Stock footage: better to sell directly or use an agency?

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If you make stock footage, you have probably wondered how best to sell them. You might opt to sell the footage directly through a website of your own, or you might decide to go with a microstock agency. Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of both of these options.

Selling footage through a microstock agency

If you decide to sell your footage by relying on a microstock agency, you have several advantages:

✅ You don’t have to worry about making a website and managing it. By the way, it is neither easy nor cheap to make a website that can show watermarked footage and allow it to be purchased.
✅ You do not have to worry about issuing invoices with every sale you make, because the agency takes care of that. You only have to eventually issue invoices to the agency whenever you receive compensation, usually no more than once a month.
✅ You do not have to worry about the bureaucracy required to sell in foreign countries. Very often, in fact, if you sell in foreign countries you have to register your business with the authorities of the country and you have to worry about paying some taxes regularly, such as VAT, GST or sales tax.
✅ You don’t have to worry about finding buyers for your footage. In fact, it is the agency that is in charge of marketing and getting your footage purchased as well.

However, relying on a microstock agency also brings disadvantages:

❌ You cannot choose the selling price of your footage, since the agency usually chooses it.
❌ You only get a small percentage of what the agency collects for your footage. This percentage is usually between 15% and 40%.
❌ You may not be able to offer some videos for sale because they were rejected or not deemed suitable by the agency.

Selling footage directly without relying on an agency

If you decide to sell your footage directly, you have several advantages:

✅ You can decide the selling price of each video. If you contract with an agency, however, it is usually the agency that chooses the selling prices.
✅ You earn a very high percentage on each sale. If you contract with an agency, on the other hand, they usually keep a high percentage for themselves, which can be as high as 85% of the sale price.
✅ You can sell as many videos as you want without having to wait for approval. If you rely on an agency, on the other hand, footage is often approved several months after it is uploaded or is rejected, perhaps unfairly or without a clear reason.
✅ You can sell footage in any resolution or codec and of any length. If you contract with an agency, however, you usually have to meet very strict constraints.

However, selling videos directly also brings disadvantages:

❌ You need to worry about making and managing a website for selling your footage. Such a website would be very complex both to make and to manage.
❌ You have to worry about issuing an invoice or receipt for every sale you make. In the case of foreign buyers, you may also have to register with the tax authorities of other countries to pay taxes such as VAT, GST or sales tax.
❌ You need to worry about finding buyers for your footage by advertising your website or optimizing it to appear high in online searches.

In conclusion, how is it best to sell?

The choice between selling footage directly or relying on a microstock agency is, of course, subjective. If you are undecided, we recommend that you also consider a hybrid alternative between these two solutions: selling stock footage on mediaCastpro.

mediaCastpro is not an agency but rather a B2B marketplace where videographers can sell their footage. If you sell footage on mediaCastpro, you get both the benefits of selling through an agency and the benefits of selling directly. Indeed:

🌍 You don’t have to worry about setting up a website and managing it because you take advantage of mediaCastpro’s website, which is already widely used and proven by professionals around the world, and also includes state-of-the-art features.
📝 You don’t have to worry about issuing invoices with every sale you make, because mediaCastpro takes care of that. You only have to issue an invoice to the platform whenever you want to receive your compensation, at most once a month.
👔 You don’t have to worry about the bureaucracy required to sell in foreign countries, because mediaCastpro takes care of everything.
📣 You don’t have to worry about finding buyers for your footage, because mediaCastpro takes care of that. In fact, this platform is already known and used by videographers and video producers from all over the world.
💲 You can decide the selling prices of each video.
💰 You earn a very high percentage on each sale, between 70% and 75%.
🕑 You can sell as many videos as you want without having to wait for approval. In fact, footage uploaded to mediaCastpro can be purchased right away, without the need for prior approval.
📹 You can sell footage with (almost) any resolution or codec and of (almost) any length, because mediaCastpro places very few constraints. For example, you can even sell footage with a Log profile, multiple audio tracks, and up to 4 hours in length.

If the 25% or 30% fee retained by mediaCastpro still seems high to you, think about the costs you would have with a website of your own, including hosting, storage of video files, bandwidth, marketing, SEO, bank fees for virtual POS, etc. Probably, even selling the footage directly on your own website, you would have similar expenses.