Want to learn how to sell sound effects online?
I’ve put together a complete guide with everything you need to know.
First, I’ll show you how to build your own online store and use it to sell sound effects directly to consumers for maximum profit.
Then, we’ll look at some other online marketplaces where you can list your sound effects for sale to reach even more customers.
After that, I’ll share some powerful marketing strategies that you can use to drive sales.
And if you stick around until the end, I’ll even share some tips for creating sound effects that buyers want.
How to sell sound effects with Sellfy
The best way to sell sound effects online is through your own ecommerce store.
Why? Because that’s the only way you’ll get to keep 100% of your earnings.
When you sell sound effects on other third-party marketplaces and sound libraries, those platforms take a huge chunk of your earnings as their cut.
But when you sell them through your own website, you don’t have to share your profits with anyone.
Plus, you also have full control over everything, and when you market your sound effects, you’ll be driving traffic to your own site rather than someone else’s.
You can use any ecommerce platform to build your store, but I’d suggest Sellfy. It’s built specifically for digital products like sound effects and it’s super easy to use.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to show you how to use Sellfy to build your sound effect store in under an hour.
Step 1: Log in to Sellfy
First, sign up for a Sellfy account and log in. You can get started for free with a 14-day trial.
Click here to sign up for your free trial.
The setup wizard will prompt you to enter a name & description and pick a color scheme for your store.
Then, Sellfy will build a basic store for you, ready for you to fill out with products.
Step 2: Upload your sound effects
Once you’re in your Sellfy dashboard, click Products > Digital product from the sidebar on the left.
On the next page, click Browse to search your computer and select and upload your sound effect(s). Or just drag and drop them into the box.
You can add up to 50 different files per product. However, if you’re selling a pack of lots of sound effects, I’d recommend compiling them all into one zip file and just uploading that.
Keep in mind that the maximum file size is 10 GB so each sound effect pack you sell will have to be smaller than that. If yours is bigger, consider breaking it up into multiple smaller packs.
Note: When a customer purchases the sound effect through your Sellfy store, Sellfy will automatically email them a unique download link which they can click to download the file.
Step 3: Fill out the product details
Next, fill out all the information in the Product details section.
To start, you’ll need to enter the name of your sound effects (e.g. ‘500+ cinematic SFX for videomakers’) and write a product description.
Make sure to include all the information that your customers might need to know in the description, including a full asset list of all the sound effects included in the download pack, licensing terms, instructions on how to download/extract them, etc.
Under Product preview, you can add your preview image(s) and video(s).
I’d recommend uploading cover art and a demo track to give potential customers a taste of what’s included in your sound pack.
Step 4: Choose a price
Enter the price you want to sell your sound effects for under Price settings.
You can choose any currency. Plus, you also have the option to turn on Pay what you want pricing if you want to let your customers choose how much to pay.
The amount you should charge for sound effects will depend on lots of factors, including how many sound effects you’re including in the pack, the license you’re offering, etc.
Large professional-level SFX libraries can cost anywhere from $50 to $500 or more. At the indie level, prices are usually close to the $10-20 range.
If you want to sell multiple sound effect licenses at different prices (e.g. personal use, commercial use, etc.), then you’ll need to click Add variant to add several product variants with different prices for each of them.
Once you’ve finished filling out your product details and setting your prices, click Save product.
Bonus tip: Another option you have is to sell sound effects as a monthly subscription product. That way, customers have to pay a recurring monthly fee to access your SFX library, giving you a more consistent revenue stream. You can set this up by going to Add new product > Subscription.
Step 5: Add a payment method
You should now have a working store with a product page where customers can go to buy your sound effects.
But for them to complete the checkout process, you’ll need to connect a payment method.
To do that, click Settings > Payment settings in the sidebar.
Then, click your chosen payment gateway (PayPal or Stripe) and follow the instructions to connect your account(s).
Step 6: Customize your storefront
Your store should be fully functional at this point, but it might not look the way you want it to.
To change the design, click Store settings > Customize store. You can then edit the way your store looks in the drag-and-drop customizer.
When you’re done, hit Publish to save the changes.
You might also want to connect a custom domain, set up automated taxes, add product categories, etc. You can do all of that through your Store settings.
