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Editing 101: 6 Tips for Choosing What Music to Use When Editing Videos

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">500 hours of video content get uploaded to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;youtube-to-wav-file-converter-online&sol;">YouTube<&sol;a> every minute&period; Add that number to the amount of video being produced for other social platforms&comma; television&comma; and theater&comma; and you begin to see the incredible scope of video production&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Whether you&&num;8217&semi;re a professional producer or an amateur&comma; you probably understand the importance of post-production when it comes to crafting memorable projects&period; From the color grade that gets added to a scene to the music variety that&&num;8217&semi;s leveraged&comma; how your editor chooses to piece together work can have a huge impact on your final product&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In this post&comma; we look specifically at music and how by leveraging helpful tips&comma; you can find the perfect tracks to support every memorable scene in your project&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Don&&num;8217&semi;t Overwhelm Your Scene<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">As you pour over your music variety and genre options&comma; a basic rule to keep in mind when selecting pieces is a track&&num;8217&semi;s power&period; We&&num;8217&semi;ve seen many producers get so attached to powerful tracks that they throw them over scenes despite the fact the music overpowers the visual content&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Unless you&&num;8217&semi;re making a conscious creative decision that music should be the focal point of a moment&comma; always go for tracks that support your on-screen content rather than overwhelm it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">When in doubt&comma; less is more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Understand Consumer Associations<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The same way that colors carry certain meanings with consumers&comma; so do certain on-screen situations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">For example&comma; a scene about technology might best be supported by cerebral music&period; Scenes about weapons might benefit from a track that feels powerful and driving&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you&&num;8217&semi;re not sure what sound associations your audience has&comma; conduct focus groups if doing so is within your budget to see how people form connections with certain musical pieces&period; That information can then be used to make informed genre choices&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Contrasting Tracks Make Statements<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Not every music variety choice you make needs to be conventional&period; There are several classic scenes in cinema where directors chose to use a contrasting song to accompany a scene to entice a particular reaction&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">For example&comma; in the movie Reservoir Dogs&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s a torture scene that is accompanied by the upbeat track&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Stuck in the Middle With You&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you use this contrast trick&comma; do so sparingly&period; That way&comma; you won&&num;8217&semi;t reduce its impact&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>The Importance of Motifs<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The music you use in your videos shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t feel disjointed from one track to the next&period; Audiences should subconsciously discern a motif through the sounds you&&num;8217&semi;re leveraging- which should then create an overarching experience for them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you&&num;8217&semi;re not sure what that means&comma; watch movies with acclimated musical scores&period; &&num;8220&semi;The Social Network&&num;8221&semi;&comma; for example&comma; features a cerebral&comma; technological score that becomes the quiet foundation of the film&period; 2019&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8220&semi;Joker&&num;8221&semi; also showcases the motif concept beautifully&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Both films received Academy Awards for their musical work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Budget Matters<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">As you may have guessed&comma; good music is &lpar;generally&rpar; not free&period; After all&comma; somebody needs to go through the trouble of producing it and those people need to eat&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">There are a few ways you can go when sourcing music depending on the budget you have&period; Those ways include&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Hiring a Professional<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">For custom&comma; high-quality music&comma; you can hire a composer to create your work&period; Depending on the caliber of your composer&comma; costs can go as high as tens of thousands of dollars depending on how much music you&&num;8217&semi;d like them to produce&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Pulling composers from college to work on your film will come at a lower cost and may give you access to extraordinary work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Paying for Royalty-Free Tracks<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Several online directories have pre-baked&comma; royalty free music you can use in your videos&period; This music is bought one time and can be used for life without any further compensation to the composer &lpar;usually&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It&&num;8217&semi;s important that the licenses you buy that enable you to use purchased work be retained indefinitely in case a dispute comes up later&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Scouring Free Libraries<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">There are royalty free music libraries that are free to pull music from&period; Some of the songs found in these libraries are extraordinarily good&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">YouTube offers free music tracks you can access through its editor&period; Sites like Incompetech also offer free songs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Pay careful attention to the licenses offered on free songs as some may require attribution or may not be used for commercial purposes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Not Every Scene Needs Music<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">A tip that&&num;8217&semi;s so often forgotten yet so important is that not every scene in your video needs music&period; Remember&comma; music should help punctuate scenes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If every scene you have is punctuated the same way&comma; audiences won&&num;8217&semi;t be able to experience the highs and lows they look for in good video content&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Use good music sparingly and believe us when we say that your project will fair much better than if you try to do too much&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Leveraging the Correct Music Variety the Right Way Will Have a Positive Impact<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">We can&&num;8217&semi;t tell you how important it is to pay attention to the music variety you use in your video projects and how that music is leveraged&period; Overlaying music correctly in your video can give it that last 10&percnt; of polish it needs to achieve its intended end&period; Overlaying music incorrectly can derail your work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you&&num;8217&semi;re still not sure where to start with using music in your films&comma; educate yourself by watching professional videos and noting their editor&&num;8217&semi;s relationship with music&period; Through observation&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll increase your music competency and your project&&num;8217&semi;s potency&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">We invite you to read more of the content on our blog for additional tips on production&comma; technology&comma; lifestyle&comma; and more&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Hardik Patel

Hardik Patel is a Digital Marketing Consultant and professional Blogger. He has 16+ years experience in SEO, SMO, SEM, Online reputation management, Affiliated Marketing and Content Marketing.

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Hardik Patel

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