add your media to the timeline

Once you've imported your file, find information technology in the media bin, click on it, then elevate and drop information technology to the timeline. You can add it to a new track or add information technology to an existing track depending on your needs. I typically add things to new tracks by default so they're easier to find later.

If no empty track is available, Camtasia automatically creates a new rails if yous elevate your file to the open area above the timeline.

Pace four: Accommodate the audio to fit your needs

Here's where you'll need to make some decisions (if you haven't fabricated them already). Do you lot desire your music to run through your whole video? Is it simply for the intro or the outro?

For this example, let's assume that we desire to accept the audio run throughout the unabridged video. Since there will be narration, we'll want to make certain the music isn't so loud that information technology makes the narration difficult to hear or empathize.

When you select the audio rails in the timeline, a line with shading will appear. To suit the volume, you can click on the line and drag it up or downward to the desired level. The waveform in the track grows and shrinks as you suit the volume up and down, letting y'all know that the volume has been adjusted.

In the Sound Effects bill of fare, there are additional options for adjusting audio. For example, calculation a Fade Out at the end of your video clip can aid avoid a potentially jarring abrupt ending.

Now that you know how to add together music to a video, try playing around with it the adjacent fourth dimension yous create a video. These were only a few basic steps to get you started, but in that location are a lot of other means to edit sound to fit your needs.

Why should I add together music to my video?

First, let's acknowledge that non all videos need music. Quick screencasts to evidence a colleague how to log into the new Hour software or how to access their archived emails probably don't need a soundtrack.

But, if you lot're going to put something out for public consumption, information technology's likely a little music can aid make the video more engaging. Even if yous simply put a piddling bit at the beginning and end of your video, information technology helps make your video more interesting.

In fact, about 50% of the videos identified in our research Video Viewer Habits, Trends, And Statistics you lot Need to Know every bit being "slap-up" had background music.

That's a pretty strong indicator that music tin can add something special to your video.

How do I choose the right music for a video?

At that place's a departure betwixt adding music and adding the right music. Before you choose your music, retrieve nigh what type of video you're creating. For a video showing software or production features, you'll probably desire something upbeat and positive.

You desire your viewers to experience skilful when they're seeing your product. Other types of videos may need something more than somber. Who tin forget the various animal rescue commercials that are all over our TVs?

They pair sad, slow music with photos of distressing-looking animals to compound the experience and — they hope — make us more likely to open up our wallets to donate.

Not convinced yet? Trying imagining one of those rad videos of skateboarders thrashing out in a skate park with pan flute music instead of grungy guitars.

The right music enhances the experience for your viewers, while the wrong music can transport the wrong bulletin entirely.

Where can I notice music for a video?

How can finding music be a challenge? I hateful, music is everywhere, right? I have 70 GB of music on my iPhone right now. I'll just use some of that music.

Wouldn't it be nice if it were that piece of cake?

Unfortunately, virtually of the music you lot own is effectively off-limits. That music is copyrighted (owned by someone else) and, if you utilize it, you'll owe the copyright owner money (called "royalties") for every fourth dimension someone views your video.

Ever wonder why restaurants always seem to take their own altogether song rather than just singing "Happy Birthday To You" when it's your birthday? Same reason. Someone really owned the rights to that vocal until 2016 and restaurants would take had to pay royalties every time it was sung in their restaurants.

So where practise you find the music you tin can employ? Well, unless you want to etch your own music, the easiest reply lies in royalty-free music.

TechSmith Avails

There are a number of means to find royalty-free music, but your best bet could be to showtime with TechSmith Assets for Camtasia.

screenshot of the music in TechSmith Assets

If y'all utilise Camtasia as your video editor, TechSmith Assets for Camtasia is a no-brainer. You can get a few options for costless, or pay a yearly subscription to become full access to the library.

It comes total of videos, images, and audio to enhance your videos.

For this example, even so, we'll focus on music.

Once you head over to the music section, you'll meet a wide variety of tracks to choose from. You lot can sort by mood and by genre.

Best of all, it lets y'all directly open your song in Camtasia or download it to your machine.

screenshot of a song download from TechSmith Assets

Free music options

Some royalty-gratuitous music is truly free. There are a number of sites that offer music you can but download and use as yous wish (though frequently for non-commercial purposes, so be certain to read the user agreement).

Free music sites will likewise probable have a limited choice then you may accept trouble finding exactly what you lot're looking for, or the music may not be every bit good as you prefer.

YouTube actually has a nice sound effect and costless music library for yous to choose from.

That said, I have used free music on a number of occasions and been pleased with the upshot.

Commercial options

For almost commercial purposes, such as product overviews, customer stories, etc., though, your best bet is a premium royalty-free music site. While the music won't be complimentary, it'south typically inexpensive, and y'all'll accept a wider range of high-quality music to choose from.

Premium Trounce is a popular choice (and one I've used myself), but there are many other premium royalty-gratuitous music sites out at that place, too.

Pro tip: If skillful music is a priority, make sure to build this cost into your video upkeep so yous can build a music library to have on hand.

Look for more on audio in hereafter blog posts, or check out these groovy blog posts for more data!

How to Sync Audio and Video Sources
How to Normalize Audio Clips & Volume
How to Reduce Audio Noise in Your Recordings (For Free)
Audio Best Practices

P.S. The techniques above work for calculation any type of sound to a video, not just music tracks. Whether y'all're adding narration, audio effects, interviews, or other types of audio. Camtasia makes information technology easy to add together audio to a video.

P.P.S. Call back that not anybody who consumes your video content can hear it. People who are deaf or hard of hearing — or who may choose to watch your video without sound — besides need a way to consume the content without relying on sound.

And then, be sure to include captions with all your videos. And, if yous include a music file, the captions should note that, also.

Is adding music to a video easy?

Yes! With Camtasia adding music to a video can be as easy every bit a few steps. Merely drag and drop and you lot're ready to get!

Where tin can I detect music to add to my video?

In that location are a number of good options for finding royalty-free music to add to your videos. TechSmith Avails for Camtasia has a number of options that are totally free to use for Camtasia users. Additionally, the gratis music library on YouTube, or paid services such as Premium Beats are best bets.

Why should I add music to my video?

Music, even if only used at the offset and cease of your videos, can add another caste of interest and provide a more than engaging experience for your viewers.

How do I cull music for my video?

Know your audience and their expectations, as well every bit the blazon of video you're producing. An instructional video intended for senior citizens will likely have different music than a rad skateboard video.

Want to add together music to a video?

Download a free trial of Camtasia to add any music track into your video.

Download a free trial

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in October 2017 and has since been updated for accurateness and comprehensiveness.