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How to Add Music to iMovie on iPhone without iTunes?

In this actionable tutorial I will show you how to add music to iMovie on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad step by step.

Imagine watching a classic movie or a cult web series without the sound effect. Good music can make a movie, whereas a bad composition can be responsible for it being a disaster.

This is true for a Hollywood piece or even movies made near to your home. If you are the proud owner of an iPhone and you watch videos and movies on it, you can make them more enjoyable by adding music to them with the help of iMovie.

iMovie is a software by Apple, offering a plethora of opportunity to people interested in watching videos or making them.

Let us go through a step-by-step guide in understanding how to add music, sound effect, or background song to iMovie on iPhone.

This article will help you to know the right way of adding every kind of audio, voiceovers, sound effects or every other kind of sound in iMovie.

Quick ways you can try to put music on iMovie using your iPhone –

  • You can use the in-built soundtrack music and various sound effects which are included with iMovie.
  • You can add your custom songs created in any app like GarageBand. You can also add other custom sound effects which are stored in the iCloud Drive, on any other location or on the device.
  • You can also add any songs that you have downloaded to the device.

Now, let’s understand how to put sound/music on iMovie step by step.

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How to Add Music to iMovie on iPhone?

Step 1

Open the audio file you want to add in the iMovie timeline and then tap the Add Media button.

Step 2

Then tap Audio and tap the options. For example, if you want to browse the downloaded songs, you have to tap My Music.

If you want to browse the songs which are stored in iCloud Drive or any other location, you have to tap My Music first and then tap Files.

For browsing the in-built soundtracks, you have to tap the Soundtracks option.

Step 3

Now, tap song preview to decide which music you want to add in iMovie.

Step 4

If you want to add any song, you have to tap the plus button which is there next to a song. The song gets added to the bottom of the timeline of the project and then starts at the beginning of the project.

When you decide to add a song, the song automatically gets adjusted according to the length of the project.

You can also modify the clip’s length, besides adding multiple songs to the same project.

Interestingly, you can change the mood of the music too.

How to Add Sound Effect in iMovie on iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch?

When you are moving a video clip, the sound effect moves along with the video clip. This is not the case with the songs.

Here’s how you can add sound effect in iMovie –

Step 1

Open the project and scroll the timeline so that the playhead appears exactly where you want to add the sound effect. The playhead is nothing but the white vertical line.

Step 2

Next, you can tap the Add Media button, then tap Audio and then tap the option between Sound Effect, Files or My Music, which you want to choose.

Step 3

Tap the sound effect to preview it.

Step 4

Adding a sound effect to the project will need you to add the plus button of the effect.

How to Add Background Music to iMovie?

If you are thinking of adding background music to iMovie, you can do it very easily with just limited features.

Step 1

Building a project is the first step.

You can open your iMovie project, click on File option and choose Import Media to create a new project.

You have to browse in order to find the music you want to add. You can also take the help of the Search option to get hold of the audio file.

Step 2

The second step will help you to add background music to any part of the video clip. You have to drag the music to the video on the place, from where you would want to start and then release the button of the mouse, after seeing the green Add symbol.

After selecting the clip and as the border becomes grey, you can drag the slider to add to or subtract from the background music.

Step 3

If you want to adjust the background music so that the music can start from where you want it to start from, you can do that in ease.

You have to choose the music clip, right-click on it and select “Show Clip Trimmer” and then “Trim to PlayHead”.

This helps you to customise the background music for your iMovie. You can cut short the music, adjust the volume and also add fade-in and fade-out effects.

In case, you are wondering how to add music to iMovie from YouTube then steps are almost similar to whatever we have mentioned above.