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How to choose music for documentaries

By Josh Edwards
6 MIN READ
31 Jan 2024

Highlights

Much like narrative films, music is a powerful storytelling tool in documentary filmmaking.

Studying our video examples, understand how to set the mood and tone, ramp up the pace, or enhance emotions, all with music.

Learn the key differences between custom music vs copyrighted free music for documentary

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that music is a huge part of filmmaking. Some of the most renowned films of all time often have a soundtrack that goes hand in hand with the story and has contributed to their fame and success. From Lion King and Star Wars to Jaws and The Lord of The Rings, music is essential to cinema. This same philosophy can be applied to the world of documentary filmmaking, too. In fact, mastering music for documentaries is one of the most important skills you can learn. Whether you’re looking to dictate the pace of a sequence, set the mood and tone, enhance emotions, or even play with the powerful impact of silence, understanding music for documentary filmmaking is essential in helping to elevate your documentary film and have it stand out from the rest.

Music sets the mood and tone

Above all else, music is perhaps the best way to set the mood and tone for your documentary film. If you’re telling the story of a string of gruesome murders where victims have been picked up hitch-hiking in a forested area, then you’ll probably be looking to strike an unsettling tone of fear and suspense – you want your audience to feel on edge, and feel under threat as they watch. The right music track can do that. You may pick something like this, for example:

In this Artlist featured video Only in Toledo, the song Midnight Lofi sets the tone nicely – we’re in an urban center of Ohio, listening to DeShawn recite his story of entrepreneurship and chasing his dream of building up a small business. Whether you can explain it or not, this laid-back hip-hop-inspired beat just “feels right” for this particular story.

If you can write a script with the music already decided, it can really help create a much more cohesive project with a clear sense of purpose and direction.

Other purposes of music in documentary films

While setting the tone and mood is essential, there are further ways in which music for documentaries can aid your storytelling.

Setting the pace

Music is key to setting the pace of a sequence. For example, in Cartel Land (2015), we get this high-octane hip-hop beat that feeds into the visuals of pumped-up armed police rolling into town and arresting various cartel members.

In Icarus (2017), the intensity and speed of a race scene are enhanced by the adrenaline-pumping music track. The music dictates the pace of the edit and lends itself well to the idea of speed and racing.

Would these two scenes work as well as they do if we had much slower, low-impact music tracks playing in the background? Absolutely not.

Enhancing emotions

Another way in which music for documentaries is utilized is to enhance emotions. In this Artlist featured video Street Surfers, we have the perfect example. At around 5:14 in the film, Frank Solomon brings his new friends to the beach in Cape Town – they have never seen the ocean before. The background music (Hipnosis, by Tomas Novoa) chimes in perfectly, enhancing the feelings of awe, enchantment, and wonder. Imagine this scene without the music. The sequence would still be interesting and moving, but not to the same degree.

Street Surfers complete soundtrack by Artlist

In Free Solo (2018), there are many emotional scenes. From around the 2-minute mark in the clip below, note how the subtle background music works perfectly in line with the heightened emotions. The couple, particularly Sanni, are analyzing their relationship within the context of Alex’s risky climbs and reflecting on the toll that can take. The sad, emotional instrumental piece playing softly over the sequence helps us to feel these raw emotions and feel more connected to the turmoil that Sanni is experiencing.

Location-dependent

Sometimes, you may want to tie your music to specific locations, helping to bring that unique environment to life and evoking the feel of the place through your song choice. For example, if a scene in your documentary takes place in New York, you might be interested in picking out a track that reflects the renowned hustle and bustle of those Manhattan streets. It could be a classic New York jazz number like this:

Similarly, if you have a sequence that’s shot in the Himalayan region of Nepal, you can help set the tone for this particular location by using a piece of music native to the region. This would be a great choice:

These tracks don’t necessarily work well for other locations or sequences – it’s all about the specific location they’re associated with.

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The impact of silence

The use of silence in a documentary film can be just as powerful as any piece of music. As you can see from the examples below, narrative films have been using this technique for as long as cinema has been around, but it can also have a profound effect on documentaries, too.

A moment of silence ensures the audience can’t help but be pulled into the scene. In a documentary, it can be used almost as a way to “punctuate” a moment, underlining a change in pace and adding weight to a key turning point in the trajectory of the story. You can also use it to highlight action taking place, emphasizing sound effects such as the roar of a car engine, gunshots, or the lonely isolation of a character.

Custom music vs music licensing

When it comes to picking background music for documentary filmmaking, you’ll have to weigh up whether you want to create a custom soundtrack for your doc or look at the options in royalty-free music for documentary films. There are pros and cons to both.

Custom music for documentaries

There are some appealing things about using custom music for documentaries.

In particular is the fact that you’ll have full creative control over the soundtrack from day one, allowing you to create a piece of music that’s truly tailored to your documentary.

However, there are a few cons to be aware of.

Creating a custom piece of music will take a while.
Custom music tends to be more expensive, using more resources and time.
If you’re new to this type of work, working together with a music producer or artist, it can be a difficult process that takes a while to learn and adjust to.

Copyright-free music for documentary films

Alternatively, you may want to consider royalty-free music licensing for your documentary.

Using Artlist, there are thousands of tracks, cinematic music, and music collections that are readily available, so it’s a lot quicker and easier than creating a custom track from scratch.
The Artlist search tools and filters make the process of finding the right song really simple and enjoyable.
You can start editing your footage with music straight away, rather than having to wait for your custom music to be finished.
Using copyright-free music for documentary films will almost certainly be cheaper than if you were to create a custom soundtrack – perfect for a documentary on a budget.

The cons of royalty-free music?

You don’t get full control and creative input from the artist, working from a blank canvas. This means that songs can never truly be tailored exactly to your film.
You’ll need to make sure you have the correct license and can use the music as intended. You’ll need to have a basic understanding of what is copyrighted music.

Wrapping up

So, that’s your introduction to music for documentary filmmaking! Now that you understand the power of music, it’s time to source your next documentary soundtrack. Using tools like Artlist, you can quickly and easily pinpoint the perfect song, with specific filters for your search results such as “cinematic” and “documentary”.

Whether you’re looking to enhance emotions and set the tone or ramp up the pace, music has always been an integral part of the documentary process and once you’ve mastered it, it can make all the difference to your film.

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Josh Edwards is an accomplished filmmaker, industry writing veteran, storyteller based in Indonesia (by way of the UK), and industry writer in the Blade Ronner Media Writing Collective. He's passionate about travel and documents adventures and stories through his films.