Choosing Music That Resonates with Your Health & Fitness Audience

Choosing Music That Resonates with Your Health & Fitness Audience

Hi, I’m Jamie Kennedy, Executive Podcast Producer at Brave Moon Podcasts. In this episode, I’m diving into one of the most important aspects of podcasting – choosing the right music. Music can make or break your podcast by setting the mood, telling a story, and leaving a lasting impression on your listeners.

Whether you're just starting or looking to update your existing podcast, I’ll guide you through the process of selecting music that enhances your message and resonates with your audience. I also share five hacks, including where to find royalty-free music, how to choose based on your target audience, and why instrumental tracks are often the best choice for podcasts. Tune in for tips that will help you create a podcast that sticks with your listeners!

In this episode, we talk about…

• Why choosing the right music is essential for setting the mood and tone of your podcast.

• How music tells a story and sticks with listeners, impacting recall and emotions.

• Top five hacks for selecting the right music, from royalty-free sources to understanding your target audience.

Transcribed Podcast Episode

Do you know how important it is to choose the right music for your podcast? Music can make - or break - a podcast.

Music sets the mood. It tells a story and it sticks with listeners. The music you choose, whether you mean to or not, will affect the way that a listener feels, thinks, and reflects on your podcast. So it's important you choose the right music from the very start. Already started a podcast?

Don't worry, it's not too late to adjust it. I'll explain how to do that later in this episode.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm Jamie Kennedy, Executive Podcast Producer at Brave Moon Podcasts. We've produced podcasts for Virgin Active Health Clubs, Functional Training Institute, Wellbeing Coaches and Speakers, and many more. I'm including all of the insider secrets I've learned along the way being a podcast producer for some of the top health and fitness brands on the charts today.

So whether you're a small business owner, health and fitness professional, or a wellness enthusiast looking to boost your brand through podcasting, this podcast is for you. For a comprehensive list of the equipment and software my clients use, head to my website and grab my free startup podcast guide. I've condensed months of research into this guide, offering you the industry's best choices. Download it today, the link is in the show notes.

Now, let's jump into it. When a listener hits play on a podcast, the music they hear is what sets the entire mood for the podcast. It also establishes the listener's mood. Think about it. When you listen to a sad song, do you feel it?

And vice versa. Do you feel a little more lively in your step when you hear an energetic song?

This mood shift is not a coincidence. Music affects our mood regularly and a podcast is no exception. The second thing to consider when choosing music for your podcast is that music tells a story. With or without lyrics, music is expressing a story to your audience. Is your podcast fun, playful, profound, or mysterious?

A listener can tell instantly from a song what it is that they want to know about a podcast. Will they get the motivational tingles of a personal training podcast? or a soothing grounding sensation from a meditation podcast.

The third thing to consider is that music sticks with listeners. Have you ever listened to a song and had it stuck in your head long after you stopped listening to it? You're not alone. In fact, around 90 % of people say they get a song stuck in their head at least once a week, myself included. Music beds for podcasts are no different.

This sticky effect creates greater recall of your podcast and most importantly, creates an emotional state in the listener that will make them tune in again and again.

Now, if you haven't already started a podcast, it's great to choose a background song from the get-go. Use it in your trailer, AKA your podcast elevator pitch, as well as your intro in the actual podcast episodes. I also recommend adding it to your outro as well. This creates a cohesive feel to your podcast. I highly recommend sticking with your music in every single episode.

If you're editing your own podcast, a great idea is to use a previous episode as your editing template. This way, your music is already within the tracks that you're editing, which makes it easier for you to remember what part of the music you were using and how you were using it, AKA in the intro, in the outro, maybe something in the middle, et cetera. Now.

If you've already started a podcast and you feel it needs to change, that's completely doable. Maybe you're realizing it's not fitting the mood of your podcast or you've even got negative feedback about it. It's okay. And it's not too late. If I were you, I would change the music in a few steps. First and foremost, updating your trailer to reflect the new music. Oftentimes the trailer is the first thing that new listeners hear when they find your podcast.

After all, it usually shows up at the top of your podcast feed. So get the new listeners started with the updated music. That trailer truly sets the tone for your entire podcast and helps the right people find you. Then stick with the new music with all new episodes. Don't worry, you don't need to go back and fix every single episode unless you want to. Podcasts are always an evolution and showing listeners that evolution is all part of it.

