Music and sound are a simple, yet effective way to make an even more engaging podcast for your listeners. Using music in podcasts is a great way to define the tone of your podcast, make it instantly recognizable, and create an effective audio experience for your audience. With that in mind, let’s examine how various podcasters have used music and sound in their content with profound effects.
MUSIC: What’s the best place to add it?
As a podcaster you have three options to add music at the beginning or end as a kind of title / credits music, to divide podcast segments and as background music for interviews.
Your The podcast intro is the most important audio element They will ever create for your podcast. It’s the first thing prospective new listeners hear. The first thing to keep in mind is that your intro or pre-roll should be done with your audience at the forefront – make sure you are communicating what your podcast is about right away.
Forbes underscores its importance: “It’s the first piece of audio the listener will hear, so it’s important to cement a particular mood and sound to represent that particular podcast or song.”
Do you want some inspiration? Here are some examples of podcasters with really good introductory music – each in their own unique way helping to create a completely unique scene for their podcast.
Listen to the folksy intro of Friends with bitterness – the perfect intro to prepare for friendships:
Friends with bitterness from friends with bitterness
Or the electrical noises of the Feminist hot dog, Bring them into the headspace to celebrate feminist heroes in all their shapes and forms.
Feminist hot dog from NoCo FM
Finally, listen to the minimalist beats and female vocals that lead up to the podcast flesh – a podcast about the human body:
Meat from Jonathan Zenti
Music clips and sound effects are especially useful for episodes that are structured like stories. They help to mark important moments on your way through the beginning, middle and end – and add extra emotion to your interviews.
Another clever way to use special sound effects is to introduce new segments like Flash Messages. FQ radio does a great job of it; They produce short episodes that you can listen to as a playlist, with each episode separated by an effect:
FQ Radio from FQ Radio
As fascinating as a great voice is, even if we don’t realize it, part of the fun often comes from good podcast background music. Good background music for interviews is important, but also when the goal of the podcast is to tell a story or when you go into depth on a specific topic.
Good examples are: Bundyville – The soft strings in the background for the main storytelling and the electric tones to intone a spooky part of the story all help create an effect:
Bundyville from Oregon Public Broadcasting
Or Top story tonight Where stories from the past are reinterpreted in the current era of media and carefree piano music helps repeat modern times.
Top story tonight! by Jane Wells
Find the sound of your podcast
Now you know where to put the music and you need to find the right sound!
What are your options? It really comes down to: Copyrighted music, royalty-free (paid), royalty-free (free).
Before we go into detail, we want to underline the importance of music that is copyrighted. If it’s not your own music and you haven’t asked the owners for permission, don’t use it! This kind of behavior carries risks of the legal kind! Using music that isn’t originally yours in your productions can become very difficult – this is where royalty-free music comes in. Royalty free music is a license that requires a one-time payment in exchange for lifetime use, and there are free versions of royalty-free music as well.
Where can I find royalty-free music? Here are just three examples of some great options with great music catalogs:
| service | Art | price | Exclusive offer for Spreaker users |
| Epidemic sound | Monthly subscription to the entire music catalog | From € 13 / month | € 99.00 / year instead of € 156.00 / year |
| Jamendo | Different types of licenses and track packs | From € 9.99 / project | 29.99 € / quarter excl. VAT |
| Envato elements | Monthly subscription to the entire music catalog | From 14.50 € / m | |
| Premium beat | Flexible license options with unlimited use | Starts at
$ 59 / project |
|
| Music bed | Subscriptions or single song pricing | Starts at
$ 9 / month |
Jamendo and Epidemic noises are partners of Spreaker, so If you are one of our podcasters, you are entitled to a discount.
Somewhere in the middle of these options is music under the Creative Commons licenses, a great option if you are on a tight budget.
This is music that can be used if certain conditions are met, such as: E.g. when it is not used for commercial purposes (i.e. monetizing your podcast count).
The Legis Music Blog elaborates on the matter and also highlights some of the best options with music and sound effects library including Youtube Audio library, Free music archive, Musops, Dig.ccmixter and Incompetent.
If you are looking for something completely original, you can hire a musician via Fiverr? You can avoid all of these legal hassles and get something unique for your podcast!
Choosing your soundtrack
Choosing the right music for your show is all about using your personal intuition. Think about your audience, your podcast, the topics discussed – what tone would you like to convey to your listeners? The right music amplifies any ideas discussed and also has the potential to undermine the strength of your content! Bring it back to the basics when deciding what kind of music you want – is your podcast serious or is it fun? Do your topics change weekly or do you have an ongoing topic? Is it a two hour podcast that revolves around a conversation, or are there many different chats?
Looking at questions like these is a great way to direct your creativity!
Add music and sound through Spreaker Studio
Last but not least is the physical way you add sounds and music to an episode of your podcast via our Spreaker Studio mobile app or the desktop.
Spreaker Studio Mobile App:
- Tap the ‘+’ and import the selected file from the built-in file library, your Apple Music library, or a previously recorded draft.
- Select your file to start the import process
For your information: Third-party audio apps like Audioshare can share sounds directly with Spreaker Studio. These are displayed on the Drafts tab.
Spreaker Studio for Desktop:
With desktop you have Two options for adding songs from Spreaker Studio for desktop to your podcast.
Option 1: If you just want to insert a song or two, you can find the “Songs” section on your console and add the music file right from there by clicking the “+” button. You can add up to two tracks.
Option 2: If you want to add more than two songs, as in a playlist, you can select the “Playlist” section and add more than one song at a time by clicking the “+” or the “Add New Song” button from there.
There you have it! Adding music to your podcast is such an easy (and inexpensive) way to add a bit of character. The importance of sound effects should never be undermined to give your podcast that final professional touch!
