Licensing clips and photos from Dissolve

Most of Dissolve’s stock footage and photo collections can be used commercially, royalty-free. Use our search filters to find what works for you. Find out more in our EULA. Questions? Contact us via live chat, email or phone: + 1 800 518 6748

• General definitions

  User -any individual, or employee/subcontractor of a corporation who either:

  1. downloads, purchases, manipulates, or saves any content from Dissolve.com,
  2. is involved within the creative process for which the content is being used,
  3. uses or accesses the content in any other form.

  Content - means the images, footage, films, videos, photographs, typefaces, music or other audio/visual representations recorded in any format that are owned or controlled by Dissolve and licensed to you.

  Indemnification - means a level of financial protection against a loss suffered by the company, team, or users due to the unlikely event of a license dispute. See the “Indemnification and guarantees” section below for more information.

  Release - a status assigned to content which indicates how that content can be used once licensed. See “About releases” section for more info about releases.

• About royalty-free licenses

  Royalty-free clips and photos may be used in an unlimited number of projects, worldwide, and in perpetuity.

  What you will need to determine your license:

  Medium - the method of communication which will be used to display the licensed content. Examples of this are advertising, television shows, or films.

  Number of users - Number of users refers to anyone who would have access to the clip at any stage. If you’re working on a project where you will be the only one with access to the clip/photo or the finished product that would be Standard, single user license. In all other cases, including working for a client, you would need an Extended or Premium license for unlimited users.

  Unlimited number of projects - This term refers to the amount of projects licensed content can be used in. In the case of prints, your amount of prints do not reset if you are using the content for another project. For example, if you have a 250K print license, once you use up the 250K prints, whether it is within one project or several, you must purchase another license to obtain more prints.

  Worldwide - This term refers to the geographical area or scale in which you can display licensed content. Other scales you may see are Local, Regional, or National.

  Perpetuity - indicates that the license purchased is forever or never ending.

  Go to the Royalty-free clips or Royalty-free photos sections below to see the specific licenses we have to offer.

• Royalty-free clips

  Commercial royalty-free license options

  Royalty-free clips marked “Released” and “No release required” may be used in an unlimited number of commercial or editorial projects, worldwide, in perpetuity, in accordance with this table.

  	Standard Included	Plus $49	Extended $99
  Users	Up to 5 users	Unlimited users, assign license to client	Unlimited users, assign license to client
  Medium	Social/web advertising, internal use	Standard mediums & all advertising	Plus mediums, digital templates & Film/TV shows
  Use in products for resale/templates	Not permitted	Not permitted	Permitted
  Use in stills in print	Up to 250K runs	Unlimited	Unlimited
  Indemnification	Up to 10x purchase price	Up to 10x purchase price	Up to $100K
  	Additional indemnification up to unlimited amounts may be available – contact us

  Product for resale refers to any commercial products in which the content is a major element or feature and wherein the content cannot be manipulated or unincorporated from the end use. This includes physical products such as postcards, mugs, apparel, posters, artwork etc., as well as digital media such as screensavers, apps, and video games. For more information on Product for Resale please contact our customer service team.

  Editorial royalty-free license options

  Royalty-free clips marked “No release on file” may be used in an unlimited number of editorial projects, worldwide, in perpetuity, in accordance with this table. To find out if a portion of a clip may be used commercially, contact us.

  	Standard Included	Plus $49	Extended $99
  Users	Up to 5 users	Unlimited users, assign license to client	Unlimited users, assign license to client
  Medium	Social/web advertising, internal use	Standard mediums & all advertising	Plus mediums, digital templates & Film/TV shows
  Use in stills in print	Up to 250K runs	Unlimited	Unlimited
  Indemnification	May be available contact us	May be available contact us	May be available contact us

• Royalty-free photos

  Royalty-free photos marked as released (model or property released, or both) or “No releases” may be used in an unlimited number of commercial or editorial projects, worldwide, in perpetuity, in accordance with this table.

  	Standard Included	Plus $9	Extended $29
  Users	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
  Use in print	Up to 250k runs	Unlimited	Unlimited
  Use in products for resale	Not Permitted	Not Permitted	Unlimited
  Indemnification	Up to 10x purchase price	Up to 10x purchase price	Up to $100K

  Photos marked as “Editorial” or “No releases on file” be used only in editorial projects, in accordance with the table above.

