Multimedia Download Subscriptions: 4 Best Plans Compared

For several years, the stock media industry has seen a growing demand for media content other than still images: stock footage and stock audio are the most relevant. Furthermore, today’s content creators need access to all these media formats simultaneously. 

To fulfill this demand, this year, several stock photo agencies rolled out multimedia download subscriptions, plans that let you download a combination of photos, videos, and music tracks with one same subscription for a fixed monthly fee. 

Multimedia plans save you time and money in all the visual resources you need for your creative endeavors, and today we’ll look at the best offers out there. 

Shall we?

AgencyBest Price for Multimedia PlanWhat's IncludedPrice per Download
Shutterstock$49 per month25 credits for downloads$1.96 per image
$15.68 per video
$7.84 per music track
iStock$99 per month25 downloads$3.96 per image, video, or audio file
Adobe Stock$49.99 per month25 standard assets or 3 HD videos$1.99 per image – $15.99 per HD video
Canva Pro$9.99 per monthUnlimited downloads: images, videos, musicThe more you download, the less each asset costs

Best Multimedia Download Plans

Below we compiled the best multimedia subscription offers in the industry from reputable stock photo sites. 

Each of these services has its pros and cons, so we recommend you have a detailed look to see which meets your needs. 

iStock Premium+Video

Yay
  • All assets cost the same (one download)
  • Rollover of unused downloads
Negatives
  • Slightly higher price points (but has the cheapest prices for videos and music tracks)
www.istockphoto.com homepage

The renowned stock photo agency iStock now includes a multimedia subscription that lets you get images, videos, sound effects, and music using the same download plan. It’s called Premium+Video and gives you access to the entirety of iStock’s catalog: images, illustrations, and videos, both in the Essential (budget-friendly content) and the Signature (exclusive stock images, videos, and music) collections. Additionally, it gives you access to a stock audio library from its partner Epidemic Sound, so you can get all the media needed to complete any project. 

There are three volume tiers, each with different price points: 

  • 10 downloads/month: $149 month-to-month or $99 per month with an annual plan
  • 25 downloads/month: $229 month-to-month or $165 per month with an annual plan
  • 50 downloads/month: $349 month-to-month or $265 per month with an annual plan

All media files are under a Standard Royalty-Free license and are suitable for commercial use to promote your business, your professional services or simply showcase your creativity. The iStock license has one of the broadest usage coverage in the industry, too.

istock premiumvideo plans > Multimedia Download Subscriptions: 4 Best Plans Compared

With a Premium+Video subscription, you can download any asset you need from iStock, and one asset equals one download, regardless of the media format and resolution. This is a great advantage that cuts down costs by a lot: imagine that you can download a 4K exclusive video for only $5.30! 

Another highlight is that they enable the rolling over of up to 250 unused downloads from one month to the next, so you don’t miss out if you don’t get to use up all your downloads in one month. Remember that this feature is only valid while your subscription is active. If you have an annual subscription, auto-renew activated, or otherwise, make sure to renew your plan before it expires manually. 

The greatest news is that you can enjoy this multimedia plan at the lowest price ever with our special iStock promo code, which has 15% off for all iStock subscription plans!

Adobe Stock Multi-Asset Plans

Yay
  • Includes 3D graphics
  • Bonus discount for Premium content and 4K videos (not included in plans)
Nay
  • Only includes HD videos
www.adobe.com homepage

Adobe Stock is Adobe’s native stock media service, available as a stand-alone as well as integrated into Creative Cloud applications. It has high-quality stock photos, illustrations, 3D graphics and stock music (what they call standard assets), and stock videos in its catalog. More recently, it started offering multi-asset subscription plans. 

The multi-asset downloads are enabled for the higher three out of their four volume-tiered plans, and the pricing is as follows: 

  • $69.99 a month or  $49.99/mo with annual commitment: 25 standard assets or 3 HD videos
  • $99.99 a month or $79.99/mo with annual commitment: 40 standard assets or 6 HD videos
  • $249.99 a month or $199.99/mo with annual commitment: 750 standard assets or 25 HD videos

Subscription downloads come with a Standard Royalty Free license coverage, enabling use for commercial purposes –marketing, advertising, branding, etc.–.

adobe stock multi asset plans > Multimedia Download Subscriptions: 4 Best Plans Compared

These memberships have reasonable prices, an HD video can cost you just $7.99 apiece, and a photo or 3D asset can be as little as 26 cents. While they do not include access to 4K video downloads, they do entitle you to a 20% discount on 4K footage and Premium assets and Enhanced licenses, a nice bonus. Another good addition is the rollover of unused credits, which varies depending on which volume plan you select.

