I’m taking part in something called NaPodPoMo — or National Podcast Posting Month — in November. The goal is to post 30 episodes of a podcast in 30 days. I love how it’s creator, Jennifer Navarrete, @epodcaster invites experimentation and playfulness in this endeavor. She encourages you to try something you’ve not done before. She is also generous in sharing tools, tips, and strategies for making audio stories. A couple of the resources she shared were the inspiration for this article.
The story we tell in our podcasts is the most important part of any episode. We can enhance that story with well chosen audio for intros, outtros, backgrounds, and transitions between segments. Today, I’m sharing several tools for adding music and non-voice sounds to your podcasts. Some of these are free and some have subscription options. I think they all at least have a free trial. A couple also include video and visuals that you can also use on YouTube and in other picture and video based story telling.
Tool 1 — Anchor.fm
Anchor.fm is an “all in one” podcasting tool that works on web and on your mobile device (phone or tablet). Anchor allows both audio and video podcasting, although currently only supports editing audio podcasts on the platform so you can’t really use anchor’s built in audio tools for your videocast.
While anchor.fm allows you to blend in Spotify based audio with your podcast, if you want to download your episodes to save for future use, if you have included Spotify audio, you cannot do that. You can download episodes made with only their transitions but not if you’ve included any Spotify specific content.
Tool 2 — Uppbeat.io
Uppbeat.io provides sound effects and background audio for you to use on podcasts. There is a fully free version that has some limitations but would be good for someone starting out. The paid version is reasonably priced at only $6.99/mo billed monthly or $5.59/mo billed annually (at the time of writing). You can go directly to the site at https://uppbeat.io if you are opposed to affiliate links or if you’re willing to use an affilitate link, here is mine: https://uppbeat.io/?referral=kara-gjqc6
Tool 3 — Melod.ie
I have not tried Melod.ie but it was recommended by Jennifer Navarrete and I believe they are helping to sponsor NaPodPoMo. The interface is easy to use and the pricing — which includes a corporate options if you’re creating content for others — is reasonable based on the depth and quality of what they appear to provide. https://melod.ie/
Tool 4 — Epidemic Sound
I had a subscription to Epidemic Sound but let it go after a year. Like Melod.ie, they have pricing for individuals as well as professional creators. I searched out a less expensive option than Epidemic but am far less satisfied with it so I will likely eventually return to epidemic or go to Melod.ie after I do some more investigation. Visit https://www.epidemicsound.com/pricing/ to learn more and get a free trial.
Tool 5 — Thematic.app
In search of a less expensive option, I jumped from Epidemic Sound to Thematic without doing nearly enough investigation. If you want super simple, easy integration into a single YouTube channel and/or TikTok and Instagram then Thematic might be for you. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will be for me after this first year. I do have a referral option for them https://app.hellothematic.com/?via=kara but I don’t necessarily recommend this unless it specifically fits your needs so check out all the tools here first and then make your decision.
Tool 6 — Audio Jungle — https://audiojungle.net/
I haven’t tried Audio Jungle or our next tool, Soundstripe, yet but both came highly recommended. Both Audio Jungle and Soundstripe are more expensive than the other tools I’ve already highlighted and Audio Jungle’s licensing process for music seems really, really complicated to me.
Tool 7 — Soundstripe — https://www.soundstripe.com
Soundstripe has an awesome collection of artists and seems to include b-roll video as well as audio tracks and sound effects. I love their projects feature which allows you to organize music in their tool into projects. I’ve already run up against some times where that would have been valuable. They also have a mobile app which although new does allow for previewing on mobile which I think I would use a great deal. I don’t think they have an affiliate program or I’d definitely include a link. So, here his the base link: https://www.soundstripe.com/
Tool 8 — Storyblocks — https://www.storyblocks.com
I used Storyblocks when it was first started and then didn’t really have a need for it — it was fun to rediscover this tool as I did research for this article. Storyblocks gives you both audio and video so its great if you do both podcast and video on YouTube as I do. If you have a stock photo subscription and royalty free audio and video collections, Storyblocks could essentially condense those three subscriptions down to one. If you do a lot of creative in multimedia, definitely check out storyblocks — https://www.storyblocks.com/
Tool 9 — Pictory — https://pictory.ai
Pictory is slightly out of the realm here but I think it’s a really interesting tool I’m having fun experimenting with — and it definitely falls into the category of adding audio. Pictory combines audio and video tools to generate narrated videos from your articles. I tried it once and really liked what the tool produced.
I don’t know that I feel like this always fits with the style of writing that I do but as audio and video continue to become necessary to stay ahead in publishing, I’m going to keep my eye on this one. I do recommend and here is a referral link if you want to use that https://pictory.ai?ref=kara or, of course, you can go to https://pictory.ai
This article started as five tools and grew to 9 so I found a 10th to round out the list. That 10th is https://artlist.io/page/pricing
Tool 10 — Artlist — https://artlist.io
Artlist is another video/image/audio combination tool. Artlist is a bit differentiated because if you have a team working with/for you then Artlist has a licensing option to accommodate that which they put out in front which makes me wonder if this is the niche they are trying to sell to. I don’t know that I will ever have a team doing media production, but if I do, I would definitely give artlist a try. Take a look at https://artlist.io/page/pricing.
Licensing Reminder
I was careful to include only licensed sites here so that you can use these resources for commercial purposes. If you’re doing non-commercial work which does include posting articles on Hive and Medium where you can earn money, you can use images from places like unsplash.com and pexels.com. I’ve not found a commons licensed audio site though. If you know of one please share it in the comments.
And, a reminder that creators don’t live for free so if you are using audio, video, or images that are not specifically licensed to you, please contact the creator to arrange to pay for their content and negotiate appropriate rights that are fair to you both.
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