Oct 16, 2020
For talented creators, the more videos you can produce, the better.
That mindset is a driving force for creators, whether you’re a blogger, a musician, an artist, or a woodworking cabinetmaker. But it’s also very true for filmmakers and YouTubers.
Video production is expensive and time consuming — two of the biggest obstacles between you and creating more content. That means you can get a lot of benefit out of tools that simplify (and even improve) the type of content you make.
You know why royalty free music matters. And even if you don’t use them, you understand why designers and businesses rely on free stock image.
But there is another resource out there that can help you add some extra style and production value to the videos you’re already making, all without requiring much extra editing: Video loops.
Let's explore how a seamless loop can be used for your YouTube videos or other types of brand content.
Common Uses For Looped Video
There is nothing overly complicated about video loops. By definition, they are short stock video clips that are edited to flow seamlessly on repeat.
One major use case for video loops is as a video background. Historically, that use case made people think video loops are only a tool for site web developers, but the truth is they’re pretty much everywhere now and becoming more common.
Stock video has grown as an industry, both as a marketplace and also as a source of revenue for filmmakers with unused footage. That means different uses of free stock video, like video loops, have become easier to access, higher quality, and more affordable.
Many creators can benefit from video loops, motion backgrounds, and other uses of stock video. These particular tools can make your job easier in a variety of ways, allowing you to spend more of your time focused on making the content you enjoy most.
Think about this scenario. Let’s say you have a project for a client, and they’re requesting some specific footage for a project...except you don’t have ready access to a location that matches their request.
Or maybe you’re a vlogger and want to make a cool intro montage, but you don’t love how some of your shots look together. It’s a common issue for people with limited resources for their videos, which can be especially true of newer content creators.
Both of these situations are times where stock video could ride in like a knight in shining armor.
It’s not an instant fix for all of your production and editing woes, but having access to stock footage can help you finish projects on time and on budget, or let you experiment with footage you might not be able to get on your own.
Licensing Video Content
An added benefit of stock video’s availability is that it comes in a variety of forms. One of the things people enjoy about stock media is that it’s royalty free, meaning you won’t end up paying recurring fees to another creator just because you used something they made years ago.
At Soundstripe, we’ve created a lot of resources to help creators understand how licensing and royalty free content works. (...)
- What Every Creator Should Know About Video Licensing
- Music Licensing and 8 Other Mistakes New YouTubers Make
- 12 Music Licensing Where Creators Can Find Great Songs
The legal side of media licensing can be an intimidating topic, but if you’re interested in using someone else’s work, you’ll need to take the necessary steps to protect yourself from copyright claims, DMCA strikes, etc.
In other words, royalty free video loops aren’t that different from royalty free music, which is something that most content creators are familiar with these days.
To use stock video footage, you are still paying for a piece of media that will add to the value of your videos. And since that thing is coming from another creator, you need to get their permission (and documentation that proves you have it).
That’s where licensing comes into play. And that’s why royalty free video loops have become pretty much the only way of getting high-quality stock footage to use in your projects.
Finding Royalty Free Video Loops
Royalty free video loops follow the same rules as other copyrighted content. Once you find a particular video you want to use, you’ve got two options: go through a stock video platform, or reach out to the filmmaker and start negotiating a licensing agreement.
The good news for you is that royalty free video is easy to manage. Sure, that process will require a different type of license than a song or image does, but the actual steps of getting content are the same as finding royalty free music from Soundstripe or images from Shutterstock.
Most marketplaces don’t force you to worry about negotiating with filmmakers directly. The entire process has been streamlined. After all, stock video is supposed to save you time and energy — the only difficult part should be choosing which awesome video loop you want to use.
And so, these days, all you have to do is find a great stock video library and get browsing.
Once you find the shot you want (establishing shots of a city, aerial footage of a beach, a barista making lattes, etc.), choose the resolution you want, and add it to your cart. At Soundstripe, we handle the legal stuff for you, but we still include proof of your license with each video you download.
Here’s the kicker: Soundstripe doesn’t only offer single-use purchases. Sure, you can license a single video if you want. But you can also choose to join a subscription service, which provides unlimited access to our entire catalog of stock video.
(And yes, our stock footage library includes enough royalty free video loops to cover all of your creative needs for the foreseeable future.)
Soundstripe’s media library extends beyond stock video too. You can also choose subscription plans to royalty free music, or sound effects, or whatever combination works for you. Our mission is to keep creatives creating, and that means providing the resources you need to keep doing the things you love.
So yes, it really is that easy to find royalty free video loops of high-quality footage. And they can become just the right piece you need to set the perfect scene, fill out your next vlog update, or give your client the exact shot they want to see.
Further Reading
If you'd like read up more on how to find loop videos (as well as explore all the categories, filters and text code which you can add into your loop video rights), we have plenty of resources and helpful tips below.