Top 6 Stock Audio Vendors for Video Creators

‘What the h@#$ good is it if you don’t notice it?!’

 

That’s how legendary film composer Max Steiner responded when asked whether the greatest film scores are ‘those that you don’t notice’.

Truth be told, he probably has a point.

When asked about any great movie, be it The Godfather or Star Wars, do you not instantly feel an urge to hum the musical lines so strongly associated with them?

 

Great soundtracks can make or break a film, and they can make or break your corporate video, too.

 

Admit it: When you click on a landing page video and are treated to generic, cheesy audio tracks, it makes it that much harder for you to think positively of the video’s subject, right?

Choosing high quality music to accompany any corporate video should be top priority for all parties involved in its production.

Here’s the good news:

 

With the market saturated with high-quality stock vendors, you can easily find unique audio to accentuate your videos message.

 

And, unlike just a few years ago, it won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

However, with so many players in the market, it’s easy to get confused while searching for high quality audio suppliers.

We’re here to help.

We’ve rounded up what are truly the five best stock audio vendors that you should explore when looking for audio for corporate videos. Sure, there are others on the market. However, we chose those which offer the widest array of high quality audio tracks at reasonable prices:

 

epidemic sound

Epidemic Sound

Kicking off our list is the Swedish Epidemic Sound. Offering thousands upon thousands of diverse tracks and music genres, Epidemic Sound is renowned as being extremely fair when it comes to artist compensation. After conducting a complete overhaul of its platform, Epidemic Sound now stands out over its competition in terms of ease of use. Smart features render discovering audio files as incredibly simple and intuitive.

You can search for music and sound effects while using the following unique filters:

  • Mood: You can choose between featured moods (typically the more obvious ones, like ‘Happy’ or ‘Sad’), or use the search bar if you have something more specific in mind.
  • Generes: Hip Hop, Jazz, R&B (go wild, they have them all).
  • Albums: Music created by artists that showcase their music exclusively on Epidemic Sound.

One really cool feature that’s completely unique to Epidemic Sound is their offering of track stems. you can choose to download complete tracks or in a collection of stems, i.e. the separate instruments of a track (bass, guitar, piano, etc.) If, for example, you reckon a track has good bass and some cool guitars but find the drums to be too intense, you can remove them and keep the rest of the instruments of the track.

Pricing

What you pay Epidemic Sound for audio tracks will depend on whether or not you plan to use it for commercial productions, or just for personal purposes (e.g. podcasts).

  • The Personal Plan costs $15 per month, or $144 per year.
  • The Commercial Plan is perfect for those who need audio for commercials, ads, and other types of commercial content and don’t want to worry about copyright violations.  It costs $49 per month, or $299 per year.

Both plans subscription plans offer a 30 day free trial period.

It’s important to note that if you are a large enterprise that takes on more extensive media initiatives, you might need a more comprehensive package. In that case, you are welcome to schedule a demo with Epidemic Sound’s sales team and you’ll get a same-day quote. That way, you can work on a package that will grant you unlimited access to music tracks to fit your various video projects

 

pond5

Pond5

With the broadest license in the production music space, Pond5 is a highly-sought after platform; anyone from up-and-coming YouTube creators all the way to major Hollywood studios flock to it for high-quality tracks.
Boasting a library of over 1.2 million production music tracks, Pond5 provides video creators with a ton of cool audio options. You can filter by tempo, mood and genre to find the track that’ll make your video pop.
Pond5 offers over 181,000 tracks that are cleared for sampling, along with more than 2000 public tracks. The latter can be downloaded for free, and are perfect for any archival project.

Pricing

Pond5 offers pricing options for any size budget or project. You can create a free account and pay as you go or purchase a membership. Custom packages are also available for larger organizations, agencies, and production studios.

