Epidemic Sound vs. Artlist vs. YouTube Audio Library vs. Scora: Background Music for Videos Compared (2026)
Updated 2026-10-25 · 7 min read
Most creators choosing background music end up comparing the same four options: a stock subscription (Epidemic Sound or Artlist), the free YouTube Audio Library, or a tool that scores the video for you. They solve different problems. A stock library sells you a catalog and a license; the free library gives you safe tracks for YouTube; a scoring tool hands back a finished soundtrack fitted to the video.
This page compares them on the four things that decide the choice in practice: price, what the license covers (including after you cancel), how well the music follows the scenes, and how long it takes to get from a cut to a finished soundtrack. Disclosure: Scora is our product. We have tried to describe the others from their own published terms, linked below, and to say where they are the better pick.
The short answer
- Epidemic Sound if you want a very large human-made catalog, plugins for Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, and a quick synced draft for short videos.
- Artlist if you also buy stock footage, templates or LUTs and want music in the same subscription.
- YouTube Audio Library if you publish only on YouTube, need a single track under a short clip, and your budget is zero.
- Scora if the music step is what eats your editing time: long talking videos, tutorials, podcasts on video, courses. It reads the video, changes the music where the mood changes, ducks it under the voice, and has a free plan.
Side-by-side comparison
Checked on October 25, 2026 against each vendor's own pricing and help pages. Prices are US list prices, change often and vary by country, so confirm on the vendor's page before you buy.
| Epidemic Sound | Artlist | YouTube Audio Library | Scora | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | From about US$10/month billed yearly (Creator); Pro, with client work and ads, costs more. Monthly billing costs more. 30-day free trial, no free plan. | Music & SFX from about US$10/month billed yearly; bundles with footage and AI tools cost more. | Free. | Free plan (5 videos a month, up to 10 minutes each). Paid from US$19/month. |
| License for videos published while subscribed | Stay cleared after you cancel. | Covered forever. | Not a subscription: tracks stay usable. | Not tied to a subscription: each soundtrack is licensed with no expiry. |
| New videos after you cancel | Not allowed with previously downloaded tracks. | Not covered. | Allowed. | Allowed for soundtracks you already made. |
| Where you can publish | Social, podcasts, websites; monetization on 1 channel per platform on Creator, 3 on Pro. Ads and client work need Pro. | Personal and commercial use of music and sound effects. | Built for YouTube; some tracks require attribution. YouTube does not give guidance for use off the platform, so check each track's license. | Any platform, monetized, client work and ads included; no attribution. |
| Catalog | About 55,000 tracks and 250,000 sound effects, human-made. | Large human-made catalog of music and sound effects. | Free library inside YouTube Studio. | Smaller curated public-domain/CC0 library, plus original music composed for each video. |
| Syncing music to the scenes | Studio drafts a synced soundtrack of music and sound effects from your video, up to 4 minutes per video; you then adjust it. | You search the catalog and place tracks in your editor; plugin for Premiere Pro. | You pick, trim and fade by hand. | Reads the speech and the mood stretch by stretch, changes the music at the shifts and lowers it under the voice. Videos up to 10 minutes on Free, 20 to 180 minutes on paid plans. |
| Time from cut to finished soundtrack | Minutes for a short video in Studio; longer videos are edited by hand. | Search time plus editing time. | Search time plus editing time. | Usually a few minutes after the upload, whatever the length of the video. |
Sources: Epidemic Sound pricing, Epidemic Sound Studio, Artlist pricing, YouTube Audio Library help, Scora pricing.
Price: what you actually pay per video
Epidemic Sound and Artlist start at roughly the same price when billed yearly, and both charge more for client work, ads or teams. The price is flat: it makes sense if you publish often and use a lot of tracks. If you publish twice a month, you pay the same as someone who publishes daily.
The YouTube Audio Library costs nothing, which is hard to beat for a short clip on YouTube. The cost moves to your time: every trim, fade and volume change is manual.
