Music For WEDDING Films
This is an important topic that often doesn’t get talked about, and can lead to confusion! We wanna be as open and transparent as possible about it, so here’s some info!
TELL ME ABOUT THE MUSIC PROCESS.
The first thing to know is that, we only use licensed music, because we believe artists & musicians must be paid for the use of their work. Also, we really enjoy not being sued by record labels!
Since we’re a business and not just making home videos, videographers are liable for copyright infringement, because we would be using their intellectual property to profit.
Another good reason to use licensed music, is that YOUTUBE, VIMEO, and other sites have algorithms working to automatically take down anything with a mainstream music track.
BUT MY FRIEND’S VIDEOGRAPHER USED BEYONCE?
Yep, tons of dudes out there doing the wrong thing, and if they run a full business doing it they could get sued.
Licenses for those types of songs can cost thousands of dollars to license, and most medium to big record labels won’t even respond to a request for quote from a wedding videographer, since our budget wouldn’t be worth them getting out of bed.
SO WHAT KIND OF MUSIC CAN YOU USE EXACTLY?
Primarily, we use these this awesome website, Musicbed.com
If you like any of the music in my wedding films, there’s likely tons more like it on Musicbed.com. There are some other sites such as Artlist.io and Soundstripe, but I find that the music on those sites tends to sound more generic 🤷♂️=
If you’re the type of person who wants to work with us, but wants to have greater input/control over the way the film will sound, we encourage you to bookmark Musicbed or download the app and just try to search around for different playlists, and put them on during your workout or during a commute, and just try to find 5-10 songs that connect with you.
We can’t guarantee we’ll use all the exact songs you picked, but we’ll definitely try to use them as our first option(s).
Also note that musicbed offers instrumental versions of all their music, even if the song normally has vocals. I find this is helpful due to the fact that sometimes the lyrics aren’t really right, but the underlying music just sounds great. Also, can mute the vocals during certain parts to allow us to hear audio from the ceremony/speeches.
OKAY WHAT ABOUT THE CREATIVE ASPECT OF PICKING MUSIC? AND CAN WE BE INVOLVED?
I don’t know… it’s artttt mannnn. 😆
This part of the job is one of the most challenging, because I try to strike a balance between music that can be a statement versus music that can simply compliment an existing story and sit neatly in the background.
There are times when I may want some big, powerful chorus that builds to a big outro…
… and there are times when I may want some peaceful moments with an acoustic guitar or even a melodic lo-fi beat.
We also have to make sure the music matches what we’re seeing and matches your overall vibe. As an example, we wouldn’t use some wild pop track if your wedding is a solemn church ceremony followed by a chill cocktails & dinner party… but that track would totally work if you’re taking tequila shots before the ceremony and your bridal party has everybody cracking up with their speeches.
Everybody’s vibe is different, and it’s hard to really pin down and articulate how the magic metamorphosis from raw footage to finished film works.
There’s also just the technical aspect of trying to make the music work for the film, and allow us to tell your story with the audio from your ceremony & speeches instead of relying entirely on music.
In terms of your involvement, you are welcome to browse music and find 5-10 songs that you vibe with, but you’ll need to make a free account by supplying an e-mail address to be able to listen to the songs in full.
Alternatively, you can just leave these choices up to us and provide some general input (genres you like) on your questionnaire.