One of the very best things you can do to really make a professional wedding video is to incorporate appropriate music into the soundtrack. If you are planning the big day and are seriously thinking about having a video shot of the momentous occasion, then it’s also time to start thinking about what music you want to include in the video.
But first, let’s touch on something that is important to consider, and something many people don’t realise.
The Legalities of Using Music
If the wedding video will be for private viewing only, will not be distributed among the guests or uploaded to online video channels like YouTube, then you can use any music you have previously purchased for listening pleasure.
On the other hand, if you plan to distribute the video to guests and put it online for all the world to see, then the music you feature in the wedding video will require a sync license (or music license).
What Is a Music Sync License?
When you purchase a track or a CD, you are only buying the rights to play that music for your own listening enjoyment. If you want to use existing music that you don’t own the rights to in any sort of public or commercial project, then you are required to license that music to legally be able to use it.
If you were to hear a famous song in a TV ad, for example, that music would have been licensed from the rights holders.
Unless you have stacks of cash to spend on your wedding and the video, you won’t be able to afford to license the latest Lady Gaga single to include. Tracks like these come with huge licensing fees and a lot of rigmarole to get the license even if you have the money.
What Are the Options Then?
Basically your options are as follows:
- Use whatever music you like, but keep the video private for the wedding couple only
- Use whatever music you like, and take your chances by distributing and uploading the video onto the net without proper licenses
- Create your own music score for the video
- Hire someone to create original music for your wedding video
- Sync license appropriate music from the many music licensing websites on the internet
Those really are your 5 options. I wouldn’t risk taking option number two. Maybe you’re adept at composing music yourself, either on a computer or by recording instruments? If not, is there anyone you know who can create original music for your wedding video? Maybe they could do it as a wedding gift?
Music Licensing Is the Easiest Option
Licensing music for wedding videos isn’t expensive. In fact, it might only be about $25 per track or so, and at the most you would probably only use two tracks on your video. When you get into advertising with big budgets, the price of licensing can skyrocket, but not so for personal projects like a wedding video.
Anyway, if you are willing to spend thousands of dollars for everything else on the big day, why not hand over $50 to $100 for some great music to make your wedding video more emotive and memorable? This is a keepsake for life and it’s definitely worth the small expense to keep things legal and really bring your video to life.
There are tens of thousands of artists out there that make their music readily available for licensing for all sorts of projects. Loads of music would suit a wedding video; whether it be soft and romantic, or fun and dancy. There are tracks both with or without vocals, and the track lengths vary from less than a minute to more than ten minutes. All categories of music are there to choose from, it’s just a matter of finding want you want, buying the appropriate license (in this case a sync license for a personal or wedding video), downloading the music and passing it on to your video creator.
I license my catalogue of music on music licensing website – Songtradr. My tracks are all instrumentals and some are geared towards the film and game industry. However, I do specialise in producing fun dance music, as well as a couple of softer, more soulful and romantic sounding tracks. You may find something I’ve created to your liking, but if not, Songtradr has a massive selection of tracks and artists, so it’s well worth taking a look at their site. Just click the logo below.
Wedding Budgets seem to be bigger than the bride’s ego these days, so an extra 100 bucks or so for an awesome backtrack to the video doesn’t really seem like a stretch.
These are memories you’ll want to keep forever and probably want to share with everybody that came to the wedding (and everybody on youtube maybe) so it’s definitely a worthwhile investment.
Hi Ryan. Thanks for writing in. Yes, it doesn’t cost much for the wedding video music, especially in comparison to other things money is spent on for the wedding. Well worth it for the memories the video provides.