I am a relatively new DM, interested in introducing music into my online game. I have been listening to soundtracks and collecting music to use.

Two questions:

1) If I am using Zoom and Apple Music...is there an advisable way to do that, or a way that people have done that, which works?

2) Do you have any soundtrack music that you have found particularly useful or effective?

3) Are there other more smooth ways to do it that don't cost a whole lot more money?

Thank you to anyone for your input.

Firstly good luck and have fun with your relatively new DM exploits 

I've been using Discord and the Rythm discord bot 
personally I prefer ambient background style music/sound found anything else get distracting 
two youtube channels I'd recommend - Michael Ghelfi - RPG Ambiences & Music and Cryo Chamber

something to note with the Rythm Discord bot it doesn't play single tracks that are longer then 100 min or 60 min forget exactly what it is but there is a limit

Hope that was in some way helpful wishing you all the best 

I've tried it, since both me and my players like music in in-person sessions, but they didn't like using it online. It's already harder to focus when everyone's behind a screen, so adding another distraction was too much. So check in with your players after you try it, and see if it works for them!

exactly what I found to... which reminded me of  feature I particularly liked with the Discord Rythm bot it adds the music/sound channel as another person to you voice channel so anyone in your discord voice channel can mute adjust volume for themselves without changing what other people hear  

I have been using the Groovy bot with Discord and it has been great! Stumbled across a hero named Brian Davis who compiled a massive collection of D&D playlists for almost every kind of scenario and mood. Check them out here: Spotify profile

Similar to Rhythm, Groovy acts as another user in the call the volume can be easily adjusted.

This is my go to option:

https://tabletopaudio.com/

Tracks can be downloaded to be played later or you can use the built in webplayer to create an evolving playlist.

My advice for remote games is don’t do it. Several studies have been done, especially during lockdown, focussed largely on business meetings but also social occasions, and have found that the human ear struggles to distinguish sounds when they come from the same source. Effectively a roleplay game is an online meeting, one person talking at a time and the others listening, focusing and concentrating on maps, pictures or other stuff in game. 

Therefore combing music/ sound and talking the brain gets distracted and hooks onto one at the expense of the other. As most fantasy music tends to be very repetitive in terms of tone and tempo the brain latches onto that. 

The issue is the source all the sound is coming from. At the table (and I love using music in a physical in person game), the music is coming from a speaker that is in a different location to the source of any talking so the brain can distinguish and focus on the important sounds filtering out the background music. When on an online meeting is taking place all the sound comes through the speakers, be them headphones or laptop speakers etc. if the frequencies of the music coincide with that of the voice speaking it makes it even harder to focus on what’s happening, attention spans decrease and people become more easily distracted which is the opposite effect music at the table has. As a DM you may well find your players losing focus and concentration and if you are new it will be a confidence hit. So I would say just leave it for now, get happy DMing and then think about adding in effects or music as needed. 

Now if you decide you still want to use music then you will need something that will play regardless of who is speaking at the time, something that can be streamed and will not interrupt play. Unfortunately you are limited with Apple because they lock their libraries down, Discord and Spotify have a tool that allows you to play Spotify tracks in a discord chat room underneath chat. Another alternative is Syrinscape. This is a bespoke programme that has its own fantasy music, some of which you need to pay for, but it allows everyone to install a local instance on their laptop/pc and you then control the music that is streamed through this  app. 

If you are using zoom for your meeting then your only option with music is to have the music playing out loud your end, which will cause horrendous issues with the microphones picking up who is trying to speak over it as well as feedback and echo issues. But really I would say as good as it sounds, and like I say in person it is amazing and adds something, for remote play it dilutes the experience.

As clarified below zoom does now allow you to stream music during a meeting so this is an option I haven’t used it so not sure how good it is. 

Thanks to everyone for your input! Yes, I lead my share of online meetings and find that I can see that trying to add music online would be more difficult and distracting than enhancing. I’ll plan to add music if and when we physically play together, but for now I guess it will be without.

Quote from Scarloc_Stormcall >>

 

If you are using zoom for your meeting then your only option with music is to have the music playing out loud your end, which will cause horrendous issues with the microphones picking up who is trying to speak over it as well as feedback and echo issues. But really I would say as good as it sounds, and like I say in person it is amazing and adds something, for remote play it dilutes the experience. 

To chew on for this:

On zoom you can, under "share screen" select "computer audio".  It is totally possible to just send music from your computer out over zoom as "background sound".  Now, to be fair, if your players are getting distracted by the sound, you should consider NOT doing that.  On the other hand, if you're streaming, light music makes for a better production as it reduces dead air while the party muses on a plan.

Quote from Rorlins >>

Quote from Scarloc_Stormcall >>

 

If you are using zoom for your meeting then your only option with music is to have the music playing out loud your end, which will cause horrendous issues with the microphones picking up who is trying to speak over it as well as feedback and echo issues. But really I would say as good as it sounds, and like I say in person it is amazing and adds something, for remote play it dilutes the experience. 

 

To chew on for this:

On zoom you can, under "share screen" select "computer audio".  It is totally possible to just send music from your computer out over zoom as "background sound".  Now, to be fair, if your players are getting distracted by the sound, you should consider NOT doing that.  On the other hand, if you're streaming, light music makes for a better production as it reduces dead air while the party muses on a plan.

 

 I did not know this was a zoom feature, is that on free zoom or paid for? That would have been good for all the socially distanced remote gatherings I had during lockdown lol. 

Quote from Scarloc_Stormcall >>

 I did not know this was a zoom feature, is that on free zoom or paid for? That would have been good for all the socially distanced remote gatherings I had during lockdown lol. 

That I don't know.  I use Zoom for teaching so I pay for it.  I believe it's among the free features though.  You can check though on your own end if you're doing more distance meetings.  It's under share screen - advanced - music or computer audio only.

I didn't know it was there until like November and I've been teaching on zoom since last May.

Can just add to the choir of 'tried that, don't do it anymore' (I used zoom and share audio, am paying, so don't know if its available in the free version) In addition to Scarloc's long and thorough explanation, it caused problems because of players various sound set ups. I think you more or less would need everyone to wear a headset.

If I am to use it again it would be like a short intro song for the campaign, or perhaps play 10 seconds or so of atmosphere music/sound upon entering a place to set the 'tone'.

Best of luck :-) 

I'm a Discord DM and use Rythm for ambient, tone-setting music as well. (The limit is 3 hours for one YouTube track, by the way.) However, I waited a few months before I started using music to give myself time to get used to being an online DM. It's very different from a table game.

My players specifically requested that I introduce ambient music, and they all say the game experience is much enhanced because of it. None of them find it distracting, and neither do I, though I'm sure my music selections play a large role in that. It may not be for every online game, though. You can always test it out and see what your players think. 

I (will) use Rhythm and feed it Spotify playlists, which are prepared for outside travel, combat, dungeons etc. Mostly game soundtracks.