Stop renting a music library. Song Creator Pro is the Epidemic Sound alternative you pay for once
Made with Song Creator Pro
Every track below was generated locally on a desktop GPU.
Why switch
3 reasons to choose Song Creator Pro over Epidemic Sound
The licence stops covering new work the day you cancel
Epidemic Sound is clear about this, and fair: videos published while you were subscribed stay cleared. But a track you downloaded last year cannot go into next month's video once your plan ends. Epidemic Sound says new uploads using its music after cancellation will be claimed and monetised by Epidemic Sound, and you would need to resubscribe or buy a single-track licence. Your folder of downloads becomes a folder you cannot use. Music generated in Song Creator Pro is covered by a commercial licence bought once, so a track you made in 2026 is just as usable in 2030.
Thousands of other channels are using the same track
A library is shared by definition. Epidemic Sound lists more than 55,000 tracks, and the popular ones turn up across thousands of channels, ads and streams. That is fine for a background bed, less fine for a brand sound, a channel theme or an intro you want people to associate with you. Every Song Creator Pro generation is a new piece rendered on your GPU, and with seed control you can return to the exact track later and make variations of it.
A library cannot sing your words
Stock music is a search problem: you look for something close enough. If you need a jingle with your product name, a song with your own lyrics, or a theme in Spanish or Japanese, no library has it. Song Creator Pro writes complete songs with vocals from lyrics you supply, in more than 50 languages through ACE-Step 1.5 and in English and Mandarin through YuE2, or instrumentals when you only need a bed.
Head to head
How Song Creator Pro compares with Epidemic Sound
Epidemic Sound is the default stock music subscription for creators for good reasons: a large, well-mixed catalogue, sound effects, and automatic Content ID clearance for connected channels. This is not a comparison of two AI tools. It is renting a library of human-made music against owning a generator that makes new music. Each wins in different places, and the rounds below say which.
| Feature | Song Creator Pro | Epidemic Sound |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | ||
| Source of music | Generated on your PC | Human-made library |
| Catalogue size | Unlimited new tracks | 55,000+ tracks |
| Sound effects library | 250,000+ effects | |
| Songs with your own lyrics | ||
| Vocal languages | 50+ | Whatever is in the library |
| Unique to you | ||
| Consistent professional mix | Limited | |
| Editing and fitting to video | ||
| Cut a track to an exact length | Adapt, up to 5 minutes | |
| Soundtrack drafted from your video | Studio | |
| Stems | 4 separation models | Melody, instruments, bass, drums |
| Revise part of a track | Rearrange via Adapt | |
| Remix your own audio | ||
| Editor plugins (Premiere Pro and others) | ||
| Content ID and claims | ||
| Automatic Content ID clearance | No registration to clear | Safelisted connected channels |
| New videos after you stop paying | ||
| Old videos after you stop paying | ||
| Channels covered | No per-channel limit | 1 per platform on Creator, 3 on Pro |
| Output and platform | ||
| MP3 and WAV | ||
| FLAC (lossless) export | ||
| Account required | ||
| Browser access | ||
| Works offline | Downloads only | |
| Licensing | ||
| Personal and monetised channels | Creator and up | |
| Client work and paid ads | Pro and up | |
| Release music to Spotify under your name | ||
| Licence for new work survives cancellation | Nothing to cancel | |
| Indemnification | Pro Plus and Enterprise | |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | One-time purchase | Subscription |
| Entry price | $44.99 once | $9.99/mo annual, $17.99 monthly |
| Client-work tier | $44.99 once | $16.99/mo annual, $39.99 monthly |
| Three-year cost for client work | $44.99 | About $612 annual, $1,440 monthly |
| Prorated refunds | Store policy |
Hear the difference with Song Creator Pro
Unlimited generations and downloads on your own GPU, with no subscription and nothing leaving your machine.
Try Song Creator ProOne-time purchase · Lifetime updates · Commercial license
The full list
Top 10 Epidemic Sound alternatives of 2026
Every tool below was checked against its current pricing and terms in September 2026. Prices and limits in this category change often, so verify before you commit.
Song Creator Pro
Unlimited local AI music generation and downloads, one time payment
Song Creator Pro is a Windows desktop app that generates, remixes and separates music entirely on your own GPU. There is no account, no upload step and no credit meter. It ships two open models, ACE-Step 1.5 and YuE2, and is among the first apps anywhere to run YuE2 on 8 GB GPUs rather than the 24 GB its official release demands. You describe a song in plain language and it renders locally, in any of 50+ languages, with inference steps, guidance scale and seed exposed so results are repeatable. It is a one-time purchase rather than a subscription.
