Chocolate waterfalls rain down and stream through lush-fruited jungle, and an indie filmmaker walks through in wonder. A Golden ladle drops from a tree and they dip it under, hold it to their lips, and hear the distant thrum of musical notes that echo through the chocolate.
A Willy Wonka/Jiminy Cricket hybrid bursts out of a rain barrel into a somersault and says:
“Welcome to Soundstripe. All of these lush, royalty-free plums and chocolate wonderment can be tasted for…$9.99 per month. Careful–not for the lactose intolerant.”
The discerning filmmaker looks up and says: “I’m gonna wander on over to the Artlist jungle factory and see what they’ve got goin’ on, then I’ll be back.”
Because we are Post-specific and Soundstripe has the bulkiest catalog of stock video, today we explore the array of royalty-free music services for your digital art through the lens of Soundstripe.
What distinguishes Soundstripe from competitors?
The services from which indie creators are drawing their sound effects and music offer such expansive libraries that it’s difficult on the surface to create a tangible gap. You’ve got Musicbed, Artlist, Epidemic Sound – the super-scrappy creator can wander to Freesound.org and browse pages and pages of random downloadable sounds. Even some artists on Soundcloud will let you use their work with attribution.
But here are some unique traits of Soundstripe:
- Soundstripe has been ranked each of the last three years on Inc. Magazine’s annual “Inc. 5000” list of the fastest-growing private companies in the world, with 311% growth over the past three years.
- A 2022 Martech Series article reported that Soundstripe’s music catalog grew by 23% in 2021 (1,500 new songs), its effects catalog grew by 21% (11,000 new sound effects), and its stock video catalog soared by 45% with 30,000 new videos.
- Digital Music News reported in August 2022 that Soundstripe initiated a $9 million Series B funding round to expand on the 10 million licenses it has issued since debuting in 2016.
The Soundstripe music and SFX catalogs vs. the world.
You’re a filmmaker with no ambition to score your film, you’ve got minimal finances, and you need an easy-to-use interface that will provide you usable sound effects of screaming jet engines and men dying in battle.
Here are the comparisons:
- Soundstripe: 9,000+ songs with stem files, 60,000 sound effects, and 100,000 stock videos
- Artlist: 12,000+ songs with 150 new songs added per month, Music & SFX team account that allows 7 users on one license
- Epidemic Sound: 40,000+ songs and 90,000+ sound effects, music library updates with 80 to 150 songs per month, in the royalty-free game since 2009
- Musicbed: Doesn’t report library size, but estimated at 10,000+ tracks that you can filter by mood and genre
Soundstripe pricing and licensing
Two of those silly practical questions for any creators looking to slurp up free sounds: what does it cost and how does the licensing work?
Soundstripe offers three tiers of pricing plans: the “Creator” plan – AKA that guy walking through chocolate waterfalls of indie film wonderment – is $9.99/month and gives the user unlimited music and sound effects for “personal and organic social use,” monetization of one Youtube channel, and a Twitch extension. The “Pro” account jumps to $19.99/month and expands the user’s licensing reach to commercial and paid ads, sponsored podcasts, five Youtube channels, and an Adobe Premiere Pro extension. The “Enterprise” plan is for the creator that sips royalty-free music with their pinky out – it’s priced custom and includes broadcast usage along with all the other perks. For the creator that needs stock video, there’s the “Pro Plus” plan at $33.99/month and the creator has full access to Soundstripe’s extensive stock video catalog.
Soundstripe’s peers look like this:
- Artlist – Unlimited assets for social media use at $29.99/month, and $39.99/month for use in any personal or commercial forum
- Epidemic Sound – $9.99/month for personal use, $19.99/month for commercial use. It honestly directly mirrors Soundstripe’s tier plan – Epidemic Sound even has an exact-replica plan called “Enterprise” that comes with a custom quote.
- Musicbed – An unlimited music annual subscription with monetization privileges for freelance filmmakers working for clients starts at $99.99/month, and for personal use, it’s $24.99/month at a baseline. Musicbed provides custom quotes tailored to creators for most of its services.
Soundstripe extension for Premiere Pro (photo: soundstripe.com)
The royalty-free licensing options
Soundstripe carries a licensing agreement that is maybe the most simple of any royalty-free service – a user’s membership covers unlimited licenses and the creator’s only need is to find and download the track they want. This includes the all-important sync license for syncing your audio content to visual media.
For Artlist, its “Max Social” base plan only covers your creations published to your channels, while the Artlist “Max Pro” and “Max Teams” subscriptions are eternal licenses for films published in any media, including commercial projects. Epidemic Sound provides a similar tiered offering – the “Personal” subscription lets you publish on any of your media channels and the “Commercial” and “Enterprise” accounts let you publish for clients, businesses, and paid digital ads. Musicbed works with two kinds of subscription agreements – a single-use, one-time purchase license that doesn’t include monetization, or an annual subscription where they’ll give you a price depending on your needs.
What any of these platforms offer is access to storytelling atmosphere.
2,000 miles from the chocolate factory of royalty-free sound, deep in a dense jungle, an indie filmmaker explorer in safari clothes with a blunderbuss wanders through chest-high foliage. They pull out an old ship’s compass and hold it in both hands, with the needle spinning maniacally. This explorer gazes through the upper foliage to the heavens:
“Please, I must find the perfect sound effect blend of a Honda Civic engine shifting gears as a siren wails against the backdrop of a jazz medley.”
The compass needle stops spinning and points 2,000 miles to the West toward Soundstripe, straight across the Pacific. The explorer puts their head down and swings a machete.
“Damn, I wish this adventure had a soundtrack.”
