The Best Background Music For Your Wedding Highlight Video or Film
Music plays a huge part in how impactful your wedding highlight film will be. It’s also highly customizable from couple to couple, your music tastes are different, your wedding days are different, and the music that’s chosen for your wedding film will either detract from the video experience or add to it. In this blog, we’re going to talk about why we personally don’t use popular songs in our wedding films, and our process to choosing the best background music for wedding videos.
Top tracks today are top tracks for a reason. And you probably already have a song in mind that you can picture your wedding film playing to. But did you know that most videographers (ourselves included) will decline having a popular song in your wedding film for legal reasons?
Insert: Copyright Law. Copyright law exists for a very good reason. It protects the intellectual rights of the original recording artist of the song. Using their music in a wedding film without their permission is basically like stealing their work. Lawsuits and love don’t mix!
let’s say you definitely want a popular song for your wedding film, and you don’t care how much it costs, what’s the process like?
First off, let your videographer know! We pay a subscription to a reputable website that not only provides royalty-free music, but also allows us to license specific songs for use in wedding video work (for an additional fee). Once your videographer knows what song you want for your film, they can request a quote for licensing that song to be used which averages anywhere from a couple hundred dollars up to a couple thousand dollars! After we receive that quote, we will relay it to you, and you can have the final call if you want to proceed with that cost or not.
This isn’t an option for everyone, though, so…
What’s your option if you don’t want to license a popular song for your wedding film?
The other option is letting your videographer choose your wedding film music for you! This is how our process goes:
We send out a music questionnaire form to all of our couples who are receiving a wedding film. You and your fiancé will fill out that form, which touches on things like: “List any inspiration videos”, “What’s your favorite and most hated genres of music?” and “What are 2-10 inspiration songs that you love for your highlight film?” along with other questions.
We film! We don’t choose music until AFTER your wedding day. Why? It allows us to spend more time with you guys, observe your interaction with family, friends, and each other. We take time to absorb the feeling of the day, whether its more of a party vibe all day, or relaxing and romantic, etc.
After the wedding day, along with the completed questionnaire, we will start going through all of the footage, choose the best clips to use, and start to formulate the story of your wedding day. At that point the music will be chosen!
Now, you might be thinking… “That’s kinda scary, not having the final say in the music choice for my own wedding film!” So, how can you ensure that you’re going to be satisfied with the wedding film that’s delivered to you?
Trust.
Trust is SO important when choosing your videographer. Make sure you’ve looked at multiple examples of their work, focus on the audio specifically and how it makes you feel (this includes the music, the added sounds of background noise, and any speaking points). Does it evoke emotion in you? If you’re feeling emotional over a strangers wedding film, imagine seeing yourself in your own wedding film!
How do you build + Establish Trust with your videographer?
Ask questions about the videographers process when choosing music, and even their history with music (if they have any or not). For example, Manny has an extensive background in music. He played in bands for years, has taken classes on music theory, and is fascinated with how music affects us on a psychological level. Music is his passion, and because of that, choosing the music for every wedding film is his favorite part of the process!
Getting the perfect music is a huge decision, by keeping these points in mind and trusting in your videographer, there’s no doubt that your wedding film will be absolutely amazing!
The biggest takeaway we would say is this, make sure you LOVE the work that your videographer is putting out. That’s almost a guarantee that you’re going to love your own film! If you’re feeling emotional over a strangers wedding film, imagine how emotional you’ll feel when seeing your own!