How to Get Music for PowerPoint

Whether you want to pitch an idea at an in-office meeting or want to impress an audience at a professional lecture, adding music can help you create a more appealing and interactive PowerPoint presentation. While PowerPoint includes a tool to insert a song directly onto a slide, the file must be saved to the hard drive. Programs such as iTunes and Rhapsody allow you to download music, but the files cannot be inserted into PowerPoint due to the DRM protection they attach to each song. To acquire music for your slides, use Windows Media Player to rip CDs you own. The process is free and can be done without having to install third-party software.

Rip Music

Open Windows Media Player.

Insert your preferred CD into the computer’s disk drive. The CD tracks will appear automatically on the main screen.

Remove the check next to each song you don’t want to download. By default, Windows Media Player selects all of the songs automatically.

Click the “Rip Settings” button on the toolbar, highlight the “Format” option and select your preferred audio format, such as WMA or MP3. Each format is compatible with PowerPoint.

Click the “Rip CD” button. When the ripping process is complete, the songs will be saved to the Music folder on the hard drive.

Add to PowerPoint

Open your preferred PowerPoint presentation and navigate to the slide where you want to include music.

Click the “Insert” tab. Click the “Audio” button in the Media pane and select “Audio from File.”

Select the “Music” folder in the Insert Audio navigation pane and then double-click the name of the album you ripped in Windows Media Player. Select the song you want to add to the PowerPoint slide and click the “Insert” button.

Click the “Play” button to preview the song and then position it on the slide by clicking and dragging it to your desired location.