Big Idea

The argument in one line.

Music should be chosen for the feeling it creates in a scene rather than its genre, and reshaped to match the story's pacing instead of left running underneath the footage untouched.

Who This Is For

Read if. Skip if.

READ IF YOU ARE…

You edit videos (YouTube, brand work, personal projects) and pick music mostly by scrolling a library until something 'sounds right.'
You've noticed your background music feels flat or forgettable even when individual tracks sound good on their own.
You write and film with a script already locked, and want a repeatable way to plan pacing before the shoot instead of fixing it in the edit.

SKIP IF…

You compose or license original scores and already work from cue sheets and stems, this is about selecting and reshaping stock/production tracks, not composing.
You're looking for specific song or genre recommendations, the video deliberately argues genre is the wrong first question.

TL;DR

The full version, fast.

A longtime editor argues that music selection starts with one question, what should this part of the video feel like, since feeling and energy matter more than genre. He uses silence deliberately: letting a track sit too long kills its effect, so pulling it out for a beat and bringing it back with a transition sound makes the return land harder. His biggest workflow shift is the 'audio blueprint': laying a rough voiceover and candidate music into the timeline before filming, so pacing gets shaped before a single shot exists, then cutting a track's natural build-up/middle/break/climax structure apart to fit the scene's actual length rather than playing it straight through.

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Chapters

Where the time goes.

00:00 – 00:16

01 · Introduction

States the video's premise: the question he asks before searching for music is what the scene should feel like, not what genre it should be.

00:16 – 02:28

02 · Choosing music by feeling, not genre

Explains that feeling and energy matter more than genre, shows how mismatched mood (playful music under an already-quirky shot) undercuts a moment, and extends the idea to tutorials, where tense music during the problem can switch to lighter music at the solution.

02:28 – 02:58

03 · Free Music Search Guide

Pitches his free music search guide for finding the right search keywords once the desired feeling is known.

02:58 – 05:22

04 · Creating contrast with silence

Argues that leaving one energy level running too long kills its effect, demonstrates pulling music out entirely for a sentence, then brings it back with a transition sound so the return hits harder.

05:22 – 07:43

05 · The Audio Blueprint

Introduces his 'feeling + energy + style' search formula with the Audiio search tool, then explains the audio blueprint: laying rough voiceover and music into the timeline before filming so pacing gets shaped ahead of the shoot, including a case where a fast-paced track directly shaped how a sequence was later shot.

07:43 – 09:24

06 · Make music flow with your story

Explains cutting a song's build-up/middle/break/climax structure apart and recompressing it to fit a scene's actual length, and contrasts fading every transition the same way with a reverb-tail fade or an abrupt stop plus transition sound effect.

09:24 – 09:46

07 · Keep learning / sign-off

Points to the free guide, his sound effects pack, and a related video on his seven editing cuts, then closes out.

Atomic Insights

Lines worth screenshotting.

The genre of a music track matters far less than the feeling and energy it creates underneath a specific scene.
Matching upbeat, playful music to footage that is already playful doubles the joke and can undercut the moment instead of selling it.
The same information can land as investigation or relief, depending only on whether the music underneath feels tense or releases into something lighter.
Searching for a mood word alone is too vague; pairing feeling with energy and style narrows a music search dramatically.
A perfectly good track left running too long stops registering: if everything in a video sounds energetic, nothing does anymore.
Removing music entirely for one sentence creates sharper contrast than swapping in a second song, and makes its return feel earned.
An audio blueprint means building a rough voiceover and candidate music into the timeline before a single shot is filmed.
Watching how a track's energy builds toward its climax is a direct cue for how a scene's own structure should be shaped.
A line that runs too long for the music underneath can be fixed by trimming the voiceover itself, not just the music.
Most production music follows a build-up, middle, break, climax shape, and that order can be cut apart and recompressed to fit a 40-second scene.
Fading every music change the same way, in and out, makes every transition in a video feel identical and forgettable.
An abrupt music stop paired with a transition sound effect reads as a far more intentional edit than a soft fade.
A production music track should be treated as raw material to reshape, not a fixed song to be played start to finish.

Takeaway

Treat Music as Part of the Edit

SCORE THE SCENE

Good background music isn't found, it's engineered: pick for feeling over genre, starve a scene of music so its return hits harder, and build the track into the edit before you even film.

01Introduction

Before searching for a single track, decide what the scene should feel like: the emotional target comes first, the genre comes second.
Genre matters far less than the energy and feeling a track creates in the moment it plays under.

02Choosing music by feeling, not genre

Match the mood of the music to what's already happening in the footage, not just the topic, or the two layers compete and the moment reads as a joke instead of landing straight.
A tutorial's problem section can run tenser, more mysterious music, then switch to something lighter at the solution, so the audience feels the shift from problem to answer.
Searching with only one mood word is inefficient. Pair it with words for energy and style for a much narrower, more useful search.

