No doubt, everyone has their own personal soundtrack, and that’s exactly how it should be. I’ve always felt sorry for people who can’t connect with music at all. The classic scenario: “What kind of music do you listen to?” The answer: “Oh, a bit of everything, nothing in particular.”
I was fortunate enough to learn an instrument at a young age and to write and play music in a band. It’s no coincidence that music plays a central role in my films. Selecting the right songs for each film scene to create the appropriate mood takes up the majority of the work during editing.

Music expresses what cannot be said and what is impossible to remain silent about.

Embedding music in YouTube films isn’t exactly straightforward. While it’s possible to use your favorite music, you’ll immediately receive a copyright claim after uploading, and at that moment, the film essentially no longer belongs to you. The rights holder can then place ads in the film at their discretion or even take it down completely. So, what can you do? YouTube itself offers a limited library of music that you can use without worry. Unfortunately, the quality of these tracks is often lacking, making this option unsuitable for more professional projects.

Work on the new film is in full swing

In my search for good alternatives, I’ve tried out many providers that offer music for content creators. Two of them particularly impressed me: Epidemic Sound and Musicbed. With both, you pay a monthly fee and gain access to their entire music catalog without having to worry about copyright issues. I was simply amazed by the quality of the songs they offer, and it seems you were too. Of course, it’s still a challenge to choose the right tracks from the seemingly endless selection, but the effort is always worth it.

The music styles I’ve used for the NST films are generally categorized as Folk, or more specifically, Indiefolk. However, for our new film project “A Piece Along the Way,” we’re using instrumental, cinematic film music for the first time. Ultimately, the choice of music style, like so much in life, is a matter of taste. There are also outdoor filmmakers who don’t use any film music at all—another excellent stylistic approach.

An interesting question is what music I would have used for the films if I had complete freedom of choice. I’ll answer this question in the future. I’ll definitely create a “What If” playlist on Spotify, because the soundtrack would have been quite different. I always find it fascinating to read on Find Penguins about what songs other thru-hikers had stuck in their heads while they were on the trail. So, if you feel like it, check in from time to time and save the playlists you like.

Have a great time, and don’t forget—everything is better with music. 😛

A small note: The title track by the band Dawes, “How Far We Have Come,” is featured in the film as a beautiful acoustic live performance, which unfortunately is not available on Spotify. Instead, the playlist includes the regular studio version. If you’re looking for the version used in the film, here it is: