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Ask HN: Background music on video courses / tutorials. Yes or No?

5 points by nbzso ↗ HN
I noticed a trend in video creator's approach, recently. They love to talk over "relaxing" music soundtracks.

In my personal view, you can use this approach for short introductions or summaries. For serious content which requires more concentration, this is not a useful implementation.

What are your thoughts about this?

8 comments

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themodelplumber
Cool of you to ask. It's a really unfortunate either-or issue, isn't it.

I would personally sometimes like to be able to watch without music. Especially at grumpy times. :-]

But at other times I really respect the creator more for daring to pick something. I myself like things like the Geowizard approach with lowkey midi-sounding stuff. For course content generally the volume or sound dynamic matters more than style in a lot of ways.

Still, to me the unspoken truth in these questions is...we could be allowed to offer both options in one video, but we're not. It's really too bad, considering how many blatantly rude video critic-trolls find their way into e.g. the YouTube comments section.

Good luck...whatever you try at least you asked about it ahead of time. That is, if you are planning on making your own video. If just a general q then yeah it depends.

Also IMO music choice points to creator psychology. If it's a match with my psychology it's even better. If it's not, even worse.

nbzso
Thanks for your answer. So I have to provide two versions of my videos. One with and one without BM. This will increase production effort, but will give me a safe zone for my audience.
a9h74j
Music in left channel only, voice center?? Then the viewer removing one earphone or changing a balance control??

Also (and more plausible), in a "lower information" mood I will stream music in a different tab. Generally each tab's player will have a separate volume control.

GameOfFrowns
Depending on the type and volume of music it can be annoying to your audience if that includes people who are hard of hearing or for whom English isn't their native language, even more so if the presenter isn't a native English-speaker themself and has a strong accent.
Saris
It has to really fit the theme of the video, and actually be background music, not 'equal volume with the voiceover' that so many have issues with.
dalmo3
Terrible idea. Even the most relaxing bgm you can find becomes super annoying if playing the video at higher speeds.