In video editing, selecting the music to correspond with the message in the video can often be one of the most difficult tasks in the entire project. Many studios work directly with musicians in order to carefully transcribe the beats and tempos to correspond in perfect synchronicity with what’s being shown visually. What our audience hears, completely affects how they’re going to be feeling.
In today’s video marketing profession, creators aren’t always equipped with musicians to work with, and are much more reliant on purchasing stock music to work with in their video campaigns. In fact, this has become a normal trend as more businesses of all sizes are capable of launching a video marketing campaign for their brand.
If you’re new to selecting music, or just want to learn how to improve, here are four criteria points to effectively captivate your audience.
What Is The Feeling That Directly Aligns With Your Brand
Typically most people will say they want their audience to feel good, but that’s not going to be enough. Good is too generic, because what your selling needs to come with inspiration. The music needs to make your audience feel as though your product can satisfy their desires, whatever those may be.
Take this North Face commercial, for example. The music is edgy, fast paced and builds from start to finish. The North Face wants their audience to feel the adrenaline associated with what their product can provide. Hopefully the next time a customer is out looking to purchase winter sports gear, they’ll subconsciously remember feeling pumped while watching the North Face commercial.
Not everyone sells adventure gear though, so try and imagine how you would want to feel based on what you’re trying to sell.
Never Compromise The Quality
A lot like the quality of a video can alter your audiences perceptions, so can the quality of the music. If you think about the way commercials have evolved over the last decade, you can agree that it’s sometimes hard to distinguish a commercial, from an actual television show. Ads have become that important!
Large companies know that in order to win in the marketing world, quality is the undying factor to how a customer will perceive your product. So! In order to meet contemporary standards, you need to:
- Make sure the file you buy/download/pay for is of a high technical quality.
- Typically this means the file will be a .WAV or .MPEG4, you should also be able to hear the difference while playing it.
- The Stock Website Only Contracts Professional Musicians
- We recommend Audio Network or Premium Beat
Place A Strong Emphasis On The Intro and Outro Sections
Our memories are wired on impressions, and our attention spans desperately need something captivating to stay focused. This is why the beginning a video, and how you end it is crucial to setting the tone and giving your audience something worth remembering.
People will stop watching a video after a few seconds if it doesn’t interest them enough, so look for music that builds, or has some power in the beginning to make it hard to stop watching.
The ending of a video is a great place to raise the volume, and cut on a strong accentuation point. This will leave your viewers will a good sense of completion.
Pro Tip: If you choose music that has lyrics, avoid splicing the words in awkward places, as well as choosing a chorus that can distract from your overall message.
Know Your Budget
Music is incredibly important, but it wouldn’t make sense to spend more than the advertisement is worth. Some questions you should ask yourself upon purchasing music are:
- Is my ad going to be recurrent, or will it be a one time thing?
- Is the price negotiable?
- Where will my video be published? (This affects the license and how expensive it will be)
- How much will the video cost?
- Can I find the same quality somewhere else?
Music is one of the greatest emotional triggers we have in this life. People want to feel good about the things we purchase (We all know buyers guilt), and the companies we’re supporting. By showing your audience who you are through video marketing, you’re building an emotional connection to your brand.
Using the right music is the perfect way to connect to your customers so choose wisely.
Written By Jason Brietstein
