Music beds can add life to movies, podcasts, or radio shows. Content creators extensively use them to enhance whatever content they create.
This article will explain everything there is to know about music beds, including how various forms of media use them.
What Are Music Beds?
In the simplest terms, a music bed is a song, usually an instrumental tune with no vocals. Its main function is to lend a sense of atmosphere or mood to a film, podcast episode, video game, or any other medium in which someone would require background music. A well-executed musical bed will be an accompaniment, enhancing the experience without distracting it.
What Are Music Beds in Radio?
Since radio is an audio-only medium, radio stock music has a great significance so that the listener has a wonderful experience. You may create a more interesting and engaging show for your audience with the assistance of music beds from the radio production music library!
Your audience will have an enhanced listening experience thanks to the wide variety of musical styles offered by an audio production music library.
A radio compilation usually features a wide variety of generic underscore themes. These themes form the backbone of radio advertisements and promos. You will take your radio production to the next level by having an extensive library of radio music beds.
What Are Music Beds for Podcasts?
It is not uncommon for you to hear snippets of music in the background while listening to a podcast. These “sound beds” are used throughout the show to aid the transition between interview questions, advertising, or numerous themes.
- Pick a style that fits your podcast’s tone and subject matter and its listeners. Consider first your audience and what they want from the music; make an effort to grab their interest from the very first few seconds of the podcast.
- Take any song and trim it down to 10 or 15 seconds, making it perfect for podcast introductions.
- Remember four things: edits title length, write while editing, and keep the title, the length of the music, and the writing, i.e., the script of your podcast.
- Fade out the background music before cutting to dialogue to ensure the transition sound is more organic.
- Make sections that last between five and 10 seconds in the audio file for use as transitions in podcasts.
- Recognize that whether you employ the natural fade-out of music that served as your opener or create a custom outro that lasts 10–15 seconds, there are many options for finishing your podcast. Alternately, choose a tune that better reflects the overall tone of your show.
What Are Music Beds for Videos?
Adding music to a video can make it more interesting to the audience and increase its likelihood of being watched. Including even a small amount at the beginning and finish of your video can greatly improve its overall quality.
Just adding music isn’t enough; you need the correct music. Consider the genre of the video you’re making before making any musical selections. Moreover, it would be best if you used upbeat, optimistic music for a video demonstrating the features of a piece of software or a physical object.
A positive emotional response from the audience is what you’re going for when showing off your wares. You must be aware that some videos require sadder music. Who can forget the numerous animal rescue adverts that run on our televisions? They hope that by combining slow, melancholy music with images of sorrowful animals, they may get us to part with more of our money.
Your audience will have a better time if you choose appropriate music, but if you choose poorly, it could have the opposite effect.
How Does a Music Bed Work?
A music bed is an instrumental piece of music that works by complementing the tone and mood of the content you’re using it with.
The following are effective techniques to make a music bed work for you:
- Please wait until the music has had a chance to establish itself for a beat before you begin speaking.
- It would be best if you never used a music bed with vocals. You will have to compete with the lyrics to get the audience’s attention.
- Make use of a bed that features a recurrent pattern. Steer clear of music that features horns, foreground guitar licks, and changes in the music itself (chords, speed), as all of these elements have the potential to draw attention away from what you want to speak about.
- Use the mantra, analyze search download, analyze the tone you’re going for, begin your search and download a royalty-free music bed.
- Many websites for downloading music make your search easier by adding features. The features they have are bot welcome message, project title search, analyze begin search download, search history, play history, versions download info, player play queue, more similarity search, etc.
Who Uses Music Beds?
A music bed is an essential part of any media production. The list of creative professionals who rely on social media to promote themselves and their work is long and varied. Photographers, videographers, designers of video games, makers of content for YouTube and Instagram, and speakers all use music beds.
Examples of Music Beds
Music creators for films create a signature sound that boosts the film’s enjoyment value and makes it easier to recall. An example of a well-known and humorous music bed is “No Explanation,” from Pretty Woman, which sets the film’s tone. Another one is “Love Me Like You Do,” by Ellie Goulding from Fifty Shades of Gray; cueing a particular emotion such as passion, romance, etc., prepares the audience for the scene. While you can also delete print lyrics from your favorite song, we do not recommend it because the songs are copyrighted and, therefore, not free.
How to Get Free Music?
Imagine the following scenario now that you know how to use music beds: you have spent several hours creating a video, editing it, searching for the perfect music to accompany it, building a website to display your work, and sharing it across several different social media platforms. All of that, just for someone to mute or delete it because it violated another person’s copyright.
It is the worst scenario for many people making videos, especially those just starting and lacking the resources to acquire music licenses. To avoid this issue, you can check the following sites that will provide you with free, royalty-free music.
- Creative Commons Music: With Creative Commons, musicians can freely distribute their works online. While each Creative Commons license is different, you can use someone else’s music without their permission if you credit them.
- Youtube Audio Library: Although the Audio Library in YouTube Studio houses a large collection of royalty-free audio, many artists are unaware of its existence. Mood, song title, artist, and musical style are only a few searchable parameters in the music library. Once you have uploaded your podcast to YouTube, you may use the site’s built-in tools to superimpose the downloaded audio over the video.
- Pixabay: You can find some of the best royalty-free music, photos, and even video on the online resource Pixabay. The portal features searchable libraries of music organized by genre and mood, as well as a library of ambiance sounds ideal for use in audio dramas and podcasts. There is no need to attribute the work to the original creator or pay a fee because every content is available under Pixabay’s license.
Final Words
With your newfound knowledge of music beds and their sources, you may easily add them and improve the quality of your podcasts, radio broadcasts, and videos.
