How to Find the Right Music For a Trailer
How do you know you've found the right music for your game trailer? Unfortunately, a lot of this comes down to gut instinct and feel, but I'll share my process for eliminating possibilities and honing in on the "right" music cue.
First, you have to know whether or not you have access to the game's composer to either make something completely custom for the trailer, or at least modify an existing track from the game.
If they're making something custom, I recommend reading this post about collaborating with a composer. In short, you need to show or tell the composer what you want the music to be doing in each part of the trailer, the vibe, emotion, tone, energy, pacing, etc. Then send them an outline of the trailer, even if it's something as simple as this. Depending on the composer they may want more or less to reference when making the new track.
If the composer is either completely unavailable or only available to modify an existing track, then it's time to start listening to what you have.
First thing I do is listen to all the music from the game and eliminate the tracks which I'm pretty sure will just not work for the trailer at all. Here's what I look at:
Does the music fit the tone, energy, and emotion of the trailer for the game?
Does the music have a good build, sense of rising intensity, and/or dramatic arc to it?
Does any part of any music cue sound like it could function as the beginning, middle, or end of the trailer?
If there are no "yes" answers to a music track, then I'll set it aside. But if there's even one "yes" to a music track, it'll make it to the next round of the selecting process.
The next thing I need to find out: is whether the part of the music track I like is long enough to be used for a section of the trailer. If there's a musical phrase which sounds great for a particular act of the trailer, but it's 10 seconds too short, I'll probably eliminate it unless the composer is available to expand it, or I'm reasonably sure I can edit the music in a way that it doesn't sound like I just looped a section over and over.
Putting markers on music I might use helps me know what sections are available for me to slot in other audio like dialogue and sound.
If I find a music track which works well for the beginning, middle and end of the trailer with little to no editing, then it's time to celebrate and start editing. Otherwise I need to figure out if I can stitch together multiple music tracks in a way which sounds as seamless as possible. If that works, then it's time to start editing.
In the chance that there is no composer available and the game music simply cannot work for the trailer (oftentimes because it's a looping track which is not designed for a complete dramatic arc) then it's time to investigate trailer music libraries or trailer music composers. The key question here is: how much money can you budget towards music?
At the cheapest you can find royalty free music for around $50, but you'll probably have to spend a lot of time trying to find something which matches the vibe, tone, world, genre, pace and rhythm you need for the game's trailer. A more expensive single-use licensed music track could cost a few to several hundred dollars. And even more expensive could be over a thousand and up. Depending on the trailer music composer you can easily spend at least a few thousand dollars just for the music!
But the upside is you could have a really well made custom cue from someone who only makes trailer music and is used to finding a style for a very specific use case, tone, genre, etc. For the Roles trailer for Among Us, I worked with Brash Tracks to make a cue which matched the animation perfectly.
Otherwise, if you're licensing a music cue from a library it can mean lots and lots and lots of time spent listening to a lot of music trying to find something which matches your particular game and the intent of the trailer. This can easily take hours or days depending on luck and/or how willing you are to settle for something which doesn't completely match.
Custom composed music can mean everything perfectly matches the visuals!
Finding the right piece of music can be a transformative experience for both the trailer editor and the audience, so it's really important to get right. Ultimately, it still comes down largely to "feel." You want the music to have highs and lows, ebb and flow, which really make it feel like you were taken on a journey. It shouldn't feel like background noise unless somehow that is part of the trailer's direction to be flat and still.
How do you find the right music? If you're wondering how to find music companies, just go on LinkedIn and start searching for trailer music companies. They are HUNGRY to place their tracks in trailers, spots and games. If you're listed as a trailer editor on LinkedIn, it's likely they've already found you and are flooding your inbox with connection requests. You can also look for music supervisors whose job is to make those connections between the trailer producers and music companies.
After you've found some places to look, just keep listening, play it all underneath the game's footage until something clicks. Depending on your experience you might be able to listen to two seconds of a cue to know it's good or not, or it might take you two hours. Music searches are not for the faint of heart, but it's so so so worth it to find the right music track for your trailer!