Once you’re happy with it, you’re ready to start selling.
6 other places to sell sound effects
Your website is the best place to sell sound effects, but it’s not the only option.
You can also list your sound effects for sale on third-party platforms and marketplaces.
While you might not make as much per sale on these sites (as they take a cut of your revenue), the advantage is they come with a large built-in audience, so it’s a good way to reach more customers.
Here are the top 6 places I’d recommend…
Note: Watch out for exclusivity traps when selling on marketplaces. Carefully check the terms and conditions before you sign up and make sure you’re able to sell non-exclusively, so you can keep selling sound effects on your website and elsewhere in tandem.
1. Unity Asset Store
The Unity Asset Store—built into the Unity Game Engine—is the best place to sell sound effects to game developers.
1.7 million devs already shop on the Unity Asset Store, so by listing your sound effects here, you’re instantly tapping into a huge market of potential customers.
You’ll need to register as a publisher and submit your sound effects for review before you can start selling. Publishers who are accepted keep 70% of their revenue, with the other 30% going to Unity.
2. Unreal Marketplace
Unreal is the other big game engine along with Unity, so it’s another essential place to list your sound effects if you’re hoping to sell to game devs.
It offers even better commission rates than Unity, with publishers receiving 88% of the base price on every sale.
You can sign up through Unreal’s Publisher Portal and you’ll need to wait for approval before you can start selling. They’re pretty picky about what assets they accept so there’s no guarantee you’ll be approved.
3. Sonniss
Sonniss is a royalty-free sound effect library designed for professional sound designers & engineers. It’s a good option if these are your target customers.
They take a 40% cut so vendors keep 60% of each sale, and you can set your own prices. Aside from sound effects, you can also sell other audio files and audio tracks.
Sonniss caters to the high-end of the market and a lot of its customers have deep wallets, so you can charge a little more here than on most other platforms. Prices typically range from $10 to $1000+.
4. AudioJungle
AudioJungle is part of Envato Market. It caters to businesses and content creators and reaches over 2 million customers.
You can sell audio files on AudioJungle either exclusively or non-exclusively
Non-exclusive authors are charged a 55% fee on each sale, so they only earn 45% of the sale price on each order. However, because it’s non-exclusive, they’re free to sell the same sound effects on their website or anywhere else.
Exclusive authors are only charged 12.5% – 37.5% so they earn much more per sale, but they can only sell their sound effects through AudioJungle.
5. Etsy
Etsy caters to a different audience than the other platforms we’ve looked at.
It targets artists, designers, and crafters rather than audio engineers, and is best known as a place to buy and sell handmade goods. Nonetheless, you can sell sound effects there too—and a lot of Etsy shops have made good money doing so.
The great thing about Etsy is it only charges a small 6.5% transaction fee, which is a lot less than most other platforms.
6. MotionArray
MotionArray is an asset library for video editors that reaches over 8 million customers. It’s a good option if you’re targeting video creators.
You can sell non-exclusively as a MotionArray producer, and you’ll earn royalties of 10%-40% depending on how often users download your SFX. The more downloads, the more you’ll earn.
Marketing your sound effects
You’ll make more sales if you spend some time marketing your sound effects
This is especially important if you’re selling through your own store rather than through online marketplaces as there’s no existing customer base to sell to, so you need to build one.
Here are some marketing strategies you can try…
Use free sound effects as a lead magnet
Make a handful of your best sound effects available for free to users in exchange for their email addresses. This is a great way to get leads into your sales funnel.
You can then send promotional emails out to all those people who signed up for your mailing list to advertise your bigger, better, paid SFX collection.
You’ll need the right email tool to help you build your list. I recommend MailerLite as they offer a solid free plan so you can get started right away without paying a thing.
Post your sound effects on YouTube
Make a YouTube account and upload videos with some of your best sound effects that you don’t mind letting others use for free.
Optimize the video titles around keywords that your target customers might search for (e.g. ‘door opening sound effect’, ‘lightsaber sound effect’, etc.) to help with discovery.
Add a link to your full paid sound effect library in the description, and add a call-to-action (CTA) on-screen inviting users who like what they hear to check it out for more.
Promote on social media
Social media is one of the best marketing channels to promote your sound effects.
