In this article, we’ll show you how to add music to Google Slides to liven up your presentations in the sections below.
Google Slides provides users with a free and extremely adaptable tool for creating interesting presentations.
Simple slides, on the other hand, may not be enough to properly catch the interest of your audience.
Adding music to your Google Slides presentation will undoubtedly make it more memorable for your audience. Let’s dive into how you can add music to google slides.
Primary requirements to add music to google slides
You must have an active Google Account to use Google Slides.
If you don’t already have one, you can sign up for one for free by visiting their signup website.
Next, you’ll need a Google Drive account to save your Google Slides presentation as well as the audio files that you’ll be using in the techniques indicated below.
Signing up for Google Drive is similarly free and may be done via their Google Drive signup website.
Before you continue, make sure you have both accounts set up.
Choosing the correct track
When choosing music or sounds for your Google Slides presentation, keep in mind three factors:
Make a conscious effort to know which type of music can attract the audience.
Choose the music according to the subject and occasion of the presentation.
Make sure it fits the image and brand
While you may be tempted to pick a soundtrack that suits your personal taste, that choice may not work well for a professional presentation.
Also, think about whether you’re going to speak over the soundtrack, or whether you’re going to wait for the soundtrack to finish before you speak. If you’re going to use the soundtrack as background music, softer instrumental music will work better than loud vocals.
Ways to add music in google slides
A user can add music to their Google Slides presentation in a variety of ways.
It has become easier to do as Google has improved the service.
We’ll list all of the different options here, and you may pick the one that works best for you.
Simply insert the audio file
The ability to embed audio into Google Slides is a more recent addition to the feature set.
This is currently the simplest way to incorporate music into your Google Slides presentation.
This can be accomplished by taking the following steps:
- Currently, Google Slides only accepts.mp4 and.wav audio files. Upload a file to your Google Drive account if you already have one.
- Open your google slides
- Locate and launch the presentation to which you wish to add audio. If you want to start from scratch, go to the “New Presentation” option and select “+ Blank image.”
- On the top menu, you will find ‘insert’. Click on it.
- From the dropdown menu click on ‘Audio’.
- You’ll be presented with a window displaying all of the usable audio files currently stored on your Google Drive.
- Scroll down to locate the audio file you want to utilize. Alternatively, type the name of your file into the search field and then click the magnifying glass button. Once you’ve located your file, double-click it.
- There is a ‘select’ button on the bottom-left corner of the window. Click on it.
- Your presentation’s audio should now be embedded. You can move the audio symbol around by clicking and dragging it.
Audio playback options
When you add music using the “Insert Audio” technique, you are offered various useful options for determining how the music will be played back.
When you click on the inserted audio icon on the slide, you’ll see these options on the right-side menu.
These are the alternatives:
- Start Playing on Click — When the presentation is open, music will only begin playing when you click your mouse. This is an excellent option if you don’t want to play music right away and want to get a few ideas through before the audio starts.
- Start Playing Automatically — When you open your presentation, music will begin playing immediately.
- There is a volume slider by which you can control the volume quite easily.
- Hide Icon When Presenting – This option allows users to hide the audio icon whenever the presentation is playing. Useful when you’ve set the audio to play automatically when the slide starts.
- To play the audio file continuously you have to check the “Loop Audio” option.
- Stop on Slide Change — Enabling this option causes the music to stop immediately when you switch to another slide.
- Icon Format Editing Tools — Other options include changing the size, color, shape, and transparency of the audio icon. The editing modifications are mostly visual in nature and only alter the symbol, not the audio.
Using video link
When using video as background music, you have numerous options, just like with audio playback.
By clicking on the inserted video, you can access this from the right-hand menu.
- Play (On Click) — When you click your mouse while the presentation is playing, the video will begin to play.
- Play (Automatically) — When the presentation is launched, the video will begin to play automatically.
- (Manual) – This implies that you must first click on the video to begin playing the music.
- Start / End — This allows you to choose the points at which the video will begin and end.
- To keep playing a video without any sound, you can use the “Mute Audio” option.
- Video Position Tools – These tools allow you to change the size and position of the video.
- There is no option to make the video translucent, as there is with audio editing software.
- It’s worth noting that, unlike “Insert Audio,” there is no option to repeat the video, so you’ll have to either click on it again to replay it or embed it in another slide. You can get around this by using a longer video.
Using Youtube videos
Prior to the implementation of the “Insert Audio” option, one technique of putting music into a slide was to link to a YouTube video.
This is still a feasible option for individuals who want to make a video but don’t want to go to the hassle of creating an audio file to post to Google Drive.
This can be accomplished in the following manner:
- Open the Google Slide file to which you want to add the music, or create a new one by choosing “+ Blank.”
- Click on the ‘Insert’ option shown on the top menu of your window. And choose the ‘Video ‘ option from the succeeding dropdown menu.
- Copy the link to your desired youtube file and paste it into the “By URL” section.
- You can also use the search box to the right of the YouTube icon on “Search” to find a video to utilize.
- In addition, if you have a movie on your Google Drive that you want to use instead, select the Google Drive option.
- On the bottom-left corner of your window, you find a “Select” option. Do click it.
- You can resize the video by clicking and dragging the corners. When your mouse transforms to white arrow crosshairs, you can move it by clicking and dragging. It should be noted that the video will play during the presentation. If you only want the audio and not the video, make it as small as possible in order to hide playback.
Through link share
Prior to the introduction of the “Insert Audio” option, this was the only way to add music to Google Slides without utilizing video.
This is no longer extensively used because the “Insert Audio” function has rendered it obsolete, but it still works.
This method is described in detail below:
To start with you should keep the audio file of your choice in the google drive.
- Open the google drive.
- Click on either the ‘Image’ or ‘text box’ option which you can find by clicking the ‘insert’ option from the top menu.
- Insert the image or text box for your presentation. Right click on your inserted file and click on the link or press ‘Ctrl+k’.
- Locate your audio file in the drive and right click on it. A pop-up menu will appear. Click on the Get link option.
- Copy the link by clicking on “Click link” on the pop-up menu and paste it in the google slides link box. Also, don’t forget to press on apply to save the changes.
- Click on the image or text box link while the presentation is playing. By default, this will launch a browser and play the linked audio file.
Adding audio files for android and mac operating systems
All of the solutions outlined above will be available to you regardless of whether your operating system is Windows or Mac OS.
The same may be said about utilizing a Chromebook.
Google Slides is not system-dependent and does not require installation to function.
It is totally online and will not vary in functionality regardless of the system you use.
When using a computer, use the methods given above to embed audio into your Google Slide presentation.
Although Google Slides is available for mobile devices, the editing options are severely limited.
When creating a slide on an Android device, there is no “Insert Audio” or “Insert Video” option.
However, if you like, you can continue to use the “Shareable Links” option. We are going to take the android system as an example.
To accomplish this, first:
- Open or create a slideshow presentation in the Google Slides app.
- Tap the ‘+’ icon on the bottom-right corner of the screen.
- Tap the “text” to put the link on the slide.
- Open google drive and find your desired audio file.
- To copy the link tap on the three-dot icon beside your audio file.
- Return to google slides. Tap and hold the text box
- Tap the three dots icon to the right of the popup menu then select “Insert Link.”
- To paste it, tap and hold the text box. And tap on the “paste” option.
- To embed the audio link, tap on the check mark in the upper-right corner of your screen.
It should be noted that there are no audio editing tools available on mobile. To play the file, open the link by tapping on the shape or text box. By default, it will open in a new browser tab.
You should be able to replicate the same procedure in an i-phone as Google Slides is not system dependent.
Keeping the same audio file for all the slides
If you want only one piece of audio to play throughout the presentation, uncheck the “Stop on Slide Change” toggle while using the “Insert Audio Feature.”
If you have your starting audio on loop, it will continue to play until you finish your presentation.
However, if you have another audio file embedded in another slide, both files will play at the same time.
Adding audio files while presenting
Only during the editing process can audio files and other media objects be added to the presentation.
When the Slides file is playing, just playback choices are displayed, and no other media can be added directly.
If you want to be able to play different media while the presentation is running, build a new Slides presentation with all of the files you want to utilize and have it play in a different browser tab.
When necessary, you can flip back and forth between the two files.
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