A premium, cinematic library of music at a terrific price.

If you’ve been around Church Film School for any amount of time, you know that I’m a big fan of Filmpac - the only source of stock video that I personally use.

So after hearing that Filmpac was going to expand into the stock music scene I was very curious to see how good the music would be - especially since searching for the right song is one of those frustrating experiences that ALWAYS takes longer than I think it’s going to take.

Over the past 15 years I’ve gone through seasons of using copyrighted music illegally (I’ve repented!), licensing single tracks from Musicbed, working with composers for original scores, and for the past several years using Soundstripe.

SOUNDSTRIPE

At $149 per year Soundstripe has been an incredible value and has worked well for my client work and my original YouTube videos (I also used it for the entire soundtrack for my feature documentary last year!)

My main complaint though is that even though they have a huge catalog of 5,000+ music tracks I always feel like I’m right on the edge of running out of good enough tracks to use. Even though I’ve kind of figured out which filter combinations will narrow down to the types of tracks I like, it can still take quite a bit of listening time to find a great track that I haven’t used before.

For me, Soundstripe has plenty of good tracks to use for my YouTube videos, but I’ve been wanting a richer library of cinematic and commercial tracks that I can use for my narrative, documentary, and promotional films for a while. So when Filmpac announced that music was coming, I was intrigued to see if they could fill that need.

I hopped on a phone call with Jordan Young, their CEO, last week to get the lowdown before their official launch.

FILMPAC MUSIC

While some other services put an emphasis on building a big library, Jordan said they’re taking the approaching of keeping things highly curated. “Honestly, if we wouldn’t use the track for a project of our own, we don’t want to put it out.”

Jordan said that one of Filmpac’s main focuses is reducing the time it takes to find a great track and while they’re not necessarily taking a less-is-more approach with in an initial launch of about 1,000 music tracks, they’re set on keeping quality as the top priority as they expand their library.

PRICING

Knowing their high standards for quality on the stock video side of things I was expecting a price somewhere near the Musicbed range (currently $719/yr for churches, $1,079/yr for freelancers), but Filmpac is launching at $149/yr for churches and $199/yr for freelancers.

Jordan said after their initial launch they plan to up their annual subscription closer to $199 for churches/non-profits and $299 for freelancers/businesses, but I’m not sure when those prices will kick in.

Filmpac has also provided Church Film School with a special discount: If you use the coupon code CHURCH you’ll get an additional 10% off any subscription.

At that price I felt like for me it was a no-brainer to sign up and give their music a try this year.

USABILITY

Granted it just released and I haven’t been able to listen to the entire library, but so far I’m finding some great songs and their TRAILER playlist is a great starting point for epic 60-second sermon series promos or sermon bumpers.

From a functional standpoint, Filmpac’s music interface works about like any other platform with curated playlists, search, and browse by genre, mood, instrument, etc. (although they’re currently lacking a music player in the footer of the website that allows you to visit other pages on their platform while continuing to play the current track).

A new feature that’s included in their music memberships is a Content ID integration for YouTube channels, where you can link up to 10 channels to your account (your channel, your church’s channel, your clients’ channels, etc.) and then every track you use on those channels is automatically cleared with YouTube without having to do anything.

Personally, I haven’t ran into any copyright claim or demonetization issues on YouTube, but I’ve heard they can be a pain so that’s nice to have that protection built in.

QUALITY OF MUSIC

I have been listening to as many songs as possible while I work, drive, clean, etc., to get a feel for the library and it’s definitely got me day dreaming about my next narrative or commercial project.

As for quality, I think Filmpac has done a great job. The tracks I’ve listened to definitely sound like they’re coming from composers and not musicians taking a guess at what filmmakers might like to use for their videos.

Over the coming months I’d like to see them add more mellow ambient “interview” tracks and/or the ability to download music stems so you can have more control when editing your soundtrack, but so far they’re off to a good start.

CONCLUSION

At the end of the day, even with the “more expensive” options like Musicbed, there are so many great, affordable sources for music that can make your film come alive. Compared to hiring a composer for an original soundtrack or even what it used to cost to license an individual song, in my mind almost every option out there is a good deal financially.

It really comes down to style preferences and how much time it takes to sift through a library of tracks before you find the right song. Over the coming months I’m going to use Filmpac as my first source of music for my videos and films and will update this article if my opinion changes - but for now things sound promising.

FILMPAC MUSIC COUPON CODE

If you want to check Filmpac out, you can play their entire library without creating an account which is a great, risk-free way to see if they’ve got what you’re looking for.

If you do end up subscribing, be sure to use the coupon code CHURCH to get an additional 10% off your subscription.