Songtradr's Marketplace closes September 1. Where your catalog goes next.

Songtradr told its artist community earlier this year that the Marketplace shuts down on September 1, 2026. If you had a catalog there, your dashboard access ends that day. Songtradr’s public guidance was blunt: download every WAV, every stem, every metadata sheet, and every licensing history document now, because after September 1 you can’t get them back.

This post is the sync-rep view. Verilux is a small non-exclusive rep in Montana, so the question of where a displaced catalogue should go is one we have a direct interest in — read this knowing that. The awkward part of the situation is that several platforms an artist would have picked five years ago are no longer taking new artists at all.

Here is what’s worth thinking through if you’re sitting where you’re sitting.

The state of the “big library” world, as of this week

Anyone who followed sync in the 2018–2022 boom remembers a long list of destinations for a new artist catalog: Songtradr, Musicbed, Artlist, Epidemic Sound, Marmoset, Music Vine, Soundstripe, AudioJungle, Pond5. That list has quietly collapsed.

• Songtradr Marketplace — Closing September 1, 2026 (Songtradr Help Center).
• Epidemic Sound — Its own artist page currently says “Epidemic Sound isn’t accepting new artist applications right now. Check back soon for updates.” (Epidemic Sound). When it is open, its deal is a fixed $2,000–$8,000 per track paid upfront, then a 50/50 streaming royalty split, in exchange for the financial rights to the track and a requirement that you leave your PRO or collecting society (Epidemic Sound blog, Orphiq comparison).
• Artlist, Marmoset, Music Vine, Soundstripe — All paused or closed to new artist submissions as of August 2026 (Orphiq).
• Musicbed — Still reviews submissions by email, but publicly notes it accepts a very small percentage of applicants (Orphiq).
• AudioJungle (Envato) — Closed to new artists (Orphiq).

So the practical question isn’t “which platform replaces Songtradr?” — most of the like-for-like ones aren’t taking your material either. The question is: what’s the right structural home for your catalog now, given how you were actually earning on Songtradr?

Before you pick a destination, save your Songtradr history

Do this in the next few days, regardless of what you decide next. Songtradr’s page is explicit that dashboard access ends September 1 (Songtradr Help Center).

1. Download every audio file, at the highest quality available — WAVs, alt mixes, instrumentals, stems. If Songtradr held stems for you, those are gone after September 1.
2. Export your metadata sheet. Titles, ISRCs, ISWCs, writer splits, publisher IPI numbers, PRO affiliations, alt titles. You’ll need this to load anywhere else, and rebuilding it from scratch is painful.
3. Save your placement/licensing history. Every issued license, every placement, every buyer name and use description. This is your track record — it’s the single most useful document you can hand a new rep, publisher, or supervisor.
4. Save your payout history. For your own bookkeeping and for the honest conversation about which songs actually earned versus which just sat there.
5. Screenshot or PDF anything that lives only inside their UI — comments from supervisors, edit notes, brief responses. It won’t be there after September 1.

If your Songtradr account was set up under an LLC or business entity, run the export from that entity’s login too.

Then be honest about what Songtradr actually was for you

Before choosing where to go next, look at the export you just made. Split the catalog into three buckets:

• Songs that got licensed. These are your track record. Whatever a new home looks like, these are the songs you lead with.
• Songs that sat there for years and never moved. These are the ones to be honest about. A different platform won’t magically place them. If they’re strong writes that just didn’t fit a stock library’s briefs, they might do well in a boutique catalog. If they’re demos or near-misses, this is a good moment to shelve them.
• Songs that got flagged as clearance problems — samples you couldn’t verify, split disputes, missing writer info. Don’t take these to a new home until they’re actually cleared. Every serious buyer eventually asks, and every serious rep or publisher will pull them if the paperwork doesn’t hold up.

That inventory determines what kind of destination you want.

A different platform won’t magically place the songs that sat there for years.

The four paths that actually exist

There is no one-size destination. Here are the four real options, laid out plainly.

1) A boutique or independent sync rep

Who this is for: artists with a small, strong, cleared catalog who want the songs actively pitched to shows, ads, trailers, and games rather than sitting in a searchable library. Usually non-exclusive.

What it looks like in practice: a person (or a small team) who represents 10–100 artists, hears each new upload, and pitches into their own network of supervisors, editors, and ad agencies. The good ones don’t retitle, don’t collect your writer’s or publishing royalties, and don’t require exclusivity across all uses — many will happily represent you alongside your existing sync-agent or self-pitching relationships.

What to look for:

• A clear commission split (industry range is 20–50% of the upfront sync fee; smaller reps who put more human effort per song sit higher in that range; larger platforms with self-service pitching sit lower).
• No retitling. Retitling means uploading your song under a fake title so the same song can be “exclusive” in multiple places. It muddies your PRO reporting, it makes clearance harder for the supervisor, and it means every stakeholder loses trust in your metadata forever. If a company retitles, walk.
• No claim on your publishing, PRO, or SoundExchange collections.
• A clearance floor they actually enforce: no unlicensed samples, no unverified writer splits, no dead publishers.
• An exit that actually works if the deal doesn’t. On a non-exclusive rep, that means either a 30-day per-song withdrawal you can use at any time, or a short term you can decline to renew at any time — the first is better for you, and the second is only acceptable while the deal is genuinely non-exclusive, because a song you can still place elsewhere is not locked up. On an exclusive rep, that means a clear, enforceable in-term exit — most commonly a reversion right that lets you pull a song back if it sits inactive for a defined period (typically 12 months of no placement and no documented pitching). “You can leave whenever you want” and “we lock your song for two years no matter what” are both red flags; a workable term sits in between.

What it doesn’t do: it doesn’t guarantee a placement. Nobody who’s honest about this business guarantees placements. A rep gets you on the desk of people who make decisions; the songs still have to earn it.

A rep gets you on the desk of people who make decisions.

(Full disclosure: this is what Verilux does. Our three-tier model is non-exclusive at 60/40, exclusive at 70/30, or exclusive plus US publishing admin at 75/25 plus 80/20. We take 0% of your writer’s share, 0% of your PRO income, and 0% of your SoundExchange. On the exit test above we land on the second option, not the first: 12 months per song on every tier, auto-renewing, with notice of non-renewal serveable at any time in the first year, and a 30-day per-song withdrawal right on every tier once a song has finished that first year. Judge the term language yourself — it is all on the page. If your material is one-stop or easy-clear, apply.)

2) A traditional publisher

Who this is for: writers with a real catalog and real placements who want a partner across sync, streaming publishing collections, and cover pitching worldwide.

What it looks like: you sign your publishing to them (or your publishing plus admin) for a term. They collect worldwide, they pitch across their whole roster, they usually take a bigger cut of publishing income (25–50%) than a rep takes of sync income, but they also do the work of registering songs everywhere and chasing collections you couldn’t chase yourself.

Trade-offs: it’s a bigger commitment — usually multi-year, and often for the life of the songs signed under the deal. Read your reversion clause carefully. Ask about audit rights.

3) A production music library (real one, not a stock site)

Who this is for: producers who write to brief and want to license non-exclusively into a network of libraries and broadcasters. Different economic model than a rep — libraries typically own or co-own the master and collect the writer’s publishing on the “backend.”

Trade-offs: you often lose the writer’s share of publishing on library-owned tracks. Read the contract. If the library takes 100% of publishing, that’s a co-write-a-work-for-hire deal, and the money you make is the sync fee plus performance royalties on the writer’s share only.

4) DIY

Who this is for: artists whose Songtradr export shows they were doing most of their own placement work anyway — direct outreach, licensing library subs on the side, syncs from personal fans and network. In that case, Songtradr was mostly a metadata store.

What it looks like: you keep everything in-house. You register songs at your PRO, you list yourself as publisher (or set up a small pub entity), you pitch directly, you deal with contracts yourself. Getting a good music lawyer for one-off license reviews is worth every dollar.

Trade-offs: it doesn’t scale past what you can personally reach. But if that reach is enough for the placements you want, you don’t need a middle party at all.

A middle party is only worth a percentage of your fee if it reaches further than you can reach yourself.

The trap to avoid: signing the first thing that looks like Songtradr

The instinct after a platform closes is to find the closest thing to it and re-upload. Resist that. Songtradr was one particular structure — a large marketplace with self-serve pitching, retitling, non-exclusive uploads — and that structure is not currently accepting new catalogs anywhere else at meaningful scale (see the closed list above).

Before you sign anywhere:

• Read the actual agreement. Not the pitch page. Not the FAQ. The signed document. Look for: term length, exclusivity scope, retitling permission, control over your PRO registration, collection rights, reversion, audit, indemnity, and warranties.
• Ask what happens to your songs if the platform closes. Songtradr’s closure was orderly — files preserved for six weeks, clear communication. Not every platform’s shutdown will be that clean.
• Ask who owns the master and who owns the publishing after the deal ends. If the answer is anything other than “you get everything back, immediately, on written notice,” understand exactly what stays with them.
• Ask what percentage of your total royalty stream they touch. A deal that takes 30% of your sync fee but 0% of your publishing is very different from a deal that takes 15% of the sync fee but 50% of your publishing on the backend.
• If a company uses the word “royalty-free” or “buyout” to describe how their customers use your song, understand you may be selling the license perpetuity for a small fixed fee. That works for some artists. Just know that’s what you’re doing.

What I’d do if it were my catalog

• Save everything from Songtradr this week. Not next week.
• Take a hard look at what actually placed there and what didn’t. Don’t drag dead weight to the next home.
• If your catalog is small, strong, and easy for a supervisor to clear in one email, a boutique rep is the right first move. It costs you a percentage of sync fees you weren’t otherwise earning, and nothing else.
• If your catalog is big and you already have real placements, a publishing conversation is worth having — but don’t sign the first one that offers, and get a music lawyer to read the term and reversion clauses.
• If your catalog is production-library material written to brief, the closed doors above are real. Musicbed’s email review is still your best remaining large-catalog target (Orphiq); everything else is boutique, personal-network, or DIY.
• Do not sign anywhere that retitles your songs. Ever. It’s short-term convenient and long-term devastating.

If you want to talk

Verilux represents a small, selective roster of independent songwriters and artists. Your writer’s share is always 100% yours, we never retitle a song, and we take nothing at all on a sync you land yourself. Beyond that you choose: non-exclusive at 60/40, or exclusive on the specific songs you list at 70/30 — and if you want us to administer your US publishing on those songs, 75/25 on the fee and 80/20 on the publishing we collect. We’re not the right home for every catalog — we say no far more than we say yes — but if your songs are one-stop or easy-clear, that’s exactly the material we pitch.

See the three tiers →
Apply for representation →

If you were on Songtradr and want a second opinion on where to move next, put “Songtradr refugee” in the note on your application. We’ll read it first.

This post reflects publicly-verifiable information about each named platform as of August 2026. Companies change their terms. Read the current agreement before you sign anywhere.