Scora's free plan covers five videos a month from its library. Paid plans bundle a number of AI-composed videos (15 on the US$19 Creator plan) with unlimited library videos, and extra AI videos can be bought one at a time, so the cost follows how much you publish.
License: the part that bites after you cancel
The two stock subscriptions work the same way: anything you publish while subscribed stays licensed, but a track you downloaded last year cannot go into a new video once the subscription ends. Epidemic Sound says that doing so leads to copyright claims on the new content. If you might cancel, keep a list of which videos used which tracks.
On Epidemic Sound, the cheapest plan also limits monetization to one channel per platform and leaves out client work and ads. Read the plan you are buying, not just the catalog.
The YouTube Audio Library is safe from Content ID claims on YouTube, but its terms are written for YouTube. Creative Commons tracks need a credit line, and YouTube itself says it cannot advise on use elsewhere. For a podcast feed or Instagram, check each track's license.
Scora licenses each soundtrack for use in your videos with no expiry, on any platform, including client work and ads. The license comes with the soundtrack, not with the subscription. The AI-composed music is non-exclusive, so if you need exclusive rights, ask before buying.
Sync with the scenes: library search vs. scoring
A library answers "which track?". Most of the editing time goes into the next questions: where should the music change, how loud should it be under the voice, and does the change land on the cut?
Epidemic Sound's Studio is the closest to automatic among the stock libraries: you upload a cut of up to four minutes and get a synced draft from its catalog, which you then refine. For Reels, Shorts and short promos that is a real time saver.
Scora is built for the longer case. It transcribes the speech, reads the mood and energy stretch by stretch, and either matches library tracks or composes an original score that turns where the video turns. It lowers the music under the voice and returns the scored video, the soundtrack as a separate MP3 and a report of where each change happens. On a 20-minute tutorial or a video podcast, that is where the hours usually go.
When each one is the right choice
- You edit in Premiere or Resolve and like choosing every track yourself: a stock library with a plugin (Epidemic Sound, or Artlist for Premiere).
- You also need stock footage: Artlist's bundles cover both.
- Short social clips, YouTube only, no budget: the YouTube Audio Library.
- Short social clips with a synced draft: Epidemic Sound Studio.
- Long videos with someone talking, or many videos a month: Scora, then fine-tune in your editor if you want, since the soundtrack comes back as its own file.
- Many creators combine them: a library for a signature intro, and automatic scoring for the body of the video.
Frequently asked questions
Is Epidemic Sound or Artlist better for YouTube?
Both clear monetized YouTube videos and start at a similar yearly price. Epidemic Sound is music-first, with a large catalog, plugins for Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve and its Studio tool for short videos. Artlist is the better deal if you also buy stock footage. Check the channel limits of the plan you pick: Epidemic Sound's Creator plan monetizes one channel per platform.
What happens to my videos if I cancel Epidemic Sound or Artlist?
Videos published while you were subscribed stay licensed. What you lose is the right to put their tracks into new videos, even tracks you already downloaded. Scora's soundtracks are licensed with no expiry, so a soundtrack you made stays usable after you cancel.
Can I use YouTube Audio Library music outside YouTube?
The library is built for YouTube. Some tracks are Creative Commons and need a credit line, and YouTube says it cannot give guidance on use off the platform, so check the license on each track before using it on Instagram, TikTok or in a podcast feed.
Does Scora replace a stock music subscription?
For many talking videos, yes: it does the choosing, placing and ducking that a library leaves to you, and it has a free plan. A large stock catalog still wins if you want to pick every track by hand from tens of thousands of options, or if you need footage and music in one subscription. More in Background Music for Videos.
Which option syncs music to the video automatically?
Epidemic Sound's Studio drafts a synced soundtrack for videos up to four minutes. Scora scores the whole video, from 10 minutes on the free plan up to 180 on Business, changing the music where the mood changes and lowering it under the voice. With Artlist and the YouTube Audio Library, you place and trim the music yourself.