THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO INTRO MUSIC

No matter what content you're creating – from YouTube videos (YouTube intro sounds) to podcasts, radio and showreels – you’re going to require some sensitively-chosen intro music. You may even need movie intro music if you're a filmmaker.

Intro music is necessary because it gives your project a clear starting point and an element of consistency, which, in turn, contributes to your production’s identity. After hearing your intro music a handful of times, your audience will begin to associate the sound with your output, whether that comes in the form of a radio show, a TV series, a film, a vlog or a podcast.

Below, we run through everything you need to know about intro music and the different styles you may want to consider for your production. But if you’d rather just get straight into browsing, sampling and downloading our high-quality tracks, allow us to point you in the right direction. Head on over to our production genre page to discover playlists such as comedy, drama and TV music themes; alternatively, you can

Explore our catalogue via our albums, composers and playlists pages.

Contents:

• What is intro music, and why might you need it?
• How to make intro music
• Good music for Intros
• Cool intro music songs to trial
• News intro music
• 10 news intro music songs to trial
• Sports intro music
• 10 sports intro music songs to trial
• YouTube intro music
• Music for YouTube intros
• 10 YouTube intro music songs to trial
• Podcast intro music
• 5 podcast intro music songs to trial
• Short intro music
• 5 short intro music songs to trial
• Great intro music
• 10 great intro music tracks to trial
• Intro sounds
• Good outro music
• Licensing intro music
• Downloading intro music

What is Intro Music, and Why Might You Need It?

It’s generally a short piece of music that helps to set the tone of your content – from dramatic to comedic, upbeat to newsworthy. The music also acts as an aid to grab the audience’s attention and ready them for watching or listening.

How to Make Intro Music

To make intro music, one must be equipped with a DAW (digital audio workstation) software program. Popular DAWs include Apple Logic Pro, Studio One 5, FL Studio and Ableton Live. These programs are the necessary tool you will need to record, edit, produce and manipulate audio.

When creating a piece of intro music, it’s important to remind yourself of the purpose of the music piece. Say, for instance, you’re looking to create a piece of music to play before the beginning of a radio’s news section, it’s vital that you keep the tone serious in case there’s sensitive information to report. The music also needs to be a little startling to ensure that the listener knows it’s time to pay attention.

On the other hand, if you’re the producer of a comedy podcast looking to create a piece of intro music, the composition should reflect the light-hearted nature of the project.

Good Music for Intros

When you’re priming your audience for your show, film or showreel, what makes good music for intros? We think it’s something that gets their attention and that’s distinctive, but not distracting – maybe think along the lines of BBC News’ intro music: the pulse that runs throughout creates a sense of urgency and timeliness.

Cool Intro Music Songs to Trial

When it comes to cool intro songs, why not get ahead of the curve by checking out up-and-coming artists? Here are five of our favourites:

1.Vibey’ - Lil Yamaha

2. ‘My Ones’ - Lady Sanity, Cuzn Fred

3. ‘Off the Ground’ - JDP

4. ‘Easy Love’ - Nick Kingswell

5. ‘I Bother’ - Sarah Roston

News Intro Music

News intro music is responsible for ensuring the viewer is in the right frame of mind when the presenter informs them about the latest happenings – whether that’s good news or bad news. Thus, news intro music must strike a serious tone to communicate that the show will handle sensitive topics.

Additionally, news intro music can make a news show appear credible which may help the viewer establish a parasocial relationship with the presenters. If an audience member can learn to trust a news show and its reporters, they’re likely to regularly watch the show and count it as their primary news source.

The final, and arguably the most important role intro music has to play in a news show is to alert the viewer. On occasion, the news contains pressing information – say, an update on the restrictions in place to stop the spread of coronavirus – thus, the intro music must notify the audience member that it’s time to listen up.

10 News Intro Music Songs to Trial

Inspired by the above? Here’s a selection of our News & Current Affairs tracks that you may want to consider for your news production.

