My organization has been using MusicBed this year. They quoted us $1100 for 40 licenses. Although the selection is smaller, the quality is far better than what I've used in the past (Envato Elements and Artlist). MusicBed's tracks sound more unique, high-end, and cinematic than the typical royalty-free stuff. That's probably because MusicBed is rights-managed service and not royalty-free, which is worth looking into before you purchase. I've been using their SyncID service to instantly clear tracks with YouTube without issue.
If you need safe, corporate-sounding background tracks, you may be better off with a service like Envato Elements. Like MusicBed, Artlist skews cinematic, but the quality just isn't as good IMO.
**Artlist rant incoming:** They quoted our organization $5,000/yr, which is absurd for the size of our operation. And they tried to upsell me on their stock service Motion Array. I know that stock is a necessary part of our work, but this widespread "stockification" is cheapening our craft in some ways, like Canva does for designers. So it's funny to me that they'd think I would be super jazzed about a glut of stock elements as someone who makes their living filming. Maybe if I was a social media manager.
100% agree on Artlist being assholes. This is what I told another commenter on here:
I work for a state agency of 36,000+ in Communications. We had been using Artlist paying $215/yr. We only do online content, no TV or movie stuff. This has been fine until a couple months ago they wanted to start charging us over $6000/yr because of our employee count. Never mind that out of those 36,000+ employees it's only myself and two others that actually use it. They didn't want to hear it or just give us 3 licenses for the account or anything like that. We said seeya.
We had a large quote from artist too because of our head count. But what's annoying is if we get a freelance to work on a project we don't have time for we're covered under their £200 year subscription.
Soundstripe has been pretty great for our outfit. Cost us less than $300 a year, with tons of quality tracks that include stems and alternate versions. Lots of discoverability, filter support, and variety
Probably among the best value for small creators and businesses. I’d avoid Artlist like the plague.
I’m gonna play devils advocate here after reading the comments and suggest Artlist. Unlike the other commenters, I freelance and have been nothing but happy with artlist! I’ve been using them for about 4/5 years and have never had any complaints!
The other comments seem to not like artlist mainly because of their pricing and I can’t comment on that because I pay nowhere near that lol- but I don’t work for a big company so that could be why!
Hope this insight helps! Wish they had a trial so you could decide for yourself 👎🏽
Just curious, in your opinion what were the most trash areas? I had problems finding subtle, classy electronic background music. All I could find was corny dubstep type stuff. And so many of their tracks have vocals, which doesn’t really make sense for a lot of video creators.
Well like you pointed out, the biggest area is just curation and discoverability. Artlist goes to almost no lengths to help you find the music you want.
Conversely, with Soundstripe I can search and filter based on BPM, genre, length, instruments, mood, energy, and a slew of other options. Soundstripe also regularly curates playlists with songs for specific uses cases.
As you pointed out, the music selection is also incredibly redundant. You don’t find enough variety in Artlist songs, whereas I literally downloaded a Bluegrass song and an old ragtime joint, right after downloading a good piano track for a wedding. Like, the offerings and variety are way wider on Soundstripe.
That said, most of these libraries aren’t great for extended use over several years because the list of quality tracks grow much slower than the bad ones, so if you’re picky like me you likely end up switching services every few years to revitalize your content with new sounds.
I feel like these are very subjective- you can very much so find songs based on GMP, Genre, Length, Instruments, Mood + other options like you mentioned Soundstripe can.
I’m not trying to argue with you, but I feel like it’s unfair to say you can’t use these tools to help you find tracks from artlist.
Never once has artlist let me down, I’m sorry your experience wasn’t the same!
It’s not that you can’t use them, but rather that they’re simply not good, at least not in comparison. I’m genuinely not going to be a salesman for either service, just speaking to my experience and disappointment with Artlist.
Oh, and they also tried to push me to pay more for a higher tier. A company of TWO. But I figured that had been covered enough 😂
😂
Hahaha yeah definitely has been mentioned
Who knows, I’ve only ever used Artlist so I have no frame of reference. Maybe eventually I’ll run into some kind of bump in the road but hopefully not!
I agree with you there. Artlist’s scaled down plans could be well worth it for single users not affiliated with an organization. They have a huge selection. But unlike a lot of services out there, you won’t be sifting through garbage. It’s good stuff.