Coming from Epidemic Sound? The way out of renting: generate original tracks on your own GPU, keep them and keep making new ones without a subscription. You lose Epidemic's sound effects, its Adapt length tool and its Content ID safelisting, and it is Windows only.
Pros
- Runs 100% offline on your own machine, so prompts and audio never leave your PC
- Includes YuE2, the model that outscored Suno on WildSongBench, running on 8 GB GPUs
- One-time purchase with lifetime updates instead of a monthly subscription
- Genuinely unlimited generations with no credits, no daily caps and no download limits
- Built-in stem separation
- Producer-grade controls: seed, guidance scale, inference steps and batch generation
- Exports MP3, FLAC and WAV with full commercial rights included
Cons
- Windows only today, with macOS still on the roadmap
- A GPU (NVIDIA or AMD) is strongly recommended, and speed depends on your hardware
- No browser or mobile access, so you cannot generate from a phone
- No community feed or social sharing features
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| itch.io | $44.99 once |
| Microsoft Store | $49.99 once |
| Bundle | $72.50 once |
Artlist
Stock music, SFX and footage, now with an AI generation suite
Artlist is an Israeli stock media company that started with curated royalty-free music and expanded into sound effects, footage, templates and, more recently, an AI suite that generates images, video, voiceover and music from a shared credit pool. Its stock licence covers projects published while you are subscribed, and YouTube Content ID claims are cleared by adding channels or videos to its Clearlist. AI outputs are treated differently from stock: Artlist says you keep using them after your subscription ends.
Coming from Epidemic Sound? The other big stock library, with a more cinematic catalogue and Clearlist for Content ID. Same rental model for stock music, though Artlist says AI-generated output from its AI suite stays usable after you cancel.
Pros
- Curated, cinematic catalogue that suits brand and travel video
- Clearlist clears Content ID claims for registered channels and videos
- Music, SFX, footage and AI generation under one account
- AI outputs stay usable after you cancel
Cons
- Stock downloads cannot go into new projects once the subscription lapses
- Pro and Max plans are annual only, paid upfront
- AI credits run down quickly, and unused credits expire
- Plan lineup changes often, so prices and names are hard to pin down
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Music & SFX Social | $14.99/mo ($9.99 annual) |
| Music & SFX Pro | ~$24.92/mo, annual only |
| AI Starter | $19.99/mo ($11.99 annual) |
| Max | from ~$39.99/mo, annual only |
Sonilo
Video-to-music and sound effects trained on licensed music
Sonilo is an AI soundtrack tool built around video. You upload a clip and its model scores it from the visuals, or you describe a track or a sound effect in text. Its proprietary model is trained only on licensed music, including Shutterstock's catalogue under a partnership announced in May 2026. It also offers a public API, plugins for Premiere Pro, Unity, Godot, Roblox and others, and speech translation for video. Output is instrumental, and pricing is credit based, charged per second of generated audio.
Coming from Epidemic Sound? If what you liked about Epidemic was Studio scoring your video, Sonilo does that with generated music and sound effects, trained on licensed music including Shutterstock's catalogue. Commercial rights on Pro and Premium survive cancellation. Instrumental only, and credits go quickly on long videos.
Pros
- Scores a video directly from its visuals, synced to the cut
- Generates sound effects as well as music
- Trained on licensed music, with a Shutterstock partnership
- Public API plus editor and game-engine plugins
- Commercial rights on Pro and Premium survive cancellation
Cons
- No lyrics or sung vocals
- Video-to-music burns 18 credits per second, so long videos get expensive
- Free plan is preview quality and non-commercial
- Cloud only, with export length capped per plan
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 |
| Pro | $20/mo ($11.99 annual) |
| Premium | $40/mo ($23.99 annual) |
Soundraw
Slider-driven royalty-free beds for video
Soundraw generates royalty-free instrumental music that you shape with genre, mood and energy sliders rather than text prompts. It is purpose-built for video editors who need a track to fit a timeline, and its licence stays valid for content published while subscribed.
Coming from Epidemic Sound? Generated royalty-free beds with sliders for length and energy, from around $11 a month. Tracks downloaded while subscribed stay licensed after you cancel, with exceptions for music channels and lo-fi or meditation content.
