There’s a chapter in my next book (you didn’t know about Presentation Genius? sign up for updates at http://presentationgenius.launchrock.com to be kept up to date) about whether using music in your presentations is a good idea or not. The answer is complicat
ed but, basically, music
- reduces recall of data/facts
- increases emotional response.
No surprises there – but it’s nice when our expectations and the research agree, isn’t it? However, all that’s for the book. This blog post is simply some advice about the music you use if you do decide to use it.
Legal
Obviously you need to make sure you’ve got the rights to play the music. Unless you wrote it on your own there are legal issues to take account of. In the first instance, try googling for royalty-free music. Make sure that you either find something that has no rights at all or – the more likely option – you pay once to download it and can then use it as often as you like.
Most music in this class tends to be written by people who aren’t particularly well know – and that’s fine (see below for the risks of using well known music and composers) and some of it is bloody awful, so make sure you listen all the way through before you use it.
If you want to go for more ‘commercial’ recordings, start off with checking out a PRS licence (Performing Rights Licence). It’s not a lot, compared to the fine (though you probably won’t get caught – but that’s not the point… playing without paying is theft, pure and simple).
If you haven’t paid, you shouldn’t play.
Practical
You’ll either need to bring your own speakers or make sure your venue has a decent set you can use. Experience suggests that far too many venues say they have speakers but what they mean is that the projector they hire you has speakers. Don’t use that if you have a choice, because they tend to sound shockingly bad. Decent, portable speakers aren’t expensive.
If you can get some that are mains powered, rather than running off your laptops USB – that’s just not got enough punch for even a medium sized room.
We also recommend embedding the music in your slide deck whenever you think you might need it. That way you don’t have to jump between software packages, such as PowerPoint for the slides and iTunes for the music. If you’re not sure when/where you’re going to need the music, simply embed it into a generic slide and put that slide after the last slide of your presentation – then jump to it and back from it whenever you need to – for example whenever you give your audience an exercise to carry out with background music.
Connotations
Music is emotional – that’s rather the point of it. What that means is that you have to be careful not to use tracks that means something too personal to your audience. The music they played at Uncle Jim’s wedding, for example, will have a particular effect, far different from the nature of the music itself. Consequently, we use music that’s not well known, and not by a well known composer or band.
We also use instrumental music rather than songs. Why? Because people often respond to the lyrics in surprising ways – what’s harmless to you can cause offence to people in unpredictable ways.
Favorites
You didn’t expect a definitive list here, did you? Given what we’ve just said about obscure instrumentals? :) Oh okay then… try Baka Beyond and the Penguin Cafe Orchestra… but it all rather depends on you, your audience and what you’re hoping the music will do!
What music have you heard or used in your presentations?
This is great information to remember. Had to bookmark. Thank you.
Hi. I tend not to use music in my presentations as I have scaled them back massively and often speak without slides at all. But you’ve raised some interesting points about music and I’m going to reconsider :) Thanks!
Hi Sam
Don’t forget you can use music inside slides that don’t show, too… In fact about a third of my slides are black in some presentations, so that I have the option for music embedded into my slides but I don’t have to look like I’m using slides :)
S