Intro Music for YouTube - A Complete Guide
Since YouTube began, content creators have looked to build successful careers using the worldwide video sharing platform! A large part of building their video creation and sharing career has been creating an intro that not only helps to hook new viewers in, but also to help create a recognizable identity for their channel! Intro music for YouTube videos has play a large role in this, much like intro music has played important roles in many different things even long before content creation started! In this guide, we’re going to go over what this music is, why it’s important, and where to find it. Let’s get started!
What is Intro Music for YouTube?
In order to understand intro music, and choose an effective track for your YouTube channel, it's important to really break down what exactly it is and what the track or tracks you choose should be! Intro music for your videos should be a track that is anywhere between 5 to 30 seconds long, and one that matches the energy and theme of the content in your videos. Let's dive a little deeper into this!
Typically, you don't want your intro to be very long and drawn out. Two of the most important uses of an intro is to create just enough enticement to get viewers to stay for your video, in other words increased viewership and an increased retention rate of that viewership! Now while retention rate has a lot to do with the content that's in your video after the opening, intros can still have a lot to do with encouraging viewers to stay longer! These two uses are achieved using:
- The right footage or content
- The right length of intro for your niche
- The right sort of music for your content and niche
All of these work together to create one of the most important parts of your videos, and it's important to consider them all. For example, let's say that you're making a channel about auto repair, a popular niche on YouTube. During your intro you should feature various footage of popular, well-known or widely used vehicles to show viewers that their car is something that may be covered in your content. It should also feature close up shots of parts of vehicles being worked on and even being explained.
It should stick to a length that is relatively short but long enough to interest your possible viewers. This is important as people watching your channel may be quickly looking for a tutorial on fixing something specific and may not want to sit through a minute long intro, though this isn't the case for all niches.
Lastly, it should feature the type of musical track that fits into the niche and with your content. For vehicle repair, you may want to use something along the line of high energy, rock, or even high-tech synth styled music. This is important as it creates the right feel for the intro and keeps it from being to empty sounding which can make for a dull, non-atmospheric intro. Remember, you want to create certain atmospheres or senses in your intro to attract your ideal viewership!
These three all work together to create an ideal intro for your content, and music plays a very major role!
Intro Music for Building Brand Identity on YouTube
Intro music also serves another important role on YouTube, and that is building your content's brand identity! This is the sort of music, that when people hear it, they think about your channel. They know that, even if it's not exclusive to your channel, that's the music that your channel uses, and this can be ideal for getting them to take a look at your videos to see if you've added any more new content!
This can have a benefit on your views by pulling in viewers that have watched you before, or even your regular subscribers! The ideal viewership with create a longer retention rate, which of course is good for your content because YouTube's algorithm loves content with longer retention rates!
How to Find Intro Music for YouTube
There are a few different ways to find the right track or tracks for your videos. YouTube itself has a library of music that you can use for your intros. You can also have music made by professional producers, though this route can get a little expensive. In this section, we're going to go over our specialty, the third option, which is finding royalty free music for your YouTube Intro.
This sort of track is very easy to find. There are many sites, like ours, that license this type of music for use, and all you have to do is view their libraries to find the track or tracks that fit what you're looking for. Doing it this way, you can find tracks that are much less used, especially if you choose an exclusive track which can generally only be used by one person. Here are exclusive tracks from our site so that you can get a good general ideal of what exactly these are: Exclusive Music That can Only be Bought Once! - Stock Music Central
You can also save a considerable amount of money as many of these sites are very affordable, even having free options. Here are free tracks from out site as an example of the sort of free to use music that you can find: Free Music Royalty Free for Commercial and Non-Commercial - Stock Music Central
You can even find intro songs that are made specifically for YouTube videos, which means that they're created at the right length and in the genres and niches that are popular on YouTube. This means that you won't have to edit them, which can make adding them to your videos all the easier. Here's a library from our site of tracks specifically for YouTube intros: Intro Music for YouTube that’s Royalty Free and Never Expires! - Stock Music Central
Intro Music for YouTube FAQ
How long is too long for a YouTube video intro? Typically you don’t want to go any longer than 30 seconds. Keeping it as short as possible while still relaying your brand identity is the best way to go!