You know that this whole start sequence looked like… well… this?

I mean… you wouldn’t see it coming, huh? Sound design is something I am still learning and I do believe that it changes a lot.

In today’s blog post I want to talk about getting music and sounds into your videos. If you are like me you probably know the feeling when you get an amazing video idea, sit down to make an edit and then... the struggle starts. You can make the most epic footage, but without the right sound or music to it - it lacks this special touch.

One of the things I regret as a creator is that at the beginning of my YouTube career in 2015 I was using the “copyright-free” music that I found on YouTube. And sometimes it turned out it was not copyright free. As much as it didn’t matter to me back then - I do now regret doing so because some of my older videos still get the views and I am missing out on the passive income they could generate. (Sometimes they also get copyrights after months or years from posting too).

So in this post, I want to share 3 tips on finding music and Sound effects for your videos in a quick and effective way.

Now, this post is not sponsored (which is unfortunate) but I will be sharing with you my favourite place to find music and sound effects - EpidemicSound, if you join via the link you will get a one-month free subscription to it for unlimited music and sound effects downloads. Signing up by using my link will get me a bit of a commission, and a free month for you so it’s a win-win situation.

Let’s get to those 3 points though!

1. Listen to the music (like for real)

I know it sounds weird but hear me out! Sometimes we just skip through the songs listening for 5 seconds to each… which is nothing bad, really. I do it too a lot. But! It’s better to listen through the entire song or listen to the music while doing something else. For example:

When I am writing scripts or working on other things - I am opening Epidemic Sound and listening through the music they have there (either training stuff, the songs they are proposing to me, or something based on what I downloaded before). Skipping through the ones I don’t like, but favouriting and downloading the ones that were nice or spoke to me. After this, I open all of the downloaded songs and listen through them while doing something around.

Like… cooking or reading. Deleting the ones I didn’t really like or were like a “meh”

This helps me narrow down the future searches and also creates a big music folder on my computer with stuff I know I liked.

And since we are here: be sure to let me know in the comments what type of music you listen to most. I am personally listening to rock, metal and classical the most and it’s an odd mix. (You can probably hear it a lot on my Instagram)

record a couple of those This episode is actually sponsored by… My book! (I have no sponsors so let me sponsor myself). Yes, I have written a book about becoming a full-time content creator and making it a business. You can buy it on Amazon wherever you are and the link to it is in the description box. Thanks very much for considering it and let’s go back to the video now!

2. Create your own playlists

Since we are listening to those songs anyway - it is easy to create playlists and fav songs. What I have on my computer is a simple system. Separate folders for YouTube (which btw has subfolders of cinematics, vlogs, happy, inspirational, Reviews etc), SFX (which also have its own subcategories) and “Just nice” which is generally a place where I throw stuff I don’t know what to do with but it’s nice.

It’s just like all of the playlists you have on your Spotify etc. Easy access to stuff you know you like.

3. Make a plan.

I know that dumping your drone footage and adding some random music on top of it without any further edits is easy - just please stop doing that You have so many possibilities and opportunities to make those epic shots even more epic. Make them stand out in a wave of drone shots all over YouTube. make them engaging! I mean… You just watched me get out of bed and making tea. And it seemed entertaining since you are still here.

I know that for a studio tour or a happy vlog I will use some beats or house music. I know I will be making this video anyway, so I can search for this music beforehand. I can also listen to it while making my video, to make it even better with the feeling. I wouldn’t use it for some epic life event like… My first FPV Flight on the speeder (which btw you can watch the full video of here.)

Now… when it goes to sound effects. Do you need them?

Ask yourself… Do you like videos with actual sounds in them or just the music? Do you like the sounds of the sea in someone’s drone vlog footage from the beach? Because trust me or not - those are added.

So, to find the perfect sound for my clip I go to Epidemic Sound and type the SFX I am searching for (and for real sometimes figuring out what I am looking for takes the most time. I may be calling my family and ask them how would they name a sound. I sometimes google it too). Epidemic Sound (or Audiio - this is also an affiliate link with 10% off for you) also has sound effects category with a ton of playlists to help you out. (which may or may not be a lifesaver sometimes)

Now what you will find here are some categories, such as footsteps, whoosh, water and you know where I am going with this.

So for the morning green tea, I used some ambient sounds (check the video), delicate music, water splashes, cutlery sounds etc. Shot of the timeline if possible As you can see in the sequence before that though - I have used a lot of sounds that were not there. And without them, the whole sequence would be sad and out of touch.

I hope those 3 tips help you out with your own, creative process and help you with finding a place where you can gather all of those sounds and songs! Once again - if you want to give EpidemicSound or Audiio a try click any of the links for you to try out for a month for free. Please let me know if you would like me to make a deep dive into the sound design, so we can edit one video together. maybe I could edit something with you? In parallel? Let me know in the comments! Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for the visuals and more in-depth topics!

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Until next time… stay awesome! Bye!