How to add music to PowerPoint

Posted on June 13, 2008 at 5:38 am

One common question I get is how to add music to a PowerPoint presentation? Add a music track to a PowerPoint presentation can really help make the presentation more interesting. It’s especially useful for creating presentations for friends or family.

In this article, I will explain how you can add music to PowerPoint 2007 presentation. The process is fairly straightforward and there are just a couple of options you can configure.

Note that in PowerPoint 2007, you can also record sound for each slide and therefore create a audio and visual presentation if you like where everything is synced nicely.

How to add music to PowerPoint

First, click on the Insert tab on the Office Ribbon and then click on the Sound button to the far right.

insert sound powerpoint

You’ll now see a few options from the drop down: Sound from file, Sound from Clip Organizer, Play CD Audio track, and Record Sound.

insert sound from file

If you already have an audio file that you want to insert into your presentation, then choose Sound from File. PowerPoint 2007 supports number audio file formats including AIF, AU, MID, RMI, MP3, WAV, and WMA.

Choose Sound from Clip Organizer if you want to search Microsoft Online collections for free sounds. I also wrote a post earlier on how to find free sounds on the Internet. Just type in a search term and you’ll get a list of sounds that you can insert into each slide.

sounds

If you have a CD with music tracks on it, you can actually have PowerPoint play the CD during your presentation. Remember, though, that if you use this option, you need to make sure that the CD is inserted into the drive on whichever computer is playing the presentation.

insert music into powerpoint

You can tell it which track to start on and which track to stop on. You can also continuously loop the music if you like. Pretty neat feature if you have a CD from a store and you only want to play a specific part of it.

Finally, you can record audio into your presentation if you have a microphone attached to your computer. I would suggest making one recording for each slide that you want audio on because when you play the presentation, each slide can play it’s own audio files.

record audio into powerpoint

Once you have inserted audio into the presentation using any of these methods, you’ll see a small little audio icon in the slide. Click on that and you be able to see a Sound Tools tab at the very top.

sound tools

The Sound Tools bar allows you to configure the settings for the sound that you just inserted.

sounds options powerpoint

You can preview the sound by clicking on the green button at the far left. You can adjust the volume of the sound to Low, Medium, High, or Mute.

The Hide During Show checkbox will hide the audio icon that is currently in the slide. By default, that audio icon will show up, so check this box if you want to hide it.

The Loop Until Stopped box will continuously play the audio file you specified until the PowerPoint presentation is over.

Play Sound has several options: Automatically, When Clicked, and Play Across Slides. By default, automatically is selected and will play when the slideshow starts and will end once you move to the next slide. When Clicked will only play it once you press the mouse button. Play Across Slides will allow the sound to continue to play to the next slide if it has not finished rather than cutting it off.

Finally, you can also specify the max file size for the audio file. I’m not 100% sure what exactly that does, but I am guessing it tries to compress the sound to fit that size.

That’s it! It’s pretty simple to add music and sounds to PowerPoint 2007, making your presentations more fun to watch! Enjoy!

[tags]add music to powerpoint, add music to slide show, add music to presentation, add music to powerpoint presentation, add sound to powerpoint presentation[/tags]

» Filed Under MS Office Tips

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Comments

18 Responses to “How to add music to PowerPoint”

  1. Joana said on : June 26th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    olá ! estive a ler com atenção o seu post mas nao entendi uma coisa ! a musica que eu quero esta no computador ou seja tenho que por “somd e ficheiro” e depois? ja puus repetir ate parar e para todos os diapositivos mas nao da! necesito ajuda !

    mande para o email por favor!

    obrigado :)


  2. roberta said on : July 20th, 2008 at 11:41 am

    Ciao io ho svolto le deguenti operazioni, solo che pero quando voglio inviare la presentazione tramite e mail , l altra persona mi vede solo le immagini senza ascoltare la musica………………puoi aiutarmi a risolvere questi inconveniente te ne sarei molto grata…. magari inviami un e mail a matry89@hotmail.it


  3. Pat Fratangelo said on : November 20th, 2008 at 12:30 am

    I can get music on my fisrt slide. The slides are all timed but I cannot get it to move to the next slides and if I do it manually there is no music. I use Windows vista. Any help woould be appreciated


  4. Kari said on : June 14th, 2009 at 1:08 pm

    I am making a Powerpoint (and eventually a dvd) of my father-in-law who has passed away. I was wanting to make a dvd for all the kids. The powerpoint has a song that plays through it and is timed “just right” to the ending of the presentation. Is there a way to “embed” the song into the powerpoint file so that you dont have to save the song as well as the powerpoint? Thanks


  5. Tigre said on : November 20th, 2009 at 9:05 am

    Hi,

    I know how to add a music file to a PowerPoint Slideshow, but the problem is how do we send a presentation with the music so that everyone receives this ppt would able to here the sound.

    Thanks for your help!

    Tigre


  6. JIVI SABI said on : December 7th, 2009 at 9:51 am

    Hi,

    I know how to add a music file to a PowerPoint Slideshow, but the problem is how do we send a presentation with the music so that everyone receives this ppt would able to here the sound.

    jivi sabi


  7. Levvy said on : December 8th, 2009 at 8:47 pm

    Thanks for the Powerpoint tips! I was able to add music to my PPT file and have it play when the presentation starts. However, it ends too early and I want it to repeat, how can I do that? Thanks


  8. Jennifer said on : December 9th, 2009 at 9:46 am

    is there anyway you can actually embed a video file into powerpoint???


  9. Alejandro said on : December 23rd, 2009 at 3:57 am

    Everything is OK, the explanation is very beautiful and very accurate, but when you export the PPS and display it on another computer or send it via e-mail, there is no audio, how can I fix this? THANKS


  10. Max said on : February 6th, 2010 at 4:14 am

    Thanks for the tutorial. Definitely pretty easy to add music to Powerpoint. Not as easy to do video! By the way, which audio formats does Powerpoint support?


  11. Shock said on : March 15th, 2010 at 3:55 pm

    When I added my music file to my Powerpoint slide, the audio keeps playing past that slide. I only want it to play for that one slide and then cut off when I go to the next one. help!


  12. Solika said on : March 27th, 2010 at 10:47 am

    Hi this is really helpful seeing how I have PP 2007 but I have a MAJOR question! How do I make sure the sound stays on the PP so that when I want to play the presentation on another computer the sound will play too?


  13. Jennifer said on : March 27th, 2010 at 2:12 pm

    And how does the sound play on a CD or a DVD?


  14. waltk said on : March 28th, 2010 at 7:49 pm

    Grcis por ls espuestas. Mi intención es hacer que un juego de diapositivas se repitan indefinidamente, que lo puedo lograr fácil con la opción repetir ciclo hasta presionar esc. Pero yo quisiera que la música que no termina con la última diapositiva, continúe hasta que ésta termine y comience nuevamente esté donde esté la doispoaitiva. es decir, quisiera saber si hay una orden para que las dispositivas se reincien automáticamente al terminar e independientemente la música también se reinicie automáticamente al finalizar. No dependiendo del fin de las diapositivas, sino del fin de la misma múscia. por favor , si hay un comentario, remiítemelo a mi correo. Te lo agradeceré, porque hall´çe la página muy difícil. walk2009@hotmail.com


  15. Cindra said on : May 12th, 2010 at 12:09 pm

    I have clicked on “insert” and the “media clips” button will not highlight…I can’t click on “Sound” because it’s gray.

    What have I done wrong? I created my presentation like I always do. So now I can’t add a song.

    Thanks
    Cindra


  16. Lenee said on : June 18th, 2010 at 9:29 am

    I keep getting a “file not found” message, even as I’m listening to the music in the file. I tried moving the song to another file; still happens.

    Help!


  17. michael said on : July 2nd, 2010 at 10:44 am

    el problema es que si borro el archivo de sonido de origen luego cuando reprodusco la presentacion ya no suena lo que quisisera saber es como grabar un presentacion que incluya el audio sin depender de una fuente externa …gracias


  18. Erin said on : September 4th, 2011 at 11:24 pm

    I am adding songs to a powerpoint and i wanted more than one, so I Trimmed each song, but my first one keeps playing on top of the next one. So obviously the Trimming didnt work. What can I do to make my first song fade into the next and so on..?


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