Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover music licensing and stock footage & assets. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Audiio | Thematic | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $199 | From $9.99 |
| Pricing model | Paid subscription | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Billing | Annual only | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | None |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
| Covers | Music Licensing, Stock Footage & Assets | Music Licensing, Stock Footage & Assets |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | YouTube, TikTok, Instagram |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Music and sound effects, or a lifetime licence
Audiio sells unlimited music and sound effects on a yearly subscription, and separately sells a licence that never expires, which almost nobody else in this category offers. The catalogue is smaller than Epidemic Sound's and the search is better than the size suggests. Read the tier before buying: the cheaper plan covers your own work and small clients, not agency work.
Our note
The lifetime option is the reason to look. At $499 once it pays back against the yearly plan in about two and a half years, and against Epidemic Sound sooner than that, which is a calculation worth doing before signing up to another subscription.
Music from real artists, free if you credit them
Thematic pairs creators with musicians who want the exposure, so the free tier is a genuine trade rather than a trial: you use the track, the artist gets credited and found. Paying removes the credit requirement and adds the trending songs. Everything is cleared for monetised video, which is the whole point of using it over a random upload.
Our note
Start free and see whether the credit line bothers you, because for most channels it does not and the music is good. Uppbeat works the same way and has a bigger catalogue; Thematic has the better relationship with the artists on it.
Only on this side
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.