It’s important to note that you should have a fair idea of what sort of emotion you want to convey through your brand or products. If you’re looking for a guide on selecting the right music for business presentations, this post will help you out with that. Now let’s get started.
1. Think About How You’re Going To Use Your Soundtrack
The soundtrack or music you use could either support your clips, lead into the intro/outro or play softly in the background as your product is being showcased. Business presentations often involve listing technical details if you’re showing a product, so you want to use a track that’s positive, upbeat, and not too high-paced.
A good example of this would be an instrumental soundtrack like this:
Consider the placement of the soundtrack as well. Are you using it as background or foreground music? A track like the one above would do well for background music but not as a lead-in for intros. Bookend tracks are popular for business presentations as they play a short 3 to a 5-second music clip that naturally transitions into the content.
Here’s an example:
Notice how after the 3-second mark, the video starts? The music continues playing in the background for this video, but that 3-second start is what we mean by the track being bookend. Some promo videos stop at the 3-second mark and mute the music to grab attention.
2. Set Your Pacing
Pacing is everything when it comes to how your presentation is perceived. Ask yourself this: Do you want to slowly build up your track to something high-tempo and pan out or do you want your music to have a steady yet consistent progression throughout the rest of the clip. Avoid using tracks that draw attention away from your content, such as music with vocals.
3. Consider Your Audience
Since this is a business presentation you’re talking about, you have to consider your audience.
- Who will be viewing your presentation?
- How old/young will they be?
- What are their tastes/preferences in music?
- What are they expecting from your presentation?
If you’re creating a presentation for a broad market, stick to soundtracks that are neutral and appealing. Use music that your audience finds interesting, and if you’re not sure how to go about it, look into the demographics to get an idea.
4. Choose The Music Before The Presentation
This may sound like an obvious tip but choose your music files first before designing your presentation. It’s a lot easier to edit a video to the beat than the other way around. Your sound’s rhythm carries the emotions throughout the duration of your video, and you can match clips to that. Make sure your video looks synced well with the music and doesn’t look uncoordinated. If you like a soundtrack but can’t seem to get it in a specific format, you can use InVideo’s new tool to download from YouTube the soundtrack and get an mp3 extracted from the clip. It’s simple and convenient.
5. Licensing & Copyright
Copyright is serious, and if you happen to use a soundtrack without getting permission from the creator, you risk facing legal consequences. Platforms like YouTube and Vimeo frequently take down videos and give accounts a strike when they fail to comply with copyright laws and regulations. When you’re selecting your soundtrack, make sure it has a Creative Commons License. This makes it safe to use the track in business, personal, and creative video projects.
Royalty-free music is a popular choice which you have to pay for but is more flexible, and you get more options. InVideo has an in-built music library with their software with plenty of genres which you can explore. Their subscriptions are affordable, and they let you use a variety of music tracks in creative and commercial projects. There are also sound effects that you can add to your clips along with them.
If you’d like to own the music rights and use tracks however you’d like, custom music is another option you want to look into. These are customized soundtracks made specifically for your videos, but these are more expensive. You don’t have to worry about licensing or copyright issues when you use custom-made tracks but be prepared to pay anywhere upwards from $150 for each track for these.
6. Use A Good Video And Audio Editor
Making a business presentation is not just about picking your music. You also want to make sure you edit it properly. You can use loops for the background tempo and overlay with sound effects at key points. But to do that, your program should let you edit the audio. A good free video editor no watermark software that bundles custom templates and audio editing tools will help you out with this.
More ExamplesÂ
Now that you’ve got an idea about how to go about selecting your soundtrack. We’ll give you a crash course in what sort of tracks to use. These will give different moods for business presentations depending on what you’re going for. Here you go.
- Acoustic – Emotional, grounded, a bit of melancholy and human
- Comedic – Upbeat, energetic, happy, funny, and engaging
- Electronic – Sophistication, allure, brainy, and intelligent
- Hip-hop – Fast-paced, confident, and on the edge
- Rock – Raw, unadulterated, unapologetic, and grit
- Jazz – Classy, soothing, elegant
- Cinematic – Grand opening, dramatic, big, and impactful
- Electrohouse – Party-mood, jumpy and exciting
Take your time and see what you’d like. Browse trending tracks and corporate genres to get clips that are suitable for your business presentation. And that’s pretty much it. This is how you choose the right music for your business presentation.