What is Stock Music?

Stock music is a collection of pre-recorded music tracks that are created for licensing and use in media projects such as films, television shows, advertisements, video games, podcasts, and online videos. Instead of commissioning custom music, creators can license stock music from a library and use it in their projects.

Stock music libraries typically contain thousands of tracks in different genres and moods, including cinematic, electronic, corporate, ambient, and background music. These tracks are designed to support visual content by enhancing the emotional tone or atmosphere of a scene.

Stock music is often licensed under royalty-free or production music licenses. This means creators usually pay a one-time fee or subscription to legally use the music in their projects without needing to negotiate individual agreements with composers.

Stock music is widely used by filmmakers, YouTubers, advertisers, and content creators. Platforms such as Epidemic Sound and Artlist provide large stock music libraries for licensing. Producers typically create stock music using digital audio workstations such as Ableton Live, FL Studio, and Logic Pro before distributing the tracks through music licensing platforms.