Acast inks a new partnership with Slip.Stream, a royalty-free music platform, that allows Acast podcasters access to more than 70,000 songs for use in their content creation. The first podcast partnership for Slip.Stream will see all 100,000 Acast podcasters receive “Pro Level” access free for six months, and a special discount offer to upgrade to an annual Pro plan thereafter.

“Whether it’s used for intros or outros, or to set a tone or drive action in a plot, music is an important element that makes a podcast memorable and engaging for listeners. Now, through this partnership with Slip.Steam, Acast is making it even easier for podcasters to discover the right song for every transition, story climax, and anything else in their creative process,” said Veronika Taylor, SVP of the Creator Network at Acast. “Music has played a key role in the rise in production quality as podcasting has matured and today’s audiences have become accustomed to that high quality audio production and storytelling.”

According to research conducted by Acast, 85% of listeners say that the quality of music in podcasts has improved in recent years and 74% say they prefer to listen to podcasts that use music to set the tone and mood of an episode. Another 60% prefer podcasts ads with music.

“Music has the power to evoke the full spectrum of human emotion. Podcasters know how to tell a compelling audio story, but can often be challenged to find songs that fit their creative needs and are safe to use on their podcast,” said Slip.Stream Chief Marketing Officer Jesse Korwin. “Through this partnership, Acast and Slip.Stream are helping more podcasters enhance their storytelling and create more engaging content for their audiences by giving them access to more than 70,000 songs they can begin using in their podcast production.”