1. ‘Greatness’ – Chris Blackwell

2. ‘This Just In’ – James Brett

3. ‘City Skyline’ – Gareth Johnson

4. ‘World News’ – Terry-Devine King

5. ‘News Flash’ – James Brett

6. ‘Vintage News’ – David Tobin, Jeff Meegan, Huw White

7. ‘Dial Out ’ – Philip Guyler 

8. ‘Light News Sting’ – Chris Blackwell

9. ‘Fireflies' – Paul Mottram

10. 'Twenty Four Hours 6’ – Terry-Devine King

Sports Intro Music

Sports intro music could be anything from the music that plays before a tennis match, the intro to a football highlight show or the sting placed at the very beginning of an Olympic Games podcast.

Most sports intro tracks are highly charged – think electronic sounds, high-octane beats and aggressive rock-inspired rhythms. Essentially, they encapsulate the atmosphere of a sports stadium/venue to help the audience member enjoy the sporting experience, wherever they may be in the world.

10 Sports Intro Music Songs to Trial

We have over 200,000 tracks suitable for media projects, and plenty of those are perfect for sports-centric productions – no matter if the focus is motor racing, basketball, football, athletics or another sport entirely. Take a look at just 10 of our favourite compositions from our sports playlist, below.

1. ‘Speed Junkie 6’ – Barrie Gledden, John Horrocks

2. ‘Gator Drive 5’ – Nigel Glockler, Roger Adams

3. ‘Man of the Match 5’ – Christian Marsac

4. ‘Going For It 10’ – Tristan Ivemy

5. ‘The Far Reach 6’ – Jack Baker

6. ‘Dragons 9’ – Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock

7. ‘Step Into A Cypher 4’ – Andy Cooper

8. ‘Typewriter 4’ – Christopher Brooke

9. ‘Nose Pin 4’ – Adam Drake

10.  ‘Moving Up 5’ – Benjamin Thompson

YouTube Intro Music

If you’re looking to spice up your YouTube content with a catchy piece of intro music, you’ve come to the right place. Audio Network has thousands of unforgettable tunes for you to use at your convenience.

There are two factors a vlogger should consider when choosing a piece of YouTube intro music. Firstly, the track should complement the tone and topic of your channel. For instance, if your YouTube channel is chiefly centred around travel, you may want to opt for a track that’s redolent of classic action-adventure explorer movies, such as the films from the Indiana Jones franchise.

Secondly, your intro should tell the audience a little about the vlogger’s personality and music preferences. For example, if you’re a huge fan of country music, you live in the countryside and your vlogs have a pastoral feel, it would be sensible to opt for a country music track. After all, one of the main reasons a viewer may return to your channel is because they relate to, or are inspired by, you, the vlogger.

Music For YouTube Intros

To make life easy when it comes to finding YouTube intro music, we’ve hand-picked a huge range of playlists, by topic. Find everything you need, whether you’re looking for intro music for travel, cookery, beauty and fashion, gaming, parenting vlogs and loads more.

Once you’ve found your ideal intro music for YouTube, then find out how to take it up a notch with our tips and tricks, covering everything from how to improve video quality, to how to run a successful family channel.

10 YouTube Intro Music Songs to Trial

Need inspiration right now? Check out these 10 tracks, which would make great YouTube intro music:

1. ‘You Know It's Time’ - Peo Haggstrom, Jamie Elder

2. ‘Autoschediasm’ - Raithe Laurence

3. ‘Party Hunt’ - Julian Emery, Jeremy Wheatley

4. ‘Born To Be A Winner’ - William Davies, Dag Torgersbraten

5. ‘Jupiter Beach’ - Alexis Smith, Joe Henson, Pete Davis

6. ‘Cosmic Ocean’ - Barrie Gledden, Daniel Goldman

7. ‘Anode’ - Noah Sorota

8. ‘Narrow Escape’ - Bob Bradley, Thomas Balmforth

9. ‘My Mistake’ - Jason Rebello

10. ‘New Perspectives’ - David Kelly

Podcast Intro Music

Think of your favourite podcasts – we’re willing to bet that the intro and outro music is one of the first things that come to mind about them. A podcast’s intro music immediately sets the mood, whether the subject is comedy or TV, true crime or wellness. The intro acts as a theme tune, so the main question you have to ask is: does the music you’ve chosen fit your content like a glove? Try selecting five to 10 possible tracks, and putting them with some extracts to see what works best.

Five Podcast Intro Music Songs to Trial

Here are five of our favourite tracks for podcast intro music. Looking for more support in finding the best podcast intro music? Read our expert guide.

