Stock music or an original score?
Published October 2026
A music library sells a licence to tracks written for no picture in particular. Everyone else on that plan can use the same tracks, and a feature, a TV broadcast or a theatrical release usually needs a bigger licence. An original score is written to your cut. This page compares five popular choices with Doseedo on what matters for a film, from each vendor's own pages as read on October 31, 2026.
What matters for a film
- Is it written for your cut? Or do you trim a track until it nearly fits?
- Does it land on the cuts? Accents and changes on the edits, not just the right length.
- Stems for the mix. And an M&E for a dubbed version.
- Where you can show it. Online, at festivals, on TV, in cinemas, and on which plan.
- Whether anyone else has it. A library licence is shared by everyone who pays for it.
Side by side
Doseedo
- What you get
- An original score written to your cut, every part played by AI instrument models, mixed on the picture
- Reads your video
- Yes: a cue sheet from every frame; the score is written to it, with the hits on downbeats
- Stems
- Every part, plus dialogue, music and effects, an M&E, the MIDI, and a Logic or Ableton project
- Film, TV, cinema
- The same on every plan: you own what you make (Terms §6.3)
- Shared with others
- No: written for your film, not licensed from a catalogue
- From
- Free, 120 credits a month; Pro $12 a month
Epidemic Sound
- What you get
- A licence to about 55,000 tracks made by people, and 250,000 sound effects
- Reads your video
- Its Studio tool places catalogue music and effects on a video of up to 4 minutes; it does not write music
- Stems
- Four: drums, bass, instrument, melody
- Film, TV, cinema
- Pro is for online use: no feature films, TV or theatrical release (a non-commercial independent film may play non-commercial festivals). Theatrical and festival release need an Enterprise licence
- Shared with others
- Yes: the licence is non-exclusive
- From
- $9.99 a month billed yearly (Creator)
Artlist
- What you get
- A music and sound-effects licence; AI music from a text prompt (Google's Lyria 3)
- Reads your video
- No video input for music
- Stems
- All available stems on the Music & SFX plans
- Film, TV, cinema
- Pro covers film, TV, streaming and ads; broadcasters, agencies and companies with 50+ staff need Max Business or Enterprise
- Shared with others
- Yes: non-exclusive, and AI outputs may not be unique
- From
- $9.99 a month billed yearly (Social, no commercial use); Pro $24.92 a month
Musicbed
- What you get
- A curated library of 70,000+ songs aimed at filmmakers
- Reads your video
- No
- Stems
- Not stated
- Film, TV, cinema
- Broadcast, cinema and film festivals, and VOD on Enterprise; a festival entry by a custom licence
- Shared with others
- Yes: non-exclusive
- From
- $29.99 a month (Individual, yearly)
Soundstripe
- What you get
- A library of 58,000+ tracks
- Reads your video
- Its video search recommends catalogue tracks for an uploaded video
- Stems
- On Pro and Enterprise
- Film, TV, cinema
- Pro plans exclude broadcast, radio and film; a festival licence from $399, theatrical, TV and OTT from $1,249 per use, or Enterprise
- Shared with others
- Yes: a shared catalogue
- From
- $9.99 a month
ACE Studio
- What you get
- A desktop app (macOS and Windows) with AI voices and instruments; its Video Composer (beta) generates music and sound effects from a video
- Reads your video
- Yes: it analyses scenes, cuts and motion and says it often lines musical beats up with the edits
- Stems
- Exports each track as WAV or MP3; whether Video Composer's music comes as MIDI is not documented
- Film, TV, cinema
- Generated audio is royalty-free for commercial use; no plan-specific film terms found
- Shared with others
- Not stated
- From
- $16.58 a month billed yearly (Artist, a holiday price)
Prices in US dollars as each vendor's pricing page showed them on October 31, 2026; they change. Sources are listed at the end.
When a library is the better choice
- You want music composed and recorded by people. A library's tracks are played by musicians; Doseedo's parts are played by AI instrument models.
- You need a song with vocals. Doseedo's scores are instrumental only.
- You need it in seconds and the music does not have to follow the edit. Searching a library is faster than a score that takes minutes to write and play.
- You already pay for one and the film stays online.
When an original score is
- The music has to follow your cut: start and stop with the scenes, land on the edits and get out of the way of the lines.
- The film is going to festivals, TV or cinemas, and an enterprise licence is not in the budget.
- You don't want the track a thousand other videos use.
- You need the parts: every instrument as a stem, an M&E, the dialogue on its own, the notes in your DAW.
- The edit already has music you can't clear. Doseedo splits the soundtrack and writes a score in its place, keeping the dialogue. See replacing the music in a video.
What Doseedo does with a cut
- Watch. It reads every frame: each cut to the frame, each shot's light, colour and motion, and where people talk. From that it proposes cues (1M1, 1M2 …) with SMPTE timecode in and out and the moments worth hitting.
- Listen. If the film already has a soundtrack, it splits it into dialogue, music and effects, so the score can replace the old music, re-orchestrate it, remix it or leave it alone, and the dialogue stays as it was.
- Write. An AI composer writes every part as notes, on a tempo map that lands the big moments on downbeats, thinner under the lines and bigger where the picture opens up.
- Perform. Instrument models trained on real recordings play every part, one stem each, and each part comes back with a check of whether it played its notes.
- Mix and deliver. Each cue is mixed in a hall, laid at its timecode, dipped under the dialogue and normalized to your delivery loudness, then put back on the picture.
Honest limits
- Instrumental only. No songs, no vocals.
- Instrument models, not a session orchestra. They are trained on real recordings and each part is checked against its notes, but a live orchestra on a scoring stage is a different thing, and a picky ear will hear it on exposed solos.
- It sees the picture, not the plot. The composer reads the keyframes to decide what a scene is about; your direction is what tells it what matters.
- Long films are scored in up to eight cues per pass, the ones the picture needs most. Ask for more afterwards.
- Splitting a busy soundtrack is not perfect. When the old music is replaced, some of its percussion can stay in the effects, about 10 dB down.
You own what you make to the extent the law allows (Terms §6.3). No AI service can promise that every output is unlike everything that exists, and Doseedo's Terms say so (§6.4).
Sources
Read on October 31, 2026, on each vendor's own pages:
- Epidemic Sound: pricing, Pro subscription licence, Studio, filmmaking, stems.
- Artlist: pricing and plans, licence, plan coverage, AI music.
- Musicbed: pricing, licence terms, film festivals.
- Soundstripe: pricing, licence, features.
- ACE Studio: pricing, Video Composer, Video Composer docs, export.
- Doseedo: pricing, Terms.
Score your film instead
Drop a cut, pick a sound, and get an original score back on the picture with every stem.
Open the scoring studio →FAQ
Is there an alternative to Epidemic Sound for film?
Yes. If the music has to follow your cut, or the film is going to festivals, TV or cinemas, an original score avoids both the trimming and the bigger licence. Doseedo writes one to your cut, plays every part and lays it on the picture, with stems and an M&E.
Can I use Epidemic Sound music in a feature film?
Not on the Pro plan, as its licence read on October 31, 2026: Pro excludes feature films, TV and theatrical releases, apart from a non-commercial independent film at non-commercial festivals. Theatrical and festival releases need an Enterprise licence.
Is stock music exclusive?
No. Epidemic Sound, Artlist and Musicbed state that their licences are non-exclusive, so anyone on the same plan can use the same track.
How does ACE Studio's Video Composer compare?
It is the closest of these: it reads a video and generates music and effects for it, in a desktop app, in beta. Doseedo runs in the browser, writes every part as notes you can open in Logic or Ableton, dips the music under the dialogue, delivers a printmaster and an M&E at a delivery loudness, and can replace music already in the film.
Who owns music made with Doseedo?
You do, to the extent the law allows, on every plan including the free one (Terms §6.3).
AI film scoring · an original score for your cut
- For editorsa score cut to your edit
- For directorsyour short, scored
- For composersyour parts, played
- For creatorsan original score, not stock
- Replace a film's musickeep the dialogue
- Score a silent filmwall to wall
- With your own AI agentthe same loop over MCP
- The demo reelone film per genre
- Big Buck Bunnyevery call and receipt
- AI tools comparedwhat each does with a cut
- Stock music comparedEpidemic, Artlist, ACE Studio …