Adding Podcast Intro and Outro Music

What’s up everybody. My name is Misbah. Welcome back to Pod Mahal. Today, I’m going to be diving a little bit into intro and outro music for your podcast. Uh, this is something that is pretty important, um, because, and this is something I’ve experimented with shows that, uh, have no intro. I’ve observed ones that have no music in them. And then I’ve also played around with ones that do. And what I can tell you from looking at the effects of both, if you’re kind of looking to get started, just like get something raw and bare out there. Yeah. Maybe you don’t use intro and outro music and you just get a conversation up there.

There are times where that might be necessary and appropriate for where you’re at, but I do think where possible it is helpful to choose something that represents your personality, your vibe, what you’re going to be bringing, you know, on the show, there’s something called an audio logo, um, in, in advertising and marketing. And usually that’s like kind of the, you know, when a Coke can, when you open up a Coke can, and it’s like that noise that happens

Intro and Outro.

Or, you know, but up, uh, you know, whatever, whatever one that is, there’s all these little logos, Dell, apple has its own, right? When, when you get a phone call or your alarm goes off on an apple phone, it’s just like, it’s very noticeable. It’s a distinct, you’re like, okay, that person has an iPhone. Right? So the literal definition of it is not so much what I’m kind of concerned with. I’m kind of trying to translate it into this podcasting format for you where you can think like, oh, the concept of an audio logo kind of applies to me as well, even though it might be a little bit longer, right? So the what’s a good length for your intro and outro 15 seconds or so, or under 30 seconds. Some there’s people who go way longer.

I think this is a preference thing, but a general practice that’s good is to keep it on the shorter end.

Remember of the length of Intro/Outro

If you have sponsor reads or you have other stuff that you don’t have, people just get automatically going into skip mode. Cause your intro’s really long, right? Let’s back up a little bit. The purpose of your intro and outro music is to remember and create this feeling inside of your listeners, that associates them with you right over time. There’s been people who will tag on story, you know, tag me on stories or whatever of them listening to the podcast. And it’s like, you know, them, them shaking their head a little bit. Cause they’re vibing out to the music.

That’s something that explicitly people have said. I’ve also heard people reference like on the podcast look good move. Well, one of the interest that if you want to be a sexy 80 year old and you want to throw your kids around like basketballs, then dah, dah, dah, dah, right.

That line was actually in the description. And it was something that was spoken when we recorded the intro. And it’s fascinating because I had a client, you know, a year and a half later or so, uh, who referenced in our onboarding consultation, that exact line that was like, well, you know, what’s my goal. I want to be a sexy 80 year old and throw my kids and grandkids around like basketballs, you know, like he referenced the exact thing and it gave him something that was like probably heard it a hundred times already. Right. Because we had done that many episodes and he had maybe listened to a bunch of them.

What’s my Goal!

So that’s the benefit that a good intro and outro can have. Is it kind of really cements you into the minds of, of your listeners, um, in a really organic and authentic way? The second thing is getting your message across, right?

So, uh, in an intro, maybe what you’re going to be doing is just saying what your name is saying, you know what you’re going to be talking about or not even what you’re gonna be talking about, maybe, you know, what the show is about or something. Um, and I like to think like, what’s your biggest call to action, right? So there are times where, for me, like getting people to review, getting people to subscribe like that stuff feels okay, that’s kind of, you know, that’s the win. But then there are other times where you’re like, oh, I want to drive people to my website. I have this new download. I have a stand-up show coming up that I want to drive people to. So you can plug that into your podcast. Right?

So a website where that is actually optimized for people to visit and be, there is a smart way to go.

People might ignore lengthy Outro/Intro

If that’s what you have, um, you can plug the name of your website. You also link it up in the description. Um, so that way it’s like, oh, every people are kind of getting this reminder and this impression of another place to go, um, where they can kind of dive deeper into you and your work. The outro, I think can be a little bit longer. Uh, I think the outro has that same concept of, you know, 10 to 15 seconds, but you have room to go a little longer. My theory on this is that if somebody is listening in the car, they’re listening, you know, while they’re doing chores or whatever it might be, they may not actually exit out once it’s done. Right.

They might let it roll. And how many times does that happen? Where I’m watching something on Netflix or YouTube, and then before, you know, it you’re on, you know, some other show has started playing because it was the next in the queue, right?

Keep the outro separate from Intro

So that happens sometimes in podcasts as well. And I think that if somebody wants to leave and they’re like, you know, you say, Hey, thanks so much for listening. And they do bounce that’s okay. Before the people that do stay till the end and they get a chance and an opportunity to hear that message again, you know, at this point, maybe it’s just, Hey, thanks so much for listening. Really appreciate you. If you head over my website or whatever you want to plug at that point. And then obviously you would take these vocal tracks. So you would record an intro and an outro track that are separate. And then you would overlay this on top of the music that you choose now, where do you go to get the music?

There are so many different places out there that offer free versions and then, you know, uh, inexpensive licenses and things like that.

Keep an eye on Intro too.

I like audio jungle.net. It has great options. You can choose by the beats per minute. You can choose by genre and the licenses are pretty inexpensive unless you go with a crazy popular song or something like you can get something probably under 20 bucks, you know, under 30 bucks and, you know, have no issues or no worries about it. Getting pulled down anywhere because of copyright or whatever it might be. Right? So once you download that song, you can sample it or you can listen to it. The music is going to be the length that your intro basically as, right. So if your intro happens to be 20 seconds, you go a little over, you might want that music to stretch out and be in the background, but just a bit of a lower volume, right?

So it’s kind of a, it’s like a movie where you’re talking or a trailer and there’s there’s music going on in the background that is usually a solid way to go.

I will see you soon!!

So I hope that was helpful when coming to think about, what type of music should I use? Do I even need music? Um, if you are having trouble and if you need help kind of deciding or choosing, uh, or any guidance in general. Make sure you leave a comment or hit me up at connecting at Mizhq.com. My name is Misbah Haque. I really, really appreciate you watching this, make sure you’re listening, make sure you like and subscribe wherever you’re at. Leave a review. If you can, if you have the time, that’s always helpful and appreciated. But yeah, my name is Misbah Haque. Thank you so much for watching and listening and, uh, I’ll see you next time.