Epidemic Sound, a giant in the production music library space, has launched Adapt, the company’s new AI-powered feature that lets users — whether it’s a filmmaker, advertiser or content creator — easily edit and customize songs from the Epidemic catalog to fit their specific needs. As a company press release puts it: “This launch signals the beginning of Epidemic Sound’s next era of soundtracking, which is focused on using AI to amplify creativity and empower creators while keeping musicians’ human artistry at the center.”
The announcement comes at a time when AI music start-ups are on the rise, often citing the same use-cases for their models that Epidemic Sound and its competitors already serve with their catalogs of millions of human-made songs. Often, the pitch is that AI models can allow for more flexibility and customization than human-made works. For example, according to a recent email about Eleven Labs’ new music model, obtained by Billboard, the company’s goal is “to help power a scalable, AI-driven production music library that creates custom audio for studios, brands and creators.” In the same email, uses for the Eleven Music model were listed as “background music for brands, agencies and studios,” “novelty songs” and “UGC-safe content for social platforms.”
With Adapt, Epidemic Sound aims to adapt to the AI age while not giving up on its belief in its library of quality-controlled, human-made music. As CEO Oscar Höglund put it: “While many companies race to flood the market with AI-generated tracks, Epidemic Sound is charting a different path towards a future where human creativity is enhanced, not replaced, by AI.” Epidemic Sound’s chief product officer, Sam Hall, added: “Adapt is the first in a series of releases rolling out in the coming weeks, designed to give creators tools to use the music that inspires them, adapt it in real time, and align it seamlessly with their vision.”
Artists who have created music for Epidemic are given the ability to choose whether or not their music is eligible for adaptation, and as part of the announcement, Epidemic Sound also says it is raising the price tag of its bonuses. According to the company’s website, Epidemic pays artists a fixed fee of $1,775 to $8,000 per track, gives a 50/50 split on all streaming royalties, and provides “Soundtrack Bonuses” based on the track’s popularity. Now, that bonus payment will increase by 43%, starting in 2026. This includes a new $1 million pool dedicated to AI usage and an increase in the Soundtrack Bonus fund from $3.7 million to $4.2 million.
In the age of generative AI, some production libraries have embraced the emerging technology and its short-term economic benefits by licensing their catalogs for training the new music models. Others have expressed fear about its threat to those business models in the long run. “Musicians making production music are hugely at risk,” Ed Newton-Rex, a former vp of audio for Stability AI and founder of non-profit Fairly Trained, once warned Billboard. “Ultimately, generative AI is faster, cheaper and the quality is already very good.”
In a May 2025 interview with Billboard, Höglund explained his thoughts on AI. While he doesn’t license out the company’s music for AI training (and does not plan to in the future), he does want to harness its capabilities to enhance his pre-existing catalog. “[Now,] you can edit it — not replace it,” he said. “This helps create more use cases for the same songs. Where there might have previously been 10 content creators who can use your track, now with adaptation maybe 20 or 30 or 100 creators will use it. That means the track is going to get played more and it’s going to earn more royalties [on streaming services]. And so ultimately, the human who made that track is going to make much more money, because AI has augmented the use cases.”
In a statement about Adapt, Höglund adds: “At Epidemic Sound, we strive to use technology to do right by both creators and artists, and AI is no different. With Adapt, we are giving creators a powerful new way to customize music, while ensuring artists are rewarded every time their tracks are used. More freedom for creators, more visibility and income for artists, and stronger meaningful human connections — this is what a human-first approach to AI looks like, and it is the future of AI soundtracking.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.billboard.com ’
