Incorporating Music into iMovie: A Step-by-Step Guide

Welcome to my comprehensive guide on adding music to your iMovie projects. If you’ve ever wondered how to create a captivating movie by incorporating the perfect soundtrack, you’ve come to the right place! I’ll walk you through the process, step by step, so you can enhance your videos with the magic of music.

Step 1: Launch iMovie

The first step is to open iMovie on your device. Look for the iMovie icon and click on it. The application will open up, and you’ll be ready to begin making your movie.

Step 2: Choose Your Project

Once iMovie is launched, you’ll see a list of projects. If you’re starting from scratch, choose “Create New” to begin a new project. If you already have a project in progress, select it from the list to continue working on it.

Step 3: Import Your Media

Now it’s time to import your media into iMovie. Click on the “Import Media” button to browse for the files you want to include in your project. This could be your video footage, images, or any other media files you’d like to use.

Step 4: Insert Music

Here comes the exciting part: adding music to your project! To do this, select the “Audio” tab in the top menu. iMovie offers a library of built-in soundtracks and sound effects. Browse through the options and choose the music that best suits the mood and atmosphere of your video.

If you have your own music files, you can import them by clicking on the “Import Media” button again and selecting your desired songs.

Step 5: Editing the Music

Once you have added the music to your project, it’s time to fine-tune it. iMovie allows you to easily adjust the volume, trim the length, and apply various sound effects to your music. Click on the music clip in your timeline, and you’ll see the editing options in the audio toolbar. Explore these options to customize your music exactly how you want it.

Step 6: Preview and Export

Now that your music is seamlessly integrated into your project, it’s time to see the final result. Click on the “Play” button to preview your movie with the added music. If everything looks and sounds just right, it’s time to share your masterpiece with the world! Go to the “File” tab and select “Share” to choose the desired format for exporting your video.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You’ve successfully learned how to add music in iMovie. By following these steps, you can elevate your videos to a whole new level of creativity and emotional impact. So go ahead, experiment with different music choices, and create movies that will captivate your audience.

When you’re done cutting and trimming your video in iMovie, you’ll probably want to add music or sound effects to it. Fortunately, adding sounds in iMovie is just as easy as editing videos.

With iMovie, you can add different sound formats and customize them however you like. Since all Apple devices support iMovie, I’ll explain how to add music and sounds to all of them.

Which Sound Formats Does iMovie Support?

When you add a sound to iMovie, it might not play. That means the format isn’t supported and you can’t use it for your video. You can convert your file to a supported format or find another file in a compatible format.

iMovie supports several media formats. For video formats, you can use MP4, MOV, MPEG-2, AVCHD, DV, HDV, MPEG-4, and H.264.

If you want to add an audio format, you can choose from MP3, WAV, M4A, AIFF, and AAC. For example, if you have a FLAC file, the software won’t recognize it.

How to Add Music in iMovie on Mac

To add music, songs, or any audio content on your Mac, you need to open the iMovie browser. In the browser, you’ll have two options for importing sound.

Option 1. Adding Audio Files from Existing Libraries

The first option is to add a sound that already exists in your iTunes, GarageBand, or Sound Effects Library. Here’s how:

1. Click on the ‘Audio’ tab at the top of the browser.
2. The tab with the three different libraries will appear. Choose the one you want to import sound from.
3. When you select the library, its contents will appear in list-view. You can use the pop-up menu at the top left of the browser to filter the items from the list.
4. Find the audio file you want to import.
5. Drag and drop the file to the ‘Timeline’ at the bottom of the app. If you want the audio file as background music for the entire video, add it to the ‘Background Music’ section of the timeline. You can customize the file separately from the other media content.

Option 2. Adding Audio Files from Your Storage

To add audio files from your storage, use this method:

1. Click on the arrow in a gray square pointing down. It’s at the top of the browser, above ‘Audio’ and other tabs.
2. Navigate to the audio file you want to use.
3. Click on the ‘My Media’ tab below the arrow.
4. You’ll see your sound file as a green waveform image with its length at the top left of the thumbnail. You can play the sound by hovering over it and pressing the ‘Space’ button.
5. Drag the imported file to the timeline.

How to Add Music in iMovie on iPhone or iPad

If you’re editing a video with iMovie on your iPhone or iPad, follow these steps:

1. Open the video you want to edit.
2. Tap on any part of the timeline where you want to insert a new audio file.
3. Select the ‘Add Media’ icon (the plus sign).
4. Tap ‘Audio’.
5. You’ll see options like Theme Music, Effects, Playlists, Albums, and more. Choose a database from which you want to import the audio.
6. Browse through your iTunes or other supported apps and libraries to find the song you want.

Once you’ve chosen a song, it will appear on your timeline. You can add multiple sound layers to the timeline, with each new sound file appearing below the previous one.

Converting Audio Files to Supported Formats

If iMovie doesn’t support a specific audio file you want to use in your videos, you can convert it to a compatible format. The best format to convert to is AIFF. Here’s what you can do:

1. Find an online AIFF converter, such as this one.
2. Click on ‘Choose Files’ and locate the sound file you want to convert.
3. Choose an audio bitrate of 16kbps.
4. Choose a sampling rate of either 44.1kHz or 48kHz. These are the usual sampling rates for iMovie projects.
5. Click on ‘Start Conversion’ and wait for the converter to prepare your new file format for download.
6. Download the converted file and upload it to iMovie.