Epidemic Sound Offers a Strikingly Different Licensing Approach

Shake a stick in this business, and you’ll quickly find a contentious lawsuit involving social media music licensing. Great for the lawyers, as they say, but is there a better way? 

Sadly, that’s a critical question for a growing number of major brands. Currently, the music industry is mired in multiple legal licensing battles over social media campaigns on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and other social media platforms, with mega-brands like Crumbl Cookies, Marriott, Chili’s, DSW, and even the University of Southern California (USC) among the defendants.

And that doesn’t include the separate migraines of copyright strikes, demonetization, or territorial licensing restrictions that can disrupt a campaign midstream (usually at around 4 am local time).

It’s a big problem, though serious solutions exist for brands that want to sidestep tricky litigation surrounding high-priced IP.

That includes Stockholm-headquartered Epidemic Sound, which has been attracting some serious clientele with its fully licensed solution. The company caters to mega-brands like Nissan, Squarespace, New Balance, Levi’s, GoPro, and the NFL Players Association, as well as creators of all shapes and sizes. Just recently, Epidemic Sound partnered with DMN to expand its growing footprint.

The pitch for all of these companies and creators is simple. Instead of complex licensing rules and compliance pitfalls, Epidemic Sound is winning over big brands and agencies with a secure, pre-licensed solution free of copyright issues. Suddenly, the clearance matrix, which includes recordings, compositions, public performances, separate territories, and complicated timeframes, is eliminated, drastically reducing setup time and risk before the campaign.

“Brands tell us the same thing firsthand: rights holder fragmentation makes sourcing music at scale near-impossible without real legal exposure,” Epidemic Sound VP and Head of Commercial Legal Emil Henriksson told DMN.

“Our latest survey puts numbers to it: 95% of brands say licensing complexity slows production, and nearly 8 in 10 have felt it through added costs, takedowns, and lost campaigns. The same three issues come up every time: rights holder fragmentation and licensing complexity, material liability exposure, and near-zero visibility into their own music use.”

Interestingly, Epidemic Sound is also helping companies assess their risk levels ahead of big branding campaigns. “Alongside our core offering, we’ve also launched Soundproof to finally give brands a clear picture of where their risk sits and the infrastructure to act on it,” Henriksson continued.

There’s also the critical issue of turnaround time.

Back in the Mad Men era, advertising agencies had more time to develop campaigns and distribute them. And music was often a commissioned jingle.

These days, iterations are rapid, deadlines are tight, and responses come fast, especially on social media. That makes clearances and copyright issues unworkable, especially if they threaten to derail a fast-paced campaign. Directly-licensed or commissioned works, by contrast, eliminate those vulnerabilities.

Epidemic Sound VP and Head of Commercial Legal Emil Henriksson (Photo Credit: Epidemic Sound)

Problem solved, though Epidemic Sound wants to upend the rules around directly-licensed content. And that goes for all types of music, including custom-created content from established artists and producers.

Indeed, Epidemic Sound offers a fairly exhaustive selection of music, including tracks designed to meet a range of sync objectives. That includes tracks designed to grab attention, more subtly heighten emotion, or simply frame the background atmosphere.

And when it comes to higher-profile music, combining risk-free direct licensing with major artist heft has typically been difficult, expensive, or both. Advertising and sync execs understand this reality, though making that combination possible is at the root of Epidemic Sound’s market shakeup.

Flipping the negotiation table, and part of the lure for sought-after artists and producers is scale.

On that note, Epidemic Sound also possesses significant distribution power for artists, with roughly 3.5 billion views a day across YouTube and TikTok alone. According to Epidemic Sound, 70% of the top 300 US YouTube channels use Epidemic Sound. That’s quite a market validation, and stats like those make it easier for the company to bring top artists into their network.

For brands and creators, Epidemic Sound offers a subscription service and access to a vast, pre-licensed catalog of more than 55,000 songs and 250,000 sound effects, fully licensed for global use in perpetuity.

That’s a big part of Epidemic Sound’s model, though enterprise-level clients can also receive strategic guidance on leveraging music and sound to reinforce their brand identity through music supervision and sonic branding services.

Of course, some options will always need to be negotiated directly. If you want to license a specific track from the Rolling Stones or The Weeknd, for example, have fun with that negotiation. Major labels and IP owners are often ready to license, but price tags can be astronomical, and clearance considerations exhausting.

It’s not everyone’s idea of a good time, and outside of the mega-hits, Epidemic Sound is filling the market void with a deep selection of genres and artists, fully licensed and forever cleared.

So does this spell the end of the endless social media lawsuits?

After a slug of litigation, brands are undoubtedly being more careful with celebrity artists and high-profile tracks. But Epidemic Sound insists there’s a better approach that prioritizes secure licensing and great music — all while allowing companies to truly focus on brand-building and long-term customer connections.