Speaker 1: Sound. It is half of the video experience. It can draw you into the world of what you're watching. As video creators, sound is so important. And we need to learn how to use sound to captivate an audience. Utilizing sound effects is something that I've been doing in various Think Media videos to actually increase the average view duration of that video. I do this by engaging the viewer, not just visually, but audibly as well. So where are the best places to find sound effects and avoid getting a copyright strike? And how can you use them to actually engage the audience to make your videos stand out? Well, we're going to cover all of that and more. You got to just press record. Hey guys, my name is Nolan Molt with Think Media and welcome back. Or if you're new, then nice to meet you. Now, when I first got started making videos for the internet, a lot of the sound effects that I would find would be on YouTube. Now at the time it was okay because I wasn't making any money. I was simply just doing it for the fun of it. So risking a copyright strike or maybe my video getting demonetized was not really a big deal for me at the time. But now posting videos to the internet is actually one of the ways that we make money here at Think Media. And maybe like you, you want to make YouTube a full-time income for yourself. And so I'm sure you do not want to risk any copyright strikes or having your videos demonetized. And so I'm going to share my favorite site with you for finding sound effects as well as music. And then I'm going to teach you how to use them in your videos. Now here at Think Media, we actually use Epidemic Sound, which is the sponsor of today's video. And they were actually really generous in offering you guys a free 30-day trial. Plus your second month is going to be 50% off if you use the link in the description. And this is only available for the first seven days. So make sure you go check that out right now. What I love about Epidemic is they have a great library of sound effects. All you got to do is go to their sound effects library and then you can search for sounds. And there is a whole bunch of them that you can choose from. All these sounds are going to be high quality sounds. So you save a lot of time because on YouTube, you find some sound effects that are just absolutely terrible. And then you have to watch ads and it's just a hassle to find the right sound effect. That's why I love and I think it's just so worth getting an Epidemic Sound account and just using the sound effects on their site. Plus you can monetize your videos and then you're never going to have to worry about your videos getting demonetized. The cool thing is even if you cancel your membership at some point, you're still able to use all the music, all the sound effects in your videos, keep it monetized forever. And that's a pretty good deal. Now that you know where to find high quality sound effects, let's talk about using them in videos and when you should use them and where you should use them. Now, of course, this is going to depend on the types of videos that you make. But for us at Think Media, I love to use these sound effects during my hook. Now, the hook is the very beginning of the video when I try and hook the audience in as to what's to come and what they're going to learn in this video. So I like to spend a lot of time on the hook, whether that's scripting, editing, adding in sound effects, the right music, all of this stuff really matters because when someone clicks on the video, this is the very first thing that they're going to watch. And using sound effects in the hook of your video really is going to bring the audience into your video and is going to make your videos stand out from the rest. You do want to be careful with not making your sound effects too loud in your videos. The point here is to bring your audience into your video. And if your sound effects are too loud and too out there, then they are going to distract the viewer from actually what's happening on the screen. And we do not want to do that. We simply want to bring the viewer into the experience. So if someone is walking through a field, maybe their hand is touching the grass, adding in proper sound effects to make it sound like they are there is a good thing. But if the sound effects are too loud, it's going to be completely distracting from what's going on. The second place to add sound effects to your videos is when B-roll is happening. So right now, me talking to the camera, this is what we would call A-roll. And these extra clips that you are seeing right now, this is B-roll. And adding sound effects to those clips in the B-roll is a great idea. Especially if you stop talking, maybe there's just a little bit of music, adding in that extra sound can be really dynamic. Another great tip here is to layer your sound effects. Now, if you were at the beach, you definitely would be hearing the ocean. But you also would probably hear some birds chirping. There might even be a slight breeze. And adding in all these sound effects and layering them together is going to make your shot sound so much fuller. The third way to use sound effects is to tie it to a visual. So whether text is sliding into the screen or you have something popping up right here, these are great times to use sound effects because they grab the viewer's attention to see what's happening on the screen. If you want to learn how some of the best YouTubers actually use sound effects and editing techniques in their videos to get massive views, then click on the screen right now and I'll see you guys in the next video.