Pond5 has announced today the launch of the Pond5
Public Domain Project, ( the first library of free public domain content designed specifically for media makers. The initial collection includes 10,000 video clips, 65,000 photos, thousands of sound recordings, and hundreds of 3D models.
“For years, all of this amazing public domain content has been locked up and inaccessible to the average media maker,” said Pond5 cofounder and CEO Tom Bennett. “They deserve better. Our Public Domain Project empowers media makers to take advantage of this incredibly rich library that’s rightfully theirs.”
The collection includes 5,000 never-before-seen video clips, digitized directly from the National Archives outside of Washington D.C. Other video highlights include George Meliés’ 1902 film A Trip to the Moon, along with footage from the 1952 Helsinki Olympic games, the World Wars, NASA rocket launches, and the International Space Station. Speeches from historical figures like Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy can be heard in the collection’s recordings, along with full performances from composers like Beethoven and Chopin.
Designed especially for media creators, the library’s enriched, standardized metadata allows users to easily search for content via aesthetic and technical qualities. In addition, footage sequences have been broken down into individual shots, saving video editors countless hours of work. Everything is instantly shareable and embeddable in social media and throughout the Web.
Based in New York, with offices in Geneva, Switzerland and Prague, Czech Republic, Pond5 recently raised $61 million from Accel Partners and Stripes Group. It currently employs a global team of over 80 people.