How To NOT Use Sound In Your Videos..
I've been thinking about this a lot lately for various reasons. But I see a lot of marketing videos where the music made for the videos is just horrible. Or the music was just picked to make the video "less boring", but the person who created the video has no real clue what type of reaction their background music is actually creating.
You can have a great pitch, but if music in the pitch is used improperly, you will make people anxious, and create a totally opposite effect. They won't even want to listen to your video/clip JUST BECAUSE the tone of the music is incongruent to what you're trying to promote. They won't know why your video sucked, and you won't know it either, but a sound engineer could probably tell in a few minutes what caused that effect.
I KNOW that deconstructing music is a boring topic for a lot of people, so think more in terms of sound if that helps simplfy things for you. We are viewing sound as everything that comes out of our mouths, the music we listen to, what sounds influences US, and what sounds influence OTHER PEOPLE.
Let me start by saying I've been engineering sounds for over a decade now. I know almost too much about sounds and how they influence emotion. I majored in psychology at my uni, and my thesis was "the mediated influences of musical pitch and key upon mood". I found some very interesting results when I did this study, which caused me to never look at music the same way ever again (this was about 6 years ago).
I suggest that people start taking sound a little bit more seriously, and realize that sounds can have VERY significant effects on peoples emotions and moods. In fact I'd even go as far as saying our ears allow our brains to be influenced more significantly than our eyes do. Yet we are all such visual creatures and tend to ignore the true power of sound.
___________________________________________
The study I did in college tested music on buying behavoir, music on mood, then music specifically for the use of art therapy.
I ran LOTS of tests, and all my tests essentially pointed to the same flaws in sound. However, because the data would be a little too overwhelming for most people, I will keep this short and somewhat generalized.
So what did I find? I found a lot of interesting concepts that were very consistent from one test to the next.
Heres one important concept - *NOISE*
I hear LOTS of noise in peoples videos. Noise is one of the first things to induce anxiety when it comes to sound. It is the first thing our brains will notice just because it sticks out like a sore thumb. It is EVERY FREQUENCY in the spectrum and this overwhelms peoples minds immediately. The effect noise has in sound would be similar to the effect of putting a distorted image over a hi resolution image. It would look like CRAP. Yet so many people still insist on posting low resolution videos on youtube. Why do you think there is so few accomplished musician who post low resolution videos of their own music? ( a fan might, but rarely will the artist) All the accomplished musicians know to stick with HD, so I would hope that all accomplished marketers would do the same thing.
I ran this 1 test on 250 people alone, and music w/out noise, had a much more positive reaction on buying behavoir than music with noise. This is something I consider very important, just due to how many videos on youtube contain anxiety provoking noise in them.
Heres another great tip when it comes to sounds. Do you know what else had an effect very similar to noise? Compression. Since most people can't identify overly compressed music (unless you're a musician/sound engineer which most people aren't), I suggest you learn how to do this as a marketer.
We played a series of various tracks for our participants, tracks that were over compressed, vs tracks that had no compression at all, the folks listening to the noncompressed tracks showed significantly more buying behavoirs/positive emotions (keep in mind that positive emotions will not alone trigger people to buy, its the sequence and how its arranged that matters most) then the folks who listened to the overcompressed music.
There is also a good logical explanation why. First, overcompression can create noise from distortion. But more importantly, overcompressed sounds squash all the natural dynamics that the sounds were originally recorded with. It is that ORGANIC QUALITY that most people respond to and enjoy. Once you do this, you destroy the natural quality of the music. You can have 2 versions that sound very alike, when one version creates strong engaging emotions, and another version creates anxiety and irritability.
To recap, make sure your sounds contain no noise at all, and make sure they are not overcompressed. These are 2 major sins in the music world.
What else creates anxiety in music/sound?
Speed of music will also do this along with pitch. You might ask well what kinda of music makes people buy things? What we found in our study was this. Fast music generally creates anxiety, slow music relaxes people. Hi pitched music makes people happy, too high pitched makes them anxious. Too low pitched makes them sad. In general, moderately high pitched, faster music, in a major key, will trigger people to buy. It motivates and engages people. While slow, low pitched music in a minor key just makes people sad, doesn't motivate them to do much other than be sad.
So let me try and keep this simple for you.
What was the most important thing we found overall aside from key/pitch/timing/distortion/noise?
That would be congruence/consistency.
