Jen Moss helps you choose the right music for your podcast.
Picture this: A group of creatives from JAR Audio sits around the table with a client, listening to different cuts of music that might serve as the theme song for a new branded podcast.
Our sound team presents several selections, each from a different musical genre, each designed to complement the overall theme and tone of the show.
One by one, everyone gives their opinion.
“I like the first one.”
“I think it’s too Emo. I prefer the third one.”
Finally — the boss has his say:
“I don’t think any of these are it. Can you make it sound more like… jeans?”
Make it sound more like jeans. For the record, he was not referring to Lana Del Ray’s 2012 hit, Blue Jeans. He meant actual jeans.
This then led to a lot of laughs, and a lot of questions as our sound designer struggled to understand what the client was hearing in his head.
What kind of jeans? Stonewashed?
Freshly ironed?
It turned out what he wanted was a kind of alt. contemporary sound, with a whiff of Springsteen-Esque twangy guitar.
To him – this sound could be summed up as “jeans.”
This was the sound he associated with his brand.
It’s not just about music
I share this story as an example of how podcast music selection isn’t really just about music.
It’s about the association between a particular cut of music, and a certain feel, texture, memory, feeling, or location.
It’s also about the podcast audience, their taste and habits, and the content of the show itself.
Musical taste is highly personal and completely subjective.
There’s the question of choosing your recurring theme music, which is hard enough.
But beyond this, in the art of podcasting, every moment contains the potential for sound design and music.
As the mood of the podcast shifts or the location changes, the music needs to keep pace.
Some people prefer a light touch when it comes to the presence of music in a podcast, others like every square inch to be musically scored.
This can make it very challenging to select music for a podcast, especially when there are multiple stakeholders involved in the conversation.
So how do the pros do it?
To get some insight into the process, I spoke to two members of the JAR Audio team, Audio Designer Patrick Emile and Technical Director Sam Seguin. I asked them each what criteria they consider when choosing music in a podcast episode.
Patrick said he tries to mine down to the appropriate choice by following these steps, in order.
“First, I think about the target audience and their likely musical tastes. Then I consider the attitude and emotion of a particular sequence. And finally, I think about the rhythm of the story moment and vocal delivery.” – Patrick Emile (Sound Designer)
In addition, Patrick looks for pieces of music that can be reorganized easily and that have at least one good traditional element… something that can be manipulated, like reverb or echo, to create a kind of “sonic period, question mark, or exclamation point” in lieu of a simple fade out.
Sam Seguin agrees that musical “transitions” are critical things to be on the lookout for when choosing music because they give you more flexibility when you are editing. You can think of these transitions as musical mood swings or musical punctuation.
Sam adds:
“It’s not just about putting music under a section, but finding ways to pace the music rhythmically to accentuate points. In a way, you are remixing a track to make moments hit the dialogue better.” – Sam Seguin (Technical Director)
Another big factor to consider is balance.
Will the music you are choosing compete with, or support the dialogue?
Music that is very complex, very percussive, or “busy,” may be more challenging to integrate with spoken word elements of the podcast. It tends to “compete.”
This may be something you can fix by adjusting levels, or you may need to re-think your song choice, or song placement, to avoid this problem.
In addition, you want to ensure that your music selection is suggesting a feeling, but not “telling the audience what to feel.”
For instance, if an interviewee is describing her despair over the loss of her job, you may or may not need music at all under that section.
Sometimes, words are enough – and when you “over-score” emotionally charged segments this can backfire because listeners end up feeling emotionally manipulated, which causes them to disengage from the story.
Common sound design wisdom says that “good sound goes unnoticed.”
While this is not always true (sometimes you want the music and sound design to shine), it is a good adage to keep in mind.
When it comes to choosing music for your podcast, there are no hard and fast rules.
Only suggestions and time-worn lessons can be brought to bear.
In general, it’s helpful to remember that you can’t please everyone, but you can please yourself.
And chances are if you like it and think it sounds good – others will like it too.
So trust your own “inner ear” to lead the way.
