How to choose music for promotional video

Choosing the right background music is an important step in making a successful marketing video, here are some tips to help you make the right choice

MikS Music
In this post I won’t be convincing you to start using background music in your videos, I assume you already know how it can help. If not, here’s another post on that very subject.

Here, I’ll give you some tips as to what to consider when searching for the right soundtrack for your marketing video.

Music does matter – choose wisely!

Background music affects how people perceive your video. It may help to carry your marketing message to your audience or it can be a distraction. When chosen poorly, it may make your marketing video (and subsequently your business) look unprofessional and not trustworthy.

You may already have an idea what kind of background music you’d like to use. However, choosing the right track for your video may be harder than it sounds. Here are some tips to help you get started.

Tip 1: Start by understanding what exactly you want to say with the video

We make marketing videos for a purpose, presumably a business purpose to help your business succeed. Start your music search by understanding what kind of video you are creating. Do you want it to be entertaining or informative? Are you advertising a specific product or (subtly) promoting your brand?

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Knowing your video goal will help you to understand how the music can support your marketing message.

Take a look at these three very different videos below with very different soundtracks. One is promoting a service, one is a seasonal greeting, and one is promoting a charity event.

Background music: Taking The Lead, Fairy’s Dream, Crank Me Up

Tip 2: Define the mood

Music can help you to set the mood of the video very early on. Do you want the video to be perceived as positive, aggressive, or happy, relaxed, pumped, uplifting, or sad? Pick the music with appropriate mood. Fortunately, many music libraries allow you to search their collections using emotion based meta-tags.

Tip 3: Define the pace

Think if you want the video to progress at a steady pace or shift gears along the way. Pick the music that matches the pace of the video.

Tip 4: Define the role of the soundtrack, foreground vs background

Take a look at these two videos below. Note how the music plays a completely different role in each video. While it drives the visuals in the first video, it merely provides a pleasant background ambiance in the second.

Background music: Reaching For The Stars, Working For Better Tomorrow

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Tips for choosing background music

  1. Make sure the music does not draw attention away from the video.
  2. If your video has narration, be mindful about the vocals and music instruments (lead guitars, violins, horns) that may conflict with the voiceover.
  3. Pick music with steady pace and no sudden changes in mood or instrumentation.
  4. Don’t use music with traditional pop song structure (verse – chorus – bridge), as it may drive attention away from the video. Choose music with steady arrangement that does not change or builds slightly throughout the track.

Background music examples

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Buy Once, Use Forever

  • To use in personal or small business (up to 5 employees) promotional video, social media, podcast, presentation, free / student film, free app / game, and any media / online content not intended for sale.
  • To use in corporate promotional video, social media, podcast, presentation, tradeshow, point of sale, on hold, event, online / regional TV advertisement incl. political, and all revenue generating media, games and online content up to 1,000 sales.
  • To use in all revenue generating content with unlimited sales, feature film with unlimited distribution, TV/Radio show with nation-wide audience, and commercial TV/Radio advertisement.
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Positive and confident royalty free background instrumental music with uplifting and motivational feel for corporate videos and marketing projects.

Average rating:

Buy Once, Use Forever

  • To use in personal or small business (up to 5 employees) promotional video, social media, podcast, presentation, free / student film, free app / game, and any media / online content not intended for sale.
  • To use in corporate promotional video, social media, podcast, presentation, tradeshow, point of sale, on hold, event, online / regional TV advertisement incl. political, and all revenue generating media, games and online content up to 1,000 sales.
  • To use in all revenue generating content with unlimited sales, feature film with unlimited distribution, TV/Radio show with nation-wide audience, and commercial TV/Radio advertisement.
Free download for members Learn more
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Positive corporate royalty-free music with assertive and grand feel for an uplifting and motivational corporate video or commercial.

Average rating:

Buy Once, Use Forever

  • To use in personal or small business (up to 5 employees) promotional video, social media, podcast, presentation, free / student film, free app / game, and any media / online content not intended for sale.
  • To use in corporate promotional video, social media, podcast, presentation, tradeshow, point of sale, on hold, event, online / regional TV advertisement incl. political, and all revenue generating media, games and online content up to 1,000 sales.
  • To use in all revenue generating content with unlimited sales, feature film with unlimited distribution, TV/Radio show with nation-wide audience, and commercial TV/Radio advertisement.
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Positive, motivational, and uplifting royalty free background music for corporate and small business videos with inspirational and confident feel featuring the mix of acoustic and electronic sounds.

Tip 5: Use music that appeals to your target audience

If you’re making a video for a narrow audience, try creating and extra impact by choosing the music that traditionally applies to that audience. That is, if you’re making toys, you may want to use children-suitable music in your marketing videos.

If you’re trying to reach a broad market choose the music that is neutral and broadly appealing.

Tip 6: Use contemporary sounding music

Unless there is a good creative reason (like you’re making a 60s styled commercial), use modern sounding music. I’m not suggesting using cutting-edge electronica for all your corporate videos but rather staying away from any music that sounds dated.

Tip 7: Don’t use your favorite popular song as a corporate video soundtrack

Don’t use your favorite song as a soundtrack for the corporate video just because you happen to like it and that you have an mp3 handy. Aside from exposing your business to a possible copyright liability, you should not allow your personal music taste dictate what’s best for the video.

Tip 8: Try various tracks before committing to a particular soundtrack

You may start by building a playlist of possible choices and narrow it down throughout the production process. If you can download the previews, do that and sync it with the video to try out few alternatives.

All my music available for licensing at MikS Music come with free previews that you can download and safely try in your video before purchasing the license.

Tip 9: Use loops when available

Given a choice get music that comes with loops. By combining individual loops you will be able to construct a customized soundtrack of specific length with desired instrumentation.

Note that many tracks available for licensing in my music store come with complimentary loops. Furthermore, custom loops can be created on request for any track available in the store.

Average rating:

Buy Once, Use Forever

  • To use in personal or small business (up to 5 employees) promotional video, social media, podcast, presentation, free / student film, free app / game, and any media / online content not intended for sale.
  • To use in corporate promotional video, social media, podcast, presentation, tradeshow, point of sale, on hold, event, online / regional TV advertisement incl. political, and all revenue generating media, games and online content up to 1,000 sales.
  • To use in all revenue generating content with unlimited sales, feature film with unlimited distribution, TV/Radio show with nation-wide audience, and commercial TV/Radio advertisement.
Free download for members Learn more
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Add to Cart

Relaxed and positive background acoustic loops with happy and feel-good mood for indie games or videos. Make your own soundtrack with 4 separate files you can combine in any order.

Average rating:

Buy Once, Use Forever

  • To use in personal or small business (up to 5 employees) promotional video, social media, podcast, presentation, free / student film, free app / game, and any media / online content not intended for sale.
  • To use in corporate promotional video, social media, podcast, presentation, tradeshow, point of sale, on hold, event, online / regional TV advertisement incl. political, and all revenue generating media, games and online content up to 1,000 sales.
  • To use in all revenue generating content with unlimited sales, feature film with unlimited distribution, TV/Radio show with nation-wide audience, and commercial TV/Radio advertisement.
Free download for members Learn more
Already a member? Login here
Add to Cart

Energetic, intense, beat driven energy-filled electronic royalty-free music with powerful edgy bass, guitar riffs, and aggressive buildups.

Average rating:

Buy Once, Use Forever

  • To use in personal or small business (up to 5 employees) promotional video, social media, podcast, presentation, free / student film, free app / game, and any media / online content not intended for sale.
  • To use in corporate promotional video, social media, podcast, presentation, tradeshow, point of sale, on hold, event, online / regional TV advertisement incl. political, and all revenue generating media, games and online content up to 1,000 sales.
  • To use in all revenue generating content with unlimited sales, feature film with unlimited distribution, TV/Radio show with nation-wide audience, and commercial TV/Radio advertisement.
Free download for members Learn more
Already a member? Login here
Add to Cart

Positive and uplifting royalty-free music with motivational and inspirational sound for corporate videos and marketing media visuals or presentations.

download unlimited royalty-free music for personal commercial use

Tip 10: Don’t steal music

As a rule of thumb, you need to obtain permission or license to use any copyrighted material, including music. Failing to do so may result in a range of consequences varying from your video taken offline by the video host (like Vimeo or YouTube) to legal action from the copyright owner.

Make sure you license the music from a reputable music provider, ideally from a music library or a producer that specializes in background music for marketing videos.

If you plan on uploading your marketing video to YouTube, make sure the license explicitly covers commercial YouTube use.

I also welcome you to listen to my my top 10 best selling royalty free music tracks that appear in many corporate marketing videos on YouTube and elsewhere.

More on music licensing

5 Music Licensing Mistakes that Can Make Your Video Disappear
Read This Before Using “Copyright Free” Music In Your Marketing Video
Where To Find Legal Background Music to Use in Low-Budget Videos

Have a music licensing question?

Post your question in the comments.

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Mik
About the author: Hi, I’m Mik. I make royalty free music for promotional videos, YouTube business vlogs, marketing campaigns, film, and more. All my music is available for licensing online with a simple royalty free commercial license. Buy once, download instantly, use forever!

7 comments

  1. I have been working on making Latin music videos with my friends and want to improve the overall look of the videos. I like your tip to use loops when available because it can make the music more custom and add a new twist to it. I will be sure to discuss this tip with my friends when preparing our next music video.

  2. I like your suggestion about making a playlist of possible choices before you choose one. My brother wants to make a video for a school presentation, and he thinks it would be boring without music. If he makes a playlist of background music for a video, he can make sure he chooses the right sound for his presentation.

  3. I’ve been looking for a good music facility, and I think that being able to get some tips would be good. I’m glad you talked about being able to get some tips, and using contemporary sounding music. I’m going to do some work, and see where I can best buy music!

  4. I think that you make a good point that you should use music that doesn’t sound dated. You could always find someone to make you a custom soundtrack. This way you could make a signature soundtrack for your business that people could easily recognize.

  5. I couldn’t agree more with tip # 2 about defining the mood when choosing the right background music for your marketing video. You certainly want to catch the attention of your listeners right from the beginning of the video presentation. Hence, it’s important that you choose the appropriate music that has a deep connection with what you’re trying to send across to your listeners and viewers. This way, the people would somehow be able to relate not only with the video presentation itself but also to the music that they are hearing in the background. If I were to do some custom soundtrack editing, I would make sure to keep this in mind. Thanks.

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