I had a someone ask me how to download and edit Animoto Videos for use on their site. Before I show the video, I want to cover what Animoto’s Terms of Service (ToS) are for personal and commercial use so no one decides to run me out of town on a rail.*

Animoto Personal Use -

The ToS are pretty clear on personal use. In essence, you can

• download the videos you make,
• use them on your personal site by storing them on your site,
• or have Animoto host them and use their video player.

They do insist, however that if you store it on their site and use their code that you do not modify the video player or video in any way (such as removing their Animoto logo). Here’s the section from the ToS:

You may share your Animoto Videos hosted on the website by using Animoto’s video player code to play your video in your own personal website or web page. You may also share your Animoto video by downloading it to a storage device, personal computer, or mobile device. The Animoto Videos may only be used for personal, non-commercial, uses. You agree that you will not modify the video player code in any way, nor will you modify the display of your Animoto Video.

So if you want to use the video on a personal site and have Animoto store it, you may not change the way the player is displayed.

Animoto does retain some rights you may want to consider:

You hereby grant to Animoto a royalty-free, perpetual license to use, copy, create, modify, display and host your Animoto Video, Image Content, and Musical Content solely to the extent necessary for Animoto to provide the Services as described herein.

Animoto Commercial Use -

“Ay, there’s the rub.” The commercial restraints are more limited and if you have shallow pockets, they are pretty draconian. If you are a commercial user, you:

• must buy a commercial license for your videos ($39.00 USD a month or $249.00 USD yearly),
• must buy a license for each user (so if you and an employee do videos, you must have two licenses),
• must have a commercial license if you produce and sell videos using Animoto’s services to people who are using the videos commercially,

and the client must have a license for Animoto if you produce a video and they use it commercially.

If you are a videographer that sells videos to others for personal use, then you only require a license for you.

Now having said that, here’s how you can download and Animoto video and make changes to it…

* This was a “quaint” tradition in the early 1800s where some unfortunate individual would be tarred and feathered (painful in and of itself) and then forced to straddle a railroad tie while people carried him/her out of town. This, of course, has nothing to do with Animoto!