If you’re a part of an organization, though, you’ll be out of luck. I’m curious if this new pricing model is actually making them any money given how many clients they’re likely losing from it.
I use epidemic sound personally, and it's one of the most upvoted on [our complete list of +80 providers ](https://www.cchound.com/all-royalty-free-music-platforms/)(including pixabay)
Artlist is great for someone working solo or in a small team, not great for a big agency as they don't care about who actually uses it. I work for a state agency of 36,000+ in Communications. We had been using Artlist paying $215/yr. We only do online content, no TV or movie stuff. This has been fine until a couple months ago they wanted to start charging us over $6000/yr because of our employee count. Never mind that out of those 36,000+ employees it's only myself and two others that actually use it. They didn't want to hear it or just give us 3 licenses for the account or anything like that. We said seeya.
I wish that tracksmusic.com would come back. They had by far the best catalog. I know someone purchased them, but their catalog sucked and didn't have a fraction of what Tracks Music offered.
Can't remember the name of company that fucked it up by buying them.
I'm a freelancer and I've been using Artlist for years. It's served me well. I've seen a few sponsored YouTube videos lately promoting lifetime Audiio memberships for the price of a year's subscription of Artlist. Seriously considering switching if the deal is still available around the time my subscription is due to renew.
Imo MusicBed seems and feels like the best quality option there is.
I mostly use EpidemicSound, tried some Audiio and sometimes go for Audiojungle (by Envato Elements) if a job requires stuff that i can't find under the usual more mainstream suspects.
Paid for lifetime access to Audiio (~$200) and have never run into a copyright claim. They're always adding more music and SFX, so I don't feel like the site gets old
My organization has been using MusicBed this year. They quoted us $1100 for 40 licenses. Although the selection is smaller, the quality is far better than what I've used in the past (Envato Elements and Artlist). MusicBed's tracks sound more unique, high-end, and cinematic than the typical royalty-free stuff. That's probably because MusicBed is rights-managed service and not royalty-free, which is worth looking into before you purchase. I've been using their SyncID service to instantly clear tracks with YouTube without issue. If you need safe, corporate-sounding background tracks, you may be better off with a service like Envato Elements. Like MusicBed, Artlist skews cinematic, but the quality just isn't as good IMO. **Artlist rant incoming:** They quoted our organization $5,000/yr, which is absurd for the size of our operation. And they tried to upsell me on their stock service Motion Array. I know that stock is a necessary part of our work, but this widespread "stockification" is cheapening our craft in some ways, like Canva does for designers. So it's funny to me that they'd think I would be super jazzed about a glut of stock elements as someone who makes their living filming. Maybe if I was a social media manager.
100% agree on Artlist being assholes. This is what I told another commenter on here: I work for a state agency of 36,000+ in Communications. We had been using Artlist paying $215/yr. We only do online content, no TV or movie stuff. This has been fine until a couple months ago they wanted to start charging us over $6000/yr because of our employee count. Never mind that out of those 36,000+ employees it's only myself and two others that actually use it. They didn't want to hear it or just give us 3 licenses for the account or anything like that. We said seeya.
this happened to me too. I’m looking between music bed & others. who did you end up going with?
Motion Array. Still just a couple hundred.
The funny part is Artlist owns Motion Array.
Motion array just came for us too, similar story, small team in a large org, only 5 of us need it, they want $7000 a year. We said bye bye
Hmm well then I imagine it's only a matter of time before they do that to us.
I assume we will be getting an increase notification eventually then.
We had a large quote from artist too because of our head count. But what's annoying is if we get a freelance to work on a project we don't have time for we're covered under their £200 year subscription.
Soundstripe has been pretty great for our outfit. Cost us less than $300 a year, with tons of quality tracks that include stems and alternate versions. Lots of discoverability, filter support, and variety Probably among the best value for small creators and businesses. I’d avoid Artlist like the plague.
Soundstripe
I’m gonna play devils advocate here after reading the comments and suggest Artlist. Unlike the other commenters, I freelance and have been nothing but happy with artlist! I’ve been using them for about 4/5 years and have never had any complaints! The other comments seem to not like artlist mainly because of their pricing and I can’t comment on that because I pay nowhere near that lol- but I don’t work for a big company so that could be why! Hope this insight helps! Wish they had a trial so you could decide for yourself 👎🏽
Use Soundstripe for one year and never look back. Artlist is trash tier in so many areas, I’ll never pay them a dime again as long as I live, lmao.
