I always like to have a good selection of background music for presentation videos, especially when doing slideshows. Having a free music library to go to and download great instrumental music makes my video production so much easier.
A good instrumental piece in the background makes for a more professional video in my opinion.
What type of music files should you use?
It really depends on the type of video presentation you are creating. If you’re making a very short video, less than two minutes, for example, you can download a few royalty-free music clips that are just a few seconds each, stitch them together, and change the music every other slide.
Or you can download longer music files and edit them to your preferred length.
What style or genre of music is better?
Again, it depends on the type of video you are creating. Here are a couple of examples:
I made a couple of videos about funerals and memorial services, so I found a couple of Easy Listening background music selections for them. I didn’t want the music to be so slow and monotonous that it would make people cry, but I also didn’t want it to be really upbeat or happy.
When I produced my wedding slideshow videos, I used pieces that were upbeat but not funny clips.
How to know what is best?
The best thing you can do is experiment. If you’re using software like Windows Live Movie Maker or an equivalent, add your slideshows and background music to the program and see how the footage and music fit together.
Sometimes you may need a couple of different clips depending on the length and topic of your presentations.
Here’s a tip: Watch some commercials or videos on YouTube that use background music to get an idea of how the music enhances the presentation. Once you have an idea of how to use music to enhance your videos, you should be able to find something that fits your video perfectly.
When to use background music for presentation videos
Personally, I rarely put music to how-to videos, like I’m doing a screencast tutorial. And I rarely add music to videos where it’s just me on camera talking about a subject.
PowerPoint slideshow videos are the best types of presentations to add instrumental background music. And you should stay away from pieces that include vocals because voices singing in the background can interfere or interrupt the video itself.
But pure instrumentals enhance your performances and give them a more professional quality.
Be careful with the volume of background music
If you’re using voice narration or voiceover in your presentation, you don’t want the music to overpower the voice. You can use tools like Audacity to turn down the volume of the instruments so they’re behind the vocal narration and not drowning it out.
I’ve seen several videos where the music almost drowned out the person who was speaking, and trust me, it’s pretty annoying. In fact, some viewers left comments below the video saying the music was too loud.
Where to find royalty-free background music
My favorite site of all time is Kevin MacLeod’s site at incompetech.com. I’ve always been able to find everything I need here, from any genre, any mood, any instrument for every video presentation I’ve made.
If you’re using Kevin’s royalty-free background music, be sure to credit the piece in the video’s description box or, preferably, on a closing slide so it’s viewable regardless of who else might download it or embed it on their own blogs.
This is proper credit to give, and you should use this format for any background music you use:
Background music:
“Music Piece Title”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
