As a live streaming content creator, you know the importance of using music and sound effects to spice up your live show. Videos have a good reputation as an engaging medium, but without music it would be way much less enticing. To understand the importance of music in videos, just recall the time of silent movies. They succeeded in telling exciting stories without dialogue and creating a wealth of emotions simply through the music.

Benefits of Using Music for Live Streaming

There are many benefits to using music in your show, and some major ones include:

❶ Music Communicates Your Brand

Music is a key component in creating personalities and conveying your personal and business brand so that your live show can stand out from the rest. Whether it's instrumental or sung music, interesting sound effects or opulent orchestral work, your audience can easily conjure up your identity. Music is your personal statement that enables you to tell a more vivid and memorable story.

❷ Music Captures Attention

Do you know a lot of people use live streaming as background sound instead of attentively watching the show? One of the huge reasons is that the show simply lacks that musical oomph that would draw people to the show 100%.

When you use the right sound effects at the right moment, you can easily capture your audience's attention and let them know that something big or exciting is happening. This will hook your audience more to the show and increase the overall watch time.

❸ Music Amplifies Your Messages

People use all senses to receive and interpret messages, and when you play sound effects, you activate people's hearing and make your messages heard louder. Sound effects can create a certain atmosphere that can automatically bring your audience to the heart of the story. For example, if you are talking about ideas for party themes, you can play happy hawaii music to make people feel like they are at a tiki bar, or scary sound effects if the theme is about Halloween. Sound effects help you nail the message without trying too hard.

❹ Music Draws Your Community Closer Through Emotion

Music is super effective in establishing mood and eliciting emotions. With the right music, you can make your community associate with you, enabling them to take interest in you and your business. In this sense, you should think of music as an opportunity to create meaning for you, your brand, and your community. When you have the right music and you play it frequently, your audience will feel a sense of belonging when they hear the music.

Tips on the Selection of Right Music

Now that you know the benefits of using music in your show, we also want to give you some useful and actionable tips about selecting the right music or sound effects.

❶ Find the Right Mood

As you are planning your live show, take enough time to think about possible music or sound effects. It might be helpful to consider what mood you want to create at which moment. You can start by brainstorming your sound strategy around one or two of the following descriptors:

• Professional
• Funny
• Emotional
• Dramatic
• Playful
• Edgy

❷ Don't Mix Too Many Different Music Styles

Using music in your show follows less is more rule - It's super important not to overdo your show with various music. If you use too many different sounds, it will not only annoy your audience, but also confuse them - music represents and conveys your personalities and messages, so if you frivolously use sounds, your audience will have a hard time remembering your main points as well as your show. Instead, choose one or two sounds that work well with your brand and use them as your statement piece.

❸ Time Your Music

This is especially important, but demanding at the same time. You should always strive to bring the music at the right moment during your show, whether it's a happy moment when more audiences are subscribing to your channel, or an emotional moment when your guest is sharing her journey. Coordinating your music and content is key to making your content pop and memorable.

❹ Customize Music to Your Audience

Content creators tend to use their favorite music during live shows. While there is nothing outright wrong with this practice, a better way is to understand your audience and tailor your sound choices to them. For instance, if you have a super bubbly community, you should use light and cheerful music to engage with them; if you have a community from a specific culture, using sounds from that culture will help you get closer with your community.

❺ Respect Copyright

When you find music or sound effects that feel unmistakably you, you need to pay attention to if they are DMCA free before you enthusiastically start downloading them. This is super important if you do not want to get embroiled in a legal issue. There are many royalty- free music libraries on the internet that you can utilize, or if you have some resources, you can consider purchasing a license for a particular pop song.

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