The Ultimate Guide to Cinematic Music: How to Use Music for Film in 2025

Since the beginnings of the first cinematic productions all the way up to today, cinematic music has played an important role in movies. And even before film music was used in theatre throughout early history. Music has a way of helping immerse an audience into a story! It also helps create the atmosphere of the story being presented. It has helped many producers, writers, directors, and actors create amazing productions that continue to bring in viewers for years! It has also helped those productions remain in the memories of those who have enjoyed them.

In fact, many films are so well renowned for their musical tracks, that entire soundtracks have been made available to be purchased outside of the movies that they were apart of! For example, practically everyone remembers the awesome soundtracks for films like Star Wars, Pirates of The Carribean, and musicals like The Phantom of The Opera and the classic Wizard of Oz. Music was artistically applied to the right moments in these films to create an amazing experience for the viewers,! The same thing is being done in todays world where media like videos, vlogs, podcasts, and even the growing independent film industry havebecome popular!

How To Find The Right Cinematic Music

Finding the right songs for your work is going to boost your efforts in creating a great and enjoyable experience for your audience! Finding music that you can used foT your movie may seem like a difficult, and perhaps expensive task, but it doesn't have to be. Here are several ways you can go about finding the right cinematic music you need. As with anything, keeping it simple can go a long way!  

Hire a Composer

One way is to hire a composer, or a studio to create and record the various tracks you'll need for your film or video. When doing this it's important to remember that there are many composers out there so you will need to shop around. Interview them and spend some time listening to any samples they might have or previous work that they have done.

Keep in mind that you have the right to shop around for your composer and even if you find one that has a considerable reputation of producing good work, make sure that what they produce is going to be right for your project. Also make sure that you work out the right sort of agreement for your use of the tracks they make for you. It may cost more money, but if you can, we recommend making sure that full rights to the tracks belong to you or your production company. This can stop a lot of issues that may pop up in the future, especially the problem of you losing the rights to use what was made for your film or videos.

Of course, we also recommend considering the hard work of any artist who may be making it for you and give them due credit if you and the artist agree that they want to be credited. Offering to give them good billing may even help lower the price they charge as it will also help to increase their career. If you keep in mind that things can be beneficial for everyone, it may go easier on your budget. Building relationships is an important part of making movies! Do this right, and on your next project, you may not have to spend all the time that you did looking for a composer on your first project.

Royalty Free Cinematic Music 

The next way, the one that we specialize in, is finding premade tracks that work well for your production. We find that it is often a good idea to choose royalty free music when doing this because having a lot of different songs in your work that you have to pay royalties for can get very expensive. Websites, like ours, often offer various types of tracks that can fit into various situations and scenes, which can be great for longer videos and movie productions that will have need of different songs to fit into different places. Though this option may not take as long as the first, you may still find yourself spending a good amount of time looking for the right songs, and you may even find yourself inspired to make additions or changes to your scenes by hearing the ways that different tracks flow.

When picking the right cinematic music for your project, it's always going to be helpful to have an idea of the various styles and types of songs that you are going to want to use for the different parts in your work. Of course, if you haven't really decided on that sort of thing yet, listening to the samples of the tracks that are for sale can actually help you get a better idea of the ones that you want to use.

Public Domain Cinematic Music

As of 2025, music created before 1929 is considered public domain. This means that it can be used without having to worry about copyright infringmet! This can be extremely useful and easy going on your films budget, but you will have to seek out the music. If your film takes place in more modern, or future times, it can be hard to find something that will work, however it is possible. Going this route has it's own benefits and cons. 

How to Use it

Making a scene more immersive and enjoyable is often all about planning and observing. Before you start filming, whether it's a vlog, YouTube video, or even a full-length movie, planning the scenes out is often going to help improve not only the atmosphere, entertainment, and cohesiveness of the project, but also the overall quality! Seeing well thought out and professionally made footage can boost the level of enjoyment among your viewers.

This includes picking the right moments to have tracks playing in your scenes. If you already have an idea of the sort of tracks that you want to use for specific moments, this can be much easier to do. However, if you don't, observing what you've filmed multiple times over can help you decide on what you’d like to use.

For example, you may have a terrifying moment in your video that you've decided needs creepy cinematic music like this one: Creepy Cinematic Music to help boost the sort of feel that you're going for. Observing the scene carefully can help you choose the best way to use the song that you've selected, and it can help you choose how to integrate it into the perfect moment which can help increase the enjoyment of the viewer while they watch!

This part of production can be very time consuming, that's for sure. However, it is worth it because the artistic quality of your work can be greatly improved by how you use the songs that you've selected. This part of the creative process can also be a lot of fun! 

If you'd like to browse some cinematic music to start getting ideas about how you may want to use it, we have some available here for all your content creation needs, just follow this link: Cinematic Music (stockmusiccentral.com)

 

Cinematic Music Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use popular songs in short film projects? Not without obtaining the right license, or getting permission from the owner of the rights to the song. Even if it's a short film, the same rules regarding music use still apply, especially when making money from the project.

How do I Know if I'm Over Stuffing or Overusing Music in a Film Project? This can often times be easy to do. One of the best way to avoid this is by tripple checking all the scenes that you use musing in. You want to make sure that the music feels more natural and compliments an builds the themes and atmosphere that you're going for. Too much music can make the project messy. This is actually one of the reasons that the editing process is important!

What Volume Should I Use for The Music in My Movies? This is another important thing to consider during the filming and editing process. Consider the most important thing first, which is can you clearly hear the dialogue and sound effects over the music. Secondly, consider the various situations happening in your scenes. Some may call for louder, action styled music, and some may call for calmer music. Take your time as this is a very artistic step in making movies.