Pond5 offers all content Royalty-Free under our Content License Agreement, allowing worldwide, perpetual use across all media.
Please see our section regarding Digital Only Licenses for exceptions to our all-media license.
Photo Credit: By: DC_Studio | African Video Editor Working With Footage And Sound
When you purchase a Royalty-Free license from Pond5, you are buying the rights to use a piece of media. Pond5 allows you to purchase a one-time fee license enabling you to use the content in your productions as many times as you want, in perpetuity (forever)!
Royalty-free differs from other licensing models like rights-managed, where you are required to pay a fee each time you use the media, often resulting in restrictive usage permissions and potentially costly residual licensing fees.
For example, imagine you want to purchase a clip to include in a commercial. With a rights-managed model, you pay a customized fee for that specific use case. If you decide to showcase the commercial again a year from now, you’d need to work with your content provider to pay for a new license to distribute the content.
Alternatively, if you license Pond5’s royalty-free content for your commercial, you pay a one-time fee for the right to use the content in your production. You can reuse the content however you like, for as many times as you like, forever. (Remember, we have enhanced licensing options that allow for additional indemnity that you may want to consider, depending on your use case).
As a kind note, music tracks that have been previously registered with a Performance Rights Organization, may be susceptible to further royalty payments if used for broadcast on television or radio. A Performance Rights Organization or a "PRO" is an agency that ensures songwriters and publishers are paid for the use of their music by collecting royalties on behalf of the rights owner. For more information on how PRO Tracks work at Pond5, please see our article here: PRO Tracks and Cue Sheets.
To get started searching for world-class media that can help bring your story to life using Pond5 content, we welcome you to check out our article: How Do I Search For Media?
Still need help? Contact us!