Opuzz: Conversation with Vivian MacPartland

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Vivian MacPartland (no, that’s not her picture. She calls it her avatar) is part of Business Development at Opuzz, a source for royalty-free music. Opuzz customers include corporations and businesses, educators, producers, TV and radio networks, developers for web, games and multimedia, retailers and business owners and others. In this conversation, Vivian discusses Opuzz, their music, and the use of music tracks in PowerPoint presentations.

Geetesh: Vivian, tell us more about Opuzz and how it evolved?

Vivian: Let me start by telling you how Opuzz is different. One main feature of the Opuzz Royalty Free Music Library is our consistency in providing multiple edit versions option and music loops which gives our clients flexibility where needed. That way, they can mix and match, insert transitional stinger intros and outros, as well as clearly define segments of their presentation with appropriate music. Every track in our stock music library is available in edit versions of 10, 15, 30, 60 seconds, full mix, alternate mixes, stingers, and multiple loop versions.

Application-wise, you can use say a Blues 30-second track as your introduction piece followed by a stinger for the transition to the body of your presentation. Then, use a Loop A version of the same track for section A, Loop B for section B, and Loop C version for section C of your presentation. At every transition point, you can use our stinger version to indicate a change in the section. End with a 15-second track of the same track. Voila! That truly will make your presentation sound custom and cohesive.

We also offer music in a wide range of musical genres from commonly use electronic music for presentations to dramatic orchestral themes, pop music, rock, classical, world, and more. Music loops are commonly used for web or PowerPoint for their small file size and seamless ‘loopabilty’. Music loops allow presenters to take their time and not rush through their slides, yet have music accompanying them. Our music loops are quality loops that are not too short so they don’t sound monotonous. They are approximately 8-30 seconds long.

Our royalty-free music is readily available in WAV & MP3 file formats at affordable prices starting from $2.99 and can go as low as a couple of cents for bulk purchases. We offer high-quality royalty-free music as immediate downloads, CDs, or DVDs. We have recently released our Opuzz Hard Drive option for power users. It is packed with our complete library, and all edited versions of over 100 CDs. With over 13,000 tracks on a cool stylish yet rugged 80GB LaCie mobile drive (design by F.A. Porsche), this ultra-lightweight portable hard drive weighs only 180g and fits snugly on your palm. It also comes with both USB and Firewire connectivity and is plug-and-play for Windows XP/2000 and MAC OS X. Treat it like your personal/corporate library for legal royalty-free music. We will have an option in the future to update hard drives with the latest releases. This will be announced at a future date.

Geetesh: How can sound enrich a PowerPoint presentation? Also, what guidelines should one follow when using music within a presentation?

Vivian: PowerPoint presentations are critical components of many successful businesses. Appropriate music or ‘soundtracks’ can enrich these presentations, thus not only bringing life to your presentation but also capturing your audience’s attention. Presenters everywhere are discovering that affordable, royalty-free PowerPoint presentation music is the perfect choice to fulfill their business needs. Music, in general, is a creative tool so don’t be over-cautious or be over-governing by imposing too many rules. However, some guidelines in presentations are recommended.

If your presentation is of a more serious tone, be sure to use the appropriate music or mix. For instance, if you like a music track we have in our library but find it a little too ‘busy’, do look out for our ‘Alternate-Mixes’. These edits are of the same flavor but usually have less instrumentation and therefore sound more subdued or ‘less busy’.

Music can also be used to effectively segment your presentation. You may want to break your ‘story’ into several segments since audiences tend to better follow your message if it is presented in ‘digestible’ portions. Use ‘Stingers’ to help in segmentizing your presentations. “Stingers” are edits from the full track and just a few seconds long — they can be effectively used as intros, during scene changes, or endings (“outros”).

Music is meant to complement your presentations, and add life to them — but don’t let it overpower your message. When fitted well together, music will surely enhance your presentation — it also tells your audience that you have put in extra effort when preparing your presentation. One last but very important guideline is to remember to have fun when adding music to your presentations. Remember to visit the Opuzz site for royalty-free music for your PowerPoint presentations.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.