The world of movies and filmmaking is rapidly changing. Of course, that’s always been the case, but over the past few decades the greater film and movie industry has seen its dominance challenged by the rise of a new age of content creators.
The traditional pipelines of movies and television have competition now in the form of short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Yet, despite these industry-wide changes, blockbuster movies remain and filmmaking opportunities are still out there.
If you’re a filmmaker, a content creator, or something entirely unique that aims to target your brand a blend between the two, let’s go over how movie trailers can still be a great way to promote your films or projects.
And, looking specifically at the post-production process for movie trailer creation, let’s explore where to find music for your movie trailers and how you can make sure your teaser content won’t be at risk for copyright strikes, mutes, or takedowns when you share them across your various social channels online.
A quick history of movie trailers
The first “movie trailer” shown in an American film theater is reported to be in 1913 when a local theater manager created a short promotional film for the musical The Pleasure Seekers, which was opening soon on Broadway.
The same producer would later premiere the first trailer for an upcoming motion picture the next year in promotion of a new Charlie Chaplin film. From there, the act of showing short promotional reels before, and also after, films became common practice.
And, to be exact, short promos shown before films were called previews (and still are, technically) whereas promos shown after films were called trailers. However, over the years, the terms have become synonymous with one another and are used interchangeably while mostly being shown before films in theaters still today.
What type of film trailer music should you use?
And while movie trailers have a long history with cinemas themselves, with the rise of online content over the past few decades, trailers have become even more prevalent and popular for movies, televisions shows, video games, and content of all types.
At the heart of all these trailers for films both long and short is music. If you’re looking to cut a trailer for your project—whether that be a feature film, a short film, a webseries, or even a product announcement—you’ll need high-quality film trailer music to provide the soundtrack.
What type of music is up to you. Keep in mind though that most movie trailers employ cinematic trailer music that harkens back to Hollywood blockbusters and iconic soundtracks in film history. It’s also important to look for music that matches the style and genre of your projects as music can be a crucial part of building suspense and telling a story.
Best royalty free music for movie trailers
To help with your post-production process, we’ve found some of the best royalty free music for movie trailers. These tracks range across several different genres, styles, and vibes and can not only be great picks for your movie trailers, but also for your films themselves.
Here are some of our top recommendations for royalty free music for movie trailers.
1. Beethoven’s 5th Grade by Toychestra
- Description: A medium energy, classical song that is best described as fun and quirky. Percussion and xylophone / mallets are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 154
- Key: C Minor
- Listen and license here
- Description: A medium energy, score song that is best described as scary and suspenseful. Piano and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 116
- Key: E Minor
- Listen and license here
3. Make Your Wish by Cody Martin
- Description: A low energy, ambient song that is best described as inspiring and hopeful. Ambient tones and synth are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 125
- Key: C Major
- Listen and license here
4. Vast by In This World
- Description: A low energy, folk song that is best described as suspenseful and calm. Strings and violin are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 171
- Key: B Minor
- Listen and license here
- Description: A low energy, corporate song that is best described as happy and fun. Guitar and electric guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 80
- Key: E Major
- Listen and license here
- Description: A low energy, acoustic song that is best described as hopeful and calm. Guitar and acoustic guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 70
- Key: A Major
- Listen and license here
7. A Quiet Place by Gold Coast
- Description: A low energy, ambient song that is best described as inspiring. Ambient tones and strings are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 92
- Key: F Major
- Listen and license here
- Description: A very low energy, classical song that is best described as hopeful and calm. Piano is the primary instrument in this track.
- BPM: 90
- Key: G Major
- Listen and license here
9. Road To Nowhere by Reveille
- Description: A low energy, acoustic song that is best described as inspiring and hopeful. Guitar and acoustic guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 115
- Key: E Major
- Listen and license here
- Description: A low energy, acoustic song that is best described as inspiring and hopeful. Piano and guitar are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 101
- Key: Eb/D# Major
- Listen and license here
Of course, these are just a few top picks, there are hundreds of movie trailer songs available in our library to help bring your project to life. If you’d like to explore more high-quality royalty free movie trailer music, check out our full Soundstripe library.
What is royalty free music
In case we’re moving a bit too quickly for you, let’s pause to quickly go over some basic terms and phrases that we’ve been discussing. If you’re curious about the term “royalty free music” used in this article, let’s pause briefly and explain it. To help, here’s a great read on what royalty free music means.
To further understand how music rights and royalties work, you must understand that all music has basic copyrights. These copyrights extend to both the composer of the music as well as the musicians who recorded the music. And if you want to use any music in any videos, you’ll need permission from the copyright owners.
Royalty free music can be the perfect option for all your movie trailers simply because it’s easy to find, license, and safe to use. Soundstripe’s music is composed and recorded by Grammy-winning artists who know how to make great music for all types of content.
Tips for using music in your movie trailers
While music is only going to be one part of the editing process for your movie trailers, it’s an important one, especially when selecting background music for a movie trailer to set the tone and drive emotion. There’s a lot more to keep in mind though when cutting together your trailers, even particularly when working with music.
Here are some more tips to keep in mind when using royalty free music in your movie trailers.
- Search out music with the same energy and tempo as the film you want to create.
- Consider downloading preview tracks to use as placeholders in your edits before deciding if a track is right for your projects.
- Be sure to check out our library of royalty free sound effects to give your trailers extra impact and to make them more cinematic.
- Try out Soundstripe’s AI Song Editor to instantly edit your audio track to match the length of your trailers, or browse the Soundstripe app for the best music for trailers to fit the vibe.
Hopefully these tips and tricks will help with your movie trailers and give you the backbone you need to cut together the perfect preview for your project.
