How to Add Music to Canva (Easy Guide for Beginners)

Most users worldwide use Canva to create videos and presentations, and adding music is one of the easiest ways to improve audience engagement. In this guide, I’ll show you how to add music to Canva step by step, using built-in audio, YouTube, or your own track.

Why Add Music to Canva Designs?

Always add music to your Canva designs because it instantly makes the content more engaging and professional. Additionally, designs with audio feel more dynamic and polished. In short, adding music helps you:

• Make videos more engaging
• Help set the mood, i.e. professional, emotional, energetic
• Improves audience retention on social media
• Adds a professional touch

Once you understand why adding music makes such a big difference, the next step is implementing it the right way.

How to Add Music to Canva?

Canva makes this process quite simple; there are several methods from which you can choose based on the project requirements. Let me walk you through them so that you can add or customise music in Canva designs perfectly.

#Method 1. Add Music from Canva’s Built-in Library

Canva’s built-in music library offers a wide range of ready-to-use tracks across different moods and categories, so you don’t have to spend time searching for external audio.

Here are the steps for the same:

1. Open your design in Canva
2. Click on the “Apps” or “Audio” tab in the left panel
3. Browse or search for music (e.g., “corporate,” “happy,” “cinematic”)
4. Click on any track to preview it
5. Drag and drop the audio onto your timeline

Once added, Canva automatically syncs the music with your design.

While Canva’s built-in library works great, there are situations where users need to upload their own music to ensure the audio perfectly aligns with the brand identity.

Related guide: How to Create a Presentation in Canva

#Method 2. Upload Your Own Music to Canva

Uploading your own music to Canva allows you to use specific tracks that match a brand’s identity. Moreover, this is especially useful for client projects or YouTube videos. To do so:

1. Click on “Uploads” in the left menu
2. Select “Upload Files”
3. Choose your audio file (MP3, WAV, etc.)
4. Once uploaded, drag it into your design

How to Edit Music in Canva

After adding music to a Canva presentation, it is always necessary to modify it. The key editing options offered by Canva are:

• Trim Audio to adjust start and end points
• Volume Control to low or high the background music
• Fade In/Out for smooth transitions. This means increasing the sound at the beginning (fade in) and slowly decreasing it at the end (fade out).
• Split Audio to match different scenes. This means cutting the audio into parts so you can align it with different scenes or slides.

It is suggested that when you are using voiceover, you reduce the volume to 10–20% to avoid distraction.

#Method 3. How to Add Music to PPT via a Cutting-edge Solution

Even though this guide focuses on Canva, it is important to know that Canva alone isn’t enough. If you need to create presentations quickly from scratch with audio already embedded, it lacks.

But don’t worry, because some solutions will help you in this, i.e. MagicSlides AI PPT Creator.

Instead of manually designing slides in Canva and then figuring out how to sync music later, it allows you to generate an entire presentation and integrate audio in a more structured way.

This is useful when you’re creating a PowerPoint-style presentation with narration or background music, rather than just a Canva video.

You can upload any type of audio file format in this solution, or add easily by just writing a text or pasting a prompt. This is best when you want to create a complete slide deck in minutes.

So, open this in any browser (no installation required), sign up for free now!

How to Add Multiple Music Tracks

Adding multiple music tracks in Canva helps you create more engaging and professional-looking videos by combining background music. Follow the steps below to add multiple audio tracks smoothly:

• Open Canva and open your video or presentation.
• Turn on the timeline view at the bottom to manage audio easily.
• Click on “Audio” or upload your own music from the “Uploads” section.
• Drag your first audio track onto the timeline and place it where you want it to start.
• Add another track by dragging a second audio file and placing it after or on top of the first one.
• Trim each track by dragging its edges to remove extra parts.
• Move the tracks left or right to match your scenes.
• Click a track and adjust its volume to balance the sound.
• Use fade-in and fade-out to make transitions smooth.
• Split the audio if you need to match different parts of your video.
• Play your video and adjust everything until it sounds perfect.

Supported Audio Formats in Canva

It is important to learn that Canva supports almost all audio formats, which you can easily upload to it:

• MP3
• WAV
• M4A
• OGG

These file formats you can easily upload to Canva.

Also read: Convert Canva Presentations to PowerPoint

Common Issues Users Faced Recently

Many users have recently faced challenges while working with audio in Canva, especially when handling multiple music tracks. The most common ones are:

#1. Many times, users experienced music not starting after uploading. If you’re facing the same, don’t panic, just refresh the page or re-add the audio.

#2. After playing the sound, if you feel the audio is too loud, then reduce the volume from the toolbar

#3. If the audio is not syncing properly, manually adjust timing in the timeline.

These are the main issues in this task, but now know the solutions to bypass these.

Best Practices to Follow When Adding Music

When adding music in Canva, it’s important to keep your audio balanced and aligned with your visuals. Here’s how:

• Use one main background track to avoid clutter
• Keep music volume lower than the voiceover (if added)
• Match music beats with scene transitions
• Trim unnecessary parts of the audio
• Avoid overlapping too many tracks at once
• Use fade in and fade out for smooth transitions
• Choose music that fits the mood of your video
• Keep audio length aligned with your video duration
• Test your video with sound multiple times

With this checklist, you won’t face any type of issue while adding the audio to Canva.

Export Canva Design with Music

Once everything is ready, you can export that PPTX into multiple file formats. To do so:

1. Open your file.
2. Click Share > Download
3. Click Download, and select the file format as mentioned in the image below.

Your music will automatically be included.

Author’s Verdict

Learning how to add music to Canva is one of the simplest ways to make any content (like social media videos or presentations) impactful.

You’ll see a noticeable boost in engagement just by adding background music, and once you start using it effectively, you’ll use it in all your presentations without failure.

People Also Ask

Q1. Can I add my own music to Canva?

Yes, Canva allows users to upload their own music files. For the same:

• Go to the Uploads section
• Add the audio file from your device
• Drag it onto the timeline

Q2. Is Canva music free to use?

Music in Canva is partly free, but not completely. Canva offers a library of free stock music that can be used at no cost, but the selection is limited. Many tracks are only available with a Canva Pro subscription or require a license. Overall, if you are doing basic music addition, then go for this Canva (free version), but if you want to use some premium or popular ones, then you have to opt for a Canva Pro subscription.

Q3. Can I edit music inside Canva?

Yes, Canva allows basic audio editing. You can:

• Trim music
• Adjust volume
• Split audio
• Add fade-in or fade-out effects directly in the timeline

However, it does not offer the advanced editing features that MagicSlides offers.

Q4. Why is my Canva video not playing music after download?

There can be several reasons why audio is missing after exporting from Canva. One common cause is downloading the file in the wrong format (such as PNG or PDF instead of MP4), which does not support audio. Another reason could be muted or very low-volume tracks in the timeline. Sometimes, audio may not export if it was not properly added to the timeline. In these cases, the added audio will not play.