Swedish soundtracking platform Epidemic Sound today announced the launch of Studio, the first AI-powered soundtracking tool that enables content creators to instantly match and place both human-made music and sound effects seamlessly within their video.
Epidemic Sound offers an extensive catalogue in music and sound for content creation, featuring world-class artists, Hollywood-grade ambient noises to establish background atmosphere, and foley sound effects to heighten actions such as breaking glass.
I spoke to CEO Oscar Höglund to learn more.
From upload to fully synced soundtrack in seconds
Studio provides content creators with a faster, smoother creative workflow while ensuring artists continue to reach new audiences and earn from their craft.
According to Höglund, Studio fast-tracks the soundtracking process, saving creators time and toil and allowing them to focus more on the fun stuff:
“More than a third are struggling with time pressures or burnout.
And with 94 per cent saying it contributes to their content’s success, Studio helps them fully tap into the power of audio to elevate their productions with super high-quality, human-made tracks and sound effects that fit with their content.
After a creator uploads their video, Studio uses AI and data insights, informed by contextual patterns from over 3 billion daily plays across online platforms, to analyse its content and instantly deliver a cohesive, legally safe soundtrack seamlessly synced to the visuals, as well as alternative music and sound effects options to choose from.
The three creator workflows studio fixes
The idea for Sound is driven by first-hand experience and talking directly with content creators for the last decade and a half.
Soundtracking a 1 to 3-minute video can take up to five hours.
Sound saves creators time by helping with three key areas: inspiration, search, and editing.
“We know the soundtracking setup has been somewhat broken. Essentially, creators often had to edit and re-edit their video to fit around audio.
Finally, through Studio, we’ve been able to reverse that setup so that audio now fits around the video,” shared Höglund.
“For example, alongside music, it might see the flock of birds in the background and identify the opportunity to elevate the content through a sound effect and incorporate that into the soundtrack.
It’s a source of inspiration for all the opportunities to use sound to elevate the story, and this is particularly noticeable with sound effects as they’re such an underestimated mechanism to add creative depth."
Secondly, Sound addresses the need to search, instantly adding the first draft of a full soundtrack, including music and sound effects. It saves the layer of time and effort that comes with searching repeatedly to get the perfect audio and includes it in the draft.
And finally, it reduces the need to edit the audio, syncing it to the action, explained Höglund:
“For example, the romantic music begins with the kiss, or the sound of broken glass hits when the vase hits the floor - all trimmed so the audio starts and finishes logically.
And at the same time, it keeps creative control well in the hands of the creator, providing different audio options for them to explore, as well as a simple way to import the draft soundtrack into their chosen video editor for further refinement.”
Höglund contends that Epidemic Sound's extensive catalogue has enabled the company to bring about “win-win scenarios, where everyone can benefit, and nobody has to lose.”
“Our extensive data pool sets apart how it can design products and tools that enhance the creator experience, as well as dial into what tracks are trending and how the global demand is shifting so we can continue to bring top-quality, contemporary music into the catalogue.”
Further, he attributes the company’s success to that fact that it takes on just 0.3 per cent of all the people who reach out to them:
“We’re able to set a really high-quality bar.”
Crucially, Epidemic Sound’s user-friendly licensing model allows brands and creators to access music with full usage rights while providing tools to elevate their content.
The company partners with artists across all genres, providing them with financial support through a 50/50 royalty split, upfront payments, and bonuses.
Artists can also explore multiple projects simultaneously, making Epidemic Sound a flexible and artist-centered platform.
The secrets to scale
Epidemic Sound’s subscription/licensing model gives unlimited downloads and global rights. I was curious how the company ensures this remains financially viable as usage scales across user‐generated content?
For Höglund, understanding your customers better than anyone else is pivotal. The team realised pretty early on that by meeting the soundtracking needs of the best creators in the world, it drove standalone listening of its tracks on streaming platforms where it creates additional revenue for them and their artists via the 50/50 royalty split.
He asserts:
“Scale powers this ecosystem where creators flourish, artists thrive, and our business grows.”
It’s enabled Epidemic Sound to go from zero online footprint, to hitting 1.5 billion daily views across online video platforms in 2020, to over three billion daily views today, while more than doubling its revenue, and diversifying and growing its artist remuneration model.”
Fairer remuneration for artists
Epidemic Sound has a strong track record of innovative remuneration models for artists, including pioneering a 50/50 royalty split and an annual Soundtrack Bonus that has grown in step with the company’s success.
“We’re also boosting bonus payouts by 43 per cent overall in 2026, including a new $1 million remuneration pool to reward AI-related adaptation, and an increase in the annual Soundtrack Bonus from $3.7 million to $4.2 million,” shared Höglund.
And for Epidemic Sound, this is just the start as it rolls out a completely new way of soundtracking; one that’s super dialled in to creators’ needs and one that enhances human creativity, not replaces it.
“We’re big believers in the value of feedback from our creative communities – it’s played a central role in how we’ve continued to develop our Adapt tool since launch to give more creative control. Get out there, try out Studio, and let us know what you think!” shared Höglund.
“AI should empower, not replace, human creativity”
Further, Höglund believes that the company is in “the perfect position to strengthen how we continue to capture value from scale: we continue to offer market-leading licensing safety, while leading the charge with AI-powered soundtracking for creators, and working directly with our artists to innovate in a way that empowers and rewards human creativity.”
“We believe AI should empower, not replace, human creativity. Studio embodies that belief, giving creators more time and freedom to focus on their stories while continuing to help artists reach an audience and earn from their craft.”
He asserts that transparency is central to this — creators using Epidemic Sound always know when a soundtrack has been AI-assisted versus human-created, and all music and sound effects originate from its verified catalogue of human-made works.
He explained:
“Our technology is designed to empower creativity: AI provides speed and cohesion, while clear labeling, licensing, and rights management ensure both creators and artists understand how content is made, used, and credited.
Every track remains legally safe, properly attributed, and financially rewarding for the artists behind it.
Creators know that when they adapt a track with our AI-powered tools, the artist’s rights stay protected and they always have the ability to opt out of having their tracks adapted.”
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