Shutterstock, the stock photography firm, is branching out into music.
The New York-based company introduced Shutterstock Music on Tuesday, which lets companies pick background music for videos, commercials and podcasts, among other uses. The company's site lets you select music by genre, mood and tempo. Prices start at $49 for a standard license (broadcast audience cap: 1 million) to $419 (unlimited audience). The site now offers 60,000 tracks, thanks to a deal with Rumblefish, a music licensing warehouse.
[seealso slug="sly-and-the-family-stones-everyday-people"]
Wyatt Jenkins, VP of product for Shutterstock, says an established business already exists for linking deep-pocketed advertisers with well known artists' work (like the Rolling Stones catalog, for example). The small- to mid-size market is comparatively underserved.
"We saw a sweet spot in the market in terms of licensing," Jenkins says.
Shutterstock will vie with established companies in the category, including AudioMicro and Pond5.