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Fundamentals

Epidemic Sound API​

Get access to a carefully curated catalog of high quality music created by world-class artists, producers and bands.

For a quick start with the API, check out our Get started guide.

For an end-to-end example of using the API with an LLM to automatically soundtrack videos, see the Soundtracking with an LLM guide.

Getting access​

To use the Epidemic Sound API, you need a partnership agreement. Once your agreement is in place, your technical team members will be added to the Developer Portal and receive credentials to start building.

If you're not yet a partner, get in touch to discuss how Epidemic Sound can power your app's audio experience.

Content access​

Your content access level depends on your partnership agreement and the authentication method used:

Partner Token Authentication

Your access is determined by your partnership agreement and negotiated as part of your contract:

  • Curated Collections: Access to handpicked collections maintained by Epidemic Sound's music team. You can choose from a selection of more than 100 professionally curated themes.
  • Full Catalogue: Access to the entire Epidemic Sound library of 40,000+ tracks across 160 genres and 90,000+ sound effects.

You can manage your collections in the Developer Portal. You may also import collections from existing Epidemic Sound playlists by providing the playlist URL (requires an ES account to create and manage the playlist).

Connect Authentication (OAuth)

When users authenticate with their Epidemic Sound accounts, they automatically get:

  • Full library access (40,000+ tracks)
  • Personalized content (liked tracks, playlists)
  • All features available to their subscription tier

Contact your Epidemic Sound partner manager to discuss your content access level for Partner Token Authentication.

Collections and curation​

Collections are groups of tracks representing moods (epic, happy, dreamy), themes (top 40, travel, workout), and events (Halloween, Diwali, Christmas). They help you build a best-in-class music discovery experience by letting you select the collections you want to expose in-app via the Developer Portal.

There are two types of collections:

  • Curated collections are professionally maintained by Epidemic Sound's curation team and delivered dynamically via the API — their tracks may change at any time (e.g., "Trending on TikTok" is refreshed daily).
  • Imported collections are created by importing a playlist URL from epidemicsound.com. These are static snapshots and do not automatically update when the source playlist changes.

Partners with curated collections access can select from a library of more than 100 professionally curated themes. Partners with full catalogue access can also use search and filtering to discover any track in the library.

User licensing​

With Free Tier music, users are granted a personal user license allowing them to post anywhere online. Users with an active paid Epidemic Sound subscription connected to your app through ES Connect receive a commercial user license which allows them to monetize their content and use their content for advertising and promotion.

Caching policy​

Partners are not permitted to cache collections or track metadata locally. Always fetch data from the API to ensure your users see up-to-date content. For details, see the Acceptable Use Policy.

Latency and content delivery​

Our infrastructure is optimized for global performance:

  • Music Content Delivery: Stored on Fastly's global CDN network. The actual music data (audio files) is downloaded from the nearest Fastly point of presence to the end user, ensuring optimal download speeds worldwide.
  • API Servers: Located in Europe. All API requests (authentication, search, metadata retrieval) are processed from our European data centers.

This means that while API responses may have slightly higher latency for users outside Europe, music streaming and downloads benefit from Fastly's distributed CDN for fast content delivery regardless of user location.

Technical details​

OpenAPI Specification​

The complete API specification is available in OpenAPI 3.0 format, which can be accessed programmatically for use with code generators, testing tools, and AI assistants.

Direct access to the spec:

You can use this JSON file to:

  • Generate client libraries using tools like OpenAPI Generator
  • Import into API testing tools like Postman or Insomnia
  • Provide to LLMs and AI coding assistants for context-aware development
  • Automate API documentation and integration testing

Example usage:

# Download the spec
curl https://partner-content-api.epidemicsound.com/docs/spec.json > api-spec.json

# Generate a client library (example with openapi-generator)
openapi-generator generate -i api-spec.json -g javascript -o ./client

The interactive Swagger UI documentation is also available at https://partner-content-api.epidemicsound.com/swagger.

API Reference: Complete endpoint documentation is available in the API Reference with detailed information about all parameters, request/response schemas, and usage examples.

Versioning​

This API is versioned with a path prefix. Any existing endpoint or resource field will remain unchanged within a given version. New endpoints or resource fields can be added without notice and within an already published version. If a given API version is deprecated, users will be notified well before it is taken out of service.

CORS restrictions​

The API applies Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) restrictions in the production environment. If you are using the API in the context of a web app, you might need to whitelist your domain in the developer portal. You'll be able to add domains for your app under "Authentication settings" and "Web Origins".