Use Royalty Free Corporate Music To Elevate Your Client Work

At some point in time, most filmmakers take on client work. That might be running a freelance business, shooting weddings, working for an ad agency, or taking on ad hoc projects on the side. Either way, that process means setting aside your own creative vision to meet someone else’s.

When it comes to corporate videos, this entire process can really pull you out of your filmmaking comfort zone. Projects become less about originality or flexibility and instead rely on established branding standards and meeting expectations.

Okay, that sounds pretty terrible. But the truth is it’s not all that bad. And with the right tools, it can actually be a pretty significant way to flex new creative muscles.

One particular thing you’ll need to get familiar with is the concept of corporate music. This style might not be as flashy as the genres you’re used to (especially if you normally create content for YouTube) but chances are it’s a whole lot better than what you might assume.

You know what they say about assuming, after all.

How To Explain Corporate Music

No, corporate music doesn’t have to be boring. It’s not elevator music, or ambient music with a few droning synths. And it’s not necessarily the happy-go-lucky jazz music we all associate with cheesy commercials.

“Corporate music” is a bit of an odd thing to define, because it’s less a genre and more a concept. But let’s try to divide it out into different parts that you can look out for.

Think about the last time you watched a webinar or other eLearning course. That’s the sort of music that we tend to think of as “corporate.” It’s meant to build a specific tone (usually upbeat), hold attention (for educational purposes), and to stay in the background of a video.

Most filmmakers use music that focuses on emotion and tries to guide the audience through an experience. Corporate music is more about keeping the audience engaged enough to take in information, whether that’s a tutorial video or a presentation or an external marketing piece.

Corporate videos try to either inform or inspire. This type of music focuses more on building the right feeling, and that goal is a genre-agnostic approach. 

In other words, any song can be the right song for a corporate video. Whether it’s Lofi, acoustic, or jazz, you should be able to find a song that meets client expectations but doesn’t detract from the quality you want to provide.

Examples Of Corporate Videos

Most people with experience in part-time jobs already have an idea of corporate videos. Those boring, sleep-inducing tutorials that taught you about work safety and how to lift heavy things? Yup, those are corporate videos.

Thankfully, they aren’t the only kind of corporate videos that you can make. As a content creator, feel free to let out a big sigh of relief.

This example probably lines up with your expectations of corporate videos. At face value, it’s definitely more of a recruitment pitch or something you’d see on a website home page.

You’ll also notice that the music is interesting, and actually pretty good. It might hit the familiar “upbeat ambience” notes, but the music never feels cheesy or boring.

But that’s only one direction you can go with this sort of project. You’ve also got the more inspiring direction, which feels much more like a promo reel rather than a corporate video:

Obviously the music here feels bold. It builds over time, working with the voiceover to make you feel confident in the company and excited for what they could bring to your business. (Assuming you’re a pharmaceutical company in Europe, of course.)

The song choice in this video wouldn’t be out of place in, say, a SpaceX video. And that kind of hopefulness or adventurous spirit is something that you can use to craft corporate videos that are genuinely compelling.

Let’s cover one more type of corporate video:

Now that is a completely different experience than the other two. The tone, the emotions, and even the idea you take away from the video will stick with you longer than the previous examples.

You might not be able to approach client work with enough freedom to go for this kind of “documentary reel” vibe. That’s okay — not all of us get to work on this kind of corporate video.

But think about how you felt during and after watching it. How much of that ties into the music choice and sound design? And how can you take that idea and incorporate it into corporate videos you’ll work on in the future?

These three examples are all pretty different directions that you can go with this sort of video. None of these clips would be considered groundbreaking, but they were all successful.

And by choosing the right corporate music, you can meet client expectations and still try to produce something better than the boring old run-of-the-mill corporate video.

Why Royalty Free Corporate Music Can Save You

Okay, so corporate music isn’t terrible. That’s an important discovery, and hopefully makes you feel a little better about making client videos you can actually be proud of.

But before you can jump in there and save all of the projects you recently worked on, you’ll probably want to find a place to get corporate music. (And since you know how hit-or-miss this music style can be, you may want to dedicate some time and budget for getting good songs.)

Royalty free corporate music is a reliable and affordable way to get this type of music. And through a company like Soundstripe, you’ll get an added benefit: All of our songs have been produced and curated by professional mix engineers.

More importantly, a Soundstripe subscription gives you options. Sure, you can go the traditional route and purchase a single-song license from us. But by signing up for an annual subscription, you’ll get unlimited access to our entire song catalog.

That’s 4,750 songs, and more than enough corporate music tracks to keep your clients happy for a long, long time.