Essential Guide: Incorporating Music and Effects Into Your Videos [2023 Edition]

How to Add Audio to Your Video (with Steps)

Shanoon Cox

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Videos are everywhere around us, to promote a brand, create an Ad, or for larger programs like movies. Only a voice-over or a clip fails to grab attention of the audience, so you got to add music to the video and make it spectacularly fascinating. By adding background music to a video, you kill its monotony and make it more appealing to touch people’s heart and evoke the response your video is intended to.

If you want to explore the numerous options to edit and add audio to videos with free audio editor , then you have come to the right spot.

Through this article, we are going to introduce you to various desktop, and phone based applications as well as free online methods to help you add audio to your videos and make them strikingly beautiful.

• Part1: How to add music to videos on Desktop
• Part2: How to add audio to video online
• Part3: How to add music to videos on Mobile Phone
• Part4: How to download royalty free music from website
• Part5: Audio editing - 5 tips for mixing audio

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Part 1: How to add music to videos on Desktop

1. How to add audio to videos with for Windows 10, 8, 7

Filmora

When you need a video editing software application that comes with a brilliant built-in audio library, you can undoubtedly pick Filmora to save you.

This is a perfect application for Windows PC, which enables you to add music to video (.MP3, .WMA, or .OGG audio files to .AVI, .MP4, .MKV videos) files while allowing you to remove any existing background music from the videos as well. Its intuitive design with drag and drop features makes editing videos cake walk.

Isn’t it great when the software supports such wide varieties of audio and video formats and helps you create the most enthralling videos for you?

Explore the way it transforms your mundane videos to an exquisite piece of art, within no time. Here is the step-by-step guide for Filmora –

Step 1: Where to import audio

Install Wondershare Filmora from the official website on your computer and launch it. Once the software gets launched tap ‘MEDIA’ and then click the ‘IMPORT’ tab just below the menu bar. Now, from the drop down list click on ‘Import Media Files’ to choose the video file, and then repeat the process to pick a desired background music file.

Note: You can also use the in-built music tracks to add music to your video by selecting the ‘MUSIC’ tab.

Step 2: How to add music to timeline

Now, hover the mouse over the audio and video files you have just imported to Filmora and then tap the ‘+’ sign on it (displays ‘Add to Project’). You can also drag the media files down to the timeline.

Step 3: Edit music file

You can edit the music by double tapping the audio from the timeline. It will show you the audio panel at the top of the screen. You can the audio to fade in or fade out, manage the volume, pitch, speed, and set the desired equalizer as well.

Step 4: Export

Now that you have made the desired changes to your video, tap on the ‘EXPORT’ tab on the toolbar to export the video. The exported file can be saved in .MP4, and .WMV formats and rename, define the resolution as well.

2. How to add audio to videos on Mac

VLC

Most people have no idea that VLC is not only a media player but a video editor as well, which allows you to add music to video. This open source cross-platform multimedia player supports almost all multimedia files and various streaming protocols.

VLC step-by-step guide to add audio to video –

Step 1: Add audio file

First of all install VLC media player on your computer and launch it. Now, tap the click file tab from the menu bar at the top. After that, pick the ‘Advanced Open File’ option from the drop down menu.

Step 2: Import audio and video

You need to click the ‘Browse…’ button for importing video, and select the ‘Play another media synchronously’. Now, click the ‘Choose…’ button for importing an audio file for editing. After that, you need to click the ‘Open’ button. You also have the option for adding sub-titles to your video. Now that you have imported and merged both the audio and video files, you can also enhance the audio settings.

Step 3: Quick Tip

Tap the ‘Window’ from the top bar and click on ‘Audio Effects…’ for applying the various audio effects to your edited video.

QuickTime

QuickTime Player is the default media player for Mac computer that supports older medial formats including QTVR, MIDI files on Snow Leopard and OS X Lion, and interactive QuickTime movies.

Entering QuickTime 7 Pro registration codes, you can unlock the QuickTime Pro functions that will enable you to add music to video files. If you don’t have it on your computer, then install it and find under the ‘Utilities’ folder within the ‘Applications’ folder. Here is the step-by-step guide for QuickTime to add audio to video –

Step 1: Import the files

First of all, launch QuickTime Player and tap ‘File’ and then click ‘Open File’. Pick your desired audio file to be imported. On the subsequent window of QuickTime Player, select ‘Edit’ and then tap ‘Select All’ to import the complete audio file. Hit ‘Edit’ and tap on the ‘Copy’ option.

Step 2: Import video and add audio to QuickTime movie

Now, you need to open the desired video that you are going to add audio to. For that, you need to first open the video in QuickTime and the click ‘Edit’ and ‘Add Clip to End’.

Note: You can add a part of the audio to the video by tapping ‘Edit’ and then ‘Add to Selection and Scale’. ‘Add to Selection and Scale’ fastens or lowers down the pace of the audio track to fit with the video’s length (that you have selected to add audio to).