Pros
- Fast, predictable results without prompt engineering
- Length and energy controls designed for cutting to video
- Unlimited generation on paid plans
Cons
- Instrumental only, with no real vocal generation
- Less creative range than a prompt-driven model
- No plan allows releasing an unmodified track to streaming services, and WAV and stems are reserved for the Artist tiers
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 |
| Creator | ~$11/mo |
| Artist tiers | ~$19.50 to $32.50/mo |
Beatoven.ai
Fairly Trained background music, licensed by the download minute
Beatoven.ai composes royalty-free instrumental background music for videos, podcasts, games and ads from a text description, using its in-house Maestro model, and has a separate Maestro model for sound effects. It is Fairly Trained certified and says contributing musicians are compensated. Generation is unlimited on paid plans, but downloads are metered in minutes. Each download comes with a non-exclusive perpetual licence that survives cancellation, while Beatoven keeps ownership of the track and does not allow distribution to Spotify or other streaming services.
Coming from Epidemic Sound? Low-cost generated background music shaped around mood changes in your video, from about $10 a month. Instrumental only, and more functional than memorable.
Pros
- Fairly Trained certified, with compensated contributing musicians
- Perpetual licence for every downloaded track, even after you cancel
- Sound effects model alongside the music model
- MP3 and WAV downloads, pay-per-track option and an API
- Simple enough for non-musicians
Cons
- No vocal generation
- Downloads are metered by the minute, around 30 or 60 a month on the main plans
- Beatoven retains ownership of the tracks, you only get a licence
- Direct distribution to Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services is not allowed
- Cloud-only, with nothing usable to download on the free plan
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 |
| Creator | ~$10/mo ($100/yr) |
| Visionary | ~$20/mo ($200/yr) |
| Pay as you go | ~$3/download minute |
ElevenLabs Music
The cleanest licensing story in AI music
Eleven Music is ElevenLabs' entry into music generation, launched in August 2025 and substantially upgraded with v2 in 2026. Its distinguishing feature is legal rather than sonic: it was trained on licensed stems and built in partnership with rights holders before launch, rather than settling lawsuits afterwards. It supports vocals in 59 languages and generates section by section with inpainting.
Coming from Epidemic Sound? If you want generated music with a rights story comparable to a library's, Eleven Music was trained on licensed material in partnership with rights holders. Vocals in 59 languages, commercial licence from $6 a month.
Pros
- Trained on licensed material from the start, giving it the clearest commercial position of any major platform
- Vocals in 59 languages, with native-quality delivery in 11
- Section-by-section building and inpainting to regenerate parts of a track
- Can generate stems, lyrics and full compositions, and shift style mid-track
- A mature, well-documented API for developers
Cons
- Credits are shared with ElevenLabs' speech products, so music competes with your voice usage
- Film, TV and large studio game rights require an Enterprise plan
- Output is capped at 44.1 kHz, and formats are MP3, PCM, Opus and telephony codecs
- Cloud-only with no offline option
- The music product is newer and less battle-tested than its voice tooling
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 |
| Starter | $6/mo ($5 annual) |
| Creator | $22/mo |
| Pro | $99/mo |
Mubert
Royalty-free background music built from human-made samples
Mubert generates royalty-free functional music, the kind that sits behind videos, podcasts, apps and streams, by assembling tracks from a large library of samples contributed by human musicians who get paid when their loops are used. That gives it a cleaner provenance story than models trained by scraping, and it is why Mubert has avoided the lawsuits that reshaped Suno and Udio. You generate by prompt, mood, genre or activity, with tracks up to 25 minutes long, and a developer API serves the same engine to apps and games. As of September 2026 plans run from a free Ambassador tier to a $199 a month Business tier. The catch is scope: it makes background beds, not songs with vocals, and no plan allows publishing to Spotify or other streaming services.
Coming from Epidemic Sound? Long generated ambient beds up to 25 minutes, built from human-made samples, with a developer API. Commercial use starts at $39 a month, and no plan allows streaming release or Content ID registration.
Pros
- Built from licensed human-made samples, so its rights story is unusually clean
- Tracks up to 25 minutes long, well suited to podcasts, streams and ambient beds
- Unlimited lossless and MP3 downloads on every paid plan
- A mature API for generating music inside apps, games and products
- Stem editing on all tiers, with a full track editor for structure, BPM and key on Pro and Business
Cons
- No vocal generation, so it cannot write an actual song with lyrics
- No plan permits releasing tracks to Spotify, Apple Music or any streaming platform, or registering them with Content ID
- Commercial use for monetized content starts at Pro, $39 a month, which adds up fast against a one-time purchase
- The free and Creator tiers are non-commercial only, with the free tier requiring attribution
- Cloud-only, and payments are non-refundable on every tier
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Ambassador | $0 |
| Creator | $14/mo ($11.69 annual) |
| Pro | $39/mo ($32.49 annual) |
| Business | $199/mo ($149.29 annual) |
Stable Audio
Stability AI's audio model, strong on instrumentals
Stable Audio from Stability AI focuses on high-quality instrumental generation, sound design and loops rather than full vocal songs. It is a common pick for producers who want royalty-free beds and textures, and Stable Audio Open gives the research community a downloadable variant.
