If you are looking for new ways to increase your stock video income, there are several agencies you might never have heard of. Not all are the same. You might earn a decent amount with just a single video sale. With some others with marketplace subscriptions, you have to sell many videos to earn a small amount. I like to say to friends that Ferrari sells less than Fiat but the dream cars brand earns more and they are both owned by the same company.
Some agencies sell less but at higher prices. On the other hand, some contributors disappointed by the freefall of traditional big players might decide to start uploading to subscription agencies, hoping that the sales volume will partly make up for the loss. Fellow contributors shared with me their personal stories, mentioning they were disappointed by the less-than-dollar video earnings some of these agencies offer and they removed their clips.
The agencies offering subscription packages accept non-exclusive content but sometimes you need to have a university degree in Mathematics to understand the way they calculate the earnings to contributors. Let’s start with the list of new agencies and then we will review some new features the already existing agencies have added.
Table of Contents:
Popular agencies
Most people have heard about agencies like Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, Depostiphotos and others. If they are new to you, please better head to this blogpost for more information. The rest of the list here will cover agencies that are less famous generally.
Dissolve
You can apply to send your video samples. If accepted, non-exclusive clips will be usually priced at $79 HD or $99 4K, with the option you can earn more if the customer wants a Plus or Enhanced license. Exclusive clips will be priced in the range of $200 or $500 if your clips are in the Dissolve Auteur collection.
For exclusive contributors, there’s an extra program, Liftoff. You can send your unprocessed content, and they will do all the work from editing to titling. They promise to advertise and promote this kind of content to top customers and major film studios.
Here’s how they calculate earnings, according to their page:
For footage sales contributor royalties are calculated as a percentage of the license selling price, less the Dissolve indemnification and service fees (if there is an extended/premium/custom license purchased).
There is also an option to submit as Select Exclusive. The review team might only approve you for just uploading 25 pieces a month. Once they see more of your work this limit can soon go from 125 to unlimited. In your dashboard, you will see monthly earnings reports. Once you are in, you have access to shoot lists and briefs, along with metadata and contributor guides. Review times might take weeks, depending on the content they daily accept.
KEYCUTstock
A rather new stock agency that was founded in 2019 in South Korea, although it was established as a corporation earlier. They officially launched in September 2020.
What’s so special about them? They are both exclusive and non-exclusive but offer premium high-resolution stock videos from 4K and above (some 2K clips are also available).
Two things make them attractive to contributors, prices and processing. If you are a videographer that uses LOG or RAW then you can submit the unprocessed video files to the agency. They will do per clip all the trim, editing, color correction, and completion of titles and keywords. You will only have to fill in an excel file with some basic metadata.
What do they give you in return? Higher prices! Content is offered at different price tags. It might range from $500 to $1.500 (if exclusive) and you can net up to 50%, depending on your agreement.
On a personal note, since I am just starting with the agency, there is very good communication and feedback, which is not the norm these days with some other agencies! It’s too early to report about sales though. I also preferred to give a new touch to my content already uploaded to other agencies, by sending to KEYCUTstock my original LOG files, not the processed ones.
KEUCUTstock donates part of its profits to worldwide environmental organizations.
They offer a service that can up-convert videos even to the latest Dolby Vision and HDR10+ formats via their premium collection.
Many exclusive or not clips are curated and uploaded in Apple ProRes 4444 which might be a large file but since it’s a mastering quality codec with non-visible copy loss this makes it more appealing to high-end customers in the media market.
Gallerist
Gallerist is a new agency, based in Rome, Italy still expanding. They mostly accept photos but are also open to video uploads. To complete uploading, you have to go through some tabs to fill in the details of your seller account. Once your content is accepted, you get a relevant email. You can then create collections if you wish.
Artgrid
Artgrid is an agency founded by Artlist in 2019. What’s interesting about them is that clips are part of stories. Below each clip, you will find more under the same content, not what AI could suggest as visually similar to other agencies. You will find a non-exclusive content shot with expensive cameras like Arri or RED from top cinematographers.
Artgrid offers customers 3 subscription plans, all with 2 extra months free:
- Junior (HD only)
- Creator (4K-8K)
- Pro (4K-8K and RAW/LOG clips)
This means that you will have to be a member to find out more about the net earnings you might profit from. Artrgid mentions the following about revenue sharing to contributors:
Join the growing footage licensing market and tap into a whole new revenue stream.
Motion Array
Motion Array is another agency bought by Artlist in 2020. You join a non-exclusive marketplace with over 8 million subscribers that offer unlimited downloads.
For the initial evaluation, they just ask for 5 of your best works. Once registered as a contributor, Motion Array offers input and insights about your assets along with marketplace trends reports. You will be paid monthly for earnings over $50 on the 15th of the following month. If you don’t fill out a tax form, there’s going to be a 25% tax withholding rate. Otherwise, this varies according to various tax treaty rates.
Customers can pay for different unlimited creative assets plans, ranging from $18.75 to $29.99 a year. The royalty percentage you earn depends on the number of downloads you get and is split into levels (see below).
They also offer bonuses but you have to understand how the scheme works. Check out your account’s dashboard for more details.
