Advertising campaigns come in many forms, vary in length and are run on a variety of media. Music – whether a song with vocals or an instrumental – really brings an advertisement to life and emphasises the message. While not all ads have music, the majority are made a lot more engaging and memorable with the inclusion of just the right piece of music.

Perfect background music for advertising campaigns is very subjective. What’s perfect for one ad may be totally inappropriate for another and vice versa. You need music that suits the tone and mood of the commercial. Will it be better served with lyrics or without? How much speaking and voiceover will the ad contain? What’s the product owner’s opinion on possible music?

Is the plan to create a song or music track specific to the ad, or will you be sourcing music that has already been produced and recorded?

There are basically three options available to either create or source the perfect background music for advertising, and they are:

1. Create the music in-house
2. Hire a music composer/producer
3. Sync license existing music

Creating the Music In-House

If this is a possibility, then this is the very best way to compose and score music that perfectly matches everything required for the ad; whether it’s for TV, Cinema advertising or online. If you have a music department, then all good.

Professional Composer/Producer

This option will cost more than the first one, but hiring a professional is a great option when you are chasing original and exclusive music. That’s the great thing about either composing and recording the music in-house or hiring a professional: The music is unique and won’t have been played anywhere else for any other purpose.

Sync License Music for Advertising

Sync licensing music is a great alternative to have and advertisers really are spoilt for choice these days. The internet and all the music licensing websites have really swung open the virtual doors to a musical smorgasbord. There is nothing you can’t get your hands on if you decide to go the sync licensing route to obtain music for your advertising.

While it’s not free, it will probably work out cheaper than hiring a professional muso to do the recording for you, and there really is everything available in every mood, length, tone and combination of instrumentation imaginable. Every category and genre is catered too, even genres that are a crossover between known genres.

I personally like the following two websites for quality music to sync license:

1. Songtradr
2. Musicbed

Songtradr has the more user-friendly website and some fantastic music, whereas Musicbed carefully curate both their artists and the tracks they allow on their site. Songtradr has a bit more commercial appeal, whereas Musicbed tend to cater more to filmmakers and documentary makers. Their music is more cinematic.

Songtradr is my choice out of the two when seeking music for advertising, and you can check out my tracks on the Songtradr platform simply by clicking on their logo below.