Adobe Stock is an excellent choice if you work with Adobe tools. And best of all, you can try it out for free, for the smallest volume plan, for 30 days, with the Adobe Stock free trial!

Canva Pro

Yay
  • Unlimited downloads
  • Includes premium design and creative features
Nay
  • Content can only be used in designs made in Canva
www.canva.com homepage

Canva is a smart, user-friendly design platform with wholly-owned stock media resources (photos, illustrations, graphics, videos, audio), free and paid, to use in your designs. 

Canva Pro, the paid membership for small businesses and independent professionals, gives you access to premium features and an extensive catalog of premium media assets. This is effectively a multimedia download deal; the best is that it gives you unlimited downloads. It costs: 

  • $12.99 per month or $119.99 per year for one person 
canva pro multimed downloads > Multimedia Download Subscriptions: 4 Best Plans Compared

All images, videos, and audio files downloaded with Canva Pro are suitable for commercial use. Still, one crucial highlight is that you can only use these assets within designs or projects made with Canva (you can’t use the files stand-alone). However, the fact that you can use as many photos and videos as you wish (so you don't have to worry about unused downloads or allowance limits) makes it one of the most affordable options. 

Anyone who wants to design beautiful visuals and compelling videos but lacks the skills to do it with professional tools can benefit from Canva Pro and its unlimited multimedia subscription. And you can now enjoy it for free and for an extended time: our exclusive Canva Pro free trial gives you 45 days of free and full access to Canva Pro!

Who Should Buy a Multimedia Plan

At the above-listed sites, multimedia subscriptions are available to all customers, but depending on your creative needs, investing in one of these plans can make more sense. 

Naturally, multimedia download plans are the perfect fit if you are a multimedia creative and/or constantly use all kinds of media formats in your projects. 

Say that you need to improve your business's online presence; you need to push out social media posts with beautiful images, Instagram reels, and YouTube videos. What if you need to make a pitch presentation video for a business meeting? It is great to have it sorted to download high-quality photos, videos, and music whenever required. 

Equally relevant, an all-in-one stock media subscription is more convenient when you have a restricted budget.

Like all subscription offers, these plans significantly reduce the per-download price –compared to buying on-demand– and have a fixed monthly or annual fee that helps you keep your accounting under control. When your pockets aren’t deep enough to cover separate subscriptions – which would give you maybe more downloads of each and for a lower per-item rate, but they’d cost a lot more than a single multimedia download plan. 

See it this way: It makes more sense to spend 50 bucks a month to download photos and the occasional video and music track than paying $30 for an image-only subscription plus $50 each time you need a stock footage clip. 

Who is Better Off with a Single-Media Subscription

There are a few creatives that don't really get much out of a multimedia download plan and should stick to one-media-only subscriptions instead.

If you use stock photos almost exclusively and only need video or audio content rarely, you will get more for your money with an image subscription.

Those are cheaper than multimedia ones, and there is no point in paying extra for the chance to download videos if you almost never will.

And if you need large amounts of new images and videos constantly, then investing in an image subscription and a video subscription is actually more convenient in the end because you pay less per item and you get the right number of downloads to meet your creative needs.

So what do you think, are multimedia download plans for you? 

Ivanna Attié
Ivanna Attié

I am Content Manager, Researcher, and Author in StockPhotoSecrets.com and Stock Photo Press and its many stock media-oriented publications. I am a passionate communicator with a love for visual imagery and an inexhaustible thirst for knowledge. Lucky enough to enter the wonderful world of stock photography working side-by-side with experienced experts, I am happy to share my research, insights, and advice about image licensing, stock photography offers, and the stock media industry with everyone in the creative community. My background is in Communication and Journalism, and I also love literature and performing arts.

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