So the question becomes, how do you choose the right music for your podcast?

Here's five hacks to choosing the right music.

Hack number one. Always choose copyright free music. I know how tempting it is to choose a catchy song that everyone knows, but songs you've heard on the radio are more than likely copyrighted and against the law to use.

And if that wasn't a good enough reason, listening platforms will actually catch these automatically and reject your podcast episode immediately. Here are my top three favorite places to download copyright free music from.

1. Riverside. It's not only your one stop shot to edit and record your podcast, but it also has an entire royalty free copyright free music library directly in the platform. It's amazing.

2. Artlist. Now, this is a monthly subscription for commercial use music. Yes, it is a bit of an investment, but ultimately some of the music that's on there is absolutely worth it. So check it out. And if you find an amazing song to use, go ahead. It's a great investment.

3. Pixabay. Now, Pixabay is free for commercial and non-commercial use. It's actually pretty incredible because it has music, it also has images, videos, all sorts of things.

So it's definitely worth you checking out. It also has free sound effects, which can be very helpful for certain podcasts. I'll add links to all of those in the show notes.

Hack number two. know your target audience, aka dream listener. As every first step should be for podcasts, you want to identify your dream listener. Picture them.

What do they look like? Where are they based? What do they do for work? How old are they? How much money do they make? And most importantly, why are they tuning into your podcast specifically?

Because knowing your listener makes it easier to understand what they will like. For example, let's say that you are a yoga teacher creating a podcast about meditation. Picture a listener who has a hectic day. Their day is full of work, kids, and devices.

All they want at the end of the day is to put on their AirPods and disappear into the soothing sounds of a meditation episode. Which means you're not going to play a dance or hip hop track in the background, right? Instead, you'll give your listener precisely what they need. Soothing, settling, quiet sound.

Hack number three. Look at music as moods. Search by moods when searching for music that will please your ideal listener.

I mentioned earlier about Riverside. Well, they allow you to search by moods. For example, if you're a fitness coach starting a podcast to help people achieve their goals, an excellent place to start is looking up uplifting, powerful or exciting songs. You can search by moods in Riverside, but also in Artlist and Pixabay, both websites which I've mentioned earlier.

Hack number four. Lean toward instrumental music.

Lyrics can be a good or bad thing depending on the usage. Lyrics can be used to boost the story you're telling. However, lyrics playing while you're talking is a hard no. It can confuse the listener and make it difficult for them to hear you on a podcast. A nice balance would be finding a lyrical song with extended instrumental sections so you or your editor can work with both parts.

But in general, I recommend instrumental music because of its ease of use. In fact, lyrics can even work against a listener's emotional state. For example, let's say a listener is going through a tough breakup. They listen to your podcast to quote unquote escape and a song with romantic lyrics start playing.

Not only are they more than likely affected by the lyrics, they probably will need to turn your podcast off, which hurts your average retention rate and we don't want that. Some lyrics may feel safer than others. I implore you to consider that every single one of us, no matter if they're your ideal listener or not, are going through struggles or facing issues that you might not be aware of and so for that reason, instrumental music is just a safer choice for your podcast.

Hack number five. Get feedback and advice. So once you've selected some music bed options, reach out to your friends, family or podcast producer.

Tell them about the premise of your podcast and ask them to have a listen to, let's say, your top three songs and let you know which one resonates with them most.

Another idea is to join our free Facebook community group, which connects like-minded health and fitness podcast hosts and guests. You are welcome to post your song choices as a poll and ask the community to weigh in. I know I sure will. There you have it.

Thank you again so much for joining me on your podcasting journey. Don't forget to subscribe and if you enjoyed this episode, please leave a five star review. It helps people like you find this podcast as well. Until the next episode, keep those conversations flowing and keep being the amazing powerhouse that you are. And as always, remember that consistency, authenticity and promoting your podcast are key to your success.

We're producers here at Brave Moon Podcasts! Reach out to us today to learn how you can use a professional editor to launch a successful podcast. You can even leave music selection to the experts with our launch offering. Reach out to us today to learn more!

Ready to improve your podcast by choosing the perfect music?

Let's get started! Download our 'Podcast Launch Guide' to launch your podcast fearlessly and be confident that your music selection shines. Don't miss out on this valuable resource – take the next step towards podcast success today!

Happy podcasting.

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