No single music licensing company is best for every catalog. As of August 2026, Musicbed is the strongest all-round option for finished cinematic music, and Marmoset is the best route to film, TV, and brand work. Artlist, Epidemic Sound, and AudioJungle are all closed to new artists, and Songtradr's marketplace shuts down on September 1, 2026.
Most lists of music licensing companies are copied from each other, and few of them check the doors. Several of the six best-known names have changed their terms or stopped taking new artists, and one is shutting its marketplace down outright. The status and terms below come from each company's own site, help center, or published artist terms, read in August 2026.
This page compares the companies themselves: who buys from them, what the agreement takes from you, and who each one fits. Rights ownership is the gate for all of it, so start with Music Copyright Basics Every Artist Should Know if you are not certain you control both the master and the composition. For how placements happen at all, see How to Get Your Music in TV, Film, and Ads.
The Verdict: Which Licensing Company Fits You
Read the row that matches your catalog. The last column is the one most guides skip.
You want | The company | Why it wins | Can you get in, August 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
Best overall for a finished, cleared catalog | Musicbed | Premium buyers, no rights transfer, non-exclusive in practice | Yes, by email. Musicbed's own artist page says its team accepts less than 1% of submissions |
Best for film, TV, and brand campaigns | Marmoset | Curated catalog, with published prices for standard licenses and custom licensing for uses outside those terms | Check Marmoset's current submissions page before planning around it |
Best guaranteed money per track | Epidemic Sound | Fixed fee of $2,000 to $8,000 per track as of Q1 2026, plus a 50/50 streaming royalty split | No. Its artist page says it is not accepting new applications right now |
Best reach to creators | Artlist | One subscription catalog served to a very large creator base | No. Its help center says it is not accepting submissions for the music catalog |
Best for production music at volume | AudioJungle | You set the price per license and sell repeatedly to small buyers | No. Envato says new Market author accounts cannot be created, and audio is not in its planned reopen list |
Best starting point with no catalog reputation | Distributor sync add-ons, not a licensing company | You are already in the system, so acceptance is not the bottleneck | Yes, covered in Best Sync Licensing Platforms for Artists |
Do not build a plan on it | Songtradr | The public marketplace closes September 1, 2026 | New licensing placements are invite-only |
The pattern is worth naming. The famous companies are mostly shut, and the routes that are actually open sit with distributors and open marketplaces rather than the curated names. That does not make the curated names irrelevant. It means you should prepare for them rather than wait on them.
Companies That Represent You
In this model the company pitches your music and keeps a share of what it earns. You keep your copyrights, and you can usually be elsewhere at the same time.
Musicbed. Curated to the point of exclusion. Musicbed's own artist page states that its in-house team accepts less than 1% of submissions, and that it represents more than 1,500 artists and composers. Buyers skew premium: brand agencies, documentary producers, and film teams. Musicbed does not run a public submission form, so the route in is emailing its team.
The split is the part nobody publishes. A 50/50 share is what artists most commonly report, but Musicbed does not state its artist split or its exclusivity terms publicly. Treat any number you read online as a starting point, and get your own terms in writing.
Marmoset. Marmoset lists Portland, New York, and Los Angeles locations and markets its licensing work to agencies, productions, and brands. It publishes prices for standard licenses and directs projects outside those terms to its licensing team. Check its current submissions page before planning around it.
Both companies reward a catalog that is already finished. If your rights are not cleared and your mixes are not broadcast quality, neither is worth submitting to yet.
Companies That Take a Rights Position
Here the money is better defined and the terms cost more. Read these agreements twice.
Epidemic Sound. Its published terms are unusually specific. As of the first quarter of 2026 it pays a fixed fee of $2,000 to $8,000 per track, paid before the track goes live and not recouped against future royalties. On top of that sits a 50/50 split on the streaming royalties Epidemic collects, plus a share of a yearly $4.2 million Soundtrack Bonus.
