How to Add Music to PowerPoint (That Plays Across All Slides)
Background music for a photo slideshow, a sound effect on one slide, or a recorded voice-over — PowerPoint handles all three. The trick most people miss is the one button that makes a song keep playing when the slide changes.
Quick reference
| What you want | How |
|---|---|
| Add a music file | Insert → Audio → Audio on My PC |
| Play across every slide | Playback → Play in Background |
| Loop it | Playback → Loop until Stopped |
| Hide the speaker icon | Playback → Hide During Show |
| Record your voice | Insert → Audio → Record Audio |
1. Add an audio file
1. Go to the slide where the music should start (usually slide 1).
2. Click Insert → Audio → Audio on My PC.
3. Choose the file (MP3 or M4A work best) and click Insert.
2. Click Insert → Audio → Audio on My PC.
3. Choose the file (MP3 or M4A work best) and click Insert.
A small speaker icon appears on the slide.
2. Make it play across all slides
Click the speaker icon, go to the Playback tab, and click Play in Background. This one button does four things at once: starts the music automatically, plays it across slides, loops it, and hides the icon during the show.
3. Or set the options yourself
If you only want some of those:
• Start → Automatically — begins when the slide appears.
• Play Across Slides — keeps going when you move on.
• Loop until Stopped — repeats if the show is longer than the song.
• Hide During Show — no speaker icon on screen.
• Play Across Slides — keeps going when you move on.
• Loop until Stopped — repeats if the show is longer than the song.
• Hide During Show — no speaker icon on screen.
4. Trim and fade
Playback → Trim Audio cuts the start and end. Fade In and Fade Out stop the music starting or finishing abruptly — two seconds of each sounds professional.
5. Stop the music on a certain slide
Click the speaker icon, go to Animations → Animation Pane, double-click the audio entry and set Stop playing → After [N] slides.
6. Record your own audio
Insert → Audio → Record Audio, click the red button, speak, click stop, then OK. It's a quick way to add a spoken note to one slide. For a full voice-over on every slide, use Slide Show → Record instead.
Troubleshooting
The music stops when I change slides. You haven't turned on Play Across Slides (or Play in Background).
No sound on the projector. Check the laptop volume, the HDMI audio setting and the venue's speakers. Test before the audience arrives.
The file is huge. Use File → Info → Compress Media and choose a lower quality.
Wrapping up
Insert → Audio, click the icon, press Play in Background. Add a two-second fade at each end and your slideshow has a soundtrack.
