Liven Up Your Podcast With Music
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Adding music and sound effects to your podcast offers a variety of benefits. They set up the overall audio theme, signal the start and end of the show and introduce segments. Sometimes they can even be used to prompt the introduction of each individual host or to punctuate a point within a discussion.
Though most of these are obviously throwbacks to traditional FM talk radio shows, they are nevertheless stable and proven elements of a good program and also applicable for podcasting. However, you can’t just grab some track you like off your library of MP3s, you have to choose ones carefully, taking into consideration the image you’re intending your podcast to carry.
Here are a few things to remember when choosing the right music for your podcast.
Your Genres
Generally, you have a handful of genres to choose from, and while each one has its own subgenres with their matching specific feel, it’s best to choose ones that are upbeat and catchy. Music genres like rock, hip hop and electronica with their thumping beats and instrumental orchestrations are engaging and can help entice your listener.
A couple of weeks ago, we helped you plan your podcast by determining the objectives as to why you’re even creating one. Choose the music that aligns with your objectives and is appropriate with your podcast’s chosen field of interest and your target audience.
For instance, if your podcast is about street basketball, you can choose hip hop to reflect the urban culture that formed around the sport or if you’re all about extreme sports, you can integrate some listener-friendly subgenre of punk rock, a genre attributed to its high octane, adrenaline pumping culture. Likewise, for video game podcasts, you can have an 8-bit music sequence, either continuous or looped.
Original Music
If you have the resources, you can even commission a professional composer to create original track/s. This is also good for branding, to provide a distinct flavor your listeners can identify you with and differentiate you from other podcasts. What’s more, since you technically own the rights to the tracks, you can also extend their use to other properties and for promotions off line.
Pre-existing Tracks
If you have a specific track in mind from your favorite musician, you can’t just import it into your multitrack sound editor and launch your podcast; you must have the rights to use that music. This is where Podsafe music comes in. It refers to the audio tracks legally allowed to be used in podcasts. And by legal, we mean actually securing the rights to use the music from the management company or record label who owns the copyrights, and not just getting a go signal from musician.
For this, you can visit sites like Music Alley with its broad range of tracks from different bands and musicians across every genre and even features the podcasts that use them. Musicians can submit their music here and label them as Podsafe and you, as a podcaster in search of music, can get tracks ala carte.
On the other hand, should you decide on using a track from an independent musician, you must first ask for permission first before putting anything into motion. A good site for finding great indie tracks is Rcrd Lbl. You can search its database of musicians by Artist and Label and it’ll generate lists of tracks from every genre and their remixed versions.
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RSpears @ May 6, 2010
