epidemic sound alternatives, free and paid
epidemic sound costs $9.99 a month for your own channels and $16.99 a month once a client or a paid ad is involved. if you are looking for an alternative, it is usually because one of those two numbers is wrong for you: you want to pay nothing, or you want the client-work licence for less. both exist. prices checked september 2026: every figure below was read off the vendor's own pricing page on 23 september 2026, not copied from a roundup.
this page is the price-and-licence comparison. if you want the wider tour of where editors find music and what each library feels like to use, that is where to find royalty-free music for video editing.
what you are replacing: epidemic sound on 23 sep 2026
- creator: $9.99/month, billed $119.88 a year. licensing for social, podcasts and websites, including sponsored and boosted content. you can monetise 1 channel per platform. no digital ads, no business or client work.
- pro: $16.99/month, billed $203.88 a year. everything in creator, plus licensing for digital ads, protection for freelance client work, and monetisation on 3 channels per platform.
- pro plus: custom price, annual billing only. adds ott and tv broadcasting, up to 10 seats, and indemnification and liability cover.
the catalogue is 55,000 music tracks and 250,000 sound effects, there is a 30-day free trial, and there is no free plan.
source: epidemic sound pricing, read 23 september 2026.
the short answer, in one table
| option | price on 23 sep 2026 | covers client work? | covers paid ads? |
|---|---|---|---|
| epidemic sound creator | $9.99/mo, billed $119.88/yr | no | no |
| epidemic sound pro | $16.99/mo, billed $203.88/yr | yes | yes |
| youtube audio library | $0 | not stated | not stated |
| pixabay | $0 | yes, with limits | yes, with limits |
| free music archive | $0 | depends on the track | depends on the track |
| uppbeat free | $0, 3 downloads | no | no |
| uppbeat pro | $14.99/mo | yes | yes |
| artlist music & sfx | from $9.99/mo | not stated at this tier | not stated at this tier |
| storyblocks unlimited all access | $30/mo, billed yearly | not stated | not stated |
| soundstripe pro | from $9.99/mo | not stated on pro | not stated on pro |
"not stated" means the vendor's pricing page did not say so on the day we checked. it does not mean "no". it means you should read the licence before you rely on it.
the free alternatives
youtube audio library: $0, lives in youtube studio
the audio library is inside youtube studio and costs nothing. google's help page says its music and sound effects are copyright-safe, will not be claimed through content id, and that partner-programme creators can monetise videos that use them.
the licence is not uniform across the catalogue. some tracks need attribution in your description and some do not. the library has a filter for exactly this ("attribution required" and "attribution not required"), and a licence-type column shows which tracks are creative commons.
the catch. google's promise is about youtube, where content id already knows the tracks. it does not read as a general commercial clearance for a client deliverable or a broadcast spot. for a personal channel it is fine. for paid client work it is the wrong tool.
source: youtube audio library help, read 23 september 2026.
pixabay: $0, generous licence, one sharp edge
pixabay's content licence lets you use its content for free, without attribution, and lets you modify and adapt it into new works.
the catch. you may not sell or distribute the content when it is essentially unchanged. cutting a track into your video is fine; re-uploading the track on its own is not. content featuring recognisable brands is restricted for commercial use in relation to goods and services, and the licence puts the burden on you to check whether third-party rights attach to a file. that last point matters for music, because pixabay is contributor-uploaded and an uploader can hand you a track with a sample they never cleared.
source: pixabay licence summary, read 23 september 2026.
free music archive: $0, and the most homework
fma is free to play, download and share, and hosts independent artists rather than stock composers. its licence guide lists several creative commons licences with different conditions: every cc licence on the site requires credit, cc by-nc forbids commercial use, and cc by-nd forbids putting the track in a video at all. cc0 tracks need no permission. read the per-track licence every time. we explain why these labels get confused in royalty-free vs copyright-free vs public domain.
source: free music archive licence guide, read 23 september 2026.
the paid alternatives
uppbeat: free $0, pro $14.99/mo, the cheapest client-work tier here
uppbeat's pricing page on 23 september 2026 lists essentials $6.99/mo, creator $8.99/mo, pro $14.99/mo and business $34.99/mo (yearly only), with yearly billing advertised as saving 20%, 30% and 40% on the first three. a free account gets 3 free downloads for individual use on your own channels.
the plan comparison draws the line clearly: digital ads and client content are ticked only on pro and business. essentials and creator are licensed for individuals publishing on their own channels. so the like-for-like alternative to epidemic pro is uppbeat pro, at a listed $2 a month less.
the catch, in the user agreement. free users must use the credit uppbeat provides with every use of a track, so on the free tier the credit is part of the licence. and the agreement says content downloaded on a paid plan must be put into your work while you still hold that plan: "it is not permitted to use previously downloaded content once a subscription has ended." download a stack of tracks, cancel, and cut them in next month, and you are outside the terms.
sources: uppbeat pricing and uppbeat user agreement, both read 23 september 2026.
artlist: music & sfx from $9.99/mo
artlist's pricing page opens on an ai-plans tab. the music plans are under stock catalog. on 23 september 2026:
- music & sfx, starting at $9.99/month, with a licence that "covers all personal and commercial use of music and sound effects", plus stems and a premiere pro extension.
