How to Add Music to PowerPoint

To make your PowerPoint presentation more engaging, background music is an excellent choice. While older versions might require some tricks, PowerPoint generally allows you to play any WAV or MP3 file in the background. If you want to play multiple tracks continuously, it's best to merge them into a single file first.

Open the slide where you want the music to start playing. If you want the music to play right from the beginning, choose the first slide.

• Check additional guides for Office 2007 and 2003 online.
• If you'd like to play multiple songs throughout your presentation, you can arrange them across various slides. However, merging the songs into one file will make everything simpler and more manageable. See the next section for more details.

Click on the Insert tab. You can insert MP3 and WAV files.

• To use a song from iTunes, first convert it to MP3 format by right-clicking on the track in iTunes and selecting "Create MP3 Version." Click here for more details.
• WAV files can be quite large, making it more difficult to share your PowerPoint content. Consider converting them to MP3. You can do this by importing the WAV file into iTunes or using a free online converter.

Click on the "Audio" option in the "Media" group. Select "Audio from My PC" from the available options.

• Note: The "Online Audio" option is no longer functional. Therefore, if you want to use online music, you must download it to your computer first.

Browse to the song you want to play. You can select any WAV or MP3 file available on your computer or network drive.

Select whether the music should play automatically or when clicked. There are two basic options for starting the music. You can set the music to play when you click a button, or it can automatically play in the background. The following options allow you to make a quick choice:

• To make the music play automatically and loop through all slides, select "Play in Background" under the Playback tab. The music will start automatically, continue across slides without stopping, and repeat once it finishes. The audio button will also be hidden in this case. The music will begin immediately when the slide opens.
• To start playing the music when the audio button is clicked, select "No Style" from the Playback tab. The music will play when you click the audio button. You can change the button's appearance using the Format tab, which allows you to design or choose an image to use.

Edit the audio file briefly. PowerPoint offers several basic audio editing tools, allowing you to change the starting point of the music, adjust the volume, apply fade-in and fade-out effects, and more. To access the Playback tab, select the audio object if it hasn't opened yet.

• Add a bookmark to the track. When you hover over the audio object, the timeline of the track will appear. Select a spot on the track and click "Add Bookmark" to create a clickable marker at that point. This allows you to jump to specific parts quickly.
• Click the "Trim Audio" button to cut unwanted parts from the track. This is useful for long tracks or when you only need a portion of the song. Use the slider in the Trim Audio window to select the new start and end points for the track.
• Use the Fade Duration option to set the fade-in time for the song and the fade-out time at the end. The longer the duration, the more gradual the transition.
• Use the volume button to adjust the main volume of the track. Don’t forget to preview and adjust the volume to ensure the sound is appropriate and not too jarring for the audience.

Sharing your presentation. Since the 2007 version, PowerPoint allows embedding MP3 files directly into the presentation, so you no longer need to worry about sending the music file separately. However, keep in mind that the size of the presentation will increase depending on the size of the MP3 file.

• If the presentation is under 20 MB, you can likely attach it to an email and send it to others. For larger presentations, consider using services like Dropbox or Google Drive to share it.

Understand the process. You can place music files throughout your presentation, allowing music to transition smoothly from one track to the next. However, any changes made can cause tracks to overlap or extend the waiting time between slides. For a stable background music experience throughout a long presentation, it's best to merge your music files into one continuous track and play it from the beginning.

Download and install Audacity. This is a free, open-source audio editing application that enables you to quickly combine multiple music tracks. You can download it from sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/.

Open the music tracks you want to merge in Audacity. Click on the File menu and select "Open...". If all the files are in the same folder, you can hold down the Ctrl key and select each file to open them simultaneously.

Open the window displaying the second track. You will be adding each track after the first one, so make sure to open the window showing the second track in your music playlist.

Remove unnecessary silence. You can inspect the waveform to identify where there is music and where there is silence. You can remove the silent sections that occur when merging songs before adding them to PowerPoint.

• Click and drag to select the silent portion of the track. Avoid deleting intentional silences in the music: doing so might make the song feel awkward. It’s also a good idea to leave a second or two of pause before starting a new song.
• Click the "Cut" button at the top of the window to delete the selected section.

Save the newly merged file. After adding your tracks, you now need to save the file in MP3 format for uploading to PowerPoint.

• Click on the File menu and select "Export Audio..."
• Don’t forget to select "MP3 Files" as the "Save as type" option.
• Name the file so you can recognize it easily and save it in a convenient location.
• Click Save and then OK, unless you wish to modify the MP3 metadata.
• Wait for the export process to complete. It may take a few minutes for Audacity to merge and save your new MP3 file.

Insert the file into PowerPoint. Follow the steps in the first part of this article to insert the merged file into PowerPoint and set it to play automatically in the background.

Open the slide where you want the music to start. To play the music from the very beginning of your presentation, open your first slide. If you want the music to begin at a specific slide, open the slide where you want the music to start playing from.

Click the Insert tab, then click the "Sounds" button and choose "Sound from File". At this point, you can browse for WAV and MP3 files.

• For Office 2003, click the Insert menu, select "Movies and Sounds" and choose "Sound from File".
• Since PowerPoint 2003 and 2007 cannot embed MP3 files, it’s best to create a new folder on your computer and store both the presentation and the audio file together.
• You can embed WAV files, but this can make the presentation quite large. Therefore, linking to the MP3 file is the recommended approach.

Determine how you want the music to play. Under the "Sound" tab, you can choose "Automatically" or "When Clicked" from the "Play Sound" menu.

• If you select automatic play, check the "Hide During Show" option to hide the audio controls during the presentation.

Right-click the audio object and select "Custom Animation". Normally, the music will stop as you move to the next slide. By customizing the animation, you can make the music continue playing.

Select "After" and choose the number of slides the music will play before it stops. To have background music play throughout the entire presentation, use the total number of slides in your presentation. Click "OK" once you’re finished setting it up.

Package the files. Since the music file is not embedded in the presentation, you will need to "package" them together using the "Package for CD" feature. This allows you to easily share your presentation without needing to burn it to a CD.

• Click the Office button, select "Publish", and then choose "Package for CD".
• Enter the folder name you want to create in the "Name the CD" box.
• Click the "Options" button and ensure that "Include linked files" is checked.
• Click the "Copy to Folder" button. A new folder containing your presentation, audio files, and the player will be created, so anyone can view your presentation even if they don’t have Office installed.