Rightster Creates VideoSpring, a Licensing Site for Viral Videos

Tap into those sweet, sweet viral videos.

Imagine that your brand wants to use a bit of "Charlie Bit My Finger" in an ad. You'll need to reach out to the owner and secure usage rights, but that can be a pain with user-generated content. A new site, however, makes the process easy.

It's an idea that seems obvious in hindsight: Give brands a simple way to search for and license viral video content. The people at Rightster, an online video services company, today launched VideoSpring, which does exactly that. Rightster calls it "one of the world's largest collections of premium viral and user-generated content."

VideoSpring adds new content daily, and its curators focus on brand-safe content that has shown it can attract views. This isn't just a best-of-YouTube library: content comes from Vimeo, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Vine, as well as YouTube.

All the videos at VideoSpring are rights-cleared for commercial use, so there's no question about what's available. The site doesn't offer blanket licensing terms for all uses, but sends a quote based on the territory, media, and way in which the video will be used.

"We want to challenge the traditional stock-footage model and help brands leverage content that is already popular and inherently shareable in a digital era where consumers are also creators, and where content consumption online has skyrocketed," says Patrick Walker, Rightster's CEO. "Engagement and authenticity are more important than ever for brands and using user-generated content provides marketers with a powerful means to tell relatable and culturally relevant stories."

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net