Epidemic Sound Review 2024 – Royalty Free Music & Sound Effects

Video creators, podcasters, and content makers always look for good royalty-free music for their projects or content. 

Music provides your work with the right atmosphere and feel. That’s why music is essential in audiovisual content, so never treat it as an irrelevant afterthought. On the other hand, the artists who make music are always looking for a way to distribute their music and be heard by a wider audience.

It’s a time when you can stream music from anywhere on the internet, but that doesn’t mean these songs are in the public domain. There is a lot of chance of copyright strikes on content while using free online music. So here is a game-changing platform Called Epidemic Sound which offers an elegant Royalty free music library that can end the risk of Copyright strikes, and you can use their music wherever you want.

 Let’s start our review article without wasting any time. But before this, let me clear all your doubts about What is Royalty-free Music? What’s the difference between Royalty-free music and Copyright-free music?

Review Summary

Epidemic sound offers a diverse collection of royalty-free music and sound effects. Its subscription-based service with a massive collection gives access to over 35,000+ tracks in the unique, extensive catalog to find high-quality music for every occasion. You can also get access to unlimited downloads with no copyright strikes, and you can use their music on all digital platforms. It also has a wide range of 90k+ sound effects. It is a must-have resource for video editors, YouTubers, filmmakers, and Content creators

Pros
  • Affordable Price
  • Free Trial
  • Direct License
  • customer support
Cons
  • Affordable Price
  • Free Trial
  • Direct License
  • customer support
  • Overlapping Categories
  • copyright claims
  • royalty issues

Creativevault.net

Website

Pricing

Free Trial 

License

Epidemicsound.com

$9

30-days

Royalty-Free

Overall Rating

4.1
1 5
4.1/5

Table of Contents

What is Royalty free music?

Royalty-free music is used for the type of license where you can pay only once for the music and to use it as long as you desire. You don’t have to pay a fee every time you use the track on your project. As you know, Copyright issues have been a long-running pain for content creators, and when you pay such a royalty fee, there is no chance of copyright claims on your content.

Difference between Royalty free music and Copyright free music

Royalty and copyright-free music are terms often used interchangeably, but they refer to slightly different concepts.

You can use royalty-free music without paying ongoing royalties or licensing fees. However, the original copyright owner retains the copyright and can continue selling the music to others. 

Whereas, Copyright Free Music comprises music clips free of copyright. This is less common than royalty-free music because most music is automatically protected by copyright law as soon as it is created. Some examples of copyright-free music include public domain music and music that has had its copyright expire.

It is important to note that just because a piece of music is labeled as “royalty-free” or “copyright-free” does not necessarily mean you can use it for any purpose. Before paying for the fee and using free music, always read the license terms carefully.

What is Epidemic sound?

It is a global music tech company located in Stockholm, Sweden. It’s a subscription-based royalty-free music library that gives access to over 35,000+ tracks in the unique, extensive catalog to find high-quality music for every occasion. You can also get access to unlimited downloads with no copyright strikes, and you can use their music on all digital platforms. It also has a wide range of 90k+ sound effects.

The Eclectic-Music Library

The good thing is its eclectic music library which covers nearly every genre you think of, from classical to hip-hop. You can easily find all types of tracks for your new projects. The library is growing daily with high-quality and trendy music, and they add 80 to 150 new songs every week. The best part is, It allows subscribers to pick apart every track available and strip it down to extract only the portions (stems) they need. And for users who don’t want to use vocal tracks in videos, it’s easy to strip that portion out of any song they find. You can download these tracks in wav and mp3 formats.

Sound effects

It offers a wide variety of sound effects with 40+ categories like Nature, animals, humans, vehicles, robots, Ambience, materials, voices, technology, etc. further, these categories fall into sub-categories. It allows you to listen to the effects before downloading it. You can download these sound effects in wav and mp3 formats.

Epidemic sound User interface

The user interface is simple but not modern; it is easy for every user. As you see on the top center panel, it features three menus (discover, browse, and saved), and on the top right panel, there is a search icon and account management settings. The Discover menu shows all the latest playlists and theme music; in the Browse menu, you can easily browse music from genre, mood, and themes and find sound effects. In the saved menu, You can save tracks or make your music playlist for later use, which can help you find recent tracks you choose.

You can search not only for things like “angry” and “sad” but also for music and sound effects; based on genre, mood, length, tempo, and vocals.

Overall it is very easy to use, and you can download the asset in just one click.

How does epidemic sound work?

It offers various subscription plans. Once you choose a plan, then simply you can add your channel and download unlimited music from the epidemic sound. The Licensing depends on the plan you choose and how you are allowed to use a certain track. But you can only use the track with the active subscription. You can simply connect your social media account with epidemic sound, which helps you avoid youtube copyright claims and gives you a direct license to use their music.

Epidemic Sound Pricing

It offers three types of plans with monthly and yearly subscriptions. Which include

  • Personal plan
  • commercial plan 
  • enterprise plan

Let’s take a detailed look at the plans and determine whether what they offer is worth it.

Personal plan

The personal plan is for individuals who make content or podcasts of their own on Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, and streaming platforms like Twitch. the subscription costs $15 per month, and you can get 40% of which is $9 per month when you billed annually ($108) which offers various features:

  • 35,000 tracks
  • 90,000 sound effects
  • Unlimited downloads
  • Publish content to your own social media channels
  • Monetize content across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, and podcasts.

