The other day I sent an email to a client looking for some direction on the kind of music they want on their video. She wanted something upbeat but "doesn't sound like stock music." I had to giggle-- has anyone ever wanted to use music that sounds like stock music? Therein lies the challenge!
Because it's so subjective, music selection can be a tricky and time consuming part of the production process. My typical workflow is to listen to dozens of cuts online, and send my client a few select samples to choose from. I've found that many clients have a hard time envisioning (enlistening?) what type of music will best fit their video and represent their business, and sometimes have trouble committing to a track.
When previewing music, keep in mind the following:
- The music levels will be much lower than the voiceover, so they might sound a little crazy by themselves, but once you mix them in with the piece they'll feel much more mellow.
- You don't have to be crazy about the whole track. With royalty-free music, there's usually several different sounds on one piece, so if there's one part of the song you don't like (like the intro) it's not a deal breaker.
- The "Underscore" versions of songs don't have melodies, so they make much better background music.
There are many websites that sell royalty free music. You can preview thousands of songs for free before you make your selection. Often each song comes in multiple lengths: a long version that's several minutes, a 60 second, a 30 and maybe even a 15 or 10. If you really like a track and plan on using it for several video or radio projects, I recommend downloading them all for future use.
Also, you'll want to download the .wav versions, not the mp3s. .Wavs are higher quality and you can always compress them if you need to.
In the end, my client went with the track I most highly recommended. It is indeed "upbeat", and no, it doesn't sound like stock music!