- max, $50.66/month billed annually, adding footage, templates, luts, plugins and ai tools under a pro licence for the whole stock catalogue.
- max business, $399/month billed annually, the first tier that names business and client projects and legal indemnification out loud.
the faq on the same page says that all projects you create and publish while your subscription is active are covered forever.
the catch. "commercial use" at $9.99 is not the same words as "client projects", and on the pricing page only max business says client projects. if you edit for clients, read artlist's licence document before you count music & sfx as the equal of epidemic pro.
source: artlist pricing, stock catalog tab, read 23 september 2026.
storyblocks: music only from $30/mo
storyblocks sells unlimited downloads. its individual plans on 23 september 2026: essentials $21/month, unlimited all access $30/month and small business $40/month, all billed annually.
the catch is which tier has music at all. essentials does not include music and sound effects. they start at unlimited all access. so the music price at storyblocks is $30/month, and you are buying a video library that happens to include audio. the business licence and the $1 million indemnification sit on the quote-only business tier.
source: storyblocks pricing, read 23 september 2026.
soundstripe: pro from $9.99/mo, or buy one track
soundstripe's pro plan starts at $9.99/mo and covers commercial digital content for freelancers and podcasters, with 5 youtube channels, a premiere pro extension and stems. personal is for personal social media and blogs. pro plus adds stock video, and business covers a single market with up to 3 seats. the $1 million indemnification is on the quote-only enterprise tier.
soundstripe also sells single-use licences: personal $49, digital $199 (paid social, podcasts, film festivals, with a client licensing option), expanded from $399, and all media from $1,249. that is the option to remember when you need one track for one campaign and a subscription makes no sense.
the catch. the page states that lifetime licences are no longer available, and it does not show a monthly price for every tier. treat "starts at $9.99" as the floor of a range.
source: soundstripe pricing, read 23 september 2026.
where epidemic sound still wins
an alternatives page that only lists the alternatives is not honest, so:
- the client-work licence is spelled out at $16.99. on these pricing pages, only epidemic pro and uppbeat pro name both client work and digital ads for under $20 a month. artlist says "client projects" only at $399 a month.
- your published work stays covered after you cancel. epidemic's faq says content published while you had a plan or a free trial stays protected after you cancel. uppbeat's agreement, by contrast, forbids using downloads after the subscription ends.
- it has a real free trial. 30 days, on creator and pro. the free alternatives above are free forever, but none of them gives you the full paid catalogue to try.
- one catalogue for music and sfx. 55,000 tracks and 250,000 sound effects in one place, with adobe and davinci resolve studio plugins.
if you already pay for epidemic and it covers what you publish, switching to save $2 a month is rarely worth the re-learning.
how to pick, in four lines
- not monetised, posting to your own channel? youtube audio library or uppbeat free. $0. on uppbeat free, the credit is part of the licence.
- monetised, your own channels only? uppbeat essentials at $6.99/mo or epidemic creator at $9.99/mo.
- you edit for other people or run ads? you need a tier that says client work and ads out loud: uppbeat pro at $14.99/mo or epidemic pro at $16.99/mo.
- one track, one campaign, no subscription? soundstripe's single-use licences start at $49.
if you are still weighing free against paid at all, the argument is not catalogue size. it is who absorbs the risk when a claim lands. we did that maths in free vs paid music libraries.
keep the file and the receipt
every library above can remove a track from its catalogue, and subscriptions lapse. your "saved" list inside a web app is a bookmark pointing at someone else's server.
when you license something you love, put the actual audio in a folder you own, tagged with the title and artist so you can find it in eight months, and keep the licence receipt next to it. that is the habit Sound Cache automates: your audio filed locally with title, artist and artwork attached, searchable by what it sounds like rather than by track_final_v2.mp3. the file does not extend your licence. it only means you are never hunting for the track again.
and if the track you want is not in any of these libraries because you heard it on someone's edit, that is a different job: how to find the original song behind a sound.
related reading on this site
- sounds you took off a platform are a separate question: are tiktok sounds royalty-free?
- if your editor already ships music, check what it covers: video editors that include royalty-free music
- planning to chop, pitch or remix a licensed track? read derivative works: the danger zones for editors first.
tl;dr
epidemic sound is $9.99/month for your own channels and $16.99/month for client work and ads. the free alternatives are the youtube audio library, pixabay and free music archive, each with its own attribution or distribution rule. uppbeat free is $0 with a required credit. the cheapest tier here that names client work and paid ads is uppbeat pro at $14.99/month, and it only covers downloads you use while subscribed. artlist music & sfx starts at $9.99/month for commercial use, and names client projects only at max business. storyblocks includes music from $30/month. soundstripe will sell you one track for $49. epidemic still wins on a clearly worded client licence, cover for work you published before you cancelled, and a 30-day trial. all figures read from vendor pages on 23 september 2026. check them again before you sign anything. ✦
