The Science of Choosing Music for Movie Previews

Music is an essential part of your trailer videos. It sets the tone of the entire presentation and helps create a lasting impact on audiences. Not giving any priority to music can be a common mistake for marketers who naturally place more importance on content. Sometimes, these mistakes can cause time constraints and even cost money. Here’s how you can find the right paid and free trailer music for your ventures.

1. SoundCloud
2. ccMixter
3. Free Music Archive
4. FreePD
5. Uppbeat

• How to add music to your trailer

Part 1. How to choose the background music for the trailer?

Establish A Clear Schedule

While music may appear to be a minimal point in your trailer, it can be more impactful than you think. Tone and effects aside, music is highly associated with perception and observation. This means that things like up and down and lilts in the sound can affect different kinds of emotions in your video.

Because of that, you must time your video content according to those factors. Maximize the emotional impact in your videos by perfectly timing your content and matching the music’s pace. Pick your music early on in the project and match your content accordingly to avoid time and budget constraints.

Consider the Setting

When presenting the story, you want to tell in your film, the feelings and meanings expressed in your music are an important consideration. Make sure what you intend to communicate to your audience is clear. Do you like to teach people or perhaps share a particular tale with them? Is the tone light-hearted, sad, or grave? Consider these goals and use them as a guide while selecting the music.

It is recommended to avoid relying on simple tags like “trailer music” or “trailer background songs”, as these usually show generic results that do not factor in tone and setting. Think outside the box instead and search for music that you associate with your story. Take advantage of tags and keywords to find a song that works best for you.

Test With Watermarked Tracks

Many websites may require you to pay for tracks before you can test them out in your video. That means spending on several music files that you may not even get to use soon.

Luckily, some websites let users download free vocal-watermarked versions of their music. With these tracks, you can test the files on your video editor so you can check for tone and timing without spending unnecessarily.

Part 2. Best Free Websites for Downloading Trailer Music

Licensed and mainstream media music can be costly and inaccessible to many, which is why it is common to opt for public domain music or creative commons music. This music is completely free to use and comes from legal sources.

It is important to note that some creative commons music may require certain actions like attribution or giving credit to creators. Some files prohibit modifications in the material. If you are interested in the perks of free music, make sure to read up on different kinds of licenses to avoid legal sanctions.

With that said, here are some of the best sources of free music files for your trailer:

1. SoundCloud

SoundCloud is one of the most popular and widely utilized audio sources in the world. The music-sharing website boasts a library of over 200 million tracks, allowing you to freely choose from a wide selection of music that is right for your project. SoundCloud is very easy to explore and is accessible even to beginners.

You can look for music through the search bar and filters, and you can even specify your preferred license type to quickly get to your desired results. Creative Commons also has its profile on the website so you can easily access a wide array of free music.

2. ccMixter

With Screensaver Wonder you can easily make a screensaver from your own pictures and video files. Create screensavers for your own computer or create standalone, self-installing screensavers for easy sharing with your friends. Together with its sister product Screensaver Factory, Screensaver Wonder is one of the most popular screensaver software products in the world, helping thousands of users decorate their computer screens quickly and easily.

ccMixter is an online website specially created for sharing remixes. It is a perfect place to look for music for creators since all the content is licensed for Creative Commons. Every music track is licensed under CC-BY, which means that you will need to credit the artist of the track you’ll use.

There is a library of over 4,000 free music tracks that are created especially for commercial projects. You can also use the site’s search function to find music by style, genre, or even by instrument.

3. Free Music Archive

Free Music Archive contains over 150,000 music tracks made by independent artists. From this selection, a huge number are available under the public domain or CC-BY, which requires crediting the music’s creator.

You can search by keyword and use the filter function to limit your searches by duration, license type, or genre.

4. FreePD

FreePD’s library contains purely public domain music without attribution, making it a highly appealing option for creators and marketers. It is easy to search for tracks as they are divided into categories and also have 1-4 emojis that reflect the overall mood of the track.

Everything is completely free to download. You also have the option to download all the files in bulk for a small fee.

5. Uppbeat

Uppbeat’s content is entirely royalty-free and free for commercial use. Navigation is very easy as the site is well-organized and tracks are grouped into playlists and collections. There is also a search function if you want to look for more specific keywords.

The website offers a free account that lets you download up to 10 tracks per month. There is also a paid version that offers additional content and a library of sound effects. With the paid version, downloads are no longer limited.

Part 3. How to add music to your trailer

If you feel that the above method is difficult, you may find a variety of free public domain audio and music tracks on Filmora to use in your trailer. Simply browse through the library on the upper left to gain access to these options. You can also upload your own files using the Import button on the same corner.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Filmora comes with different settings and features that will let you take your trailer music to the next level.

Audio Ducking lets you pinpoint background music in your video and adjust its volume. By doing this, you can easily emphasize speaking voices in the clip. You can also make it so that non-speaking parts of the clip retain the original volume of the background music.

Simply select the different video clips where you want to lower the background music. Right-click and choose Audio Ducking, then check the tick box and adjust the slider.

Silence Detection is a useful tool when creating trailers. If you have certain points in our video that seem to have dead air, it can be taxing to manually edit them out one by one. Right-click on a clip and use Silence Detection to automatically identify aspects of the video with this problem. A popup window for Silence Detection will automatically show you those silent points and let you check and edit them for more precision.

Audio Visualizer is one of the best features that Filmora offers when it comes to background music. It allows you to add visual effects to your video that match the dynamics of your music. Choose from 25 customizable effects and add extra pizazz to your trailer. You can change the effect’s sizes, position, and even color scheme using various settings, allowing you more creative freedom in your video.

Selecting and editing music in your trailer can be unexpectedly challenging, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. With Filmora , you can gain access to a myriad of music and audio options and make use of tools and effects to take your trailer to the next level.

Part 1. How to choose the background music for the trailer?

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