Getting good, quality video for your Business needs is extremely hard, especially when starting out. To do it yourself, you need to hire out a professional, pay for their time, pay for their equipment, rent a space, pay for the people in the video, travel out to the location where the video is being shot at, and then wait for it to be processed and edited.
This all can take anywhere from a week, to several months depending on your Professional and their queue time – as well as production value – and can cost you quite a lot of money as well right off the bat to get it all done.
So because of this, not many businesses have people on hand to film things that they need, and thus turn to Stock Video options to get their needs.
This is great because already you have a Video that you can use for your need already made, but the problem then changes to whether or not you should use something that’s either free or something that’s Paid for and costs money to use for your business. It’s a tough question to answer, each with their own individual advantages and disadvantages to each.
So for that, let’s take a quick look at the two options to see what you can get out of them and what you’re working with exactly.
Free Stock Video Websites
Let’s assume you’re on a budget, and you need something quick, easy – and above all – cheap. What are you exactly getting when it comes to choosing to use Free Stock Video from the public domain?
Well, first, let’s discuss the positives.
The biggest upside to using Free Stock Video is the fact that it’s… well… free. This means that you don’t have to pay one cent to whoever either owns the Stock Video, or whether it’s in the public domain and free to use or not. This is perfect if you can find something that works perfectly with whatever project it is you’re working on.
However, keep in mind that there are actually quite a lot of disadvantages when it comes to choosing the Free Option.
For starters, you get what you pay for with the free option. Often times this means that the videos themselves are low quality, because either they’re extremely old and made on older equipment, or because the uploaded used subpar equipment to produce it; or in some cases the free option is the lowest resolution of a video that comes in higher resolutions for a certain price.
Whatever the reason for its quality, it doesn’t change the fact that often times you’re simply using something that might not look good on modern technology.
Another major disadvantage comes in the form of legality. If you’re using public domain Stock Footage that’s free and fair to use then that’s complete alright since that is what those are for. However, there are a lot of unscrupulous businesses out there that host content on their website to claim that they’re free to use and copyright free but in actuality aren’t because they’re hoping you’ll click on their ads or donate to them or something in a misguided attempt to keep them in business.
So it’s possible that if you download something for free, you might actually be using pirated Stock that you actually don’t own the rights to. This means that any place you use to get Free Video Stock HAS to be double checked to make sure it’s a reputable place to download from.
Paid Stock Video Websites
By contrast to the Free Stock Video option above, you get a lot more out of the Paid Stock Video option. Naturally, this is because it’s a case of “you get what you pay for”, and it comes with a lot of benefits that you do get with the free option, but a lot more of.
For starters, quality. With price comes actual quality content that you can use because a lot of Freelancers who post Stock video will be incentivized to actually put effort into it. So you won’t have low quality video to work with and you’ll actually get something that can come in 1080dpi or even 4k resolution as opposed to whatever tools the free options have on hand.
Not only that, but you’ll end up with a lot more variety. Contrary to popular belief, free options are severely limited because people actually do want to get paid for their hard work. Making videos take time and effort, and if you have it up for free you’re not going to be compensated for your video footage.
So more often than not, paid content can be as much as ten times, or even a hundred times what you get with free depending on where you go. Plus, pricing plans are extremely cheap for use as well depending on where you go. Some places like Storyblocks where you can buy stock video have a payment plan where you purchase a monthly fee for several uses a month, while others you can directly pay to the Freelancer for use of their offered stock (with the website taking a cut naturally). More Information about Storyblocks at IMHO Reviews.
The downside to it all though? The fact you have to pay for use, for starters. Some stock video CAN get quite expensive – especially from Freelancers who charge a premium and are in high demand. Plus if you need several videos for use, you can easily eat through your entire budget, especially if you need it in a high resolution
However that’s honestly really the only downside to purchasing Stock Video. Everything else that’s considered a downside with the free option is practically eliminated once you make a purchase.
As you can see the two choices really aren’t as equal as you might think they are. Of course, it all depends on what you’re choosing to work with. There’s no shame in the free option; it is a popular choice for a reason. However it just means that you have to do your work a little bit more to remain safe and legal, while the Paid option is quickly done without any extra steps involved – though it costs money.
All in all, as with any business decision, this one comes down to budget, and personal taste for what you need.
