Music bumpers and stingers are used in video production, podcasting, radio, and TV to highlight transitions between different scenes or before change of topic.

Do you need to maintain your audience attention throughout your video, podcast, or presentation? Use memorable, attention grabbing short audio bits. Read below to learn more about how bumpers and stings are used in video and audio production or just to the list of music bumpers and stingers audio examples.

The purpose of audio stings and bumpers is to tell your audience: wake up, something new and interesting is coming!

A bumper is typically a short (5 – 10 sec) introductory sound that precedes the main audio soundtrack. A stinger is often shorted (under 5 sec) and serves as the transition between scenes. Both bumpers and stinger can also serve as outro music.

Both stingers and bumpers can be musical (that is, contain a short melody) or just an audio sound effect.

In radio broadcasts the stingers are typically complex sound effects designed to grab listeners attention before an ad or important message. These radio stingers are also know as DJ drops.

Podcast bumpers are typically musical intros aimed to set the mood for the upcoming episode or acting as a branding audio logo.

In video production the bumpers are typically short music intros and the stingers are video transition sound effects.

On TV the stingers tend to be short music cues (under 5 sec) that reflects the mood of the show or the scene.

Related: Music for TV shows

See below for many examples of royalty free stingers and bumpers. Hope you can find something that works for your next project!