How to Add Music in iMovie for Mac (4 Quick Steps)
How to Add Music in iMovie for Mac: The Complete Guide
Movies are meant to be heard as much as they are seen. While the visuals and dialogue drive the story forward, it‘s often the musical score that makes a scene truly impactful and memorable.
Whether it‘s a subtle melody setting the emotional tone in the background or a powerful anthem kicking the on-screen action into high gear, music is an essential ingredient in the magic of movies. Without it, even the most visually stunning film can feel flat and lifeless.
Fortunately for Mac users, Apple‘s popular video editing app iMovie makes it incredibly easy to add music to your video projects. With just a few clicks, you can import music files, add them to your movie timeline, and make edits to get the timing and levels just right.
In this complete step-by-step guide, we‘ll walk you through the process of adding music in iMovie, share some pro tips and tricks, and cover important things to keep in mind like copyright. By the end, you‘ll be ready to create your own movie moments where the perfect union of sound and moving image brings your creative vision to life. Let‘s dive in!
Step 1: Choose Your Music File
Before you can add music to your iMovie project, you‘ll need a compatible digital music file on your Mac. iMovie supports common audio formats including MP3, AAC, WAV, and AIFF. These files might be songs you‘ve purchased and downloaded, tracks you‘ve created yourself, or royalty-free production music.
Now, you may be thinking, "I have an Apple Music or Spotify subscription, can‘t I just use tracks from there?" Unfortunately, no. Due to licensing and copyright restrictions, you can‘t directly import songs from music streaming services into iMovie. The music files need to be physically stored on your Mac‘s hard drive.
If you have a track in your Apple Music library that you‘ve purchased (as opposed to just added from the streaming catalog), you can import that into iMovie. We‘ll cover how in the next step.
The other option is to use royalty-free production music. There are many great resources available online where you can download music tracks specifically made for use in videos and films. We‘ll share some of our favorites later in the guide.
For now, once you have a music file you want to use saved on your Mac, you‘re ready for step 2.
Step 2: Import the Music into iMovie
There are two ways to get your chosen music file into iMovie so you can use it in your project:
Option 1: Import through iMovie
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Open your iMovie project and make sure the Media browser is visible on the left side of the screen. If it‘s not, click the Media button in the top-right corner.
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At the very top of the Media browser, click the Audio button, then select Music from the categories that appear below.
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Near the top-left corner of the iMovie window, click the Import Media button (the downward pointing arrow).
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In the window that appears, navigate to where your music file is saved on your Mac and select it, then click Import Selected.
The music file will now be added to your iMovie Media library under the Music category and you‘ll see a green bar representing the full track.
Option 2: Drag and drop from Finder
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Open a Finder window on your Mac and navigate to where your music file is saved.
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Click and drag the file from the Finder window into the timeline area of your iMovie project.
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Drop the file in the timeline where you want the music to start playing relative to your video clips.
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The music file will be automatically added to your iMovie Media library under the Music category.
The second option is much quicker, but doing the manual import is a good way to familiarize yourself with the iMovie interface when you‘re first starting out.
Step 3: Add the Music to Your Timeline
Now that your music is in iMovie, adding it to your actual movie is as simple as editing a video clip.
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If the green bar representing your full music track isn‘t already in the timeline, click and drag it from the Media browser down into the timeline area.
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Position the track where you want the music to start in your movie by dragging it left or right. You‘ll see the track snap to align with cuts between video clips.
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If you want to use just a portion of the music track, you can click and drag on either edge of the green bar in the timeline to make it shorter.
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To have the track fade in or out, hover your mouse over the diagonal edge at the beginning or end of the green bar. Click and drag inwards to create a fade effect.
With your music clip placed in the timeline, you can press the spacebar to play back your project and see how the music fits with your visuals.
Step 4: Make Adjustments
Rarely will a piece of music fit perfectly into your project on the first try. You‘ll likely want to make some adjustments to get things just right:
Editing the track: As we covered in step 3, you can change where the music starts, make it play for a shorter period of time, and add fades by trimming and dragging the music clip in the timeline.
Adjusting Audio Levels: One of the most important factors in editing with music is getting the right balance between the music and other audio in your movie like dialogue, narration, and sound effects.
To adjust the level of your music, double-click the green bar in the timeline to open the Clip Inspector. Under the Audio section, drag the Volume slider left to make the music quieter, or right to make it louder, relative to the other audio.
You can also click the Audio Enhancements box to have iMovie automatically adjust the music‘s EQ for a more balanced mix.
Adding Multiple Tracks: There‘s no rule that says you can use only one piece of music per movie. In fact, changing up the music is a great way to signal scene changes or shifts in tone.
To add another music track, simply follow the same steps above to import the file and add it to your timeline. Be mindful of how the two (or more) tracks will sound when they crossfade or overlap.
Finding the Right Music
Half the battle of adding great music to your iMovie project is finding that perfect track that enhances your story and strikes the right emotional chord. While your personal music library can be a good place to start, it‘s usually better to look for songs that haven‘t already been widely used.
Searching for "royalty-free music" will bring up a wealth of websites offering music tracks you can purchase and use in your videos without worrying about copyright claims. Some of the most popular are Artlist, Epidemic Sound, AudioJungle, and PremiumBeat. They have huge catalogs of great music in every genre imaginable, all cleared for use in things like YouTube videos, short films, and podcasts.
Many of these sites let you filter by mood, genre, pace, and duration to help zero in on the perfect track. Most also offer subscriptions that give you a certain number of track downloads per month/year.
If you can‘t afford a paid subscription, there are websites that offer music you can download and use for free, although the selection tends to be much more limited. YouTube‘s own Audio Library has a decent collection of instrumental background tracks at no cost.
Copyright Considerations
We‘ve mentioned this a few times already, but it bears repeating: You can‘t just use any popular song in your iMovie project without permission. Doing so is copyright infringement and can result in your video being blocked or monetized by the copyright owner if you share it online.
Stick to music you‘ve purchased and downloaded, created yourself, or licensed from a royalty-free provider. Even if your video is just a slideshow for Grandma‘s 90th birthday party, it‘s not worth the legal risk (or bad karma) to use copyrighted music without the proper permissions.
Helpful iMovie Music Resources
Adding music to your iMovie project is a pretty straightforward process, but there are plenty of other little tips and tricks for getting great results. Check out these resources for more:
- [5 Tips for Adding Music to Your Movie] (https://www.techsmith.com/blog/add-music-to-video/)
- How to Fade Music In and Out in iMovie
- Royalty-Free Music: What It Is and Where to Find It
- How to Add Sound Effects in iMovie
Conclusion
Whether you‘re cutting together family vacation footage, a school project, or the next great indie film, adding music is one of the best ways to make your iMovie project more engaging and professional sounding.
The process boils down to just a few simple steps:
- Choose a music file saved on your Mac
- Import the file into iMovie
- Add the track to your timeline
- Edit the clip‘s length, position, and volume to fit your project
- Adjust as needed!
Take the time to experiment with different tracks to find the right tone and emotional resonance for your story. Dive into iMovie‘s audio editing tools to get the levels just right between music and other audio elements. Most of all, have fun discovering how much the perfect piece of music can elevate your video projects to new heights.
Now get out there and make some movie magic! And remember, if you ever get stuck, you can always come back to this guide for a quick refresher. Happy editing!