Think of how the Jaws theme and suspenseful sounds make your skin crawl in anticipation, the hilarious yet perfectly-timed laugh tracks on FRIENDS, or how you’d sing along to The Sound of Music. What do they all have in common? That’s right, memorable music. Many content creators skip ahead and gloss over the importance of choosing the right sound for their videos when it’s this detail that can truly make a difference. Let’s find out how to add music to a video just like a professional for memorable video productions.
From flat to the right audio track: choose your sound
Music is the one secret ingredient in video editing that can truly create magic through emotion. Sounds are much like a guide that takes the viewer’s hand and walks them through the narrative. The genre of music, the rhythm, and the tempo all act as an unspoken language that helps get your video’s message across beyond words.
Choosing the right sound and music for your video is much like choosing the best outfit for a special occasion. Music isn’t just an accessory when it comes to video production but rather yet another immersive element that reels your viewer more into the cinematic atmosphere. So, how do you add music to a video like a professional? First off, mind the copyright!
All about video music copyright
By now, we’re sure you’ve heard all about royalties and copyright, so it’s crucial to have a solid plan before you add music to video productions. Trust us!
Copyrighted music refers to the full ownership through legal rights on songs or tunes that the original creators hold. From a legal standpoint, using copyrighted music without clear consent, permission, or special licenses means you are liable to have legal action taken against you. From a moral standpoint, it’s severely frowned upon not to respect the artists who worked hard on composing and releasing a song. So, how to add music to video free and freely, without any copyright infringement?
The best solution is to look for a video editing tool that features a royalty-free sound library that lets you add music to videos without any copyright concerns. We’ve scoured the internet and looked at multiple tools, and the one that stood out the most was Flixier, a web-based video editor. It’s fast, it’s simple to use, we didn’t need to download and install anything, and to top it off, we haven’t managed to scroll to the bottom of their royalty-free song list. And trust us, we’ve scrolled a lot. Did we mention it features a Free version so you can make their editing timeline your playground and hundreds of tools into your magic editing wand?
How to add music to a video: step-by-step guide
There’s nothing better than a clear walkthrough of how to add music to a video. Except for a detailed, step-by-step guide, of course!
Step 1: Import your multimedia files
Open up a tab on your favorite browser and go to flixier.com, then click the Start Editing button. Import your videos, images, and even voice recordings straight from your computer or smartphone. You can also connect your Dropbox or Google Drive accounts and bring over content seamlessly.
Step 2: Edit your video like a professional
Here comes the fun part! Dive into Flixier’s powerful yet intuitive video editing tools and make your footage fit like a satisfying jigsaw puzzle. Crop, trim, enhance brightness, add filters, explore transitions, or even play with animated motion titles and stickers. The editing timeline is your oyster, and you’re the pearl.
Step 3: Add music to video
The moment you’ve been waiting for is here! With Flixier, it’s almost too simple to add music to a video. Head to the Audio tab on the left side of the interface, and you’ll be met with 3 libraries of royalty-free audio: Music, Sound effects, and All (the one section to rule all the audios).
Select the Music tab if you’re looking for background music free of copyright, and write down keywords to match your video’s mood. For example, if you’re working with a fast and dynamic edit, you might want to look into energetic rock mixes or a house tune.
Add a little more flavor to your videos through Sound Effects, too. Look for authentic animal sounds like birds chirping or crickets for a natural atmosphere or for horror-esque creaks and suspense-building violins.
Drag and drop the audio track you select on the timeline, then make any adjustments you need, be it trimming it for shorter videos or placing multiple copies of the same sound in various sections. Let your creativity run free, and pick the best options to match the mood of your video.
Step 4: Experiment with transitions and the equalizer
This step is entirely optional but more than welcome as it adds a little bit of oomph to your sound and the devil’s in the details. Select the audio track on the timeline and head to the Audio tab on the right side of the interface. Experiment with fade-in and fade-out transitions for a smoother sound. Adjust the playback speed to fit the narrative storyline. Play with the equalizer and give your music a more distinctive sound thanks to our preset options such as Jazz, Acoustic, Bass Boost, or Rock.
Step 5: Save your video
And you’re almost done! Who would have thought it’s so simple to add music to a video? All that’s left to do is tap the Export button and select the Video format for Flixier to work its magic and for you to have a cinematic masterpiece ready to be shared with the world.
Turn up the volume and have fun editing
We’ve gone through a couple of famous examples that demonstrate why it’s crucial to add music to videos– examples that made it as pop culture landmarks. We’ve walked through the meaning of music copyright and identified a great tool to insert audio to video without needing any expensive equipment. Last but not least, we’ve gone through how to add music to a video like a true professional, so you can now directly jump into creating your next cinematic masterpiece. Remember, it’s all about having fun!