3. How to add audio to videos with on Linux

Mkvmerge

This software for the Linux system is broadly known for editing the Matroska Multimedia Container. The GUI of this tool is much appealing but is rather simple and basic.

The software helps you to merge the audio or video multimedia streams into one single Matroska file. Matroska acts exactly like AVI, ASF, or MP4 the common container files. The Matroska files have .MKV extension for videos which includes audio and subtitles as well, files with a .MK3D extension represent stereoscopic video, .MKS for only subtitles, and .MKA for audio-only files.

Step-by-step guide for merging audio into video: (MKV ONLY)

Step 1: Add audio to video files

Download the software and launch it on your Linux computer. From the mkvtoolnix-gui package, open the mkvmerge GUI. Click the ‘add’ button for importing the audio and video files to the software interface.

Step 2: Choose the audio track

After importing the audio and video files, select the new audio tracks by marking the check boxes against them, under the ‘Tracks, chapters and tags’ section. You can also set the language in the ‘General track options’ and delay under ‘Format specific options’ tab.

Step 3: Merge the files

Mention the output format under ‘Output filename’ section and then tap ‘Start muxing’. This process will save the video file. Using this program you can also remover tracks from a video and fix the default audio track as well.

Part 2: How to add music to videos online

Mp3Care

MP3Care is an online video editing application that people mostly use to add audio to video files. This application wipes out the existing audio track from the video file and mixes the new audio file that you upload to create an interesting video.

The supported audio input format is MP3, whereas the supported video files include MKV, FLV, AVI, MOV, MP4, and WMV. You can record a video on your mobile phone or tablet and merge a desired audio background with this using MP3Care. All you need to do is select this recorded video and a preferred audio track in this website and get going.

Steps for adding audio track to video –

Step 1: Launch the web browser and open this application, then choose the audio and video file as per the online instruction.

Step 2: After you are done with the video selection, tap ‘ADD MUSIC TO VIDEO’ and then download your edited video file.

AddAudioToVideo

AddAudioToVideo is an online application for adding music/audio to a video. MP3 audio and AVI, WMV, MOV, and MP4 video formats are only supported with this program. It replaces the MP3 audio from any video and the uploaded files get removed after a while from the web.

Step-by-step guide –

Step 1: Choose a video file

You need to first select the video file from your local drive after browsing to this site.

Step 2: Choose audio files

Select the MP3 audio file after the video file. Tap ‘Upload’ to get the files uploaded to the program and wait for some time to get them merged together.

Tip: The video file size limit is up to 500 MB.

Check out more ways of adding music to video online >>

Part 3: How to add music to videos on Mobile Phone

1. How to add audio to video on Android

Filmora

The best method to add music to video files on Android devices is none other than Filmora. A video editing app that has no time limit to edit a video and leaves no watermark on videos either is always the talk of the show.

Using the music and effects, you can indeed make hilarious funny-videos to entertain yourself and your friends. You can create videos simply by selecting pictures and videos from your phone, Instagram, or Facebook and select a theme, template, mix some music, transitions, subtitles, filters etc. and then get the video saved on your phone or shared over popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Vimeo, Email, Tumblr, or YouTube.

The best part about this app is it supports multiple international languages, fits the popular ratios of Instagram and YouTube during exporting of video, allows real-time preview of clips, exports HD videos, and provides overlay elements for the best video editing experience.

Let’s go through the step-by-step guide –

Step 1: Select video and audio

Install Filmora on your Android device and launch it. Click the ‘CREATE NEW VIDEO’ over there and select the desired video. After that, tap on the ‘Add’ button found on the right side of the screen and click ‘NEXT’ on the top right part of the mobile screen.

Step 2: Add audio to video

You will be navigated to the editing interface. Click on ‘MUSIC’ from the right toolbar and then choose the desired audio after pressing plus icon. Play and confirm the audio by clicking ‘OKAY’ on the top right corner.

Step 3: Export

You can swap the music by clicking the thumbnail icon at the bottom of the screen. Save the edited video by tapping ‘Save’

KineMaster

It is a fully-featured app in Android Play store that supports numerous images, video, and text layers along with multi-track audio, precise trimming and cutting, volume envelope control, 3D transition, color LUT features and the likes.

It allows a great amount of control for an app that does editing over a mobile. Artists and educators will make use of the handwriting layers for drawing directly over the video. It supports most of the video, audio, and image formats.

Tutorial Guide for KineMaster –

Step 1: Launch KineMaster

Install and launch the app on your Android phone. Click the ‘+’ icon found in the middle of the app screen and then tap ‘Empty Project’ for a new project or ‘Project Assistant’ otherwise.

Step 2: Select media

Under the media tab, choose the desired video file and then tap ‘Background Audio’ tab. From the left panel you can choose almost 8 categories for audio.

Tips: Without tapping the plus ‘+’ icon on the music, the audio will be added to the desired video.