Coming from Epidemic Sound? Prompt-driven instrumentals and sound design, strong on textures and loops. A good partial replacement for Epidemic's sound effects as well as its beds.
Pros
- Excellent instrumental, loop and sound-design output
- Backed by an established research lab, with an open model variant
- Clean royalty-free licensing for paid users
Cons
- Vocals are a weak point compared with Suno or Mureka
- Cloud subscription for the hosted product, with no free plan and a $12 a month entry tier
- Less suited to writing complete songs with lyrics
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Solo | $12/mo |
| Session | $30/mo |
| Producer | $90/mo |
| Studio | $199/mo |
Suno
The most popular AI song generator
Suno is the best known AI music platform and the benchmark most others are measured against. In September 2026 it retired every model before v6 under its Warner settlement and replaced them with the licensed v6 family, which has drawn mixed reviews: cleaner production for some, muffled and more generic output for others. It runs in the browser, has a large community, and offers a duration slider and Advanced Split stem separation that regenerates stems rather than extracting them.
Coming from Epidemic Sound? For vocal songs in a browser. Strong output, but downloads are capped at 20 a month on Pro, and the licence history has shifted with each label settlement.
Pros
- Polished, clean vocal production across mainstream genres
- Very broad genre coverage and a large, active creator community
- Advanced Split regenerates stems from nearly 100 instrument choices
- Duration control from 10 seconds to 6 minutes in 5-second steps
- Works in any browser on any device, including phones
Cons
- From 3 September 2026 the free tier has no monthly download allowance at all, just a one-off pool of up to 7 trial downloads for personal use
- Paid plans cap downloads: Pro allows only 20 songs a month, Premier 60
- Subscription credits expire and never roll over between days or months
- All audio is processed on Suno's servers, so nothing stays private
- Every pre-v6 model was deleted in September 2026, so old songs cannot be extended or regenerated, and Sony and Universal litigation is ongoing
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 |
| Pro | $10/mo ($8 annual) |
| Premier | $30/mo ($24 annual) |
AIVA
Orchestral and cinematic scoring with MIDI export
AIVA specialises in classical, orchestral and cinematic composition. It is the pick for composers who need to take a piece into a DAW and keep working on it, because it exports MIDI rather than only rendered audio, and its top tier assigns you the copyright outright.
Coming from Epidemic Sound? For cinematic and orchestral scoring, with MIDI export so you can edit the composition in a DAW, and copyright assigned to you on the top tier.
Pros
- Best-in-class orchestral and cinematic output
- MIDI export, so compositions stay editable in a DAW
- The Pro tier gives you full copyright ownership rather than a licence
Cons
- Essentially no vocal generation
- The Pro tier is expensive at roughly 49 euros a month
- Narrow genre focus compared with general-purpose generators
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 |
| Standard | ~15 euros/mo (11 annual) |
| Pro | ~49 euros/mo (33 annual) |
Round by round
Song Creator Pro vs Epidemic Sound
Six categories, each with a winner.
Content ID handled for you
Winner: Epidemic SoundEpidemic Sound owns its catalogue, so it can safelist the channels you connect and clear claims on its own music automatically. For a YouTube channel publishing every week, that is real peace of mind. Song Creator Pro output is not registered with Content ID by anyone, so there is no licensor to claim it, but AI output can occasionally resemble existing recordings closely enough to be matched, and there is no service on our side that clears a claim for you. If hands-off claim handling is the priority, Epidemic is ahead.
Fitting music to a cut, plus sound effects
Winner: Epidemic SoundAdapt cuts any track to 15, 30 or 60 seconds or a custom length up to five minutes and lets you rebalance stems, Studio drafts a soundtrack synced to your video, and there are more than 250,000 sound effects in the same subscription, with plugins for editors such as Premiere Pro. Song Creator Pro has no timeline, no length-to-cut slider and no sound effects generation. For editors on deadline, Epidemic is the faster tool.
Using your music after you stop paying
Winner: Song Creator ProEpidemic Sound covers productions published during your subscription. Anything you publish later with its tracks is claimed and monetised by Epidemic Sound, no matter when you downloaded the file. Song Creator Pro's commercial licence comes with the one-time purchase, so music you generate today is usable in next year's videos with nothing to renew.
