PowerPoint Blog
Labels: interviews, powerpoint, sounds
Vivian MacPartland (no -- that's not her picture, she calls it her avatar) is part of Business Development at Opuzz, a source for royalty free music. Opuzz customers includes corporations and businesses, educators, producers, TV and radio networks, developers for web, games and multimedia, retailers and business owners and others. In this conversation, Vivian discusses Opuzz, their music, and the use of music tracks in PowerPoint presentations.
Geetesh: Tell us more about Opuzz and how it evolved.
Vivian: Let me start by telling you how Opuzz is different -- one main feature of the Opuzz Royalty Free Music Library is our consistency in providing multiple edit versions options and music loops which gives our clients flexibility where needed. That way, they can mix and match, insert transitional stinger intros and outros, as well as clearly define segments of their presentation with appropriate music. Every track in our stock music library is available in edit versions of 10, 15, 30, 60 seconds, full mix, alternate mixes, stingers and multiple loop versions.
Application wise, you can use say a Blues 30 second track as your introduction piece followed by a stinger for the transition to the body of your presentation. Then, use a Loop A version of the same track for section A, Loop B for section B and Loop C version for section C of your presentation. At every transition point, you can use our stinger version to indicate a change in the section. End with a 15 second track of the same track. Voila! That truly will make your presentation sound custom and cohesive.
We also offer music in a wide range of musical genre from commonly use electronic music for presentations to dramatic orchestral themes, pop music, rock, classical, world and more. Music loops are commonly use for web or PowerPoint for their small file size and seamless 'loopabilty'. Music loops allow presenters to take their time and not rush through their slide yet having music accompanying them. Our music loops are quality loops that are not too short so they don't sound monotonous. They approximately 8-30 seconds long.
Our royalty free music is readily available in WAV & MP3 file formats at affordable prices starting from $2.99 and can go as low as a couple of cents for bulk purchases. We offer high-quality royalty free music as immediate downloads, CDs or DVDs. We have recently released our Opuzz Hard Drive option for power users. It is pack with our complete library and all edit versions of over 100 CDs. With over 13,000 track on a cool stylish yet rugged 80GB LaCie mobile drive (design by F.A. Porsche), this ultra-lightweight portable hard drive weighs only 180g and fits snugly on your palm. It also comes with both USB and Firewire connectivity and is plug-and-play for Windows XP/2000 and MAC OS X. Treat it like your personal/corporate library for legal royalty free music. We will have an option in future to update hard drives with latest releases. This will be announced at a future date.
Geetesh: How can sound enrich a PowerPoint presentation -- and what guidelines should one follow when using music within a presentation.
Vivian: PowerPoint presentations are critical components of many successful businesses. Appropriate music or 'soundtracks' can enrich these presentations, thus not only bring life to your presentation but also capture your audience's attention. Presenters everywhere are discovering that affordable, royalty free PowerPoint presentation music is the perfect choice to fulfill their business needs. Music in general is a creative tool so don't be over cautious or be over-governing by imposing too many rules. However some guidelines in presentations are recommended.
If your presentation is of a more serious tone, be sure to use the appropriate music or mix. For instance, if you like a music track we have in our library but find it a little too 'busy', do look out for our 'Alternate-Mixes'. These edits are of the same flavor but usually have less instrumentation and therefore sound more subdued or 'less busy'.
Music can also be used to effectively segment your presentation. You may want to break your 'story' into several segments since audiences tend to better follow your message if it is presented in 'digestable' portions. Use 'Stingers' to help in segmentizing your presentations. "Stingers" are edits from the full track and just a few seconds long -- they can be effectively used as intros, during scene changes, or endings ("outros").
Music is meant to complement your presentations, and add life to it -- but don't let it overpower your message. When fitted well together, music will surely enhance your presentation -- it also tells your audience that you have put in extra effort when preparing your presentation. One last but very important guideline is to remember to have fun when adding music to your presentations. Remember to visit the Opuzz site for royalty free music for your PowerPoint presentations.
Categories: sounds, powerpoint, interviews
Archives:
April 2003 | May 2003 | December 2003 | January 2004 | February 2004 | March 2004 | April 2004 | May 2004 | June 2004 | July 2004 | August 2004 | September 2004 | October 2004 | November 2004 | December 2004 | January 2005 | February 2005 | March 2005 | April 2005 | May 2005 | June 2005 | July 2005 | August 2005 | September 2005 | October 2005 | November 2005 | December 2005 | January 2006 | February 2006 | March 2006 | April 2006 | May 2006 | June 2006 | July 2006 | August 2006 | September 2006 | October 2006 | November 2006 | December 2006 | January 2007 | February 2007 | March 2007 | April 2007 | May 2007 | June 2007 | July 2007 | August 2007 | September 2007 | October 2007 | November 2007 | December 2007 | January 2008 | February 2008 | March 2008 | April 2008 | May 2008 | June 2008 | July 2008 | August 2008 | September 2008 | October 2008 | November 2008 | December 2008 | January 2009 | February 2009 | March 2009 | April 2009 | May 2009 | June 2009 | July 2009 | August 2009 | September 2009 |