Epidemic describes its agreements as non-exclusive, so the catch is somewhere else. It says it only works with artists who are unaffiliated with a collecting society, which means resigning from your PRO first. Its own FAQ describes Epidemic as the owner of the financial rights to the music. New applications are closed for now, per its artist page.
Artlist. The buyer side is a flat subscription, so contributor pay comes out of pooled subscription revenue rather than per-placement fees. Its Works for Artlist terms describe contributors assigning publisher and master-owner rights to Artlist, with the writer's share of PRO performance royalties excluded from that assignment. Its help center says music catalog submissions are not open, while footage, sound effects, and templates still are.
For how pooled-revenue payouts actually accumulate over a few years, see Music Licensing Libraries: Which Ones Actually Pay?.
Marketplaces and the One That Is Closing
AudioJungle. Part of Envato. Authors set their own per-license prices, and standard music licenses commonly sit in the low tens of dollars, so the model is volume rather than value. Two things changed in 2026 that most guides still have wrong.
Envato moved all Market authors to a single non-exclusive model with a flat 50% author fee, effective July 1, 2026. That replaced the old tiered structure, under which exclusive authors could earn well above 50% as their lifetime sales grew. Any article still quoting the old exclusive and non-exclusive rates is out of date.
The second change matters more if you are not already in. Envato's help center says new Market author accounts cannot be created at present, audio intake has been paused since May 2021, and audio is not among the categories it plans to reopen. Treat AudioJungle as closed unless Envato says otherwise.
Songtradr. The marketplace closes on September 1, 2026, and the company is consolidating around Bandcamp. If you have music or a balance there, request your final withdrawal by that date and download your files, because balances left behind are held as unclaimed property you then have to chase. New placements have shifted to an invite-only model.
How to Choose Between Licensing Companies
Four questions, in this order.
Who actually buys from them? Creator-facing catalogs pay less per use and place far more often. Agency and film-facing companies pay more per placement and place rarely. Your catalog usually suits one or the other, not both.
What does the agreement take? Separate the pay from the price. A fee per track is worth less than it looks if you have to leave your PRO, and a smaller share is worth more if you keep every right and every other opportunity.
Is it reversible? Ask what happens when you want out. Non-exclusive representation is easy to walk away from. Assignments, work-made-for-hire terms, and PRO resignations are not.
Can you get in at all? Ask this first if your time is short, because it eliminates most of the list. Plenty of the recommendations circulating online still point at doors that have been shut for years.
If indie film is your target market rather than libraries, the rate ranges and step-deal structures are in Music Licensing for Film: Indie Filmmaker Market. The preparation barely changes between companies, and the sync-ready requirements are set out in Best Sync Licensing Platforms for Artists. Orphiq's guides for artists and the teams around them cover the business side of that work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which music licensing companies are accepting new artists?
As of August 2026, Musicbed still reviews submissions by email and Marmoset's form opens with its queue. Artlist, Epidemic Sound, and AudioJungle are closed, and Songtradr's marketplace shuts on September 1, 2026.
Does Epidemic Sound require exclusivity?
Epidemic describes its agreements as non-exclusive. The real condition is different: it says it only works with artists unaffiliated with a collecting society, so you would need to resign from your PRO first.
Can I still upload music to AudioJungle?
Not as a new author. Envato's help center says new Market author accounts cannot be created at present, audio intake has been paused since May 2021, and audio is not among the categories planned to reopen.
Do licensing companies take my publishing rights?
Some do, but the exact language matters. Representation deals like Musicbed and Marmoset generally do not. An assignment can transfer some or all rights, while a valid work-made-for-hire arrangement changes who owns the copyright. Have a music attorney review the agreement before signing.
Read Next
Keep Your Catalog Submission-Ready
Every licensing company wants the same paperwork before it will move: cleared rights, clean release details, and the identifiers attached to each track. Orphiq stores per-track records, release metadata, and the UPC and ISRC codes you enter, so you are not rebuilding that from old email threads every time you submit. See what Orphiq does for artists and their teams.