• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, April 18, 2016

Betting that virtual reality video is the next big thing, VideoBlocks will begin offering stock footage to its subscribers and showing off the new offering at the NAB show in Las Vegas.

For VideoBlocks, the subscription-based stock footage site, the addition of 360-video clips seems significant in two ways: It will discover how much demand there is for the footage, and it will offer a place for VR shooters to market their wares. It’s put some sample pieces on YouTube.

VideoBlocks is linking up with partnering with VR industry leaders Ovrture, OFFHOLLYWOOD, Atmosphaeres, DeepVR, Subvrsive and 360Lab to provide VR content. The same way VideoBlocks offers other video and still photo shooters a way to get 100% commissions for their efforts, it will give creators the full $399 price it charges subscribers for monoscopic footages and $499 for 3D stereoscopic content. VideoBlocks’ makes out by selling memberships to the full service, for $99 year.

Greta Pittard,  head of content and contributor relationships for VideoBlocks, says they’ve been hearing from customers for months asking for VR content. “A lot of people are experimenting with it,” she says, and VideoBlocks supposes that some of the clips it sells will get edited into existing VR footage. “We think it will be pretty huge. Storytelling  is going to change in the future” with VR technology,

VideoBlocks founder Joel Holland claims the “mass creative class”--that is small video experimenters who use stock footage for YouTube videos or schoolwork--are main drivers of their business and more numerous than you might imagine.

So the idea of budget-priced stock footage, and now some of it in fully stitched-together 360 degree productions, ought to have appeal. At the same time, for providing a marketplace for the handful of VR creators, VideoBlocks hopes it’s at the right place at the right time.

VR seems likely to be all the buzz at NAB this week, as 4K was in years past. VideoBlocks claims to have been the first stock house to offer 4K video, seven years ago. The VR bandwagon is rolling too. At NAB, GoPro is reportedly set to introduce a new VR camera and launch GoPro VR, a Website/free app to showcase VR from around the world and help get it shared.

Since VideoBlocks started its Marketplace a little more than a year ago,  it’s assembled 1.5 million clips and paid out over $2 million in commissions. The speed at which that’s happened is telling; the first $1 million took eight months; the second $1 million took just four months more, Pittard says, and positions the company as an artist-friendly stock house.

Separately, VideoBlocks has a library of its own clips its 120,000 members can use without any additional cost.

pj@mediapost.com