I’ve admitted it before: I have a crush on Animoto. The service does one thing really, really well. It turns photos into slideshows, with music, instantly.
The site has done extremely well. As competitors like Slide and RockYou have wandered off to create countless useless Facebook applications, Animoto has stuck to creating really cool photo slideshows. As of August, Animoto had 250,000 users in 200 countries and 4 million or so videos have been viewed 50 million times.
The basic service is free and users can create videos up to 30 seconds long (that lets Animoto sidestep copyright mess on the songs). If you pay $30 a year or $3/video the time restriction is removed. Videos can be watched on the site, embedded on other sites, or downloaded in MP4 format for free. Users can also have a DVD printed and sent to them for $20, or download a high res (864×480) version in MP4 or ISO format for $5. Today they are also releasing a customized link that lets users easily view videos on their iPhone.
And now users can add text to videos. Not captions or subtitles, but really slick movie-like text. The video below demonstrates it:
To date they’ve taken two rounds of financing, including an undisclosed amount from Amazon in May 2008.
can be more perfect that that?
NOOOOOOOO
Well actually yes, it could! I use Muvee and they do the same sort of things have a web and desktop (windows) version, let you pick your own theme, highlight parts of the photo (on the desktop) and best of all and the real thing these guys are missing, they do Video as well!
Image this with video included as one of the slides. Magic!
Don’t get me wrong, Animoto are fantastic too. But you asked the question!
Molly
yes i agree with you now.
If i take a moment to look close to this aplics, i have to admint it.
How many paying customers do they have? Yet another ‘cool’ product with zero chance of making any real revenue written about on TC. Good job.
Dave, I also have to disagree! I signed up for a one year all-pass a $30, because 30 sec videos are simply too short (so they have at least one paying customer
). I’ll be using it for making personal portfolio slides and for clients, and I believe artists and photographers will love animoto (if they don’t already do).
Labor intensive product/service + niche + free option = failure. Great, cool product for artists, no question. But can they appeal to a wide audience that is willing to pay when there are like products that are free (including their own)?
Yeah, I know a few “lay” people that pay for Animoto, specifically because they cannot easily create this on their own. I pay for it cause the algorithm they have that makes photos come to life is cool, easy to use and foolproof. I love it, and have since March 2008. I think they will increasingly have little problem of getting people to at least pay for the cheapest option. It’s worth it. It’s harder to get people to pay for a service when you don’t offer a free option that gives them access to features – limited though they be. It allows you to preview and KEEP what you create. A trial will usually not allow you to save or keep creations, and Animoto does better than a trial with their free options. Thankfully for them a taste is not often enough…
Someone commented on Arrington’s last post on these guys post they have a conversion rate of over 10%. If that’s true… hell, I’d take that over 99% of crap business models out there any day.
@dave I think you’re wrong. It’s not labor intensive, they have code to do the editing for them (maybe you didn’t know that).
I believe the product has value, especially for small/medium businesses (even more if there is any way to take the Animoto logo off)
Dave : i strongly disagree but you’re asking the right question.
I was just wondering if anyone can give me some other competing websites? I am looking for a basic service like this but with the possibility to make longer slide shows than 30 seconds for free.
The site “MagToo” can be used for wide audience. It’s all free and upload is unlimited….try http://www.magtoo.com. If you are a facebook, mysace, hi5 user, try “MagShow” applicaton. It provide same service.
Thanks. from CY
Sorry CY – I think Animoto is still way cooler than your site. Yours is pretty much like a souped-up slide show like Slide, the images aren’t really synchronized to the music like Animoto.
Also I think it’s pretty funny that you’re using the TechCrunch comments section as a forum to push your product (you’ve done it twice in this one entry). This should be an honest forum by honest users and genuine tech fans to give their opinions about new products, not for you to spam about your own service.
hell, I’d pay 3 bucks to make a slideshow that looks that good from time to time.
Looks like a nice service, I like.
Thanks
Hi,
I looked for the new “text” feature in animoto and could not find it… It is released yet?
Their blog says its being released 9:30am ET. What blue balls.
well, 3$ sounds good. I had not checked out their prices, but I was not looking for myself, I was looking for a community… would take too long to explain but thanks
Animoto kicks some serious Depression ass by executing religiously on their core competency, which happens to be a talent people will pay for. They’re also a tight crew of young people having fun doing what they love. Winning combo. Check out co-founder Tom Clifton demo’ing Animoto at our October NY Video 2.0 meetup — http://www.nyvideo.org.
Ary,
I was wondering the same thing. I can’t find that feature. You can always take a screen capture of text you’ve written and add that to your Animoto video. I’ve done that before.
You people are cheap. $30 a year! Think of the applications, burning a dvd as a present, make a cool wedding video. WTF, I am an artist, I use it all the time. Love Animoto!
Love the product, and I too have paid the $30 bucks for it. My only wish is that the music you upload to it, I wish that sync’d up and triggered more image moves and transititions like the canned tracks with in Animoto do. I think the canned tracks are especially calibrated for Animoto and induce more moves etc, basically for optimal movement, use their tracks vs your own tracks. That kinda blows. But still a great service that does one thing really well.
Now on the text addition, thats awesome, needs to be bigger and larger than life etc, but hopefully they’ll get around to that.
I have been reading this blog for months now. For me, this is without any doubt one of the most useful web service documented on techcrunch in those months. +1 for that. I’v bookmarked it and will be happy to pay the 3$ (2.35 €, about the price of a beer here) if it will help me out on making an awesome slideshow like that!
I think this is a great business and a fantastic service. Dave, the numbers point to success it seems. I can’t say I like their demo reel though.. it looked more like an add for sunglasses or something. I tried envisioning showing that to my family for a slideshow and they would have kicked me right out of the house.
a great product, excellent price and they are always adding new features. it will be used mainstream by the masses in no time.
I use it for club promotions, weddings, personal, etc, etc.
I paid the $30/year in Arrington’s frist article. Such an amazing priced for an wicked service!
Go ANIMOTO GO!
@Dave…your dumb.
We use it at http://www.foodchannel.com and love it. Great way to take our still photos and turn it into a video of some behind-the-scenes shots.
Very impressive. I would not be surprised if Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo or facebook picked them up.
Please try http://www.magtoo.com It provides more fun for much more wide auience for free.
Just looking at your product, it looks good and offers different options but Animoto seems to make it more like a music video rather then a slide show like your service seems too.
Just my 2 cents.
Molly
Perfect. Parents just came back from traveling Europe and asked for a slick way to create slideshows with their mountain of digital photos.
Will be a fun experiment to see how easy it is for my own mother to use.
A great product just got better! My wive used Animoto to make videos of our wedding and honeymoon. The quality was great (DVD quality) and the finished product looked very professional. We’ve since turned on other friends to it who were amazed with the quality. I only wish you could customize the ordering and duration of the various effects — sometimes they don’t “work” with certain photos. Other than that, I can’t say a bad thing about it.
Animoto rocks! These guys always have my vote!
Btw
Check out http://www.jobstaxi/com
New Jobs. FriendFeed. Playfish. Netflix. Connected Ventures. MeetUp. ReverbNation.
They should make a white-labled service with API’s and stuff. I develop narrowcasting software and my guess is that all my clients would use a service like this. We already have an ‘ad-maker’ built-in but it’s nowhere as good as animoto’s. And 3 dollar is peanuts compared to the xxxx dollar they spend now on ‘mood-setting-video’s’. This would save time AND money (loads of).
Michael,
I’m an avid reader of TechCrunch and your posts. In short, I dig what you have to say. But, I must admit that I’m a bit surprised with your laudatory comments about Animoto. It’s solid, no doubt, but far from great. I’ve seen better transition in Keynote and their music selection is paltry. Also, they should offer a minimum of 60 seconds on a trial basis to amp interest in the product at this critical time in the company’s growth trajectory. I wrote an two posts on them back in June:
http://bradleyk...-a-disappointo/
and
http://bradleyk...ss-disappointo/
Let me know if you agree with my commentary.
Warmest,
Brad
I’ve been using Animoto since right after its inception. It has steadily improved and added features and I have recently renewed my annual subscription. I am a professional photographer and Animoto allows me to give a great quality little extra with each of my weddings. My clients LOVE it and it costs me just $5 (DVD quality download) for some invaluable good will.
We have been using the trial for a while now and have upgraded and spent $99.00 we now can produce a vry effective low cost ad for our small business customers without the need for talent, a video camera, sound guy etc and you know, the customer is rapt when we post their business on You Tube, email them their ad and send a DVD of their ad – Animoto is just great for entry level quick turnaround professional looking small business ad.