Music for video production is important. Many videos require music to bring the video to life or to truly get the message across, engaging people’s emotions in the process. Many things seem dull and lifeless without the injection of music; whether it’s background music or the music is the most prominent sound on the video.

• Wedding videos
• Corporate presentation videos
• Advertising online
• YouTube videos
• Inspirational videos

The above list are just some of the types of videos that really require music to make them complete. Not every video anyone would ever make would require music, but most videos will be made infinitely better and more interesting with music.

Music Engages Emotions

It doesn’t matter who you are, everyone responds to music in one form or another, and the reason we respond is that music engages our emotions. What this means for your video is that it will be more memorable. Whatever it is that you, as a video producer, are trying to convey in your video, you want people to remember it, share it, like it and possibly take some sort of action for having viewed it.

Music might play right throughout the duration of the video, or it might just be in specific places to break up the speech. Either way, unless you are going to compose and produce the music yourself, you will need to find some appropriate music online.

Where To Find Music for Your Video

First you could try browsing the free sites, ones that offer up music to use in projects at no cost. Places like FreeMusicArchive.org offer free music, but you have to make sure to check the license to determine whether you can legally use it in your video production. There are other free sites around that offer free music. Looperman.com offers loops and sound effects, and these are free to use in music projects. However, Looperman doesn’t allow loops to be used “as is” on their own in a project; particularly commercial projects. The loops are meant to be used in conjunction with other instruments and recordings to create an original piece of music.

Music sync licensing is the best way to go. Some sites like Pond5.com offer up sync licenses for cheap prices. I can’t guarantee the quality of some of the music on there, but it’s just a matter of sifting through it all. At least if you buy the appropriate sync license you know for sure you can legally use the music in your video.

Doing a Music Search

All music licensing sites will have search functions allowing you to input a variety of data to filter the results. After all, you don’t want everything on the site showing up. You will be searching for something specific, or at least have a general idea of the kind of sound or mood you are looking for.

I personally compose and produce music specifically for sync licensing, so I’ve been involved with quite a few music licensing sites. One of the very best ones in my opinion (and again, this is just my opinion) is a newish one called Songtradr. They only came onto the scene in March 2016 with their official launch, but already they have built up a stable of fine artists and an ever-growing catalogue of great and diverse music.

Some tracks on Songtradr contain vocals, but many are instrumentals and perfectly suited to sync with all varieties of videos, from weddings through to corporate. If you go and check out the Songtradr website and do a search, you will no doubt quickly find something that is to your liking. The prices for video sync licensing are reasonable and fair and vary from artist to artist.