Step 3: Edit and export

Now, select the preferred audio track and click the share icon from the left panel. Confirm your actions by tapping ‘Export’.

Note: Voice change, looping music, or setting up the fade in/out effect is a cake walk with this app. You can also set resolution, frame rate, and bitrate using this video editing app.

2. How to add audio to video on iPhone/iPad

iMovie

If you want to add music to video in your iPhone, then the in-built iMovie option helps you import music from Theme, iTunes and your own music. Your videos will be turned into exhilarating master pieces.

You can effortlessly browse through the music files and create awesome 4K-resolution movie and Hollywood-style trailers to amaze your friends. iMovie is built to work in sync with your iOS and Mac devices.

It doesn’t matter where you are working, we mean from your iPhone to your iPad or Mac system, the project can be synced automatically as you move ahead. Once you are done editing, the movie will show up on iMovie Theatre across your iOS and Mac devices.

The step-by-step guide to add music to video using iMovie –

Step 1: On your iPhone launch the iMovie app and click ‘Project’ from the top of the screen, and tap ‘Create Project’ represented by a ‘+’ icon.

Step 2: Now, click ‘Create’ and then ‘Movie’ to open the project interface on screen. Browse the ‘Media’ option from the top left corner of the timeline and explore the video gallery on screen and pick the desired video for editing then hit ‘Add’ and then ‘Use’.

Step 3: The source video gets added to the timeline. You need to reach to the starting point of the video, so that you can add audio from there. Add audio by following similar process to that of adding video from the gallery, but tap ‘Audio’ after clicking the ‘Add Media’ button. Ensure that music has been placed at background, by tapping the ‘Background’ button from the bottom of the screen. By clicking the ‘Theme Music’ option you can find the synced media on your device.

Step 4: Click ‘Play’ for previewing the audio visual, and click ‘Done’ if satisfied with your new creation.

Tip: iMovie will loop the background audio automatically, in case the video runs longer than the audio. It is recommended to adjust their lengths while merging them.

Part 4: How to download royalty free music from website

Few of the video editing software comes up with in-built library for music but not all of them. When there is no music with the software, you might import music from an external source to add audio to your video.

The biggest problem while using the audio tracks is copyright issues, they are not always copyright free. But, there is nothing to worry about. There are sites that offer free of cost stock music/audio tracks across genres that you can use and make a breath-taking audio visual. Let’s go through the most popular royalty free music sites.

Free Stock Music

Free Stock Music contains a library full of audio tracks across genres that you can avail for free. MP3, AIFF, and WAV audio formats are available within this site and asks you for free sign-up. You don’t have to provide any attribution to download the music.

Machinima Sound

Though this site doesn’t offer free music for you, few tracks might be there to suit your needs. You can find them under ‘LEGACY TRACKS’ at the bottom of the page. This site has a huge collection of tracks divided into genres, moods, and stingers. The audio is available in MP3 format and for attributions you might need specific license.

Free Soundtrack Music

Free Soundtrack Music enables you to access numerous royalty-free music tracks that you can make use of in your audio-visuals. Brilliant audio tracks are available with this audio library that you can download and add to your videos. When they say add credit, it usually means the music is paid and you need to buy the credits.

Part 5: Audio editing - 5 tips for mixing audio

Keyframe audio Levels

After fixing the primary audio, you shift your task to the new audio that you are adding to the video. Preview your track and make adjustments, then add the music to timeline and start balancing everything that seems out of place by managing the keyframes. Either work with the clip keyframes, or with the entire track, do whatever seems more pleasing with the composition.

Use filters and effects

You can apply filters/effects as you require, and keep in mind that an audio should only be added for enhanced effects, when you have a clear source for that effect. They shouldn’t make the composition weird. Use appropriate filters that separate a voice-over and a telephonic voice from usual dialogue in a video/audio.

Volume is important

Editing video or audio clip is just like attending a live concert. If not paid attention, the surrounding music will overpower the vocalist, or the guitar might be too low to be audible due to the dominant bass effect. The volume should be properly tuned to match with the rest of the audio visuals while adding audio to video. You can pick portions of the audio and balance audio level accordingly to allow a drop in volume during vocals and rise when there are no vocals.

Change tempo

The change in tempo enhances the composition. You can get creative and experiment. Let’s say there is a portion in your video that is slow and has music at a regular pace. Then why not stretch the tempo and slow it down to blend properly with your video? Altering the tempo brings more creative aspects to create better audio visuals.

Use fade in and fade out

While adding audio to video, if the new one music is instrumental whereas the existing one in the video is a quiet background track, the sudden change in volume might sound weird. Effective use of fades can lower the aural unexpectedness of the instruments.

Final Verdict

Coming towards the end of the discussion and after going through an elaborated list of video editing applications, we came to a final verdict that Filmora sound to be the best out of them. It allows you to flawlessly edit audio and video files on your desktop, with multiple in-built royalty free music tracks to choose from that can enhance your video’s beauty.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

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