1. ‘Grey Goose’ – Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd

2. ‘Vibrant Heritage’ – Paul Mottram

3. ‘Curiosity Shop’ – David O’Brien

4. ‘Eon Expansion’ – Noah Sorota

5. ‘Cold Feet’ - Richard Lacy

Short Intro Music

We have amazing news if you’re looking for short intro music – all our tracks come in a variety of different lengths – anything from five-second stings to half a minute, so you’re spoilt for choice. Search our huge catalogue by ‘duration’ to find exactly what you need.

Five Short Intro Music Songs to Trial

1. ‘Cosmic Ocean’ - Barrie Gledden, Daniel Goldman

2. ‘Anode’ - Noah Sorota

3. ‘Narrow Escape’ - Bob Bradley, Thomas Balmforth

4. ‘My Mistake’ - Jason Rebello

5. ‘New Perspectives’ - David Kelly

Great Intro Music

Pleasant intro music is all well and good, but sometimes you want a great piece of intro music that forces the listener to stop in their tracks and pay attention to the media that you’ve created – whether that’s a podcast, a television show, a radio series or something else.

What exactly is great intro music? Well, it’s music that makes an impact – tracks and stings that are memorable and give the project personality from the offset. It’s the jazzy, soul-stirring music that plays during the opening credits of Monsters Inc; it’s the theme tune to BBC News; it’s the short composition that plays at the beginning of each episode of Schitt’s Creek.

10 Great Intro Music Songs to Trial

No matter what project you’re working on, we’ve got a music track to fulfil your needs. Here are 10 great intro music songs to trial.

1. ‘Movie Magic’ – David Tobin, Jeff Meegan, Huw White

2. ‘Boom Choir’ – Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd

3.‘Phat Salsa 3’ – Tim Garland

4. ‘Street Racer 4’ – Gareth Johnson

5. ‘Hope is Alive 12’ – Erick DeVore

6. ‘Route 66 Vers. 4’ – Barrie Gledden, Richard Kimmings

7. ‘Sitting On Your Money 12’ – Thomas Evans, Joshua Arcoleo

8. ‘Milkshake 2’ – Tom Quick

9. ‘Blue Monday 3’ – Tim Renwick

10. ‘Made For Days Like These’ – Joshua Arcoleo, Alyusha Chagrin

Intro Sounds

Maybe it’s not so much music that you’re on the hunt for as some intro sounds? In that case, our Editors’ Toolkit has everything you need. It’s buzzing with drones and swooshes, pulses, heartbeats and ticks, and cool FX.

Good Outro Music

For your outro music, look for something pretty similar to your intro music – whether that’s in terms of the genre, style or mood. You could choose something by the same artist, or search for an instrumental version of a specific intro song. For example, check out the vocal version of Sara Roston’s ‘I Bother’ and the instrumental mix to see how using two versions could be great for giving your project an element of continuity.

Good Outro Music to Trial

1. ‘Crunchtime’ - Mark Allaway, Jeff Lardner

2. ‘Rather Be’ - Josh Oliver, Edward Hogston

3. ‘Just The Start’ - Martin Felix Kaczmarski

4. ‘Here Again’ - Sofia Lafuente

5. ‘How Beautiful’ - Barrie Gledden, Chris Bussey

Licensing Intro Music

Looking for a song, instead of an instrumental? Don’t forget that you can’t just use that track that’s notched up a billion Spotify streams – it’s pretty much guaranteed to be under copyright. Licensing an intro song from our catalogue can be a really easy option – search by genre, depending on whether you want a pop song or indie, rock or hip hop.

Licensing can be a bit of a minefield, but that's why we're here to help - check out the basics over on our Music Copyright page.

Downloading Intro Music

Now we’ve taken you through the ins and outs of intro, with everything from intro songs to podcast intro music, YouTube intro music to intro sounds, we're hoping you’re excited about all the possibilities that intro music can offer. So why not sign up for a free trial of our Essential Edit subscription for super-easy, cost-effective music licensing?

Plus, you’ll never run out of options for new intro music, as we’ve got over 200,000 tracks in our catalogue, AND we put together regular hand-picked playlists to keep all your music choices fresh.