Commercial plan

The commercial plan is for freelancers and businesses producing commercial content. It costs $49 per month and 40% off on a yearly subscription ($19 per month when billed annually); it offers multiple features include Everything in Personal, plus:

  • Coverage for your client or business
  • All online platforms
  • Websites
  • Digital ads

Enterprise plan

This plan is for media companies, broadcasters, and publishers. It includes multiple accounts clearance for TV ads and shows and cinema, music curation support, customized music productions, and even a dedicated account manager. For the subscription of the enterprise plan you have to contact the sales department of epidemic sound and the pricing depends on the team that needs access to the catelog. the global brands like lululemon, GoPro and LA Galaxy use epidemic sound to bring their stories to life. The features in the plan include Everything in Commercial, plus

  • TV shows and TV ads
  • Commercial streaming and VOD
  • Multiple user accounts
  • Music curation support
  • Customized music productions
  • Customer success manager
  • Customized terms

Alternatives

PremiumBeat

$12.9/ mo

PremiumBeat is an excellent choice for creators to get their hands on high-quality Royalty-free music. You will find everything you need with their extensive library, intuitive search and filtering system. It is one of the most popular music resources for creators today.  The library is smaller than other platforms, but it is well-curated. Read More

Filmstro

$8.25/ mo

Filmstro is a tool only made for a specific audience whose work is related to the intricacies of sound and music production. If you want to fine-tune your music tracks regularly, It is best option. Read More

 

Soundstripe

$9.9/ mo

Soundstripe is a stock media platform offering licensed music, videos, and sound effects. Today, Soundstripe provides a massive, regularly growing library of royalty-free stock music, footage, and Sf to creators worldwide. It has a good collection of 8000+ stock music and 60,000+ sound effects, and 100,00+ stock videos, all with a royalty-free license. From YouTubers and social media influencers to filmmakers and podcasters, creators can enjoy using Soundstripe. If you’re looking for good quality, royalty-free stock media for your project, then you will love Soundstripe. The subscription plans are affordable with one simple licensing. Read More

Pros

  • Affordable: the pricing of personal and commercial accounts is quite inexpensive. Which makes the epidemic sound better than many other platforms.
  • Curated playlists and themes: The good news is that the curated playlists and themes on Epidemic Sound are put together by humans who understand what kind of music is good for each type of use. Make it easy to find the right music, depending on your mood, so you can easily find the right music for your project.
  • Download only the part of each track:  they allow you to download only the parts of each track you need. Users can download tracks in stems, meaning they can remove vocals, bass, or other instruments.
  • Daily growing music library: Epidemic sound works with the trend, adding new and trendy music every week on the platform. Increasing a library is good if you’re cranking out many videos and want to keep your content fresh and unique from upload to upload.
  •  Free trial: There is a 30-day free trial that allows people to try it out before committing to a subscription.
  • Mobile Application: It also offers a mobile app for both iOS and Android. You can download tracks in the app straight to your phone for a quick mobile video editing experience.
  • Direct license: Epidemic Sound helps users avoid YouTube claims by enabling them to connect their social media accounts and giving them a direct license to use their music as much as they want.
  • Tutorial videos: Epidemic Sound also offers informational videos to help users gain knowledge about the music editing process directly from the platform.
  • Customer support: The customer support of epidemic sound is helpful and efficient. You don’t have to wait for a long time; the team will respond to your queries quickly they receive.
  • Epidemic Blog: Epidemic sound has educational, informative blog posts to help users find answers to their many questions.

Cons

  • Active subscription: You can only use the content during the subscription. Once the subscription end, there may be claims on your content.
  • Royalty issues: Some users have reported concerns about using Epidemic Sound’s music and sound effects in certain commercial contexts due to the licensing agreements in place. It’s important to carefully read and understand the licensing agreements before using Epidemic Sound’s content.
  • Terms and conditions: According to users, the terms are confusing and could be better explained.
  • Copyright claims: Epidemic Sound has a large library of music and sound effects, it is possible that some of the content could overstep on existing copyrights. This could lead to legal issues for users who use this content in their projects.
  • Overlapping categories: There are so many categories according to users, which results in some overlap in my searches. A lot of times, it’s just the same music being shown over and over. I think it would be worth them spending some time cleaning that up.

Who should use Epidemic sound?

It’s intended for content creators, YouTubers, and media professionals who need high-quality music to accompany their work. This can include video producers, filmmakers, animators, game developers, advertisers, marketing agencies, and more. Epidemic Sound is designed to make it easy for these professionals to find the right music for their projects and obtain the necessary licenses for its use.

Conclusion

If you’re a video creator, filmmaker, video game developer, podcaster, or YouTuber searching for quality music without wasting any time and money on musicians and other platforms, look no further than Epidemic Sound. Its large library of high-quality content and affordable subscription model offers a cost-effective solution for users who need a lot of music and sound effects for their projects.

I have used epidemic sound for many projects and received no claim on my content. 

Anyway, which platform do you use for Royalty-free music? What are your views on Epidemic sound? I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have about the service. Let me know in the comments box below. 

I hope you like the review article; we’ll be back with more informative content soon

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *