Shutterstock acquires stock video marketplace Pond5 for $210m, including a library of 1.6m royalty-free music tracks – Music Business Worldwide

New York-based stock content firm Shutterstock has acquired Pond5, which claims to be the world’s largest online marketplace for royalty-free and editorial video.

Pond5’s customers include the likes of Netflix, Disney, NBC, BBC, Discovery Channel and The Wall Street Journal and its collection includes 30 million licensable video clips.

The company also runs a royalty-free stock music service, with a library of 1.6 million music tracks and 1.7 million sound effects assets, which Shutterstock now owns, following a $210 million cash deal to acquire Pond5.

The move bolsters Shutterstock’s positioning amongst stock image and video sites that also offer rights-free music.

Shutterstock rival Adobe, for example inked a deal in 2020 to carry rights-free music catalogs from both Epidemic Sound and Jamendo.

Getty Images, meanwhile, also hosts a royalty-free music library powered by Epidemic Sound.

The Pond5 deal follows Shutterstock’s buyout of AI-driven music platform Amper Music for an undisclosed sum in 2020.

Shutterstock, which generated revenues of $773.4 million in 2021, also owns a royalty-free music library called PremiumBeat, which it acquired in 2015.

Shutterstock offers a ‘Music unlimited’ subscription for its royalty free music library priced $16.60/month.

Founded in 2006, Pond5 operates using a network of over 115,000 active contributors across 180 countries. Pond5 says they upload over 2.5 million assets each month.

Shutterstock claims that its acquisition of Pond5 solidifies its position as “the premium destination for its global customer community for unique access to editorial content, video footage and music”.

Shutterstock also revealed today (May 11) that Paul Hennessy has been named as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2022.

Hennessy, a Company Board member since 2015, succeeds Jon Oringer, Shutterstock’s founder, who is currently serving as Interim Chief Executive Officer. Oringer will remain as Executive Chairman of the Board.

Shutterstock’s former CEO Stan Pavlovsky exited the firm earlier this month.

Prior to joining Shutterstock, Hennessy, served as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of Vroom, Inc., an online pre-owned car retailer.

“The acquisition of Pond5 provides immense value for our global customer base, with unparalleled access to one of the largest collections of editorial and commercial video content in the world.”

Jon Oringer, Shutterstock

“The acquisition of Pond5 provides immense value for our global customer base, with unparalleled access to one of the largest collections of editorial and commercial video content in the world,” said Jon Oringer, Interim Chief Executive Officer at Shutterstock.

“Our contributors will also benefit from having their work showcased on Pond5’s platform, expanding their portfolio to new customers.”

“Shutterstock is constantly reinventing, and this acquisition brings together powerful creators and exceptional content to ensure our customers have world class video, music and editorial collections at their fingertips.”

Jamie Elden, Shutterstock

Jamie Elden, Chief Revenue Officer at Shutterstock added: “With this acquisition, we are able to offer our customers across global agency, corporate, and media channels access to one of the largest premium archival collections in the industry.

“Shutterstock is constantly reinventing, and this acquisition brings together powerful creators and exceptional content to ensure our customers have world class video, music and editorial collections at their fingertips.”v

“We could not be more thrilled to join forces with Shutterstock to lead the video and music space.”

Tom Crary, Pond5

Tom Crary, CEO at Pond5 said: “We could not be more thrilled to join forces with Shutterstock to lead the video and music space.

“Our combined editorial offerings will be a competitive force in the market, and offer additional choice to customers with highly exclusive editorial video content.”Music Business Worldwide