Comments on: iStockaudio to launch. Buy and sell audio clips.

By: Gavroche

Gavroche — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:07:01 +0000

Right on Istock! This is a good and innovative way for unsigned artists to make some money, which is otherwise really hard to do.

By: iStockaudio

iStockaudio — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:04:34 +0000

I am a member of the iStockaudio team and thought that I would give a quick explanation of why we do not allow Performing Rights Organization (PRO) members to contribute music to iStock.

We would very much love to offer membership to those belonging to PRO’s. However, because we are a truly global site, we have to be cognizant of what would constitute Royalty Free across the globe. There are places in the world, which have very different laws governing what can be considered Royalty Free. For example, a piece of music might be released under U.S. law (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc), if it were sold in many European countries, it would be subject to cue sheet payments, despite the creator and their PRO having waived the need for these.

We are not trying to be prohibitive, we just need to ensure that we can offer a truly royalty-free collection. There are other sites who claim to be royalty-free, but they are not taking such precautions for their members, and thus can not be Royalty Free worldwide.

However there are still a few options for persons that belong to a PRO to be involved with iStockaudio. These regulations only strictly apply to musical audio, therefore we do have a custom agreement that PRO members can sign to contribute Sound Effects, Vocal Narrative, or other non musical audio to iStock. Further, PRO members can apply to contribute to our sister site pumpaudio.com which allows PRO members to contribute music.

If anyone had questions regarding iStockaudio, please feel free to contact the audio team at: onedeafear@istockphoto.com

By: Oliver Chesler

Oliver Chesler — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:46:40 +0000

Yeah I can’t join and either… bummer really.

By: Kent Sandvik

Kent Sandvik — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:34:49 +0000

I totally agree, most serious composers and audio content artists are members of ASCAP/BMI/SESAC and so on. If they restrict this, they will get a majority of those releasing material from amateur producers. Which is nice, their photo service is really based on amateur photos, as well.

Anyway, I can’t join. There are other similar services that don’t have restrictions concerning royalty memberships, fortunately.

By: Mr. Tunes

Mr. Tunes — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:33:32 +0000

one thing to note is they don’t allow you to submit if you’re a member of a performing rights organization like ascap and bmi. i’ve read the documents over a few times and i’m quite positive that i understand it correctly.

this might hinder the success of the program, because they are treating the organizations like they are unions, which they’re not. but it’s up to them what policies they want to make, and they probably have an ok reason for it.

i just feel that with the state the industry is in right now, we don’t need any more barriers to make an income.

By: Nikolozi

Nikolozi — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:30:54 +0000

This sounds interesting. Going to look into it. cheers