I've always used music in my shows. In my one-man shows, I typically have used one or two pieces to do magic without talking. In my illusion shows, I used one track for each illusion. While it added to my performances, I never felt like I was using music (and sound effects) to the extent I wanted.

Recently, I viewed a lecture Arthur Stead gave on using music to enhance your shows. (The lecture was presented at the Kapital Kidvention and I purchased the DVDs.) The lecture was very inspiring and demonstrated some easily implemented ideas on effectively adding music to your show. I got very excited by it.

I already had Arthur's "Make It Magic Performance" CD, which has music for pre-show, entrances, exits, fanfares and magical moments, but Arthur demonstrated ways to use it more effectively. I bought his Summer library theme song, "Make a Splash", as well as all of his "Make It Magic" CDs and have now implemented much more music in my Summer Library show and I think it has really added to my peformances!

If you've ever considered adding music to your shows, I highly recommend you get to one of Arthur's lectures (or just buy his lecture notes.) Then, you'll really want to consider his music. I've been buying royalty free music for years but Arthur's music is fantastic. It's been written with magic in mind and his extensive background in composing and performing music really shows. (In particular, I think Arthur's experience in scoring of movies, television shows and documentaries adds a dimension to his "Make It Magic" series that makes the music really special.)

If you haven't considered using music in your shows, you should buy his notes to see how much it can add to your performance.