Artbeats Says Goodbye

[Anurag]

Artbeats Says Goodbye
The company that introduced Royalty Free Stock
Footage to the world will close its doors March 1st.
After nearly 30 years, Artbeats will be shutting down it's website on March 1st. "It's been a great run, but my partners and I are ready to retire." said Phil Bates, CEO and Founder of Artbeats.

Artbeats, Inc, a small company born in San Bernardino, CA was the first to introduce Royalty Free Stock Footage to the world when they released a collection of background animations called ReelTextures in 1997. But really, the business started 9 years earlier in 1989. Their first product line consisted of backgrounds for desktop publishing. Over the next 8 years the collections morphed into multimedia images and seamless tiles for 3D texture mapping. "Since we were already serving the first multimedia animators, we knew it was only a matter of time until there would be a demand for motion imagery." said Bates, "ReelTextures was introduced at the National Association of Broadcasting trade show (NAB) in 1997. It was a set of 40 background animations to test the market. Although it was well received, over and over again we heard an overwhelming demand for pyrotechnic special effects."

Knowing we had to shoot on motion picture film, Bates hired a producer and special effects veteran Robbie Knott to design and film a series of fire and explosion shots. These first special effects collections put Artbeats on the map with their success. The blockbuster "Armageddon" was the first major motion picture to feature one of Artbeats' explosion shots in 1999.

Before the year 2000, the Right's Managed business model was the only way to license stock footage and it was very expensive. Artbeats became a serious contender whose idea would bring stock footage to the masses and change the industry forever.

If you ever wanted to purchase
Artbeats footage, now is the time.
After February 28th, a fraction of the footage on the Artbeats website will be represented by 3rd party resellers. But at this point, the details have not yet been determined. We will send out another email when we have more information. Meanwhile we are available at 541-863-4429.