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.
| Thematic | Uppbeat | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $9.99 | From $6.99 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | None | None |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Not stated |
| Covers | Music Licensing, Stock Footage & Assets | Music Licensing, Stock Footage & Assets |
| Works with | YouTube, TikTok, Instagram | YouTube |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
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
Music for video with a free tier that clears claims
Uppbeat licenses music for YouTube and social video, and its free plan is three downloads a month rather than a trial that runs out. Channels are safelisted so a claim does not arrive a week after publishing. The catalogue is smaller than Epidemic Sound's, which is the trade being made for a bill under ten dollars.
Our note
The cheap alternative to Epidemic Sound, and the catalogue is where you pay for it. If a track has to be one nobody else is using, this is the wrong library; if it has to fit and clear, it is most of the value at a third of the price.
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.