# Epidemic Sound Epidemic Sound is a subscription service for background music and sound effects you can put in videos and podcasts (streams too). You pay monthly or yearly, download as much as you want from 55,000+ tracks and 250,000+ sound effects, and publish without royalty fees or copyright claims. It's one of the default answers to "where do YouTubers get their music?"; the company says its music is used by 70% of the top 300 US YouTube channels. It's been on my "background music for videos" list for a long time, next to the YouTube Audio Library and AudioJungle. ## The problem it solves You can't just drop a song into a YouTube video. Commercial music triggers Content ID: the video gets claimed, the ad revenue goes to the rights holder, or the video is blocked. Traditional sync licensing (negotiating with a publisher and a label per track) is slow and expensive. Many "royalty-free" libraries only license part of the rights, which still leaves room for claims. Epidemic Sound's model removes the negotiation. It commissions tracks from artists, pays them upfront, and buys 100% of the rights: master, composition, neighboring rights. Owning everything lets it offer one global "direct license" with every plan. ## How it works 1. **Subscribe** to a plan 2. **Safelist** your channels: you connect your YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitch accounts and one podcast feed to your account. That's what stops Content ID from claiming your videos 3. **Download and publish.** Anything published while the subscription is active "will stay cleared forever", even after you cancel The catch: once your subscription ends, you can't publish NEW content with the music, even with tracks you already downloaded. If you do, Epidemic Sound will claim and monetize those videos. The general terms also say that if your account is terminated, you must delete every copy of the content you downloaded. ## Key features - 55,000+ tracks (300 new ones a month, per the pricing page) and 250,000+ sound effects (many from Soundly, which it acquired in 2024). Filters for mood, genre, BPM, vocals or no vocals, and stems - **Adapt** (launched September 2025): AI tool that shortens, rearranges or changes the mood and instrumentation of a track to fit your edit. Trained only on its own catalog. The catalog itself is human-made; the company says it doesn't sell AI-generated music - **Studio**: upload a video and get a draft soundtrack with music and sound effects synced to it - **Voiceovers**: AI voices from professional voice artists who are paid for it, plus "voice replicas" of your own voice - **MCP server**: search the catalog by mood, BPM or reference track and cut tracks to length from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor - Plugins for Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects and DaVinci Resolve Studio; iOS and Android apps; a REST API with a free developer tier - Monthly AI credits (250,000 on every plan, as of October 2026): up to 250 track adaptations, 5 hours of voiceover, 100 Studio soundtracks ## Pricing (as of October 2026) Prices from the official pricing page, billed yearly. Monthly billing exists for Creator, Pro and Business but costs more (the page says yearly saves up to 60%). I couldn't read the monthly prices: the page renders them client-side. | Plan | Price (billed yearly) | Who it's for | Monetized channels | |---|---|---|---| | Creator | $9.99/month ($119.88/year) | Individuals, "personal video content" | 1 per platform | | Pro | $16.99/month ($203.88/year) | Professionals and freelancers, commercial use online, client work, digital ads | 3 per platform | | Pro Plus | Custom (another official page still shows $39.99/month) | Teams, OTT and TV | 5 per platform | | Business | $30/month ($360/year) | Brands under $10M revenue (agencies under $5M) | 3 per platform on the pricing page; 1 per platform according to the help center | | Business Plus | From $100/month | Up to $50M revenue | 10 per platform | | Enterprise | Custom | Above $50M, public bodies | Custom | There's a free trial (content published during the trial stays cleared too) and Single Track Licenses for one-off productions. No prorated refunds when you cancel. ## License terms that matter - **Creator = non-commercial.