Vecteezy
Vecteezy offers customers subscriptions for unlimited content downloads, with monthly or yearly plans. Yearly unlimited subscriptions (billed annually) cost $9. Monthly unlimited subscriptions cost $14. Only the pro plan offers unlimited downloads, cleared for commercial use, with legal protection and no attribution required. Customers can see an artist’s page and search between free and pro license content.
Raw Film
An agency that offers 4K-8K royalty-free video in RAW, shot on a RED camera. This means that the files are available in R3D RAW format, which naturally needs a color grade in post-production. Customers sign in with monthly ($67.15) or yearly ($703.80) subscription plans. The monthly plan is restricted to 50 clips while the annual is unlimited. A single clip is sold for $49.
Film Supply
An agency that represents filmmakers, directors, and production companies, actively promoting your content. A customer can also send Film Supply their concept idea and the agency will search for the relevant content. Their curation team offers personalized assistance. Rates for your content sold vary according to the use, from $99 to $5000 and you are paid monthly.
mediaCastpro
A new B2B marketplace that is advertised as a real marketplace for pros, not as a micro agency. As a contributor, you have 100 GB to upload your content. You can set your price but for now, the platform is only open to vendors. It will be open to buyers by December 2022. In return, the company gets a 25% - 30% commission only if a sale occurs. You then receive a monthly bank transfer. You can upload LOG or RAW files, or choose the option of exclusivity.
Donation-based agencies
Pixabay
Pixabay offers free stock videos to customers. This content is free for commercial use and no attribution is required. Below the offered clips you will often see links to sponsored videos from major stock agencies. As a contributor, you can upload non-exclusive content. You will have to register first to upload media. New users can only upload 7 items per 7 days. Upon inspection, the limit can gradually be raised to 30 and then 90, always per week. Artists can receive donations via PayPal. Forum users report that they got a dollar in every 2500 downloads, which just can’t be confirmed or checked if it’s the norm.
Pexels
Videos at Pexels are uploaded under the Creative Commons 0 license. This means that the contributor works under the public domain and the customer does not need to add any attribution. Customers can see how many views, likes, and downloads each clip has.
Changes to the “old” agencies
By “old” agencies we mean more popular agencies already discussed previously.
Adobe Stock Free Collection
After asking contributors to nominate free photos for their library earlier, Adobe asked contributors in October 2022 to nominate free videos. Adobe pre-selected eligible clips from your portfolio, offering 8 euros (or pounds and dollars) as compensation for each clip. These clips will remain in the free library for a year. Some contributors opted in all their eligible clips while others just thought that the compensation is not high and does not do justice to their work. There is no info yet if this is a one-time offer only.
Regardless of that, Adobe already offers subscriptions for their content. Here’s the new plan which translates to these earnings for contributors under 35% royalties. This simply means that a video can now only earn you $2.80.
Shutterstock
For some time now, Shutterstock offers contributors different earnings percentages based on levels. Levels are just a structure of the number of videos you sold per calendar year. This leveling resets on January 1st of each year when all contributors fall to Level 1 which earns you just 15%. There are cases that a video can sell as a clip pack just for $0.26 which is low. These sales are a result of specific web use only but are still low.
Envato Market
Videohive offers unlimited video downloads for a subscription price. What you might earn in the platform under the Subscriber Share Model is quite a long read in itself!
Mixkit
Envato also offers free content via Mixkit (founded in 2019). They are a marketplace that offers free stock content, under the umbrella of Envato Elements. Customers can download content for free. For more content options, links direct you to Envato, for an unlimited downloads subscription.
Other exclusive agencies
Cavan Images
Cavan Images is an interesting network that features a BrandCamp (custom content for brands). Pays 40% royalties for exclusive content with a $50 minimum payout.
RobertHarding
RobertHarding is a world famous stock photo agency known globally for inspiring travel and nature photography and video. Percentage known once you register. Files remain at their portal for sale exclusively for six months before they forward content to their partners.
Nimia
Mostly appealing to filmmakers. You have to fill in many technical details about your videos, but you get the chance for higher earnings.
Stocksy
A premium agency that sells at higher prices. You earn 50% on regular videos and 75% on extended licenses which might go as high as over $10.000 if a customer selects a 5 years Market Freeze.
Pond 5 exclusive
Pond 5 was always a popular microstock platform for videographers and there’s a write-up in Xpiks blog about it. If you will go exclusive, they offer 60% royalties and you can set your own prices. Participate in the Global Partner Program to have your content available by other sellers.
Special agencies
Vimeo
Currently on an invite-only basis for new contributors with higher offered selling prices. They are advertising that:
stock contributors will keep up to 70 percent of the revenue generated from their licensed clip
Alamy
Yes, Alamy offers videos again but you can’t upload any. They came under an agreement with Pond 5. Alamy selected some videos from any portfolios they wanted. We only found about 5% of our Pond 5 content mirrored to Alamy videos, mostly local editorials.
Overfligtstock
A drone exclusive only agency offering two interesting options to contributors, with a potential of higher earnings. Either you upload your finished content or you send it for their full service editing. We opted in for the second option and are having a very good personalized feedback and communication so far. Maybe soon we will see our work featured in one major Hollywood production too.
