But how can you make the background music to help people hold their attention while not getting their attention to the music instead of what you’re saying? When the volume is too high, the music will overpower what you are saying and If background music is too low, it can paradoxically draw your audience attention to itself by making them strain to hear it, so the ideal background music is the one that invisibly helps your podcast without creating distractions. It’s much like giving small children a new toy to play with while you’re trying to get some work done without them disturbing you. The way it works is providing a non-invasive noise and pleasurable feelings, to effectively neutralize the unconscious attention system’s ability to distract us. Stay tuned because in next week's episode, Ramtin Arablouei from NPR's Throughline will show us how you can make wonderful music by using cheap instruments.Podcasts are all about what you talk in them but sometimes good background music can help to hold the attention of your audience. But done well, good music, in the right places, can really make your podcast shine. If you're not careful, it could turn a good story into a mess.

The key takeaway here is that music should always be intentional. They made their podcast about how young Native Americans like them get tired of people thinking they live in teepees and hunt for food when, in fact, they like to do a lot of the same things lots of kids do: like playing Fortnite or Call of Duty. Kind of like the story told in one of our favorite podcasts from last year, from students in Crow Agency, Montana. If you're not careful, using tired or cliche music can paint a person or place as being one-dimensional. The story the students told was strong and impactful on its own.Īs a storyteller, you have an important role in taking people to places that they've never been to. This was one of last year's grand-prizer winners of the Student Podcast Challenge. Here's a good example of a podcast that works without music: Murderous Mary & The Rise of Erwin.

But, he adds, in the right place it can add a lot of emotion or an added depth. Ramtin told us that many great podcasts don't use music at all. First, figure out what your story is, write and record it, and then add the score. Ramtin says that playing one note or one chord can go a long way.Īnother thing to note: Here at NPR, we don't add the music until we know exactly what we want to say. Your podcast music, or 'score,' should be simple - something with a beat and rhythm. Your goal isn't a song that's going to get all your friends to dance. Your music, he says, shouldn't be too busy or have too much going on. You want to create something that always feels like it needs something,' he told us. 'Music being used in audio should always have something missing. Ramtin also writes music for a lot of podcasts around NPR, too. In this week's episode of the Student Podcast Challenge podcast, we spoke to Ramtin Arablouei from NPR's Throughline podcast, about his approach to using music. OK, now that we've got all that out of the way, let's get to the fun part. That means make sure the song is relevant to the story that you're trying to tell. Can you take the original version of the 'Happy Birthday' song and perform an original cover of the song? Sure thing! But pay attention to this line in our rules. So does that mean you can play 'Happy Birthday' by Stevie Wonder? No. For examples of what is and is not public domain work, you can visit this website here. To be clear, 'public domain' does not mean 'publicly available ' it means that copyright has expired and the material is no longer under copyright protection. Some songs - like 'Happy Birthday' - are considered public domain. OK, you ask, What songs can I use? It's easy to understand why playing or covering 'Hey Ya!' by OutKast might be copyright infringement, but what about 'Happy Birthday'? Who was the first to sing it? Or better yet, who owns the song? This is why we (and our lawyers) require that you use only original material in your podcast. Translation: you can use music, but only if it's originally composed and performed by you or your classmates.Ĭopyright and trademark law is the legal mechanism that protects your ideas from other people using or stealing them (even if that someone isn't making money from your creation).

Background music for podcast