Post clips of your sound effects on sites like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter (X). Aside from promotional content, you should also regularly share engaging, entertaining, or educational content to grow your audience.
Target niche communities
Seek out online communities where your target customers hang around and promote your sound effects there. Online forums, subreddits, and Facebook groups are good places to start.
For example, if you’re selling sound effects for games, you could reach out to potential customers on r/gamedev. If your target customers are sound engineers, try r/audioengineering. If it’s content creators, try r/NewTubers or r/Twitch. You get the idea.
Run paid ad campaigns
Paid ad campaigns are one of the most effective and reliable ways to drive targeted traffic to your store.
Google Ads is a good place to start. You can also try Meta Ads to advertise on Facebook, Instagram, etc., Spotify Ads, etc.
The downside is that paid ads can get expensive. You’ll need to make sure you’re getting a positive ROI (return on investment) for them to be worth it. Start small, experiment with different targeting options, and scale up when you’re getting a good ROI.
Optimize for search
Wherever you sell your sound effects, make sure you optimize your listings for search. Effective ecommerce SEO (search engine optimization) will boost your visibility in the search results and help you get more organic traffic, leading to more sales.
Creating sound effects that sell
Before we wrap up, here’s a very brief step-by-step guide to help you create sound effects that sell.
Choose a niche
When you sell sound effects, you’re competing with thousands of other sellers.
The best way to make your product stand out and carve out your own space in the market is to niche down.
That means, instead of creating a generic ‘sound effect bundle’, you should be creating sound effects for a super-specific use case. For example:
- Alien sound effects
- Animal sound effects
- Sound effects for FPS games
- Sound effects for horror movies
- Destruction and impact sound effects
You get the idea.
Keyword research can help you to find a niche that’s in demand. Try searching Google or sound libraries for ‘sound effects for…’ and look at the search suggestions for ideas.
It also helps to have a target audience in mind when you’re brainstorming ideas. People who need sound effects include game developers, video editors, content creators, livestreamers, and recording artists.
Record your sound effects (or synthesize them)
Once you’ve chosen a niche, start creating your sound effects.
Nobody wants to buy a single sound effect, so aim to create lots of different SFX for your niche and compile them into a larger sound pack.
I won’t go into the exact process of creating sound effects here as that’s outside the scope of this post, but here are some general tips:
- Only ever use your own recorded or synthesized materials. Most third-party sound libraries don’t allow you to create and sell sound effects using their materials and you could be making a copyright infringement if you do, so always record or make your own from scratch.
- Get creative. Anything can be used to create sound effects. Coconuts can be used to make the sound of horse hooves. Scrunching up magnetic tape songs like footsteps on grass. An old chair can make the sound of a squeaky door. Be creative with it and think outside the box.
- Save in the right format. This will depend on your niche/target market. Professional sound designers often prefer to work with high-quality WAV files (32-bit, 96 kHz) whereas game devs often prefer 24-bit, 48 kHz MP3s.
Organize them into relevant categories
To make it easier for your customers to sort through the sound effects in your sound pack and find what they’re looking for, it’s important to organize them into relevant, sensible categories.
I’d suggest using the Universal Category System. It’s a convention for naming sound effects consistently and bucketing them into a set of fixed categories and sub-categories.
Also make sure to include rich metadata for each SFX including the track name, sample rate, bit depth, etc.
Create promo materials
Lastly, don’t forget to make promotional materials for your sound effects.
The most important promo materials are your cover art and your demo track.
Your demo track should let potential customers hear a few key sound effects from your sound pack before they purchase. Make sure to add an audio watermark over the top to protect against piracy.
Final thoughts
That concludes our guide on how to make money selling sound effects online.
To recap, the best way to sell sound effects is through your own website, which you can build in no time with Sellfy.
You can reach more customers by also listing your sound effects on third-party marketplaces like Unity Asset Store, Unreal Marketplace, Audio Jungle, etc. but keep in mind that they’ll take a cut of your sales.
To maximize sales, target a specific niche and spend time marketing your sound effects using the strategies we’ve discussed in this post.
Don’t want to sell sound effects? Here are 60+ other trending products to sell online this year. You might also want to check out our roundup of the best websites to sell beats.
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