Videoblocks opens new stock video marketplace, promises videomakers 100% cut

Stock media provider Videoblocks is launching what it describes as the first video marketplace where creators keep all of the sales revenue, the company said today.

Currently, the Reston, Va-based company offers a subscription library of over 115,000 royalty-free clips, motion backgrounds, and After Effects templates. Videoclip categories include aerial shots, food, slow motion, and people.

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The new marketplace, which is available only to subscribers, will be integrated with the existing subscription library, CEO and founder Joel Holland told VentureBeat. Subscribers pay an annual fee of $99, or a one-month fee of $79, to get unlimited downloads. A seven-day trial is also available for either collection.

“We pre-pay creators for all of their content in our subscription library and acquire non-exclusive, perpetual rights as a result,” Holland told us. He added that his company has “paid creatives many millions to date” in upfront payments.

The new marketplace, on the other hand, will be a “pay-as-you-go” model. The company will make its money only from subscriptions, which it believes will increase because of the new marketplace.

But the total amount creators receive in the marketplace may be only somewhat more than they’d get through the subscription library, since Videoblocks is offering each video at a price — $49 — that it says is about 40 percent less than other places. Creators for the new marketplace, then, will receive what is effectively about 60 percent of standard prices, compared to what Holland said is the 15 to 50 percent paid out by other video stock sites.

Holland told us he is in the process of closing deals with several “really large video contributors” and expects to be offering marketplace videos as part of the overall site inventory within the next few weeks. Other creators are invited to offer their wares.

If the subscription/all-you-can eat model was working, why change it?

“When we spoke to our customers, they told us that, while they love our subscriptions, they’d appreciate having the option to purchase additional footage if they couldn’t find exactly what they need from our [unlimited] subscription service,” he said.

Holland told us he expects the new marketplace to have greater depth in certain subjects, a complement to the greater variety of subjects in the library.

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“If you’re looking for aerials of the New York City skyline, we have you covered” in the existing library, he said.

But “if you’re looking for the New York City skyline in November as the sun rises over the Brooklyn Bridge, you will probably have to look in the marketplace.”

Videoblocks is looking to per-clip charges and creators’ fees as differentiators for the company, which also owns GraphicStock for designers and AudioBlocks libraries.

Holland pointed to Shutterstock as his company’s biggest competitor, noting that “they do not have any benefits associated with their subscription like our unlimited download library,=” and that they charge a standard $79 per clip. [Disclosure: VentureBeat subscribes to Shutterstock for an occasional use of their photo library.]

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He also noted that Shutterstock has “repeatedly said they think paying contributors 30 percent for their content is fair” and that another competitor, Pond5, pays out 50 percent.