AI music vs stock music libraries for video projects

Library pricing is quoted as a range because every vendor changes tiers often; check the current page of Epidemic Sound or Artlist before comparing. Sonilo prices are current as of 2026-09-12 and listed on pricing.

Sonilo bills by output length from one credit balance: 18 credits per second for video-to-music and video-to-SFX, 5 for text-to-music, 4 for text-to-SFX, with a 15-second minimum and a 200-credit floor per generation.

Worked example: a channel publishing four 8-minute videos a month needs about 32 minutes of scored footage, which is 34,560 credits — Pro plus a small extra-credit top-up, or Premium with room to spare. A library subscription covers unlimited downloads for a flat fee, so at very high volume (say, an editor scoring hours of footage every week) the flat fee can be cheaper; below that, a Pro plan usually is, and it includes sound effects.

Text-to-music is far cheaper per second (5 credits) when you only need a bed and do not need it fitted to a specific cut.

Stock libraries license you to use a track they own. Sonilo assigns you whatever rights it has in a track generated for your account (Terms, Section 6.1), and gates commercial use by plan (Section 6.2).

• Commercial use starts on Pro at $14.99 per month and covers ads, sponsorships, monetized channels, client deliverables, games, apps, TV, and broadcast. Free and Creator output is personal and non-commercial.
• Proof. Every track generated on Pro or above can carry a license certificate that records the work, plan, scope, territory (worldwide), exclusivity (non-exclusive), and training-data provenance, verifiable at sonilo.com/verify-license. Libraries typically issue a per-track license PDF or a channel whitelist; the mechanics differ, the purpose is the same.
• After cancellation. Sonilo rights follow the plan at generation, so a track you exported on Pro stays licensed. Library terms vary by vendor; read the clause about content published during the subscription before switching either way.
• Content ID. Sonilo tracks are original generations from a model trained on licensed catalogs and are not registered with Content ID. Library tracks are often registered and cleared through a channel whitelist; forgetting the whitelist is the classic source of stock-music claims.
• Attribution. Not required on any Sonilo plan.

Full detail, one question per page, in the licensing FAQ.

A stock track was written before your video existed. It has its own length, its own build, and its own drop, so the edit either bends to the music or the music gets chopped and cross-faded until the joins are hidden. Video-to-music reverses that: you upload the finished cut (up to 3 minutes on Free, 5 on Creator, 8 on Pro, 15 on Premium) and the track is generated to that duration with its energy following the pacing and cuts on screen. You can leave the prompt empty and let the footage drive it, add a mood or genre, or score sections separately.

Two features matter for narrated video. preserve_speech keeps the original dialogue in the mix, and audio ducking dips the generated bed under speech so voice-over stays clear without manual keyframes.

Where a library still wins on fit: when the brief is "the vibe of this specific song", when you need vocals, or when a client already licensed a catalog and wants everything to come from it.

Most library subscriptions bundle an SFX catalog that you search and place by hand. Sonilo covers the same need two ways on the same credit balance: text-to-SFX makes one effect from a description (1–180 seconds, 4 credits per second, wav/mp3/aac/flac) and video-to-SFX reads the clip and returns Foley, ambience, impacts, and transitions already placed on the frames where things happen (18 credits per second). A free royalty-free sound effects library is also available without an account. Specs, costs, and a comparison with ElevenLabs and Adobe Firefly are on the sound effects page.

• You need songs with vocals or a named artist.
• Your client or network requires music from a specific cleared catalog.
• You score many hours of footage a week and a flat fee beats per-second credits.
• Your editors want to browse and audition rather than generate.

Many teams run both: a library for hero songs and vocal tracks, Sonilo for the cue-style beds, stings, and sound effects that make up most of a video's runtime.

1. Score one published video again with video-to-music on the Free plan and compare it against the stock version at the moments that matter: the cold open, the first cut, the call to action.
2. Count last month's minutes of scored footage and pick the plan that covers it (Pro ≈ 27 minutes, Premium ≈ 60 minutes of video-to-music).
3. Move commercial channels to Pro or Premium before publishing; download the certificate for each track you ship to a client or a brand.
4. Keep the library subscription for one more cycle if you have videos in the pipeline that use its tracks, and check its terms on content published after you cancel.
5. Automate if you have volume: the REST API exposes video-to-music, text-to-music, video-to-SFX, and audio ducking with the same credits and rights.