Just curious, in your opinion what were the most trash areas? I had problems finding subtle, classy electronic background music. All I could find was corny dubstep type stuff. And so many of their tracks have vocals, which doesn’t really make sense for a lot of video creators.
Well like you pointed out, the biggest area is just curation and discoverability. Artlist goes to almost no lengths to help you find the music you want. Conversely, with Soundstripe I can search and filter based on BPM, genre, length, instruments, mood, energy, and a slew of other options. Soundstripe also regularly curates playlists with songs for specific uses cases. As you pointed out, the music selection is also incredibly redundant. You don’t find enough variety in Artlist songs, whereas I literally downloaded a Bluegrass song and an old ragtime joint, right after downloading a good piano track for a wedding. Like, the offerings and variety are way wider on Soundstripe. That said, most of these libraries aren’t great for extended use over several years because the list of quality tracks grow much slower than the bad ones, so if you’re picky like me you likely end up switching services every few years to revitalize your content with new sounds.
I feel like these are very subjective- you can very much so find songs based on GMP, Genre, Length, Instruments, Mood + other options like you mentioned Soundstripe can. I’m not trying to argue with you, but I feel like it’s unfair to say you can’t use these tools to help you find tracks from artlist. Never once has artlist let me down, I’m sorry your experience wasn’t the same!
It’s not that you can’t use them, but rather that they’re simply not good, at least not in comparison. I’m genuinely not going to be a salesman for either service, just speaking to my experience and disappointment with Artlist. Oh, and they also tried to push me to pay more for a higher tier. A company of TWO. But I figured that had been covered enough 😂 😂
Hahaha yeah definitely has been mentioned Who knows, I’ve only ever used Artlist so I have no frame of reference. Maybe eventually I’ll run into some kind of bump in the road but hopefully not!
That’s the best we can all hope for! Cheers, and have a good year!
You too!
I agree with you there. Artlist’s scaled down plans could be well worth it for single users not affiliated with an organization. They have a huge selection. But unlike a lot of services out there, you won’t be sifting through garbage. It’s good stuff. If you’re a part of an organization, though, you’ll be out of luck. I’m curious if this new pricing model is actually making them any money given how many clients they’re likely losing from it.
Use Musicbed if it’s a web only video. Artlist if the client wants to use it for TV.
I normally use uppbeat but recently they put a strict limit on how many songs you can download a month for free without subscription
I use epidemic sound personally, and it's one of the most upvoted on [our complete list of +80 providers ](https://www.cchound.com/all-royalty-free-music-platforms/)(including pixabay)
artlist
Artlist is great for someone working solo or in a small team, not great for a big agency as they don't care about who actually uses it. I work for a state agency of 36,000+ in Communications. We had been using Artlist paying $215/yr. We only do online content, no TV or movie stuff. This has been fine until a couple months ago they wanted to start charging us over $6000/yr because of our employee count. Never mind that out of those 36,000+ employees it's only myself and two others that actually use it. They didn't want to hear it or just give us 3 licenses for the account or anything like that. We said seeya.
I wish that tracksmusic.com would come back. They had by far the best catalog. I know someone purchased them, but their catalog sucked and didn't have a fraction of what Tracks Music offered. Can't remember the name of company that fucked it up by buying them.
I'm a freelancer and I've been using Artlist for years. It's served me well. I've seen a few sponsored YouTube videos lately promoting lifetime Audiio memberships for the price of a year's subscription of Artlist. Seriously considering switching if the deal is still available around the time my subscription is due to renew.
Artlist
I use [Uppbeat.io](https://Uppbeat.io) since I am poor and still building up a clientele. The free music is fine but, nothing amazing.
Imo MusicBed seems and feels like the best quality option there is. I mostly use EpidemicSound, tried some Audiio and sometimes go for Audiojungle (by Envato Elements) if a job requires stuff that i can't find under the usual more mainstream suspects.
Paid for lifetime access to Audiio (~$200) and have never run into a copyright claim. They're always adding more music and SFX, so I don't feel like the site gets old
I still use @NoCopyrightSounds on YouTube.
We use Envatoelements good indie artists, backgound loops and licence files included.
Heya! Give us a whirl :) [https://alibimusic.com](https://alibimusic.com)