One of the most predictable things we found was background music needs to be 100% congruent with the tone of the pitch you're delivering. LOTS OF PEOPLE SCREW THIS UP ON YOUTUBE. If you are just downloading tracks, and putting the full songs as background music, I guarantee you're doing it wrong.
You need to EDIT that track, so the mood of the track strictly matches the mood of your pitch.
I can not even count how many times I have seen this one rule violated by marketers on this forum. I'm not an expert at marketing by any means, but one thing I know a lot about is sounds like I said. If your pitch starts off sad, SO SHOULD THE SONG!
Then maybe you keep doing your pitch, and it winds up becoming overall more optimistic. It engages people and makes them happy. But the song you CHOSE was a SAD TRACK. So people are hearing your optimistic voice, but hearing sad melodies in the background. If your pitch ends by resolving anxiety or a sad tone, your music needs to be sequenced the SAME WAY.
Finally, you can have a track that sounds sad, but is overally an optimistic track. Take Giuseepe Ottaviani - Fallen.
Giuseppe Ottaviani ft. Faith - Fallen (Original Mix) - 2009 - HQ AUDIO - YouTube
This is one track that sounds like a very sad track, even the name itself implies it should be sad. But you listen to the track, and you don't feel sad at all. You feel moved, you might not even be sure exactly how you feel, but for most people it will be optimisim due to the key. The reason is the plucked melody is a major chord that comes in at 3:06, the dissonance between a sad voice, and a major chord can create a very powerful effect in the mind of humans (only when done by a talented professional). Just don't forget the dominant emotion in this track isn't sadness, but optimism. Music is not always as simple as it seems, just another reason I think I've loved it so much my whole life.
Remember to always be consistent in the selections you make, and don't be afraid to edit a track down so its more congruent with the tone of your offer. Overcompression and noise are a huge no-no, and you shouldn't have background music just to "fill out" the video. Thats a horrible thing to do imo. The use of silence is a whole nother topic and can very powerfully engage emotions. This is done by allowing people to use their imaginations. You set a strong tone that engages people, take it away, and people will wind up amplifying that effect in their minds. The music needs to engage people in the same exact way your pitch does. It needs to have direction in the same exact way that your pitch does. When added together, the effect should be cumulative, and not distracting. When you ignore this, and just start throwing random tracks in the background, you will wind up creating many random/unpredictable emotions as well.
G/luck!
-Red
You can have a great pitch, but if music in the pitch is used improperly, you will make people anxious, and create a totally opposite effect. They won't even want to listen to your video/clip JUST BECAUSE the tone of the music is incongruent to what you're trying to promote. They won't know why your video sucked, and you won't know it either, but a sound engineer could probably tell in a few minutes what caused that effect.
I KNOW that deconstructing music is a boring topic for a lot of people, so think more in terms of sound if that helps simplfy things for you. We are viewing sound as everything that comes out of our mouths, the music we listen to, what sounds influences US, and what sounds influence OTHER PEOPLE.
Let me start by saying I've been engineering sounds for over a decade now. I know almost too much about sounds and how they influence emotion. I majored in psychology at my uni, and my thesis was "the mediated influences of musical pitch and key upon mood". I found some very interesting results when I did this study, which caused me to never look at music the same way ever again (this was about 6 years ago).
I suggest that people start taking sound a little bit more seriously, and realize that sounds can have VERY significant effects on peoples emotions and moods. In fact I'd even go as far as saying our ears allow our brains to be influenced more significantly than our eyes do. Yet we are all such visual creatures and tend to ignore the true power of sound.
___________________________________________
The study I did in college tested music on buying behavoir, music on mood, then music specifically for the use of art therapy.
I ran LOTS of tests, and all my tests essentially pointed to the same flaws in sound. However, because the data would be a little too overwhelming for most people, I will keep this short and somewhat generalized.
So what did I find? I found a lot of interesting concepts that were very consistent from one test to the next.
Heres one important concept - *NOISE*
I hear LOTS of noise in peoples videos. Noise is one of the first things to induce anxiety when it comes to sound. It is the first thing our brains will notice just because it sticks out like a sore thumb. It is EVERY FREQUENCY in the spectrum and this overwhelms peoples minds immediately. The effect noise has in sound would be similar to the effect of putting a distorted image over a hi resolution image. It would look like CRAP. Yet so many people still insist on posting low resolution videos on youtube. Why do you think there is so few accomplished musician who post low resolution videos of their own music? ( a fan might, but rarely will the artist) All the accomplished musicians know to stick with HD, so I would hope that all accomplished marketers would do the same thing.
