iStockaudio to launch. Buy and sell audio clips.

Posted June 26th, 2008 by Oliver Chesler
Filed Under: sounds

I really find iStockphoto to be a terrific site for finding photos, graphic elements and videos to use in commercial projects. Do you remember my post, “Use iStockphoto.com for album covers and more.“? iStock is about to launch iStockaudio.

For years now, iStock has changed how the world looks. It’s time to change how it sounds. Welcome to iStockaudio. Starting a little later on today, we will begin accepting submissions from musicians, composers, recording engineers and audio artists. We want music, spoken word tracks, sound effects, ambient loops, wild noises, field recordings – we want it all. - www.istockphoto.com/audio

If you want to become a content producer for iStock and sell audio by earning a royalty on clips sold, now is the perfect time to sign up. To become a contributor you have to pass an evaluation. It’s a simple “test”; you just send in 3 samples of your work. For more details and some very important info if you have a publishing deal: click here

Download the offical press release PDF “iStockphoto Seeks Submissions for New Microstock Audio Offering”: click here

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6 Responses to “iStockaudio to launch. Buy and sell audio clips.”
  1. Nikolozi Says:
    June 26th, 2008 at 5:30 am

    This sounds interesting. Going to look into it. cheers

  2. Mr. Tunes Says:
    June 26th, 2008 at 10:33 am

    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.

  3. Kent Sandvik Says:
    June 26th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

    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.

  4. Oliver Chesler Says:
    June 29th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

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

  5. iStockaudio Says:
    July 9th, 2008 at 9:04 am

    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

  6. Gavroche Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 5:07 pm

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