It’s 2021, the job of a YouTube content creator has now gone beyond just creating funny videos. To remain relevant on YouTube, you must evolve from making plain videos to making quality videos that resonate with the question and feelings of your audience. That is, videos that will spellbind your audience by giving them just what they need. It is now very easy to do this; you need a piece of background music that’ll fascinate your audience. Yet, you should be subtle enough so as not to divert their attention from the characters on the screen.
Sadly, most content creators constantly find themselves in utter confusion on where to get the perfect piece of music for their projects. This confusion often seems to be more difficult than making a scientific discovery. More so, YouTube’s recent policy on music usage has also complicated the already difficult music discovery process as every YouTube content creator needs to either obtain a license to a piece of music before it can be used in a video or opt for a YouTube Royalty free music.
Since the process of getting the latter is regrettably complex and daunting, the last resort is to use YouTube Royalty-free music.
What is YouTube Royalty-Free Music?
YouTube Royalty-Free music simplifies the need to negotiate a licensing fee with music right owners and gives content creators the opportunity to continually use a piece of music without having to pay royalties or recurring costs. For example, buying YouTube royalty-free music requires that you pay a single fee whether your video has 100 views or a million views. Irrespective of the number of viewers, the fee remains constant.
The term royalty-free means free of royalties, a direct opposite to “Managed or Protected” rights licenses where a buyer pays royalties based on how many times a song is used.
Why Should You Add a YouTube Royalty-Free Music to your Video?
Here are some reasons why adding music to your video is beneficial to the performance of your video:
1. The right music can captivate your viewers’ attention even before the narrative of your video is set.
2. Royalty-free music automatically sets your viewers’ mood either to positive, mysterious, sad, playful, happy, or any emotion in between.
3. It can help set the pace of your YouTube video.
4. A great video can make your audience more enchanted with your video.
Choosing a YouTube Royalty Free Music for your Video
Identifying the right piece of music for your video can be tricky. However, with the right knowledge of the technicalities to watch out for, you can easily navigate your way through the gamut of music in a catalog to select the perfect one for your video project. Here are some tips for choosing an ideal sound for your YouTube video project:
1. Opt for a song that evokes the desired emotion
What emotion do you want your audience to feel while watching specific scenes of your YouTube video? Would you rather have them elated? Or do you want them warm and fuzzy? All these emotions can be evoked with the application of the right music in specific scenes.
Using the right song helps to guide your audience towards the context of a scene and helps to invite them to an emotional state where they feel your desire for emotional connection and empathy.
2. Watch out for transitions
While picking a song that evokes the emotion of your audience should be your primary focus, it’s imperative that you watch out for the song structure as it may not blend properly with the scene transition.
If you’re really keen on using a non-fitting song, we recommend looping some sections of the song to better align with the flow of your YouTube video. When using YouTube Royalty free music, you can loop a part of the song as many times as possible. So feel free to cut the bridge, cut the chorus, loop the verse, etc.
On the other hand, obtaining a license from a popular artist like Body Count is so restrictive that you can’t carry out modifications on the song to give the desired outcome. You need an expressly granted permission to work on the song outside the legal boundaries stipulated in your licensing agreement. The caveat here is that modifying a piece of music for your YouTube video is a piece of advice that should only be considered for Royalty free music.
3. Keep off music formed from a corny digital instrument
If you want an organic sound made with instruments such as indie rock drums, piano, guitar, endeavor to opt for a piece of music made from the real instrument. For example, the sounds from the digital acoustic instrument can make your video feel outdated and corny. A way to identify corny digital instruments is by making a comparison of sonic qualities of the digital samples from the Royalty-free music platform you choose with the sonic qualities of the original music. It shouldn’t take much effort to differentiate between corny, good, and bad music.
4. Partner with a music composer
Identifying the right piece of music that’ll evoke the preferred feeling in your audience can be tricky in some instances. If you’re in such a dilemma, it’s best to partner or hire music composers to help with the selection process. Why a composer? He/she, being an expert, will understand the embedded meaning of the lyrics, beats and guide you on how to apply them to specific scenes.
5. Background music should remain in the background
If you’re purchasing YouTube royalty-free music as a piece of background music for your YouTube video, ensure that it stays there. If a character in your YouTube video is trying to hold a conversation, don’t let your background music interfere.
Also, watch out for audios with sonic elements that interfere with a human voice. Group whoa-ing and vocal fall in this category.
Volume is one other thing you shouldn’t overlook. If you’re using background music with a loud volume, then it’ll water down any spoken narrative that’s in your video. Also, a piece of background music that’s too low will paradoxically pull attention away from the spoken narrative to itself.
However, getting the right mix of volume for your YouTube video might take some practice as there’s no clear-cut formula.
