Enlightened Audio Education
Lesson 6
The important effect of background music in meditation and hypnosis recordings
Music matters (a lot)
Background music can make or break your recording and it deserves serious consideration if you wish to create a high quality audio production. Music doesn’t just add beauty to your recordings, it adds value to your creations and provides depth to an otherwise naked sound.
Music is especially important when it comes to guided meditations, hypnosis and other recordings that require the listener to be in a deeply relaxed state of mind. Gentle music provides a soothing backdrop to your spoken words and more importantly, it can play an active role in relaxing your listeners and will help them to open up to you emotionally.
It’s also worth mentioning that the music you choose is often the first thing that people will notice about your recording.
Recordings without music – are they really so bad?
Some people choose not to add music to their recordings, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with going down this path if there is a good reason to do so. I know one particular therapist who creates guided meditations for people suffering from chronic fatigue and in her opinion, some of her patients’ nervous systems are so oversensitive to stimulation that she will either exclude music or play it at a very quiet volume.
This is an extreme example however and is certainly not representative of how most people respond to music. In my experience, recordings that include music are infinitely more popular than those without, as the following experiment revealed.
Some years ago, I conducted an experiment to assess the importance of music in guided meditations from a commercial viewpoint. I released a new guided meditation and made it available in two formats – one with background music and one without. I made sure that both recordings were identical in every way except for the inclusion of music. I listed both recordings at exactly the same price and promoted them in exactly the same way. Our customers could then choose which version they preferred.
The experiment provided a definitive result. 0% of our customers purchased the meditation without music. Not even one!
Further evidence of the importance and popularity of music is supported by the fact that many people who had purchased guided meditations would also ask, “Where is that background music from? Can I get a copy without the words?”
People just love music. No surprises here. Without music, meditation and hypnosis recordings can end up feeling a little dry, both acoustically and emotionally.
If for some reason you feel that music will pollute rather than improve your recording, then by all means leave it out, but keep in mind that in most cases music is something that your listeners will both expect and desire.