  Product for resale refers to any commercial products in which the content is a major element or feature and wherein the content cannot be unincorporated from the end use. This includes but is not limited to physical products such as; postcards, mugs, apparel, posters, artwork, calendars, etc. This also includes digital media such as but not limited to; electronic templates for websites, powerpoint templates, screensavers, software or mobile applications, video games, etc.

• Rights-managed definitions

  For Television:

  • Full frame, scripted network and pay cable, per episode: the entire frame of a scripted TV show that will air on the television networks, including pay cable subscription services.
  • Full frame, scripted basic cable, per episode: the entire frame of a scripted TV show that airs on basic television, that does not require a paid cable subscription.
  • Playback in one monitor, per 10s/30s/60s scene: a single screen within a TV show, for a specified time frame in seconds.
  • Driving plate, per angle: a driving plate/imposed screen within a TV show. Licensed per angle (i.e. front, back, drivers right, drivers left, passenger right, passenger left).
  • Online programming, per episode (webisodes, Netflix, etc.): an online streaming service or programming service. This includes coverage for online streaming subscription services such as Netflix, Crave, Hulu, HBOMax etc.

  For Feature Film:

  • Full frame, festival rights only: a film that will be exhibited at a film festival or industry showcase.
  • Full frame, direct-to-DVD: a film that goes directly onto a DVD disc.
  • Full frame, theatrical documentary: a documentary film that will be featured in large scale commercial movie theatres/cinemas.
  • Theatrical: a non-documentary film that is to be screened within commercial movie theatres/cinemas.
  • Independent: small scale theatrical release, picked up by local, or independent movie theatres/cinemas outside of the major film studio system.
  • Mainstream: larger scale theatrical release, picked up by major motion picture exhibition movie theatres.
  • Playback in one monitor, per 10s/30s/60s scene: a single screen within your feature film, for the specified time frame in seconds.

  For Advertising:

  • All Media (broadcast, non-broadcast and new media): a film that will be exhibited at a film festival or industry showcase.
  • Web and digital advertising: a film that goes directly onto a DVD disc.
  • Small Audience (worldwide, targeting less than 10 million web views): a smaller scale audience where the advertisement is expected to gain less than 10 million hits globally.
  • Large Audience (worldwide, targeting more than 10 million web views): a larger scale audience where the advertisement is expected to gain more than 10 million times globally.
  • Mobile or in-game: viewership scope gained from usage of a clip or photo within ads featured in mobile apps and/or electronic video games.
  • TV Commercial: a television commercial that is broadcasted on a TV basic cable service and/or a TV paid cable service.
  • PSA: a public service announcement, or any message aired without charge for the general public.
  • Network on-air promo: an aired promotional message, such as sponsorship front-ends.
  • Point-of-purchase: a situation where another paid product is involved in order to view the clip or photo. This can include a variety of things such as usage of a clip on a gas pump screen, billboards and/or pre-screenings before an in-theatre movie.
  • Feature film promotion: promotion of a feature film. Examples include movie trailers.

  For Business:

  Choose one of the following where you intend to use your clip and where it will be broadcasted.

  • Brand or marketing video: a video or campaign showcasing a company’s mission statement, products and/or services with the overall intent of unpaid promotion or unpaid marketing. This does not cover advertising.
  • Corporate video (internal use): internal usage where only employees and stakeholders of the company are able to view and have access to the clip and photos, i.e, internal presentations, training videos, company overview, internal documents, quarterly reports etc.
  • Museum or institutional installation: media installment that is being shown in a museum, art gallery or installation.
  • Trade show floor or booth display: media installment that is being displayed to the public at a specific event such as, trade conventions, conferences or sales events.
  • Video game: electronic screen within different entertainment interfaces including consoles, arcades and/or computers.
  • Music video: a short film and/or promotional video that primarily focuses on a song or music album.

  Other Definitions:

  • Local: scale of a single specified town or city
  • Regional: scale of a single province, or state
  • National: scale of a single country
  • Worldwide: all countries and territories throughout the world
  • Life of Project: Time-frame of the project. Covers the time-frame of usage for the entirety of the project that it is initially licensed for.
  • 1 Year: A calendar year time-frame that a project will run in comparison to the life of the project. Oftentimes 1-year licensing is more relevant for a TV commercials that run for a shorter time-period vs other forms of media that will be aired in a longer capacity (i.e. TV shows, documentaries, advertisements posted on social channels, etc.). Dissolve does not offer licensing terms shorter than 1 year.
• About rights-managed licenses

  Rights-managed (RM) clips or photos may be licensed for individual projects, using a pricing calculator that considers medium, usage, scale, and duration.

