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How to tag stock music: tags, genres and descriptions

Buyers find a track on a stock site by its words. Here is how to write them so they follow the rules of stock sites like AudioJungle and Pond5 and still bring people to your track.

By , a composer with 300+ tracks on audio stock and 12 years in production. Updated 21 October 2026. 4 min read.

In short. Words on a stock site do three jobs. Genre and mood are filters: pick them from the site's own list. Tags are what buyers type: use the words they use, each for a new side of the track, and don't repeat one word in many tags. The description is for people: two or three plain sentences.

Three kinds of words

Every upload form asks for words in three places. Each place has its own rule.

Where What it does The rule
Genre, mood, category A filter a buyer clicks Pick from the site's list. One meaning, one word.
Tags or keywords Words a buyer types into search Use the words buyers use. Cover mood, style, instruments and use, not five words for one mood.
Description Sentences a buyer reads Say what the track sounds like and what it fits.

In a filter, two words for one thing split your track between two buttons. In tags, the question depends on the site's search. A search that matches words finds angry and aggressive for different buyers. A search that reads meaning, like Envato's since 2025, already knows they are the same, so the second word adds nothing.

AudioJungle and Envato

Envato's rules for audio items:

  • Between 5 and 30 tags.
  • A word may appear in no more than two tags. travel and travel vlog is fine. Add travel music and it is keyword stuffing.
  • The same goes for words with the same stem. drive and driving count as one word.
  • Only two words may repeat at all. A tag list where three different words each appear twice is too much. Envato's own example of a bad list: Christmas, Christmas party, festive party, festive season.
  • Each tag must add something new. No category names as tags, and no names of other authors or their items.
  • American English spelling. A misspelled tag never matches a search.

For the title, Envato asks for Title Case, English, and no words like "best" or "amazing". Keep the main one or two keywords in the title and the rest in the tags.

Envato search now reads the meaning of words, so synonyms in tags add nothing there. The full rules for titles and tags on AudioJungle, and how they differ on Motion Array: AudioJungle and Motion Array titles and tags.

Pond5

Pond5's rules for keywords and titles:

  • Up to 50 keywords. Pond5 says the best results come from 10 to 20 precise ones.
  • A title in English, up to 80 characters. Don't repeat a word, and don't add number codes.
  • No spam keywords. Popular words that don't describe the track lead to rejection.

How to write tags that work

  1. Start with what is unique to the track. Instruments, a style, a specific use: ukulele, whistle, travel vlog.
  2. Then the mood and energy. happy, bright, upbeat.
  3. Then the broad words. positive, background.
  4. Add new sides, not synonyms. angry, aggressive and intense are allowed on Envato, but its search reads them as one idea. A use or an image adds more: boxing, car chase.
  5. Think of the video, not the music. A buyer searches for what they are making: corporate presentation, cooking show, drone footage.

Write the full list once and keep it with the track. The limits differ by site, so trim the list when you paste it into a form with fewer slots.

Descriptions

Two or three short sentences are enough. Say what the listener hears and where the track fits. "Warm acoustic guitar and soft claps. A calm, positive track for travel videos and family moments." Avoid "perfect for any project". It says nothing, and every other track says it too.

Keep the words consistent

Use the same genre and mood words across your whole catalog. When Upbeat is written three ways in three tracks, you can't find all your upbeat tracks, and neither can a filter. A short word list you pick from beats typing from memory.

The tags line of a track in tracklog: words picked from genre, mood and other lists, plus extra tags, with a count and repeated words marked.
The tags line of a track in tracklog: words picked from genre, mood and other lists, plus extra tags, with a count and repeated words marked.

Sources