 

soundstripe

Soundstripe

Founded by professional musicians, the Nashville-based Soundstripe is a relatively new vendor that has begun making waves lately. Offering subscribers millions of carefully selected audio tracks, Soundstripe presents a number of unique filters that’ll help you zero-in on the perfect soundtrack.
Along with Mood and Genre, users can leverage cool new filters such as Energy (which is somewhat similar to Mood), Instrument (really cool) and Key (e.g. a sombre song in the key of A#).

Pricing

Soundstripe offers three subscription packages:

  • Standard: $15 per month or $135 per year. This package includes unlimited access to music tracks but not to soundtracks.
  • Premium: $21 per month. This package includes access to sound effects and to Soundstripe’s unique Adobe Premiere Pro Extension. This plan is best-suited for smaller businesses.
  • Business: $75 per month or $795 per year. Offering unique features such as team member accounts and on-demand playlist curation, this package is what enterprises should explore subscribing to.

audionetwork

Audio Network

Founded in 2001, The London-based Audio Network offers a variety of soundtrack solutions for TV programming, TV advertising and digital entertainment. Users can search for appropriate audio tracks using a variety of filters (including the aforementioned Mood and Genre, dubbed as Musical Style  by Audio Network).
We recommend you check out Production genre; you can find audio tracks that are unique to Bollywood productions, documentaries and Romcoms. You may end providing your corporate audience with a truly unique sonic experience.

Pricing

Instead of being subscription based, Audio Network offers music licensing. Here are the available licensing types:

  • If you’re creating videos for non-business needs (e.g. home videos), or for a YouTube account with no monetisation, the licence for a single track costs $9.99
  • If you will be sharing the video on a monetised YouTube account (or similar platform) it’ll cost $29.99 per licence.

If you’re a business creating videos in-house you have 2 options:

  • Licence tracks individually at $99 each.
  • Sign up to The Essential Edit for $99 per month.

If your video is for TV advertising purposes, tailored licensing packages can be created to fit specific use cases.

artlist

Artlist

Founded in 2015, the Israeli company Artlist.io offers a user experience that can best be described as a blend of the two sites mentioned before it on this list. Along with Mood, Genre and Instrument, users can search for the right soundtrack using the Video Theme filter. Perfect for those in need of a little inspiration, Video Theme presents audio tracks that fit vlogs, wedding videos and road trip recaps. We recommend you check out what Artlist has under its medical, industry and technology categories when creating a B2B video.
If you’re in need for some high-quality stock footage, you can check out Artgrid, Artlist’s newly launched daughter site.
If you need stock video and audio, Artlist might be your go-to platform.

Pricing

Artlist offers three annual subscription packages:

  • SFX: $149 per year. If all you need are sound effect tracks, stick to this package. You will have unlimited access to all of Artlist’s SFX library.
  • Music: $199 per year. Unlimited access to all of Artlist’s music library sans the sound effects.
  • Music+SFX: $299 per year. Essentially an amalgam of both packages, you’ll have access to any track listed on Artlist.

musicbed

Musicbed

Founded in 2010, the Fort Worth-based stock music site Musicbed is an interesting option for those seeking high quality stock audio. Catering specifically to filmmakers, Musicbed offers a variety of interesting ways to search for songs on its platform. Along with the staple Mood, and Genre categories, you can filter songs according to Attributes (e.g. ‘explicit’ or ‘glitchy’) and Build (‘Stays Steady’ vs ‘Has Build’).

Pricing

Out of all the vendors on this list, Musicbed offers the widest array of plans:

  • Personal: Starting at $9 per month. This package is suitable for YouTube creators who won’t be using the songs in ads.
  • Non-profit: Starting at $19 per month. NPOs can incorporate songs within ads under this plan.
    Wedding: Starting at $59 per month.
    Business: Starting at $89 per month. 
  • Enterprise: This package is tailored to specific clients, and its price will be dictated accordingly. If you’re planning on having your film broadcast or are interested in having it offered as part of an OTT program, this is the plan for you. 

Originally published on July 16th, 2020, updated on December 17th, 2020
The Blog

Top 6 Stock Audio Vendors for Video Creators

by Yoni Yampolsky time to read: 6 min
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