How to Play Background Music in a Zoom Meeting

Adding music to your Zoom meetings can help create a more relaxed and productive atmosphere. It can also help drown out any ambient noise in the room you're meeting in.

In this article, we’ll show you the exact steps to add music to your Zoom Meetings.

What we will cover:

How to add background music to Zoom?

1. Click the "Share screen" button inside the Zoom Meeting
2. Click on "Advanced" at the top of the sharing window
3. Select "Computer Audio" from the list
4. Finally, click the "Share" button to share your computer audio with the Zoom Meeting

How to share your screen with background music to Zoom?

1. Click the "Share screen" screen inside the Zoom Meeting
2. Look for a small "Share sound" checkbox at the bottom left of the sharing window
3. Click the checkbox to add computer audio to your screen sharing
4. At last, the "Share" button to share your screen + computer audio with the Zoom meeting

7 Tips for adding background music to Zoom

From our experience, it’s difficult to estimate if meeting participants like the background music or not. To make sure the music is well received, we recommend you to follow these seven tips:

1. Keep the music volume low enough, so that it doesn't drown out other voices in the room.
2. Avoid songs with lyrics, as they can be a distraction. Stick to instrumental versions of songs, if possible.
3. If you do use a song with lyrics, make sure they're appropriate for the meeting context. (e.g. if it's a business meeting)
4. Ask someone to test the background music with you, so you get a feeling of how your in-app sound level correlates to the loudness that the meeting participants experience.
5. Avoid using copyrighted music and try to find copyright-free alternatives and playlists
6. Prepare different playlists for different sections of the meeting. (e.g. relax, focus, energetic)
7. The quality of the background music will depend on the quality of your internet connection. Make sure you have good Wi-Fi or try to connect directly to the next router with a LAN cable.

What to avoid when sharing computer audio in Zoom

When you share your computer audio with the Zoom Meeting, make sure that all unwanted sounds are muted and that there will be no surprises.

I’m speaking from experience here. In 2021, I gave a talk in front of ~300 people at Miro’s annual conference. The event took place in Zoom and while people were joining, I had some background music running while sharing my screen.

Then five minutes into my presentation, I heard a notification sound. I wasn’t sure where it was coming from, but I was sure that everyone would hear it too. So for the next minutes, I was desperately trying to solve the problem while sticking to my presentation.

You can watch it all unfold in this recording (at 5:31 min). If you pay close attention, you can hear how the clarity of what I'm saying degrades after I'm hearing the notification sounds. That’s because I’m trying to come up with the source of the notification in the back of my mind.

In the end, it turned out to be Google Chats, where we have a bot that announces new sign-ups on our website. Luckily, I could quickly mute the tab and move on.

3 types of background music to play in Zoom

When choosing background music for Zoom meetings, it's important to select the right type of music that will be compatible with the content of your meeting. For example, if you're discussing a serious topic, it might not be appropriate to have lighthearted background music playing in the background. And vice versa.

Here are three common types of music that you can use:

Energetic Music

Energetic Music includes high-tempo music with a strong beat. This type of background music is great for energizing people and can be used to create an inspirational atmosphere.

Examples:

• 1 Hour Upbeat Background Music
• Chillhop Summer

Relaxing Music

Relaxing Music includes slow, soft music that you often identify with background music in cafés. It helps participants to calm down and relax and creates a great environment for open conversations.

Examples:

• Lofi Hiphop Mix 2022
• Acoustic Guitar Instrumental Background Music

Focus Music

Focusing Music includes slow, silent music with a simple beat or rhythm that helps people to get into a flow state. Nature sounds (Rain and Thunder) in combination with other soft music such as slow jazz or other classical music work great in this category.

Examples:

• Calm Jazz Music
• 1 Hour Deep Focus Background Music

Where can you find copyright-free background music for Zoom?

YouTube has an extensive library of copyright-free videos that you can use for background music in Zoom meetings. Try to search for a music category together with the keyword “copyright-free” or “No copyright”.

Soundcloud is useful as well because many songs and mixes are often copyright-free. To find this music, try to search for "Royalty-Free" or search for a musical category and filter the results for "CC Licensed" music.

How to play Spotify Music on Zoom?

1. Click the "Share screen" button inside the Zoom Meeting
2. Click on "Advanced" at the top of the sharing window
3. Select "Computer Audio" from the list
4. Click the "Share" button to share your computer audio with the Zoom Meeting
5. Play a song or playlist on Spotify

And that’s it! The only thing to keep in mind is that for most music on Spotify, you don’t have the right to use them. But you can again search for copyright-free music on Spotify to get around this problem. There are also a lot of playlists on Spotify for “streaming-friendly” music. Which in essence is also music that is copyright-free. Here is one great example of copyright-free instrumental background music on Spotify.