I often get complimented on how well I sync my videos to my music. I feel that when this is done well it really enhances the viewers experience. It elevates it from just a youtube video to something more emotive. As predictable as it can be to cut to the beat, it often just works. Before you can start cutting to a beat though, you need a good beat. For the last year I've been using music from one place and one place only: Epidemic Sound.
Epidemic Sound is a Swedish music company founded in 2009. If you've been following any of the big photography Youtubers like Peter Mckinnon, Matti Haapoja and others then you would have heard of them without a doubt. There's a reason for that. Actually there's more than one. Allow me to present you a list of why you should consider using Epidemic Sound for your Youtube videos.
Before I continue, here's a disclaimer: if you sign up to Epidemic Sound through my link (this one here), even if it's just for the one month free trial (yes, you get access to all of the music without paying and you can use as much as you want then cancel your subscription before paying a cent) I make a few dollars. As a Youtuber I'm always looking for new passive income streams and affiliate marketing is definitely one of them.
Make money from your videos.
Epidemic Sound's Youtube subscription model allows you to monetise your videos. If your channel is eligible for monetisation you can run ads in front or during your content. When you use copyrighted music by established artists you won't see a cent for all your work and more often than not you won't be able to show your videos on all platforms or all countries. If you're using a track from Epidemic Sound you will always be able to monetise your content. I've gone viral once with an edit that used a copyrighted track. It hit close to a million views, with all the ad revenue going to the copyright owner of the music. This means I missed out on about $10000. I'm not making that mistake again, trust me.
There is a huge SFX library.
I feel like not a lot of people have been talking about this. Epidemic Sound has an enormous library of sound effects. You can search through and select from over 60000 effects. There's risers, whooshes, drone sounds you name it. This is a highly underrated library that I use all the time to add extra layers of quality to my edits.
There is a ton of music to choose from.
With over 30000 tracks from a wide variety of musicians there's something for every edit. I've worked with smaller music libraries and nothing's more frustrating than spending your time searching for the right track and coming up to the same tune time and time again.
You can select by mood and tempo.
I use this feature all the time. Instead of browsing around all the tracks looking for track names that might match your vibe, you can sort by mood, tempo, location etc. Simply go to the Browse tab, then sort by Genre, Mood, Movement or Place. If you want to fine tune your search even more you can even search by Energy, Tempo or Length.
You can download individual stems.
You're not limited to just the track. If you find something you love but you don't like the vocals on top of the track for example, you can download the individual stems and remove the vocals from your edit. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities, you can even make your own remixes.
Seasonal recommendations.
Depending on the season you will get recommended albums sent to your inbox. It's always valuable to make content that is in line with what is happening in the world. With the holidays coming up I just got sent a selection of tracks that will work great for Christmas or holidays themed content.
It's very affordable.
If you pay $144 you get a whole year's worth of music. In that year, you can download as many tracks and sound effects as you want and use them FOREVER. That's right. Even after your subscription ends, you will still be allowed to use the music and make money from your videos. This is the same with the one month free trial. You can download as much as you want and use it forever. Obviously Epidemic relies on the people that see the value of their service and that will stay subscribed, like myself.
Considering a single youtube license from for example Premiumbeat costs you a minimum of $49 per tune this seems like a no-brainer.
No copyright claim issues.
I've seen a recent surge of new music websites and licensing options pop up on social media. Some of these will automatically flag your youtube content because it has one of their tracks. After a few minutes, the software and system that's working behind the scenes will release the copyright claim and you're good to go. To me that doesn't sound enticing at all. I've never had a single copyright claim on any of my youtube videos that use Epidemic Sound tracks. I don't like the idea of all of my videos getting copyright claimed even though they will get released straight away.
You help me out.
By signing up for a one month free trial through this link you support me as an individual creator directly. As you may know, I share all of my knowledge on Youtube for free (timelapse tutorials, behind the scenes of commercial productions, gear reviews etc). Youtube Adsense – the program that pays creators a cut of the ad revenue – isn't even enough to cover the cost of my hard drives. I'm not allowed to tell you how much I make from Youtube but trust me, you signing up for that free trial will have a much bigger impact than clicking on an ad that runs in front of my videos.
I hope this was helpful. I know it seems like a big ad and in a way it kind of is. The goal of this blog post is for me to increase my passive income. That being said, I wouldn't be promoting a service or website if I didn't 100% believe in it myself. I use Epidemic Sound every single day and I firmly stand by my opinion that it is the best offer on the market for people that are looking for music or sound effects for youtube videos.
If you'd like to support me directly and get access to exclusive content such as high resolution wallpapers, a timelapse cheat sheet, early access to videos and more, you can check out my Patreon page here.
