How To Pick the Best Background Music for Corporate Videos

Videos are quickly becoming the dominant way to deliver content to your:

• Customers
• Shareholders; and
• Employees

According to a 2019 survey of employees at over 500 companies across the United States, 91% reported their company uses videos for learning and development, 88% of which said video use is growing.

Most employees said they prefer videos as an effective learning tool to any other learning method.

Knowing that a majority of your employee education rides on your video presentation can make choosing the perfect background music for company videos intimidating, especially if you don’t know where to start.

Here are five tips to help you pick the right music for corporate videos. 

Understanding the video category will play a big part in identifying the right style of music. 

Once you’ve pinpointed your corporate video’s category, consider the mood you’d like to create around your video and choose music that supports that tone. 

Videos about company culture give new employees a chance to get to know the company ethos along with things like:

• What the company stands for
• How employees work together; and 
• A year in review

Consider your company’s spirit and choose background music that conveys the same feeling.

Pop music is often a good genre for company culture videos. Pop music can lean in different directions, but its polished, feel-good energy can create a positive atmosphere around your video.

Thanks to the rise of YouTube, tutorial videos have become a popular tool  to learn new or polish up old skills. 

Whether you have incorporated your team’s knowledge into helpful content or created animated whiteboard videos that highlight your products, educational content often gets bogged down with technical processes and complicated steps. 

You can counteract this by using lively, upbeat music to capture the viewer’s attention.

Some music you will find may be too busy or compete with your content. 

Don’t let the wrong music ruin your corporate videos.

You want high-quality music that is engaging, but doesn’t draw away from your content.

Music in the …

• Chillstep 
• Lo-fi; or
• Acoustic

… genres can help keep the mood light without getting in the way of important information. 

Regardless of the type of corporate video you’re creating, the background music should support your message.

The background music gives your employees a clue about what to expect before the video is interpreted, so be sure the music matches the message you’re trying to convey. 

Don’t forget to check that the genre of music fits the company’s image.

The better you understand your audience, the easier it will be to choose background music that will keep them engaged.

Knowing your employees can help you narrow down music by genre.

Even the corporate music genre, which provides music intended for business video communications, may not always fit your intended audience.

If you consider who you’re trying to reach, it may help you understand how to reach them.

Take just the age demographic for example, are your customers generally younger? Then they may enjoy genres like:

• Hip-hop
• Indie-Alternative; or 
• Rock

Are your employees in their mid-thirties to fifties? Older audiences may find other genres more suitable like:

• Classic Rock
• Country; or
• Soul/R&B

Or you can opt for a more flexible genre like Pop which can fit audiences of almost any age.

Budget may play a part in how you choose background music for your company videos.

Whether you have set aside funds to source background music or not, professional, high-quality options are available for every budget. 

Public domain music means the music isn’t protected by copyright.

You can find public domain content available as free downloads for both personal and commercial purposes. 

These “no-strings-attached” downloads allow you to …

• Use
• Edit
• Remix; and
• Share

… the music freely without any copyright infringement.

Royalty-free music offers music of all genres to be used for any purpose with the purchase of a monthly subscription.

For a small monthly price, you gain access and license to an entire library of royalty-free music. You can even monetize your videos without fear of copyright claims.

Some royalty-free music marketplaces even offer music specifically designed for background music in videos.

Creative Commons is a nonprofit where you will find access to free, standardized copyright licenses for music. 

While you can use Creative Commons (CC) licensed music for your corporate videos for free, you must follow specific requirements which vary based on six different license categories:

1. Commercial Use Attribution (CC BY): You must credit the creator, link to the CC license, and note if changes were made to the original content.
2. Commercial Use Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA): You must credit the creator, link to the CC license, note if changes were made to the original content, and license the new work with the same CC license or a compatible one.
3. Commercial Use Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND): You must credit the creator, link to the CC license, and note if changes were made to the original content. If you do alter the original content, you can’t publicly share the new work.
4. Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC): You can use the song for non-business purposes if you credit the creator, link to the CC license, and note if changes were made to the original content.
5. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA): You can use the song for non-business purposes if you credit the creator, link to the CC license, note if changes were made to the original content, and license the new work with the same CC license or a compatible one.
6. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND): You can use the song for non-business purposes if you credit the creator, link to the CC license, and note if changes were made to the original content. If you do alter the original content, you can’t publicly share the new work.

Since Creative Commons licensed music relies on properly categorized licenses and carefully followed requirements, getting cleared for legal use can get tricky.

If you have the budget, the most direct route to finding the right background music for your corporate videos is to hire a composer to create original music tailor-made for your company.

A skilled composer can convey the …

• Mood 
• Tone; and 
• Message 

… based on concepts in the video through bespoke music created especially for your employee demographic. 

A well-executed series of corporate videos have visual and audio cohesion across a series of videos. Musical cohesion can help convey a strong corporate brand to your employees.

At Houston Video we love a good soundtrack. 

We understand the subtle impressions that music can make and we harness that power to create effective and engaging corporate videos.

With experience in producing a variety of corporate videos like …

• Explainers
• Overviews
• Training videos
• Safety videos
• Onboarding videos
• Recruiting videos
• Product videos
• And more

… we can help you create a branded cohesive company soundtrack worthy of a feature film. 

Contact us today for a free consultation.