  • Medium - the method of communication which will be used to display the licensed content. Examples of this are advertising, television shows, or films.
  • Usage - a subset of medium which refers to the exact way the licensed content will be displayed. Examples of usages are online advertising, playback, or theatrical.
  • Scale - refers to the geographical area in which you can display licensed content. You may choose Local, Regional, National, or Worldwide.
  • Duration - indicates how long the licensed content can be used for within that project. You may choose 1 year or Life of Project.

  See the table below for examples of the most commonly used Rights-Managed Licenses.

  Rights-managed license options

  Licenses	Television	Feature Film	Advertising	Business
  Most common uses	Scripted television shows, playback, or online programming (Netflix).	Film festivals and documentaries.	Paid social ads and TV commercials.	Non-paid social ads, trade show displays, and music videos.

  Rights-managed indemnification options

  	Standard Included	Extended $99
  Indemnification	Up to 10x purchase price	Up to $100K
  	Additional indemnification up to unlimited amounts may be available – contact us

  You may request usage history of rights-managed clips or photos. Exclusive rights are also available, whereby we remove the clip or photo from our collection. Contact us

• About releases

  Any clip or photo you license, whether royalty-free or rights-managed, also has a release status, which defines how the item may legally be used, based on permissions granted by the people shown or the owners of properties shown.

  Most clips and photos on our site may be used in almost any commercial or editorial context, including commercials for online or broadcast use, documentary or journalistic videos, feature-length and short films, explainers and corporate videos, websites and digital media, video games and software applications, and designs, publications, and websites.

  Editorial clips and photos feature recognizable models, buildings, locations, brands, and trademarks for which we do not have releases. Usage for editorial clips and photos are at the discretion of the licensee, as Dissolve does not provide any indemnification on editorial clips or photos.

• Release statuses

  No releases - There are no recognizable faces, buildings, or locations in the clip/photo or any that do appear do not need releases therefore it can be used within any commercial or editorial project.

  Model and property released - We have all necessary model and property releases for the clip or photo, therefore it can be used within any commercial or editorial project.

  Model released - We have all the necessary model releases for the clip or photo. Usage is the same as above except in cases where there are recognizable buildings, locations, brands, or trademarks, in these cases the clip or photo can only be used in editorial projects.

  Property released - We have all the necessary property releases for the clip or photo. Usage is the same as above except in cases where there are recognizable models, in these cases the clip or photo can only be used in editorial projects.

  Editorial - We do not have the necessary model or property releases for this clip or photo. Usage for editorial clips and photos are at the discretion of the licensee, as Dissolve does not provide any indemnification on editorial clips or photos.

  No releases on file - No releases have been provided for this clip or photo, however there may be commercial uses available for the content or for parts of it. Contact our customer service team to see if it is suitable for your project.

• Indemnification and guarantees

  Indemnification Levels and Correlating License to Purchase:

  	Standard royalty-free license	Plus royalty-free license	Extended royalty-free license
  Footage idemnification and guarantee	Dissolve’s total aggregate liability is limited to 10 times the purchase value.	Dissolve’s total aggregate liability is limited to 10 times the purchase value.	Provide up to $100,000 indemnification where specified.
  	Higher indemnification amounts may be available by contacting us

  Indemnification is not provided for “Editorial” clips licensed through the web site, however, it may be available by contacting us.

  Coverage begins on the date of purchase of the indemnification.

• General licensing Q & A

  I want to purchase a clip or photo for personal use, which license do I need?

  If the clip or photo you are looking to purchase is under a Rights-Managed (RM) license, RM clips or photos are licensed for individual projects using a pricing calculator that considers medium, usage, scale and duration of projects. For personal use, you can license under “internal.”

  In regards to Royalty-Free (RF) photos or clips, the Standard license for footage is our single-user license for personal use. For a photo, you can continue with the single-user license that is included with our standard photo licenses.

  I work for a TV show and need to license a clip, which license do I need?

  Dissolve supplies TV/ Film riders which provide injunctive relief for productions that need it.

  If this is something you are interested in, please contact us and one of our team members can assist you. When reaching out, please provide detailed information including the level of indemnification your production requires.

  What is the difference between the Standard license and Plus license?

  Our Standard royalty-free license is a single-user license and covers web/social use, and internal corporate use with indemnification up to 10x purchase price.

  Our Plus license allows for unlimited users and in any medium, in unlimited projects worldwide, in perpetuity with indemnification up to 10x purchase price.

  How do I find the right license for my needs?

  Royalty-free licensing options

  Rights-managed licensing options