Building a Better Podcast Score: How Thrumm Audio Makes Music Licensing Simple and Storytelling Stronger

Lindsay Graham—narrative podcast creator and founder of Thrumm Audio—has built a production music library specifically for narrative and documentary podcasts, and it's a game changer.

In an era where music licensing lawsuits are hitting not just big brands but also creators on platforms like Spotify, podcasters can’t afford to treat music as an afterthought. Lindsay Graham (no, not THAT one) — narrative podcast creator and founder of Thrumm Audio — has built a production music library specifically for narrative and documentary podcasts, and it’s designed to solve both the creative and legal headaches of adding music to your show.

The Problem With Music for Podcasts

Graham’s career producing scripted history and investigative shows (you might have heard of his company, Airship.FM - one of the biggest producers of history category podcasts for huge production houses like Wondery) taught him two hard truths:

1. Composing original music for every episode is exhausting.

2. Existing music libraries are too large, too unfocused, and too hard to search for most podcasters.

In a world where even three seconds of unlicensed music can trigger automated takedowns from Spotify or YouTube’s content fingerprinting systems, relying on “free” tracks from open-source sites—or hoping fair use applies—just isn’t safe.

“There's no such thing as real ‘fair use’ in music,” Graham says. “Algorithms don’t care if it’s commentary or education—they’ll pull your episode anyway.”

The Thrumm System: Music Built for Story

Thrumm isn’t just a library—it’s a narrative-first scoring system. Every piece of music is designed to sit under dialogue, complement emotion, and be edited fast. Here’s how the Thrumm System works:

• Single Key & Tempo Across the Library
  Every track in every album shares the same key and tempo, so you can crossfade, mix, and layer without clashing harmonies or rhythms.

• Story-Based Categories
  Each album includes tracks for the four basic storytelling modes—exposition, tension building, resolution, and action—plus drones, atmospheres, and transitions.

• Album Creation via “Fake Podcast Briefs”
  The Thrumm team invents a podcast concept and scores it as if it were real, resulting in cohesive, ready-to-use music suites.

• Editing-Friendly Design
  Every track comes with a clean fade-in/out, loop points, downbeat markers, alternate mixes, reduced mixes, and full stems—making it easy to stretch, shorten, or rebuild cues.

The result is a music library that behaves more like a custom score than an off-the-shelf collection.

Licensing That Fits Podcast Production

Thrumm’s licensing is project-based and tiered for indie creators, monetized shows, and large publishers. You need an active license only while producing and releasing episodes. Once a limited series is complete, you can keep your episodes live without paying ongoing fees. Custom licenses (of course) are available for unusual cases, TV, or radio.

Why Narrative Podcasts Benefit Most

If your show is highly produced — true crime, investigative journalism, historical storytelling — music is more than a background element. It’s an emotional engine. Thrumm’s library is small enough to navigate quickly but deep enough to build recurring motifs across episodes without repetition.

Additional Creative & Workflow Insights from Lindsay Graham

• Search-Free Discovery
  Thrumm sidesteps the common “endless search bar” frustration of big music libraries like Artlist or AudioJungle. Instead of typing vague adjectives (“moody,” “tense”), Thrumm is developing short demo tracks that instantly communicate the mood of an album. This speeds up decision-making and helps producers find the right fit by ear, not guesswork.

• Consistent Sonic Identity Across Shows
  Because everything is composed to the same key and tempo, producers can pull from multiple albums and still have a seamless sound. This makes it easier to create a recognizable brand sound across seasons or spin-off series without hiring a composer.

• A Composer’s Mindset in a Subscription Service
  Graham essentially took the mental process of custom scoring—protagonist/antagonist mapping, story arcs, emotional motifs—and baked it into a ready-made library. For many indie producers, that’s the difference between “good enough” background music and a truly cinematic feel.

• Education as a Value-Add
  Thrumm’s “Watch Us Work” videos demonstrate DAW-based editing tips so producers can maximize each track’s flexibility. This turns Thrumm from just a source of assets into a skill-building resource for podcast teams.

• Ethical Positioning
  Graham draws a direct parallel between using unlicensed music and creators’ own frustrations with AI scraping their work without permission—making an ethical as well as practical case for licensed music.

A Legal and Creative Win for Podcasters

Thrumm helps podcasters avoid the legal risk of unlicensed music while making it faster to find, cut, and blend tracks that elevate storytelling - and all for a very competitive price point. As Graham puts it:

“Think of Thrumm as a giant bin of audio Lego blocks you get to play with. Everything snaps perfectly together.”

For podcasters wanting to future-proof their work against takedowns and make their audio feel like it’s scored by a professional composer, Thrumm Audio offers a rare combination of creative flexibility and licensing peace of mind.

Learn more: thrum.audio