The honest answer is that it ranges from a few dollars to the high six figures, and most "it depends" articles stop there without telling you what it depends on. This one won't. Four things move a music-license price, and once you know them you can predict roughly where any quote will land before you ask for it.
Let's start with real numbers, then the four levers.
How much does it cost to license a song for a video?
For everyday uses, less than most people expect. Here are Orcha's starting fees, which sit in the normal 2026 range for one-stop licensing.
- YouTube or creator video: from $90.
- Small paid-social ad: from $350.
- Corporate or brand video: from $500.
- Independent podcast: around $200 to $3,500, depending on reach.
- Indie game: $500 to $15,000, by scope.
- Broadcast, film, or a national ad: quoted, and it runs from $3,000 into the six figures.
Those are floors for a standard setup: one year, one country, non-exclusive. Change any of the next four things and the number moves.
What makes a music license more expensive?
Four levers. Use, term, territory, and exclusivity. Here's how each one pushes the price.
Use is the biggest lever by far. A monetized YouTube video and a national TV ad might feature the same track, but the ad reaches millions of paying eyeballs, so it's priced in a different universe. That's why a creator license starts at $90 and broadcast is quoted in the thousands. Match the use to what you're actually doing, no more.
Term is how long you're licensed. Six months costs less than a year. A year is the baseline. Three years runs close to double the one-year fee, and a license in perpetuity, forever, is roughly triple. If you only need the music for a campaign that wraps in a season, don't pay for perpetuity.
Territory is where the music can run. One country is the baseline. North America adds around 40 percent. Worldwide is roughly 1.8 times the single-country fee. A local business doesn't need worldwide, and a global brand shouldn't try to squeak by on one country.
Exclusivity is whether anyone else can use the track. Non-exclusive, where the track stays in the catalog for others, is the baseline and by far the cheapest. Limited exclusivity runs about 1.5 times that. A full exclusive buyout, where the track is pulled off the shelf so it's yours alone, is priced by hand, because it removes an asset from everyone else forever.
Stack these and you can see how the same track goes from $90 to a quote. A creator video, one year, one country, non-exclusive sits at the floor. A worldwide, three-year, brand-video license is several times that, and it should be, because you're getting several times the rights.
Is a one-time license cheaper than a subscription?
It depends entirely on volume, and anyone who gives you a flat answer is selling something.
If you publish daily and burn through dozens of tracks a month, a subscription library can be cheaper while you're active. If you place a handful of tracks a year, or you need the music to stay cleared after you stop paying, a pay-once license you keep almost always wins. The subscription's hidden cost is that the license is rented: stop paying and your next project isn't covered. A one-time license doesn't have that cliff.
One more thing that quietly affects price: whether you're paying for one right or two. A song is a recording plus a composition, and they can be owned separately, which means two fees and two negotiations. At Orcha, one signature clears both for a single fee, so you never stack a publishing charge on top of a master charge. That's the point of one-stop clearance, and it's built into every number above.
Want to see what your exact use costs? The pricing page has the full rate card, the catalog is a few dollars to audition, and music for corporate video is a good place to start if that's your use.
Fees above are Orcha's published starting rates as of July 2026 and reflect the standard one-year, single-country, non-exclusive setup. Multipliers for term, territory, and exclusivity are approximate and applied per quote. Broadcast and buyout deals are always quoted.