WHY MUSIC SHOULD BE CONSIDERED EARLIER IN THE CREATIVE PROCESS

When it comes to music in the creative process, a soundtrack should be more than just an afterthought. It doesn’t matter whether you’re working on advertising, social content or promotional materials, music shapes the story, the workflow and the brand from the inside out. It follows, then, that considering brand music strategy early on in the creative process leads to stronger storytelling, smoother production and better brand consistency, ultimately producing work that connects, captivates and converts.

In this blog, we look at how early music choices influence tone, common challenges when music is left to the final stages and explain how early alignment supports brand consistency across platforms.

Tone, Pacing & Emotion

When selecting music for brand content, it’s important to consider the tone you wish to evoke. Smart music choices provide a tonal shortcut, from emotional temperature (e.g. playful, premium etc.) to brand attitude (e.g. confident versus humble). And once the tone is set musically, copy, performance and design will fall into place a lot more easily.

Whether you’re creating films or short promos, music is also crucial when it comes to pacing as it will help define rhythm long before an edit exists. Indeed, if you select the right music early enough, it will help you determine scene length and structure (e.g. cinematic arcs versus punchy beats), guide the edit cadence (e.g. quick cuts versus slow reveals) and shape the sort of reactions you want to provoke from your audience.

Of course, there is no match for music when it comes to evoking emotion. Shaping how moments are felt as well as understood, early music selection can clarify the emotional arc of your content, influence character perception and deepen emotional resonance without extra dialogue or explanation.

Leaving Music ‘Til Last

The intention behind a visual is shaped by its soundtrack, meaning the same image will appear inspiring, unsettling or ironic depending on the music chosen to accompany it. By selecting music late in the process, you’re essentially forcing the soundtrack to fit an already-finished story, which can often result in a jarring tone. If you choose to leave music ‘til last, you’re also making emotion a secondary consideration, leading to storytelling that can feel inauthentic and fail to connect with audiences.

Pacing also becomes a problem, with music becoming a mere technical fix instead of a tool that actually enhances storytelling. Edits can easily feel rushed or drag unnaturally, and key moments aren’t granted the space to land emotionally, with music chopped or stretched awkwardly to fit the story.

Cleaning up these mistakes can be a costly and time-consuming business, impacting budgets, deadlines and approvals. For example, edits may need to be re-cut to match the new track. These changes alter the timing, emotion and meaning of the content, leading to questions from stakeholders. Consequently, you can expect more rounds of revisions, delays and budget overruns. And these time pressures can impact on your musical choices, with teams favouring quick fixes that are cliched or unoriginal. Far better to avoid errors in the first place by prioritising brand storytelling through music.

How to Ensure Brand Continuity

Making creative decisions on a project-by-project basis rather than strategically can ultimately result in sonic continuity breaking down over time, resulting in the fragmentation of brand identity. Whereas, if you select your soundtrack early, you can set yourself on the path to maintaining brand consistency through music.

While selection music for global campaigns can be complicated, it needn’t be. Simply look to a music partner like us at Audio Network, who can offer advice on creative music licensing throughout the process, eliminating costly mistakes.

As well as offering a wide range of music for advertising campaigns, our expert team can help with planning, advising when to choose music for ads or offering music planning for marketing campaigns from the very earliest creative stages. We have decades of experience offering support for multi-market sonic strategy, and boast an ever-expanding catalogue of more than 280,000 fully-licensed, high quality tracks, created by leading artists, composers and musicians from all over the globe at the world’s finest studios.

You can browse our playlist hub and curated collections for musical inspiration, or simply brief our dedicated Music Team who can help find the tracks that will make your project sing.

Discover More

So now you know why music should be considered early in the creative process, why not dig into some more of our blogs, from how to find production music for ads and stay on budget and Neurobranding vs. Sonic Branding to 'Music Licensing 101: A Marketer's Guide', as well as how to find music for YouTube videos,  TikTok or Instagram.