I ran this 1 test on 250 people alone, and music w/out noise, had a much more positive reaction on buying behavoir than music with noise. This is something I consider very important, just due to how many videos on youtube contain anxiety provoking noise in them.
Heres another great tip when it comes to sounds. Do you know what else had an effect very similar to noise? Compression. Since most people can't identify overly compressed music (unless you're a musician/sound engineer which most people aren't), I suggest you learn how to do this as a marketer.
We played a series of various tracks for our participants, tracks that were over compressed, vs tracks that had no compression at all, the folks listening to the noncompressed tracks showed significantly more buying behavoirs/positive emotions (keep in mind that positive emotions will not alone trigger people to buy, its the sequence and how its arranged that matters most) then the folks who listened to the overcompressed music.
There is also a good logical explanation why. First, overcompression can create noise from distortion. But more importantly, overcompressed sounds squash all the natural dynamics that the sounds were originally recorded with. It is that ORGANIC QUALITY that most people respond to and enjoy. Once you do this, you destroy the natural quality of the music. You can have 2 versions that sound very alike, when one version creates strong engaging emotions, and another version creates anxiety and irritability.
To recap, make sure your sounds contain no noise at all, and make sure they are not overcompressed. These are 2 major sins in the music world.
What else creates anxiety in music/sound?
Speed of music will also do this along with pitch. You might ask well what kinda of music makes people buy things? What we found in our study was this. Fast music generally creates anxiety, slow music relaxes people. Hi pitched music makes people happy, too high pitched makes them anxious. Too low pitched makes them sad. In general, moderately high pitched, faster music, in a major key, will trigger people to buy. It motivates and engages people. While slow, low pitched music in a minor key just makes people sad, doesn't motivate them to do much other than be sad.
So let me try and keep this simple for you.
What was the most important thing we found overall aside from key/pitch/timing/distortion/noise?
That would be congruence/consistency.
One of the most predictable things we found was background music needs to be 100% congruent with the tone of the pitch you're delivering. LOTS OF PEOPLE SCREW THIS UP ON YOUTUBE. If you are just downloading tracks, and putting the full songs as background music, I guarantee you're doing it wrong.
You need to EDIT that track, so the mood of the track strictly matches the mood of your pitch.
I can not even count how many times I have seen this one rule violated by marketers on this forum. I'm not an expert at marketing by any means, but one thing I know a lot about is sounds like I said. If your pitch starts off sad, SO SHOULD THE SONG!
Then maybe you keep doing your pitch, and it winds up becoming overall more optimistic. It engages people and makes them happy. But the song you CHOSE was a SAD TRACK. So people are hearing your optimistic voice, but hearing sad melodies in the background. If your pitch ends by resolving anxiety or a sad tone, your music needs to be sequenced the SAME WAY.
Finally, you can have a track that sounds sad, but is overally an optimistic track. Take Giuseepe Ottaviani - Fallen.
Giuseppe Ottaviani ft. Faith - Fallen (Original Mix) - 2009 - HQ AUDIO - YouTube
This is one track that sounds like a very sad track, even the name itself implies it should be sad. But you listen to the track, and you don't feel sad at all. You feel moved, you might not even be sure exactly how you feel, but for most people it will be optimisim due to the key. The reason is the plucked melody is a major chord that comes in at 3:06, the dissonance between a sad voice, and a major chord can create a very powerful effect in the mind of humans (only when done by a talented professional). Just don't forget the dominant emotion in this track isn't sadness, but optimism. Music is not always as simple as it seems, just another reason I think I've loved it so much my whole life.
Remember to always be consistent in the selections you make, and don't be afraid to edit a track down so its more congruent with the tone of your offer. Overcompression and noise are a huge no-no, and you shouldn't have background music just to "fill out" the video. Thats a horrible thing to do imo. The use of silence is a whole nother topic and can very powerfully engage emotions. This is done by allowing people to use their imaginations. You set a strong tone that engages people, take it away, and people will wind up amplifying that effect in their minds. The music needs to engage people in the same exact way your pitch does. It needs to have direction in the same exact way that your pitch does. When added together, the effect should be cumulative, and not distracting. When you ignore this, and just start throwing random tracks in the background, you will wind up creating many random/unpredictable emotions as well.
G/luck!
-Red