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Background music

Generate background music from a description or a mood, or upload your own track, then choose where it plays, whether it loops and how loud.

The MUSIC tab of the AI Audio panel gives your project one background track. Describe the music or pick a mood and DreamCut composes an instrumental track as long as your video, or upload a song you already have. It plays on the Music lane, at 20% volume at first so it sits under your voice.

Pick a mood or describe the music, check the estimate, then press Generate Music

Generate music

Click AI Audio in the tool rail on the left of the editor, then click MUSIC at the top of the panel (the panel opens on VOICE at first, then on the tab you used last). There are other ways to open the tab from the timeline and the canvas.
Describe the music in the box that reads "Describe the background music", or click a tile under MOODS to fill the box with that mood's description. You can edit it before you generate.
Choose where it plays, whether it repeats and how loud it is with the three menus under the box (see Where it plays, looping and volume).
Check the footer. It reads "Describe the music first" while the box is empty, then the estimate and the track's length, such as "~23 credits · 46 sec track" for a 46-second video.
Press Generate Music.

While DreamCut composes, a spinner shows under TRACK and the footer reads "Generating music..." with the time so far. Music keeps composing in the background, so you can switch tabs and keep editing in the meantime. When it's done, "Music generated" appears, the track shows under TRACK in the tab, and a green Music lane appears on the timeline.

Other ways to open the MUSIC tab

Right-click an empty part of the Audio lane and choose Generate Music.
Select a layer, click the wand on its canvas toolbar (Generate with this layer) and choose Generate Music.
Hover the Audio lane's name and click the waveform button that appears ("Generate voice, sound, or music"), then click MUSIC. This button needs the playhead over a scene; past the last scene it's greyed out and reads "Requires a scene."

Moods

Each mood fills the box with a fuller description. Hover a tile to read it before you click.

The MUSIC tab with nothing in it yet: the box that reads Describe the background music with Upload audio inside it, the Whole video, Loop and 20% menus, the 12 moods under MOODS 12 from Lo-fi beat to Chill house, and Generate Music greyed out beside "Describe the music first" — The 12 moods. Upload audio sits inside the box while the project has no track

Mood	What it asks for
Lo-fi beat	Warm lo-fi hip hop beat with soft keys, mellow drums and light vinyl crackle
Cinematic	Cinematic orchestral underscore that slowly builds, with strings and soft piano
Upbeat	Bright upbeat pop track with claps and a catchy synth, positive and energetic
Ambient	Calm ambient pads with gentle textures, spacious and unobtrusive
Corporate	Clean modern corporate background music with light percussion and plucky guitar
Acoustic	Light acoustic guitar with soft percussion, warm and friendly
Electronic	Modern electronic groove with punchy bass and crisp hi-hats, product launch energy
Piano	Soft solo piano, reflective and minimal, to sit under a voiceover
Hip hop	Laid-back hip hop beat with a deep kick, crisp snare and a jazzy sample
Jazz	Light jazz trio with brushed drums, upright bass and warm piano
Epic	Epic trailer music with big drums, brass and rising strings
Chill house	Chill deep house groove with soft chords and a steady four-on-the-floor beat

Where it plays, looping and volume

The three menus under the box set how the track plays. They change the track you have straight away, so you don't need to generate again.

Menu	Choices	At first
Where the music plays	Whole video: from the start of the video to its end. Per scene: during one scene only	Whole video
Repeat	Loop: the track repeats until the video or scene ends. Play once: it plays one time and stops	Loop
Background music volume	5% to 100%: every 5% up to 30%, then every 10%	20%

With Per scene, a scene menu appears right after it, such as Scene 1. It lists each scene on the Video lane with its length. A new track is composed to the length of that scene instead of the whole video.

Use your own music

In the MUSIC tab, click Upload audio in the box. It shows while the project has no track.
In the window that opens, choose a music or audio file and click Use Music.

The file is added to your media library and plays on the Music lane with the same menus as a generated track. Uploading uses no credits.

The editor after a track is uploaded: TRACK in the MUSIC tab names the file over Uploaded from your media library, shortened in the middle to fit, Upload audio is gone from the box, and a green Music lane with one Project music piece runs under the whole video below the Captions lane — Once there's a track, it shows under TRACK and on its own Music lane at the bottom of the timeline

Replace or remove the track

Once there's a track, TRACK shows its file name and where it came from: "Generated with ElevenLabs - " followed by the song's ID for a generated track, or "Uploaded from your media library" for your own. Three buttons sit on its right.

The MUSIC tab with an uploaded track: the Whole video, Loop and 20% menus, then TRACK with the file's name over Uploaded from your media library, shortened in the middle, and three buttons on its right, a circular arrow, a folder and a bin, above the MOODS — Replace with an audio file, Show in Finder and Remove music sit on the track's row, in that order

Button (tooltip)	What it does
Replace with an audio file	Picks a different audio file to use instead
Show in Finder	Shows the track's file in Finder
Remove music	Takes the music out of the project. The Music lane goes away

A project has one background track at a time, so pressing Generate Music again replaces the current one. Upload audio is hidden while there's a track; use the replace button instead.

The Music lane

The track shows on the Music lane as pieces named Project music. With Loop, each repeat is a piece of its own, so a short track under a long video shows several pieces in a row. To change how the music plays, use the menus in the MUSIC tab: they apply to every piece at once.

A short uploaded track, Orbit sting.m4a, under TRACK with Loop on, and the Music lane at the bottom of the timeline split into four Project music pieces end to end under the 46-second video — With Loop, a short track repeats as several pieces to the end of the video

You can click a piece to select it and trim it in the inspector like an audio clip, but the change only lasts until DreamCut lays the pieces out again (see the Heads up below).

To silence the music for a while, hover the Music lane's name and click the speaker button that appears (Mute music). It mutes every piece at once, and reads Unmute music while they're muted.

The rest of your sound, such as voiceovers and sound effects, stays on the Audio lane. Timeline explains the lanes.

Out of credits: when your credits for the month are used up, the line above the footer reads "Out of DreamCut AI credits for this month" with what you've used, and Generate Music is greyed out. If a track would take you past what's left, the line also says how many credits it needs. See When credits run out.
A generated track is between 3 seconds and 10 minutes long. For a video longer than 10 minutes, keep Loop on so the track repeats to the end.
Per scene needs a scene on the Video lane; without one the panel reads "Add a video scene to generate per-scene music."
You can also ask Sakura for background music in plain words.

What's next

AI voiceover: add narration that the music sits under.
AI sound effects: add clicks, whooshes and chimes at the playhead.
Volume and fades: balance the music against your voice.
Sakura: ask for music, sounds and other edits in plain words.