04Creating contrast with silence

Leaving the same energetic track under a scene for too long burns out its effect. If everything feels energetic the whole time, nothing does.
Cutting the music out completely for a sentence or two creates more contrast than adding another song, and makes the next beat land harder when the music returns.
A transition sound effect bridging a moment of silence back into music makes the return feel bigger than simply fading back in.

05The Audio Blueprint

Record a rough voiceover and lay it into the timeline before filming anything, then build music under it, that reveals where the energy should rise, fall, or disappear before a single shot is captured.
Listening to how a candidate track's energy develops, more instruments entering, a slow build to climax, is a strong signal the structure will work for a scene that needs the same arc.
Editing against the blueprint can tighten the voiceover itself: if a sentence is too long for the track underneath, trimming it to fewer words often makes both pieces flow better together.

06Make music flow with your story

A song's natural structure, build-up, steady middle, break, climax, rarely matches a scene's actual length, so cut and rearrange its sections to compress that same progression into the time the scene actually has.
Fading every music change in and out the same way makes every transition feel identical; a reverb tail lets a track fade out more naturally, while an abrupt stop paired with a sound effect makes a harder, more intentional cut.
Treat the track itself as editable raw material, the same as footage, instead of a fixed song to be played start to finish underneath a scene.

Glossary

Terms worth knowing.

Audio Blueprint: A pre-production technique where an editor lays a rough voiceover and candidate music tracks into the timeline before filming, using that rough cut to map pacing and energy ahead of the shoot.
Reverb tail: A trailing echo effect added to the end of a music clip so it fades out naturally instead of being cut off or faded flatly.
Build-up / Middle / Break / Climax: A common structure in production music tracks: an intro build, a steady middle section, a quieter break, then a climactic peak, that can be cut apart and reordered to fit a scene's actual length.

Resources

Things they pointed at.

04:48toolAudiio (Hans AI search) ↗

02:48productFree Music Search Guide ↗

09:16productTim Runia's sound effects pack ↗

Quotables

Lines you could clip.

03:35

“If everything is energetic, eventually nothing feels energetic anymore.”

tight, quotable thesis line on music fatigue→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote

03:57

“The silence made the sentence stand out. And then the music coming back gives that next part more energy again.”

demonstrates the contrast technique in one clean line→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote

07:43

“You don't have to use a song exactly the way it was made.”

reframes a common assumption in one sentence→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote

09:12

“The song itself is part of the edit, and you can reshape it to fit the scene that you're creating.”

closing thesis statement, strong standalone takeaway→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote

The Script

Word for word.

Read-along

Don't just watch it. Burn it in.

See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.

metaphor

I've been editing for over 15 years and in this video I want to show you how I actually use music inside an edit so it becomes much easier to choose the right track and make it work with your story. And it all starts with one question I ask before I even start thinking about music. So whenever I start looking for music, the first question is usually very simple.

What do I want this part of the video to feel like? Because the genre of the music is actually much less important than most people think. And what matters much more to me when I'm editing is the feeling and the energy it gives in a scene.

So maybe I'm opening a video with a question or a problem. So I will look at something slightly mysterious that makes you wonder where this part of the story is actually going. Exactly what I'm doing now.

But if the video starts right in the middle of the action i will probably look for something with much more energy from the beginning and i also try not to forget to look at what's happening in the footage already because for example in this shot which is from my opening scene of my first youtube video my expression is already slightly quirky so if i put really playful music underneath it it becomes too much because now both the image and the music are feeling maybe a little bit too much of a joke and that's not what i want but a track that is too dramatic is making the whole thing well too dramatic for this part i wanted something in between so the moment still feels like action but it still feels a little bit light as well sometimes it feels so close but other times not so much so this is me a filmmaker from the netherlands who's just chasing his dream And this isn't only useful when you're making something cinematic, because music can play a really big role in tutorials as well.

For example, when I'm explaining why something isn't working at the beginning of a tutorial, I might choose music that feels slightly more mysterious or a little bit more tense. It just increases that feeling of investigating something, you know, a little bit adventurous, maybe a little bit... mysterious then once i get to the solution i can change it to something lighter i feel a little bit more energetic so that the audience also gets a feeling of release so the information could be exactly the same but the music can really help the viewer to feel that we've moved from the problem into something positive so before you start scrolling through an endless list of tracks decide what you actually want that part of the video to feel like because that already makes finding the music much much easier but even when you know the feeling that you want it can still be hard to know what words to actually search for to find the right track so i decided to create a free music search guide with different moods and keywords that you can search so hopefully this will help you to spend a lot less time on searching to get the right track you can download it for free through the link in the description and i would love

you could let me know in the comments if it helps you but then even when we've got the right track we don't want the same feeling to continue for too long so that is why the next point is so important one of the biggest mistakes that i see is someone's finding a track that works and then leaving it underneath the video for way too long.