** The help center says the Creator plan is "for non-commercial users". You can monetize YouTube with it, but client work, ads and commercial content need Pro or above - **VOD is NOT covered by Pro or Business.** Both exclude "Video on Demand (VOD), Streaming VOD, Pay-per-View, virtual fitness classes" and TV/radio; those need an Enterprise deal. I found no help article that mentions paid online courses specifically. A course sold behind a paywall looks a lot like VOD, so ask support in writing before using the music in paid course videos - **No standalone use**: no compilations, playlists or "music-listening" videos where the music is the main thing. The same applies to generated voiceovers - **No AI training**: the terms forbid text and data mining and using the content to train any machine learning system - **Channel limits**: monetization is per safelisted channel, so a second YouTube channel means a bigger plan or a second subscription ## Who's behind it Epidemic Sound AB, Stockholm, founded in 2009 by Peer Åström, David Stenmarck, Oscar Höglund, Hjalmar Winbladh and Jan Zachrisson. It now operates as Epidemic Group (Epidemic Sound, Soundly, Overtone, Soundproof, Plenty Labs and Blenda Labs, a video production startup bought in July 2026). Backed by EQT and Blackstone; its $450M round valued it at $1.4 billion. - 2024: revenue of SEK 1,921 million (+29%), positive adjusted EBITDA of SEK 147 million - March 2026: co-founder Oscar Höglund stepped down as CEO after 18 years; CFO Sara Börsvik became interim CEO - October 2026: Erik Wahlberg (founder of Blenda Labs) became CEO of Epidemic Group on October 1, with Börsvik as COO/CFO. The group says it returned to profitable growth in H1 2026 after an "investment year" in 2025 Artists get an upfront fee, a 50/50 split on streaming revenue, and bonus pools ($3.5 million Soundtrack Bonus in 2025, $4.2 million planned for 2026, plus $1 million for adapted tracks). The company says its artists earn over $60,000 a year on average. ## Limits and caveats - **Subscription lock-in**: stop paying and you can't use the music in anything new. Your back catalog stays safe; your downloaded library becomes useless for new work - **False claims still happen.** Third parties sometimes register Epidemic tracks with Content ID. Creators on r/PartneredYoutube report mixed support: one fixed in a day, one ignored for days on a claim from Epidemic itself (2024). You still have to dispute claims through YouTube - **"Epidemic sound" is recognizable.** Its tracks are everywhere on YouTube, which is the point, but your video won't sound unique - **Criticism of the model**: Liz Pelly's Harper's piece "The Ghosts in the Machine" (December 2024, 586 points on HN) described Spotify filling mood playlists with cheap production music, Epidemic's among them, at the expense of better-known artists. Some commenters see the full-rights buyout as artists selling cheap; Epidemic points to its upfront fees and bonuses - **Litigation**: its copyright fight with Meta (Instagram Reels) has been running since 2022. In July 2026 a judge dismissed its second suit without prejudice and split the summary judgment rulings in the first case - **Plan pages disagree** (Pro Plus price, Business channel count): check the current terms for your plan before you commit ## Relevance for my content (YouTube, courses) For YouTube videos, it does exactly what I need: a calm, low-energy bed under a walkthrough, with no Content ID surprises. The Pro plan is the one that fits a business channel (DeveloPassion is a business and my videos promote its products, which is commercial use; Creator says non-commercial). For courses, it's less clear. Free lessons and course promos on YouTube are covered. Course videos sold on [[Gumroad]] or inside the [[Knowii Community]] are paid video on demand, which Pro and Business exclude on paper. I'd want written confirmation from Epidemic before using it there, or I'd use music I own outright for course content. And mind the lock-in. If I stop subscribing, already published videos stay safe, but I can't reuse the same tracks in new edits or re-uploads. For evergreen course material that gets re-cut every year, that matters. ## Alternatives - **YouTube Audio Library**: free, built into YouTube Studio, much smaller catalog - **Artlist**: the closest subscription competitor (it's listed next to Epidemic Sound in the music plan of my OSK v4 overview video) - **Uppbeat**: a creator on r/PartneredYoutube uses it because most tracks are free if you credit them in the description - **Musicbed, Soundstripe, AudioJungle** (per-track purchase, no subscription) - **[[Creative Commons (CC)|Creative Commons]] music** (check for NonCommercial clauses) - **AI music generators** (Suno, Udio): cheap and unique, but the copyright status of AI output is unsettled; Epidemic's own AI page points to "multiple ongoing lawsuits" over how the big models were trained ## References - Homepage: https://www.epidemicsound.com/ - Pricing and licensing (plans, license matrix, FAQ): https://www.epidemicsound.com/pricing/ - Site summary (llms.txt, published 2026-10-02): https://www.epidemicsound.com/llms.txt - How music licensing works (direct license, 100% rights, artist pay): https://www.epidemicsound.com/how-it-works/music-licensing/ - Safelisting (what happens after you cancel): https://www.epidemicsound.com/how-it-works/music-licensing/what-is-safelisting/ - AI music page (Adapt, artist bonus pools): https://www.epidemicsound.com/how-it-works/ai-music/ - MCP server: https://www.epidemicsound.com/tools/mcp/ - General Terms and Conditions (last update 2025-09-17; TDM/AI training ban, termination): https://www.epidemicsound.com/policy/general-terms-and-conditions/ - Help center, Creator Plan: https://www.epidemicsoundhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/26247405706386-Creator-Plan - Help center, Pro Plan (VOD exclusion): https://www.epidemicsoundhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/26247236323858-Pro-Plan - Help center, Business Plan (updated 2026-09-10): https://www.epidemicsoundhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/33405023521554-Business-Plan - Help center, What happens after I cancel my subscription?: https://www.epidemicsoundhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/25918384209042-What-happens-after-I-cancel-my-subscription - Help center, Compilations and music-listening content: https://www.epidemicsoundhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/26254496789266-Can-Epidemic-Sound-music-be-used-for-compilations-or-music-listening-content - Help center, Single Track Licensing: https://www.epidemicsoundhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/26246601624850-How-does-the-Single-Track-Licensing-work - Press release, 2024 Annual Report (2025-04-08): https://corporate.epidemicsound.com/press-and-media/press-releases/2025/epidemic-sound-publishes-its-2024-annual-report-and-sustainability-report/ - Press release, Oscar Höglund steps down as CEO (2026): https://corporate.epidemicsound.com/press-and-media/press-releases/2026/co-founder-oscar-hoglund-steps-down-as-ceo-and-takes-position-on-the-board-cfo-sara-borsvik-appointed-interim-ceo/ - Press release, Epidemic Group names Erik Wahlberg as CEO (2026-09-23): https://corporate.epidemicsound.com/press-and-media/press-releases/2026/epidemic-group-names-erik-wahlberg-as-ceo/ - Wikipedia (founders, funding, valuation): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemic_Sound - Digital Music News, Epidemic Sound v. Meta ruling (2026-07-13): https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2026/07/13/epidemic-sound-v-meta-lawsuit/ - Harper's, Liz Pelly, "The Ghosts in the Machine" (January 2025 issue): https://harpers.org/archive/2025/01/the-ghosts-in-the-machine-liz-pelly-spotify-musicians/ - Hacker News discussion of the Harper's piece (2024-12-19): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42461530 - Hacker News comment, "any music you use during your subscription is usable in that finished piece forever" (2020): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22812501 - Reddit r/PartneredYoutube, "Dreadful Experience with Epidemic Sound" (2024): https://www.reddit.com/r/PartneredYoutube/comments/1dnns0n/dreadful_experience_with_epidemic_sound/ - Reddit r/PartneredYoutube, "Does Anyone Use Epidemic Sounds?": https://www.reddit.com/r/PartneredYoutube/comments/kdpma0/does_anyone_use_epidemic_sounds/ ## Related - [[YouTube (MoC)]] - [[YouTube tips]] - [[Video editing]] - [[Creative Commons (CC)]] - [[Creator Economy]] - [[Gumroad]]