If you look at most budget MLS videos and slideshows, you’ll notice that the scenes (or photos) change with zero connection to the rhythm of the music. The visuals and the soundtrack seem to live their own lives, independent of one another.
Your eyes and ears receive conflicting feedback. The result? Frustration and a poor client experience. Ultimately, if imagery doesn’t trigger a positive emotional response, it fails as a marketing tool.
“Edit to beat”? What is that?
We don’t just throw music on top. Instead, we use a professional technique called “edit to beat” – synchronizing fragment transitions in a video and photo transitions in a Cinematic Slideshow with prominent beats in the accompanying audio. Every time the fragments or photos transition into one another, it happens exactly on the “thump” of the drum.
“Edit to beat” gives the visuals a sense of solemnity — and the home itself a sense of importance. That makes the house look organized, polished, and exciting without the viewer even realizing why.
From a training article for video editors:
“This technique enhances the overall audio-visual experience of the video. It adds depth, rhythm, comfort, and a sense of cohesion, elevating the overall style and creating a more dynamic viewing experience.
When we talk about the depth, rhythm, and comfort that beat matching brings to a video, we’re essentially referring to the degree of harmony between the audio and visuals.
When your video perfectly matches a background music track that aligns with the rhythm and mood of your video, the impact of that background music on your video is truly beyond imagination.”
How does it work? A lesson of psychology and brain biochemistry
As the next drum beat approaches, the viewer anticipates the scene change, and when it arrives exactly as expected, it creates a quiet satisfaction and a calm sense of routine and predictability. Science shows that when people see a visual change at the exact same time they hear a sound, their brain releases a tiny bit of dopamine (the “feel-good” hormone). It creates a sense of “rhythm” that keeps the viewer’s brain engaged. Instead of getting bored and clicking away, they stay “locked in” to the pulse of the video, enchanted by the almost hypnotic flow.
Videos and slideshows without “edit to beat” can meet the requirements for their budget. They are quite expected at the prices like ours. But we decided to go further and apply a technology that is a must-have in luxury home listings to ALL our YouTube products — even if it’s a tiny studio (example).
Switching to this technology hasn’t increased our prices. By ordering from us, you get the style typical of higher-end products without adding a cent.
Here you can see how the same slideshow looks without and with “edit to beat”.
And below are some examples of videos “edited to beat”: