How to Add Background Music to a PowerPoint Presentation

If you are creating a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation designed to run automatically at a trade show kiosk, or perhaps a looping photo slideshow for a wedding reception, silent slides can feel stark and unprofessional. Adding a continuous audio track that plays softly underneath your slides is one of the easiest ways to elevate the production value of your entire presentation.

While you can insert an audio file onto a single slide, PowerPoint’s default behavior is to stop the music the moment you click to the next slide. To create true background music, you must configure the audio file to loop continuously across the entire deck.

This guide explains how to properly embed and configure background music in Microsoft PowerPoint.

Step 1: Insert the Audio File

You must first place the actual audio file (usually an MP3 or WAV file) onto the very first slide of your presentation so the music begins immediately.

1. Open your PowerPoint presentation and click on Slide 1 in the left-hand thumbnail pane.
2. Click the Insert tab on the main ribbon at the top of the screen.
3. Look to the far right side of the ribbon for the “Media” group. Click the Audio button.
4. From the drop-down menu, select Audio on My PC…
5. Use the file browser window to locate the MP3 file on your hard drive, select it, and click Insert.

A large, grey speaker icon will appear directly in the middle of your first slide.

Step 2: Configure the Playback Settings

If you launch your slideshow right now, you will have to manually click that grey speaker icon to start the music, and the music will violently cut off the moment you advance to Slide 2.

To fix this, you must adjust the playback parameters.

1. Click once on the grey speaker icon on your slide to ensure it is selected.
2. Look at the top of the screen. Two new, context-sensitive tabs will have appeared on the ribbon: “Audio Format” and “Playback”. Click the Playback tab.
3. In the “Audio Options” group, look for the drop-down menu labeled Start. Change this setting from “In Click Sequence” to Automatically. This ensures the music begins the second the presentation opens.
4. Now, look slightly to the right in that same “Audio Options” group. You must check three specific boxes:
   • Check Play Across Slides (This prevents the music from stopping when you advance to Slide 2).
   • Check Loop until Stopped (If your presentation is 10 minutes long, but your song is only 3 minutes long, this forces the song to seamlessly restart when it finishes).
   • Check Hide During Show (This makes the ugly grey speaker icon completely invisible while the slideshow is actually running).

The Shortcut: “Play in Background”

In newer versions of Microsoft PowerPoint (Office 365 and Office 2021), Microsoft actually combined all of the tedious manual steps listed in Step 2 into a single, automated button.

If you select the grey speaker icon, go to the Playback tab, and look in the “Audio Styles” group, you will see a large button labeled Play in Background. Clicking this one button instantly configures the audio file to start automatically, play across all slides, loop continuously, and hide the icon.