Epidemic Sound has been a leader in the royalty free music licensing space for a long time, but as the creator economy grows, competitors like Artlist and Soundstripe have emerged with different offerings and price points. This begs the question: Is Epidemic Sound the best music licensing service for creators in 2024?
I've used Epidemic for a number of years now and it's been exciting to see it improve over time, but it's still not perfect. In this review I'm looking for five things -
Is the music any good? (click here to try it yourself)
How easy is it to use Epidemic Sound?
Does the copyright clearing work? (That's kinda the whole point).
What are the options with Epidemic Sound for mobile creators? (I know you're out there... I haven't forgotten about you).
Finally, price. What is it gonna run you? (I mean, we're all pretty much broke so this is important).
Music Quality/Quantity
There's over 40,000 songs and 90,000 sound effects on Epidemic Sound. That's GOOD. It's well more than their competitors and they just keep adding to it (so do the competitors... but you get it).
Are you guaranteed to like every single one of the songs that's on the platform? No. HOWEVER, over the years I've listened to hundreds of them, maybe even thousands and I haven't heard a single one that's been low quality. You might not like a style of a particular song, but the quality is always there.
When it comes to quality the best thing I can recommend is just go sign up for free, listen to the music and see if you like the offerings they have. Music is just so subjective that songs I like are not necessarily songs you're going to like (and vice versa).
Unlike other sites, Epidemic Sound has made trying their service super easy by offering a free 7 day subscription to my readers. Very cool. Click here to give the music a listen and let me know whether you like it!
User Interface
Editing takes a lot of time so finding songs needs to be as seamless as possible. Epidemic has a very intuitive layout which they say is designed to get you in and out with your music as quickly as possible.
Right when you log in there's a playlist of recommendations based on the YouTube channel that you've linked to Epidemic. Now in premise this is a good idea - In my opinion it doesn't really work all that well. What's much better than this playlist is the one right below it which is the based on your previous downloads. This "more of what you like" playlist is a great place to start searching for music right when you log on.
If I don't find anything there I usually turn to the themes section. Sometimes I'm editing documentaries, sometimes I'm editing YouTube videos, sometimes ads. No matter what I'm working on there's always a theme where Epidemic sound staff have pre-curated songs that fit well with the project or the general mood that you're trying to get across. I'm a very visual person so browsing categories with cover images on the themes page is a very intuitive way for me to find the music that I'm looking for. if I'm looking for something that is a scary thing then the dude holding the knife is definitely going to catch my eye.
On the other hand, the sound effects page doesn't have images at all! This is one of the things that really bugs me about Epidemic.
What is this? Instead of images they're using these black and white symbols that are like very vaguely related to the content of the playlist and it's bad for me. I can't even use the browse features on the sound effects page because I'm so visual. Maybe that's a me issue. I also like my books with pictures in them. Sue me.
Back to the positives, Epidemic has the best find similar feature I have ever used. If there's a part of a song you like, you can highlight only that section of the song and find other songs that are similar to it. Do you like the first 30 seconds of this song and you hate the way it ends? Well, just find another one that is similar to the first 30 seconds! It works perfectly.
Stems... Epidemic Sound is famous for their stem system. Stems allow you to download each part of the song individually. Usually it's split into drums, melody, instruments, and vocals. This is a must have for serious editors. I am always bringing in different elements of the song at different times to gradually ramp up emotion or smoothly introduce a song. No other service competes with the quality of Epidemic's stem system and this is a huge selling point for them (in my opinion).
Copyright Clearing
Once you've downloaded the songs and edited your video it's time for the moment of truth... When you post it, will Epidemic Sound hit you with a copyright claim? Assuming you set everything up right - no they won't! Over the last two years I've never received a false claim (that's not to say it never happens, but it's certainly not a common issue).
When you sign up for Epidemic you link your YouTube channel(s) in their safelist page. Any videos posted on your channel while you have the active subscription with Epidemic will be copyright cleared forever (even if your subscription expires).
If you've made a client video and they post it on a different channel, you can just copy a link to that video and directly paste it into a single video clearing section of the safelist page and Epidemic Sound will take care of the rest. You never have to worry about dealing with YouTube and sending them license numbers and all that crap ever again.
Mobile Creator Tools
I know from my incredibly limited polls that around 45% of you film on a smartphone and 21% edit on a smartphone - which is not an insignificant number of people! Epidemic Sound has your back. They have an app and all of the core functionality of the desktop site is there (except for some of the more technical things like client clearing videos).
You can add channels to your safelist through the app, create playlists, browse and listen to music, then download it directly from the app to edit it on your device. Personally I prefer to edit on desktop, but I still make use of the app because I like to listen to the music and pick out songs that I might want to use in future videos. I can do this because the app syncs automatically to the website version of Epidemic Sound, so if I add songs to a playlist in the app it automatically updates the playlist on my desktop site.
Price
After all of this, it comes down to price - but remember one of the best things about Epidemic is that you can get 7 days for free by clicking here. You don't have to go in blind. That said, they have two main subscription plans.
The personal plan is ideal for YouTubers and costs $9.99/month. With this subscription you can add one account per platform to your safelist page, but no more. The commercial plan is $24.99/month good for YouTubers who have more than one channel or people creating content for clients. This subscription also unlocks that individual video clearing feature on the safelist.
There is a bit of a catch to these prices. This is what you'll pay if you purchase an entire year's subscription upfront. If you decide to pay for it month-to-month it costs a good deal more (around 45% more expensive). Billed monthly, the personal plan is $17.99/month and the commercial plan is $59.99/month.
Overall, these prices are in line with top competitors like Artlist and Soundstripe, but are still far less than going with Musicbed.
My Opinion
I love using Epidemic Sound for my own YouTube content and I always recommend it to creators who ask me for a royalty free music licensing solution. The quality of music is great, the quantity can't be beat, and the editing flexibility provided by the stem system is priceless to me. If you want to try it out for yourself, here's a link to get you 7 days free! Let me know what you think!
Happy creating. See you 'round the Underground.
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