How To Utilize Music and Sounds in Digital Signage Content

Music and sounds can change the mood and energy anywhere whether that be at an event, on the streets, or at a place of business.

Take a dentist’s office for instance. Patrons are often nervous to have dental work done, so walking into a silent office can increase anxiety. With the right environment in the waiting room, however, it can become far less anxiety-inducing. Add comfortable furniture and entertaining or relaxing digital signage content with low background music and suddenly it’s not such a scary place.

While music may be the most common choice for digital signage audio, it’s not the only choice. Digital signage audio can be anything from sound effects to entire voiceovers throughout your content.

With that in mind, take a look at the benefits of adding music, sound effects, or other audio to your digital signage content, how to set it up, a few content ideas, and helpful resources if you get stuck.

Benefits of Sounds or Music In Digital Signage

We all know there has been a lot of research that shows the positive effects of music on our health, but what does it bring to the digital signage world? Well, the ability to use sounds and music in your digital signage content is an efficient, powerful tool with several benefits to your business. Here are the top three.

Capture Attention

With sensory input constantly surrounding us as we make our way through the day, it’s possible that your customers could walk past your digital signage screen without ever noticing it. By adding sound effects or even just a song to your content, you are able to capture your customer’s attention far easier.

Even if a passerby is looking at something else (like a phone!), when they hear a sound they didn’t expect, they will naturally look for the source. Of course, this will direct their attention right to the digital signage content you worked so hard on.

For example, if you wanted to draw attention to your content at curtain slides or even certain times of day, you could add a “warning” or “attention” sound to your content where ever you want it. Otherwise, just having background music playing on your screen will entice attention, too.

No Additional Technology

Speaking of background music… Adding ambient music or sounds to digital signage that you would typically instead play through a separate speaker gives you the benefit of not having to have additional technology set up.

For background music to play throughout your entire space, you would need several evenly dispersed speakers set up. Only having one speaker would mean that the sound is too loud in one area and too quiet in another. You would also need to connect to another device via Bluetooth to manage the playlist, connect to a radio station, or have some sort of management element.

Your digital signage screens are likely already set up and probably 99% of them have speakers. Add a nice selection of music to your digital signage and you can skip the hassle of figuring out an additional set-up that works in the space.

Make Content Dynamic

Dynamic digital signage content is engaging, interesting, and far more successful. To take your digital signage from flat to dynamic, appealing to two senses is an efficient way to do it.

Adding sound effects, music, or even voiceovers quickly engages your audience’s auditory and visual senses making your content instantly more engaging for a longer period of time.

How To Add Music to Your Digital Signage Content

There are a couple of ways you can add music or sounds to your digital signage content with Play Digital Signage. You can add a series of MP3 files set to play throughout the entirety of your content or just on individual slides. Additionally, you can add music by integrating an internet-based radio feed. Here’s how!

Add Music to an Entire Playlist

Adding music to your Play Digital Signage playlist is super easy. You’ll start by uploading all of your desired MP3 files to your library in our content editor. It’s a good idea to add a folder name such as “Music” so you can easily find all music files in your library since they will be mixed with any other uploaded media.

Once you have uploaded your files, go to the playlist overview page and click the button with a music note icon. You’ll then want to drag the files from the left column to the right column. Don’t forget to hit save and publish when you have all of the music you want on the right. The playlist will play your music files one by one throughout your playlist.

Keep in mind the volume is adjusted on the TV itself rather than in our software. Though it may seem like quite a few steps, it won’t take up much of your time at all!

Add Music to Individual Slides

Now, adding music to individual slides is a bit different than music for the whole playlist. Of course, you still have to upload your desired MP3 files to your Play Signage media library in the same way you would add them to a playlist. You will also still go to the playlist overview screen. However, once you have made it to this step, the process changes.

Instead of clicking the button with the music note, open the intended playlist and find the slide that you want to add music or sound. Select assets like you would for adding a photo or video which will open your library. Then simply find and select your MP3 file. After you are finished, don’t forget to save and publish!

When a music file has been added to a slide, a music icon will appear on the slide but don’t worry, the visual icon is only displayed in the back-end editor view, so your audience will never see it.

Add Internet-Based Radio to a Playlist

An internet-based radio feed is a bit more complicated to set up as it involves creating zones and the feed itself.

For example, let’s say you’d like the radio feed to play throughout an entire playlist rather than a single slide. Start by adding a master playlist and then a sub-playlist with the content you want to display ensuring both are in the same aspect ratio. In the master playlist, create one slide with a “forever” duration, and then add your content playlist and a website plugin.

The challenging part is to now set up the radio feed using the website plugin you added. Rather than trying to explain it here, we have linked a guide for how to add TuneIN specifically, though other radio feeds often work very similarly.

Music on a Playlist: Slide Exceptions For Videos With Sound

You’ll find a lot of useful information about background music, music in slides, and radio feeds here and here. However, a common concern is what to do if you have YouTube or video content that you want to mute the playlist music for on a particular slide.

If you want to play background music throughout your playlist, but also want the sound from your video, you’ll have to ensure the music pauses on those slides containing the other video content. To achieve this, open the slide settings and navigate to the advanced settings. There you can select the option to “pause playlist background music for this slide”.

Doing this for each slide that has an alternative sound you want to play, any background audio you have set will pause until it flips to the next slide.

Digital Signage Content Ideas Using Sounds & Music

Love the idea of using music, sounds, or audio within your digital signage, but need some inspiration? Here are a few digital signage content ideas using sounds and music.

Create an Immersive Experience

Don’t be afraid to get creative with your digital signage. Similar to art installation rooms that provide visuals and audio that take you to another world, you can achieve a similar effect with digital signage.

For instance, if you are using digital signage in a spa, consider a slide with imagery depicting a circle gradually getting larger and smaller paired with the sound of an inhale and exhale to give your clients a mindful deep breathing moment while they are waiting for a spa treatment.

Recording of Sales and Specials

In retail, there are always sales and specials going on. Typically, you would have your sales staff greet each customer to tell them about the current sales. However, you could also voice record the sales in order for your digital signage to play the audio at a set interval.

This is a great workaround if you are short staffed which is becoming increasingly common these days.

Emergency Instructions

During an emergency situation, it is imperative to get safety instructions out to your customers. Using the tags feature with Play Digital Signage, you can create an emergency playlist that includes both visual and audio instructions so that anyone nearby knows exactly what to do to get to safety.

Explain Slide Content

Though they say pictures are worth 1,000 words, sometimes content needs a bit more explanation. For example, if you use digital signage to display the benefits of a product, it may be helpful to add audio with a more in-depth explanation.

Now, you may be questioning why you wouldn’t just type it on the screen, but there’s a good reason. Your audience is very unlikely to read a paragraph of you trying to give context and detail, but in an audio format the majority of people will hear you out. Simply put, reading takes more effort than listening.

Troubleshooting Sound Errors With Digital Signage

Depending on what you are trying to achieve by adding sounds, music, or audio to your digital signage, there may be a few speed bumps along the way. Here at Play Digital Signage, we know your time is valuable which is why we provide troubleshooting resources that are available on your schedule.

Help Section

The Play Digital Signage extensive online help section will walk you through any of the features and plugins we offer. You’ll also find set-up guides, several YouTube videos, answers to frequently asked questions, and more.

Throughout this article, we have linked the relevant help pages you may need, though rest assured, even if your question is not about using audio with digital signage, you’ll likely be able to find what you are looking for.

24/7 Live Chat

Is your problem more specific and not listed in the help section? Well, we are all about options here at Play Digital Signage. That’s why we also have trained experts ready to troubleshoot any struggles that may arise at any time of the day.

Find our 24/7 live chat assistance at the bottom of any page on the Play Digital Signage website. And don’t worry, it’s real people behind the screen, not artificial intelligence or robots!

Digital Signage Screen and Player Manuals

Occasionally, audio troubles are not a software issue, but rather a hardware issue. That is why we always recommend consulting your digital signage player or screen operating manuals if you have followed and double-checked that everything is set up correctly software-wise.

See Your Digital Signage Content Transform with Music and Sounds

By now you have probably realized what an asset audio can be for your digital signage content and just how versatile it is. The setup is relatively easy with the rewards far greater than the effort. See how your digital signage content transforms and its effect on your audience. You won’t regret it!