Music nobody else has
Winner: Song Creator ProPopular library tracks are heard across thousands of channels, which works against you for a channel theme, an intro or a brand sound. Every Song Creator Pro generation is new, seed control lets you come back to a track and make variations, and Remix lets you rework your own audio into another style.
Vocals and lyrics on demand
Winner: Song Creator ProA library can only offer the vocal tracks it already has. Song Creator Pro writes songs with vocals from your own lyrics, in more than 50 languages through ACE-Step 1.5, or in English and Mandarin through YuE2, which plans each song as an editable score and renders at 48 kHz stereo. A product jingle, a wedding song or a localised ad is a prompt away.
Cost over three years
Winner: Song Creator ProEpidemic Sound's Pro plan, the tier you need for client work and ads, is $16.99 a month billed annually or $39.99 monthly at the time of writing, about $612 or $1,440 over three years, with no prorated refunds. Creator, for your own channels only, is $9.99 a month annually. Song Creator Pro is $49.99 once on the Microsoft Store or $44.99 on itch.io, with commercial use included and no per-channel limits.
The verdict
Conclusion
Epidemic Sound deserves its position. The catalogue is large and consistently produced by human musicians, Content ID is handled automatically for connected channels, Adapt and Studio save editors real time, and the sound effects library alone is worth a lot to video teams. Its terms are also clearer than most: what you publish while subscribed stays cleared.
The limits are those of any rental. New work stops being covered when you stop paying, popular tracks are shared with thousands of other creators, client work and ads need the Pro tier, channels are capped per plan, and no library can sing your lyrics. Over a few years the subscription adds up to several hundred dollars or more for music you never own the right to reuse.
Song Creator Pro is a different answer: a generator rather than a library. It runs ACE-Step 1.5 and YuE2 on your own Windows PC for $49.99 once, makes original instrumentals and songs with vocals, separates stems, exports MP3, WAV and FLAC, and includes a commercial licence that keeps covering new work. It will not cut a track to your timeline, it has no sound effects, and it does not clear Content ID claims for you. Plenty of creators will want both. If you want to stop paying rent on your soundtrack, this is how.
Frequently Asked Questions
Epidemic Sound says content published on your connected channels while subscribed stays cleared after you cancel. Content published after your subscription ends is not covered, even with tracks you downloaded earlier, and Epidemic Sound says those uploads will be claimed and monetised by it. You would need to resubscribe or buy a single-track licence.
At the time of writing, US prices are Creator at $9.99 a month billed annually or $17.99 monthly, Pro at $16.99 a month annually or $39.99 monthly, and Business at around $30 a month annually or $75 monthly, with custom Pro Plus and Enterprise plans. Prices vary by region and Epidemic Sound often runs discounts, so check the figure shown to you.
No. It is royalty-free while licensed, which means no per-use fees on top of the subscription, but Epidemic Sound keeps the copyright and licenses the music to you on the terms of your plan. It also uses Content ID to claim unlicensed uses of its music.
On the Pro plan and above. Creator covers your own personal online content only. Pro covers client work and digital ads, and broadcast, apps, games and larger companies need Pro Plus, Business Plus or Enterprise.
For many uses, yes. AI generation gives you unique tracks, songs with your own lyrics and no subscription if you use a local app. Stock libraries still win on consistent mixes, sound effects, length-editing tools and automatic Content ID clearance. Many creators use both. Our guide to AI music versus stock music libraries goes through the trade-offs in detail.
Music generated locally in Song Creator Pro is not registered with Content ID, so nobody is set up to claim it, and you are free to register your own releases. Occasional false matches can still happen with any music, AI or not, and you would dispute them through YouTube using your licence.
For another stock library, Artlist. For generated soundtracks synced to video, Sonilo or Soundraw. For cheap generated beds, Beatoven.ai. For original songs with vocals and no subscription, Song Creator Pro at $49.99 once on Windows.
No. Song Creator Pro generates music, instrumentals and songs with vocals, and separates stems. It does not generate sound effects, so you would still need a sound effects source for foley and transitions.
An NVIDIA or AMD GPU gives the best speed, and YuE2 runs on 8 GB cards. ACE-Step 1.5 also runs on AMD and Intel GPUs through DirectML or on CPU only, more slowly. The Microsoft Store version has a free trial.
Keep comparing
See how Song Creator Pro compares with other tools
vs Suno
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Learn moreSong Creator Pro is more than just a Epidemic Sound alternative
Unlimited local generation, remixing and stem separation on your own GPU. One payment, lifetime updates, and nothing ever leaves your machine.
Get Song Creator ProFree trial on the Microsoft Store · One-time payment · No recurring fees