Is Artgrid Worth It For Stock Video? - Steven Litton

Is Artgrid worth it? Is stock video in general worth it? My answer will always be yes and there are many different reasons as to why

The perception of stock footage

Stock images and stock footage get a bad reputation, with the perception of it mostly being business handshakes and cheesy scenes. Artgrid really breaks that perception with the footage not only being excellent quality but cinematic at the same time. The key to stock imagery or stock footage is using it tastefully, it shouldn’t stand out, it should complement the work you have already done and look seamless.

Using Stock Footage In Promotional Videos

Artgrid really earns its way into my work toolkit for promotional videos. A lot of clients come to me with just some images and no video and no time or budget to shoot any. Artgrid allows me to make the videos much more engaging by taking the more generic topics in the video and using stock footage. Very often these are topics that would be very hard, if not impossible for me to shoot, especially on a budget. Video will always be more engaging than an animated photo, even for generic topics.

Why use stock footage?

I find Artgrid footage perfect for any generic b-roll that I don’t have time to shoot. A good example of this is timelapse, clients love it but I rarely have time to shoot a location-specific timelapse, so I will take something from stock that fits in nicely.

Artgrid was a godsend during Covid, I was unable to shoot new footage for clients but I was able to still create fresh content using a mix of archive footage and stock video. This created some challenges but allowed me to get creative with how I used stock footage.

Using it as a tool to gain clients

I use both Artgrid and Artlist and I will always mention that when quoting for work. Depending on the scale of the project and the way the payment is calculated I will work it into the quote. I will provide the client links and mention that any music or video sourced from the stock libraries will be included in the overall quote.

Stock footage and audio can be expensive, so it is a big benefit to the client, not having to pay for that separately and navigate the minefield of licensing assets. Many clients are shocked at how much licensing stock footage costs, especially if you need a lot of it.

How much is Artgrid?

Artgrid has a variety of plans, I use the 4K creator plan which at the time of writing costs $40 (£28) a month. They have an HD plan at $25 (£18) a month or a Pro RAW/LOG plan at $50 (£36) a month and that includes footage up to 8K log using the ProRes codec. I personally like the 4K tier because although I supply mostly HD content, it means I have 4K clips when I need them and for HD projects I can crop into the footage to make it work with titles and graphics. There are times when I would like a little more flexibility in the colour grade for stock footage but this more of an edge case for the projects I am working on. If things were to change I think I would move up to the next tier because having that control over the footage is useful. All plans are paid annually but you can trial ArtGrid completely free and you can get 2 months FREE on an annual plan using this link with a 14 day money back guarantee.