How to add music to a video without it drowning the voice

How do I add background music to a video?

In seven steps, and the first one is not about sound at all:

Check the licence. Before you fall for a track, check that you may use it in this video, monetised or not, and what credit it asks for.
Choose by feel. Pick music for what the piece should feel like, not for what you like listening to. A bright track under a sad story fights it.
Place it. Usually from the first frame, or just before the first line, so the voice arrives into a settled bed.
Set the level under the voice. Low enough that every word is clear on a phone speaker.
Duck it. Let the music dip further while people speak and rise between lines.
Fit it to the length. End on the track's real ending, not on a fade halfway through a phrase.
Credit it. In the description, in the wording the licence asks for.

The rest of this guide goes through each, and shows how Sharpy does them.

Where do you find background music for a video that you may use?

Start from the licence, not the song. Music you bought or stream is licensed for listening, not for your video: Apple's iMovie guide says that to use a song bought from the iTunes Store you must be its copyright holder or have the copyright holder's express permission. Use a library whose licence covers video instead:

Library	Licence in plain words	Credit
YouTube Audio Library	Free to use in your videos; YouTube says its copyright-safe tracks are not claimed through Content ID	Only on tracks marked Creative Commons
Incompetech (Kevin MacLeod)	CC BY 4.0: free, monetised YouTube allowed, cutting allowed	Required, in the description
Scott Buckley	CC BY 4.0: free, commercial use allowed	Required, in his own format
Mixkit music	Free online, YouTube included; not for broadcast and not to be remixed	Not required
Pixabay music	Free, commercial use allowed, no credit required	Optional

Sharpy searches these by mood. Ask for "calm piano for a cooking video" and it searches the shelves on your Mac and every source it may fetch from, ranked in one list, each result carrying its licence, its credit and whether it may be cut. Nothing downloads until you choose. Its own curated list holds 81 tracks across seven registers: hype, trailer, tech, pop, lofi, emotional and doc. Before a bed is used, Sharpy also listens to it for words: on one shelf it tested, 3 of 12 beds turned out to have vocals sampled in them. Royalty-free music and sound effects covers every library in detail.

How do you add music to a video on a Mac?

With the tools you already have, or with Sharpy.

In iMovie, open your movie, choose Audio & Video above the browser, pick Music or Sound Effects in the sidebar and drag a track into the background music well below the timeline. Apple's guide explains that music placed there is edited separately from your clips, and that with "Trim background music" turned on in the movie's settings it is trimmed to the movie's length. Trimmed means cut off: the track stops wherever the movie does.

In Sharpy, browse the music shelf in the window's left panel and drop a track on a sound track, or ask the agent to find and fetch one (find_assets, then get_asset). Each shelf item carries its credit line, written into the edit when you place it. A file of your own that does not come from a shelf is treated as yours, used under your own rights.

How loud should background music be under voice?

Quieter than you think: every word should be clear on a phone speaker, in a noisy room, at low volume. Set the bed so it supports the voice rather than competes with it, then duck it by about 6 dB while people speak, and judge the result on the speaker your audience uses, not on studio headphones.

For a voice-led piece there is a useful bar from accessibility: the W3C's guidelines (WCAG success criterion 1.4.7) ask that background sound in a recording made mostly of speech sit at least 20 dB below the speech. It is written for audio-only recordings such as podcasts, but it is a fair test for a video where the words matter.

A man stands on a station platform beside a waiting train, looking down at the phone in his hand. — Music under a voice is judged on a phone speaker in a noisy place, where every word still has to be clear.Photo by Yusuf Miah on Pexels

Sharpy sets a bed's level relative to the stretch's own level and holds it to within 0.03 dB in the render.

How do you stop the music fighting the voice?

Duck it, and duck it well. A duck lowers the music while someone speaks and lets it up between lines; done crudely, it pumps up and down in every gap between words. Sharpy's duck follows the voice track itself, looks ahead so the music is already down as a line begins, and holds through the pauses inside a sentence, timed from the speaker's own pauses at commas. In the window, the bed ride button writes a 6 dB ride under every line and back up between them; from the agent, ask for the music to duck under the voice track. Auto ducking explains the settings and why the hold matters.

How do you make music fit the length of a video?

Re-arrange the track rather than loop it or fade it out early, so it ends on its real ending. In Sharpy, choose Clip ▸ Fit Music to the Edit's End, or ask the agent to fit the music. Sharpy jumps between places in the track that sound alike, crossfaded on the beat, and always finishes on the track's own last two bars and their ring-out. Eight library tracks fitted to 0.4, 0.7 and 1.4 times their own length came out exact every time.

Every seam is reported with how unusual it sounds, one likely to be heard is named, and if you dislike one, ask for another arrangement that shares none of the earlier seams. Re-cut the edit and fit again: the bed is re-fitted whole. Where a licence forbids remixing, as Mixkit's does, Sharpy uses the track's own last stretch at exactly the right length and tells you why. A track shorter than the edit is refused rather than looped. Cut video to music goes further into fitting and cutting on the beat.

How do you credit music in a video?

In the description, never on the picture. Every Sharpy render writes the credits it owes into a text file beside the video, worked out from the music and sound actually played, ready to paste. CC BY music is credited with its licence link and the words "edited and synchronised to this video", because setting music to picture counts as adapting it. Where a library words its own credit, as Incompetech and Scott Buckley do, Sharpy uses their wording exactly. A Mixkit or CC0 track owes nothing, and a licence Sharpy does not know is credited rather than risked.

What should you check before you export?

The first line. Is the music settled before the voice arrives, or does the first word land on a loud downbeat?
Every line on a phone. Play it on the phone's own speaker.
The ending. The music should finish with the picture, on its own ending.
The loudness. Streaming platforms play at about −14 LUFS; what LUFS for YouTube explains the targets, and Sharpy sets the whole mix to the destination's target on export.
The credit. Paste the credits file into the description before you publish.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use a song I bought or stream?

Not in a video you publish, unless you hold the rights or have permission. Buying a song licenses you to listen to it, not to set it to your video.

Should music play under the whole video?

Not always. Music under a whole talking-head video can tire the ear; many editors bring it in for the opening, transitions and the close, and let the voice carry the middle.

Can I add more than one track?

Yes. Give each section its own track, and change on a cut or a pause rather than mid-sentence, so the switch feels deliberate.

Will adding licensed music get my video claimed?

It can, even when your use is legal, because some creators register their tracks with Content ID. Keep the credit in the description and the licence link to dispute a claim.

Sources

Checked on 18 October 2026.