And it's not really about if the song is good or bad, you know, it could be something that actually fits the scene perfectly. But if the energy and the feeling stay the same for too long, the music slowly starts losing its effect. If everything is energetic, eventually nothing feels energetic anymore.

That is why I think so much about the contrast between different parts of the video. and sometimes the strongest contrast isn't adding in another song at all but it's just taking the music away because there is music underneath me now but if i suddenly want this next sentence to feel a little bit more important i can just remove it and now When I bring the music back, it suddenly feels much bigger because we had that little moment of silence.

A transition sound effect can really help you with this as well. But the important thing here is to notice what the contrast is doing. The silence made the sentence stand out.

And then the music coming back gives that next part more energy again. And of course to create those different feelings you first need to actually find the right music. So earlier I mentioned my free music search guide and one of the things I show in there is to think about music as a combination of feeling, energy and style.

So instead of only searching for the feeling mysterious, I can give it a much clearer direction, adding the energy. So let's use subtle for an example, and then for the style, let's use electronic. And I found that this actually works really well with the Hans search tool from Audio, who is a longtime sponsor of my videos on this channel.

So let's put it to the test with the mysterious subtle electronic song that I want to look for now. So Hans is giving me options that work really well already, but I can also keep refining the search. by just talking to it.

So maybe I listen to these tracks and I think it should just be a little bit more tense and have more beats in it. So I don't need to find the perfect words immediately. I can just use the guide to get in the right direction, listen to what comes back and then keep adjusting until I find something that actually works with the footage.

So you can test out Hans for free and if you like it, you can get 70 % off Audio Pro the first year using my link and discount code in the description. But finding the right track is only part of it because I actually like bringing music. into the process much earlier than you might expect.

So most of the time I actually start working with music before I even filmed anything and I create something that I call the audio blueprint. Basically once I have the script or a part of the script I record a rough version of the voiceover and I put that into my timeline in my editing program already. Then I start looking for music that matches different sections and I place those tracks underneath the voiceover.

So before I filmed anything I can already listen to the video and I can already find out where I want the energy to go up. or where I want to slow it down or where I maybe even want to leave the music out or even get new ideas for shots because the music inspires me. So let me show you one example of this.

So this is a sequence from one of my videos where I quickly go through a lot of different shots. But before I knew exactly how I wanted to film that, this was basically what I had already.

you know when i was looking for music i already knew that i wanted this part of the video go pretty quickly so when i found this song the speed of it made me imagine the shots coming in much faster and in a much more playful way so when i eventually filmed the sequence i was already shooting for that rhythm i knew i needed really short shots and because everything was moving so fast i already knew that if i would suddenly remove all the that energy, the next moment would land much harder.

Whoa, okay, well. And there's another reason why I like working this way so much, because when I listen to a track, I pay attention to how the energy develops. Maybe more instruments come up, or the song slowly builds toward a really big climax, and If my scene needs to be built in a similar way, that's usually a very good sign that the track could work really, really well in my edit.

And you know, the music can even affect the voiceover in that way, because sometimes I will notice that a sentence is just a little too long and saying the same thing in fewer words suddenly makes that whole part flow much better within the track, so that the voiceover works much better with the music together. And that is really how you make a video flow better.

This might sound obvious, but most people don't do this nearly enough because you don't have to use a song exactly the way it was made. A song might have a 40 second build up and then two minutes where the energy stays roughly the same. followed by a break and then finally a big climax in the end.

And that might work perfectly as a song. Great. But let's say maybe the scene that I'm editing is only 40 seconds long.

So what I do then is I cut up the song to fit the scene exactly. So maybe I will use eight seconds for the build up and then eight seconds for the middle part, then maybe four seconds for a short break and then jump straight into the biggest part of the song for the final section. Now the music still has that progression, but it happens at the speed that my scene needs it.

Another mistake that I see quite often is fading every song in and out and sometimes that works of course but it can also make every music change feel the same. Now to fix this for example you could use a reverb tail to make the music fade out much more naturally.

Or what I like to do more is stop it abruptly with a transition sound if you want the change to feel stronger.

And these are sound effects that I use from my own sound effects pack so if you want to use those exact sounds as well just check out my sound pack because you might like it as well. Anyway whatever sounds you're using the bigger point is that the song itself is part of the edit and that you can reshape it to fit the scene that you're creating.

So if you want to make it easier to find the right songs download the free music search guide and then of course if you want to keep learning about editing here on YouTube you can watch this video next because there I will teach you about the seven cuts that I actually use to make my edits flow and that's all that you want you want your videos to flow so go check it out or not then i'll see you in the next see you next time thank you for watching bye

The Hook

The bait, then the rug-pull.

Fifteen years of editing distilled into one question he asks before he even opens a music library: what do I want this part of the video to feel like? Everything else, the track he picks, the silence he leaves, the way he reshapes a song's structure, flows from that one decision.

Frameworks