Why we believe Epidemic Sound’s music licensing model is your best bet
Here's a breakdown of why Epidemic Sound's direct license model might be your best choice when it comes to getting access to high-quality music and sound effects.
Are you looking for a flexible, simple, and reliable enterprise solution to soundtrack your content? Here’s a breakdown of why Epidemic Sound’s direct licensing model is your best bet for high-quality music and sound effects.
On top of 40,000 tracks, 90,000 sound effects, and 15 years in the music industry, there are a few other reasons to use Epidemic Sound when soundtracking your content.
Our direct licensing model and the way we work with our musicians enables us to provide high-quality music while retaining simplicity in our licensing. Whatever your music needs are, we’ve got you covered.
Epidemic Sound’s founders are musicians and content producers. The company was founded on the big idea that even though music licensing can be extremely complex — to the detriment of content producers and music creators alike — it needn’t be. Epidemic Sound’s direct licensing model is music licensing made simple and safe.
Music licensing made simple
Our aim has always been to give our customers one license that covers all their music needs, reducing the complexity and risk of licensing for their business. We can do this because our music is more than just royalty-free. What sets us apart is that we own all rights to our music and offer users a direct license, covering everything under one agreement.
We can tailor licenses to cover your content globally, forever, on any and all media: social media, websites, apps, games, TV shows and feature films, fitness and wellness applications, product integrations — you name it.
Most music providers that claim to be royalty-free do grant licenses for both the recordings and the underlying compositions of the music. However, the license may not cover public performance rights. This means you still might have to pay royalties when you publish this music in your content, and we’d urge you to read the fine print — or lack thereof — in any ‘royalty-free’ music agreement.
What are PROs and does Epidemic Sound work with them?
Some royalty-free music providers will offer ‘PRO-free’ or ‘Non-PRO’ music — this is usually represented by a limited selection of their catalog. ‘PRO’ stands for ‘performance rights societies.’ These are organizations that collect royalties in different countries. For example, the USA has ASCAP and BMI, whereas the UK has PRS and PPL.
So, PRO-free means none of these organizations will be involved — it’s just you and whomever you purchased the license from. At Epidemic Sound, none of our tracks are represented by PROs. Our entire catalog goes beyond royalty-free, simplifying work for you as a content creator or distributor.
No additional fees for PROs. No cue sheets or other reporting. Even if you’re not the entity that would be liable for such fees — for example, if you’re producing content for a broadcaster — having a license to the public performance rights can be important for an end customer or a distributor of your content. Royalty-free? More like worry-free.
While simplicity for our customers is integral to our business, so is fair compensation for our artists. By prioritizing high quality in our music while retaining simplicity in our licensing, we’ve created a model that provides them with a stable source of income. We offer upfront payments for all tracks — regardless of performance — and split streaming revenue 50/50.
It doesn’t stop there, though. Each quarter, artists will receive a Soundtrack Bonus proportional to the performance of their tracks in our Epidemic Player. You can read more about how we work with our roster here.
Music licensing made safe
We only work with a limited number of artists, and we work closely with them. We aren’t a marketplace where anyone can upload tracks to our catalog, nor do we just license music on an artist’s behalf.
We’re present throughout each production stage, actively encouraging the creative process. We put emphasis on vetting our tracks to ensure non-infringement and reduce the risk of so-called ‘sound-alike’ claims.
To add further comfort, we only work with artists from regions where we’ve confirmed that a full transfer of rights is possible, ensuring that we do own the rights to everything in our catalog. We do this to avoid any legal surprises down the road. As an example, it’s not uncommon that certain rights can’t be assigned in some jurisdictions, which could leave you open to claims for additional compensation.
Online distribution of your content made simple and safe through safelisting
Suppose you use copyrighted music online in content without the correct licenses. In that case, the rights owner may monetize, mute, block, or issue takedown requests against the uploaded content on certain platforms. They can also sue for damages — we’ve seen enterprises hit with over $300 million in damages for alleged use of an unlicensed track.
But even if you’ve acquired a license to the music, you may still receive claims on certain platforms. This might be because a music provider doesn’t allow — or have the rights to allow — you to monetize the licensed content, or because the music provider doesn’t manage such issues proactively.
Epidemic Sound has a dedicated digital rights management team that works tirelessly to ensure our licensed users don’t encounter any issues when making their content available online. This process is called safelisting. Our team is also ready to help out if you receive false claims from a third party.
To access these services, our Enterprise customers send us their channel links, which their personal Customer Success Manager will safelist. No need to worry about tracking or reporting — you can get straight to creating and distributing content.
Your partner for soundtracking the world
Although content featuring our music garners 2.5 billion daily views on YouTube and millions of audio streams, online isn’t the only place we live. You can hear our music while watching your morning TV show, on the radio when commuting, in the lobby waiting for your meeting, and wrapping up your day with the evening news. If you wanted to play it on the moon, we’d make that possible, too!
Music is powerful. It touches our emotions and influences our actions. That’s why everyone should be able to create and use music without complexity. Follow the lead of Facebook, Levi’s, Instagram, and other global brands. Let us deal with the legal complexities of music licensing so you can focus on what matters: storytelling.
Want to start using Epidemic Sound’s music in your productions? Contact our sales team — day or night — to get a quote on a tailored solution just for you.
You can watch our music in action in our showreel.
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