How To Add Music To Powerpoint: 3 Best Methods

Microsoft PowerPoint is really an amazing presentation tool and everyone should know at least the basics of making an impactful presentation.

Here is our detailed guide on how to add music to PowerPoint presentations, complete with our tips.

What is Microsoft PowerPoint?

• Microsoft PowerPoint is presentation software that is marketed by none other than the Microsoft corporation.
• Microsoft has always made certain that its products provide an excellent user experience. This was made possible by the numerous options and tools available for enhancing the user experience.
• Microsoft PowerPoint is a part of the Microsoft Office suite, and it is available in all versions due to compatibility.
• Microsoft PowerPoint is simply the best tool for making presentations that will leave an impact. However, the program has evolved into much more than a simple presentation tool over time.

• While first-time PowerPoint users may not be as impressive as those who have mastered the program, learning how to open the program, add slides, and create content is relatively simple.
• When it comes to creating a simple presentation, PowerPoint is far more user-friendly than many other tools. Workers with hectic schedules have a much more difficult time learning how to use presentation tools that require more time investment, but they can jump right into creating simple PowerPoint presentations.
• Teachers can use PowerPoint to teach subjects, lessons, and chapters from any book. They have the ability to create or delegate the creation of a complete book presentation. It enables the teacher to cover a topic in each of the slides.
• Today, Microsoft PowerPoint enables business professionals to achieve a wide range of important goals, which is why the program has earned a leading industry reputation as a top software program in many sectors. In the field of marketing, PowerPoint presentations can be extremely useful.

How To Open Microsoft PowerPoint On Your Computer

1. Click on the start button in the bottom left corner of your screen.
2. Then, select all programs. From the list, select MS office.
3. In the drop-down list, select Microsoft PowerPoint. And done!
4. PowerPoint software will be open on your computer screen now. You can start working on your blank slides.

How To Add Music To PowerPoint

Part 1: Add a Single Audio File to Your Presentation

• Select the first slide if you want the music to start playing at the beginning of the presentation.
• If you want to play multiple songs throughout a presentation, you could try spacing them out between your slides, but it’ll be easier and less jarring to create a new file that combines all of the songs into one, back-to-back.
• To get started, navigate to the Insert tab.
• MP3 and WAV files can be inserted.
• WAV files can be quite large, making it difficult to share the PowerPoint presentation.
• Converting the WAV file to MP3 is an option. This can be accomplished by either importing the WAV into iTunes or by using a free online converter.
• If you want to add music from iTunes or other music services, you will first be required to save these media files in MP3 file format.
• In the Media group, select Audio.
• Choose “Audio from My PC” from the drop-down menu. Look for the music file you want to listen to.
• You can choose any WAV or MP3 file from your computer’s or network drives.

What to Select When You Want the Music to Start During Your Presentation

• Select the “Play in Background” option in the Playback tab if you want the song to start automatically and play in the background across all of your slides. This will cause the song to begin automatically, to continue playing when the slides are changed, to loop when finished, and to hide the sound button.
• When you open that slide, the song will begin playing immediately.
• Select “No Style” from the Playback tab if you prefer to start the sound by clicking the button.
• When you press the audio button, the song will begin to play.
• The Format tab allows you to change the appearance of the button. This allows you to create a button or import a picture to use instead.
• PowerPoint includes some basic audio editing tools that allow you to change the starting point of the song, adjust the volume, fade in and out, and more. If it isn’t already open, select the audio object to bring up the Playback tab.
• Create bookmarks for the track. When you hover your mouse over the audio object, a track time slider will appear.
• Choose a location on the track and press the Add Bookmark button.

• To change the song’s master volume, press the Volume button.
• Make sure to test the song before the presentation and adjust the volume accordingly so that the audience is not startled.
• You can now share the file with others without having to worry about including the music file.
• Keep in mind that the presentation’s size will grow in proportion to the size of the MP3 file.
• If your presentation file is less than 20 MB, you can most likely attach it to an email and send it to others. If it’s any larger, you might want to consider sharing it via a service like Dropbox or Google Drive.

Part 2: Add Multiple Songs To Your Presentation

You might want to try to space out your music files in your presentation so that the songs flow from one to the next but you have to be careful that there are no awkward silences in the presentation in between. It is always a good idea to make an audio file that contains all of the music files you need for your presentation as a single audio track.

• For that, download and install Audacity. This is a free and open-source audio editor that allows you to quickly combine music files. You can use any audio editing software of your choice alternatively.
• In Audacity, open the tracks you want to combine. Select “Open…” from the File menu. If your files are all in the same folder, hold Ctrl and select them all to open them all at once. Open the window that displays the second track.
• Because you’ll be adding each track to the end of the first song, open the window displaying the second song on your playlist. Choose the entire song. (You can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+A.) Now, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+C to copy the selected song.
• Open the window containing your first track and move your cursor to the song’s end. Paste the song that you copied in the previous steps, or use the shortcut Ctrl+V. Repeat this process for any additional songs you want to include in your soundtrack.
• After you’ve finished adding tracks, save your new file as an MP3 so it can be loaded into PowerPoint. Select Export Audio from the File menu. Make sure the Save as type field is set to “MP3 Files.”
• Save the file in a location that is easy to find and name it so that you know it is the combined soundtrack. Save the file and then press OK. Wait for the export to finish. Audacity may take a few moments to create and save your new MP3 file.
• To insert your combined song file into PowerPoint and have it play automatically in the background, follow the same steps as described in the first part of this article.

Edit Your Audio Files

• You may have some extra silence between the songs you’ve added that you can remove before adding it to your entire presentation.
• Click and drag to select the silent section of the track.
• Make sure not to remove pauses during a song, as this can cause the song to sound off. It’s also a good idea to leave a second or two between songs.
• To delete the selection, click the Cut button at the top of the window. You can even add different audio styles to best fit your presentation.

Part 3: For Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 And Older Versions

• First of all, open the specific point in your slideshow to which you want to add an audio file to. Make sure that if you want your selected music file to start when the presentation starts, please go to your first slide.
• Now, go to the insert tab and select Sounds. Then, proceed to select sound from the file.
• We recommend you to choose MP3 files over other audio file types, like WAV files for a seamless presentation experience.
• A dialogue box will now pop up, prompting you to choose how you want the sound to start in the slide show. You can either let the audio clip play automatically or start the music when you click on the little sounds icon.
• Normally, the song will stop playing when you move to the next slide. You can force the music to play for a longer period by creating a custom animation.

• Go to “multimedia settings” and then find the continue slideshow option.
• Choose “After” and then specify how many slides you want the music to play for. Set this to the number of slides in your presentation if you want the music to play in the background all the time.
• When you’re finished, click OK. Because the music file will not be embedded in the presentation, you will need to pack the presentation and audio together using the “Package for CD” option. This will make it simple for you to share the presentation with others.

How to Package the File

• In the office button, select publish. Now, select the option “package for CD”.
• In the Name, the CD box that will appear now, type the name of the folder you want to create. Check the box next to Include linked files after you click Options.
• Select the option Copy to Folder and then click the Copy to Folder button. A new folder will be created with your presentation and the audio file, as well as a PowerPoint player, so that anyone, even those who do not have Office, can view the presentation.

Play Music Across Multiple Slides in Your Slide Show

• Go to the insert tab. In audio, select audio on my PC.
• This will open a dialogue box. From your file explorer, select the music file or the audio file which you wish to add to the PowerPoint presentation. Then, click insert.
• On the slide, you can see an audio icon. In the playback tab, select play in the background. You are all set!
• Please take into consideration the fact that playing an audio file in the background causes it to start automatically during a slide show and to play across multiple slides.

Delete Audio File from Your Presentation

• All you have to do is select the audio icon on your PowerPoint slide and press delete.
• After clicking the ‘delete’ option your slide will no longer contain the audio file.

Online Courses and Resources for Learning Microsoft PowerPoint

If you wish to learn more cool features of Microsoft PowerPoint like this, you might want to consider taking a course or two about this. Online PowerPoint classes tutorial allow you to learn from anywhere and at your own pace. Furthermore, you can go back and re-watch any lecture that you don’t fully understand.

Here are a few sites you can learn how to create PowerPoint presentations online.

1. Udemy
2. Coursera
3. Microsoft

The Bottom Line

We’re sure you’ve gotten the hang of it by now. Make sure you add some music files to your next presentation!

Please let us know if you have any questions, encounter any unexpected problems, or encounter any errors. You can always get in touch with Microsoft support or go to their website. They will respond as soon as possible with simple solutions.

You can check out some of our previous articles too!

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Do you feel like you’re becoming more tech-savvy after reading this article? What other applications do you believe Microsoft PowerPoint may have that have remained unnoticed? Do you believe you can now fully utilize Microsoft PowerPoint? Do you want us to write more articles like this?

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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