How LumaTouch uses Storyblocks
to drive revenue and delight customers at scale

LumaTouch is the innovative company behind LumaFusion – a mobile video editing app for iOS, Android, and Chrome used by a variety of creative professionals worldwide. Founded in 2013, LumaTouch aims to democratize mobile video editing so that anyone can edit from anywhere using just the phone in their pocket. Today, LumaFusion serves 1.2 million customers, with 35 million user sessions per year. To better serve their customers, LumaTouch integrated the Storyblocks API to provide a vast library of royalty-free media to their users, giving them direct access to high-quality stock content with a monthly or annual subscription.

LumaTouch first came to Storyblocks in 2017, seeking a more cost-effective way to provide music to customers instead of relying solely on their own music catalog.

While the LumaTouch team considered alternatives like Getty and Shutterstock, they ultimately chose Storyblocks for its flexible licensing and diverse content library – two key differentiators that Chris Demiris, Co-Founder of LumaTouch, says other competitors couldn’t compete with.

Since integrating with Storyblocks, LumaTouch has effectively scaled their business, leveraging Storyblocks not just for music and sound effects, but also motion backgrounds and stock videos. The API integration has enabled them to enhance their product, grow revenue, and most importantly, create happy customers, who continue to depend on LumaFusion to bring their stories to life.

A seamless integration with Storyblocks

LumaTouch offers Storyblocks for LumaFusion, which users can purchase as an additional monthly or annual subscription to LumaFusion. The offering is powered by the Storyblocks API integration and gives users unlimited access to Storyblocks’ library of over two million 
4K and HD video clips, music, SFX, and animated backgrounds. 

When LumaTouch first integrated with the Storyblocks API, they enabled music and SFX at the bottom of the editor, where users could search, filter, and select the style, instrument, or mood of their choice. After adding access to videos and motion backgrounds, users can now simply navigate to a search panel in the upper left corner of the screen, search and filter for content in the LumaFusion library, and drag and drop assets into their editing timeline.

When we first introduced Storyblocks, it was a primary driver of people coming into the app. Having a royalty-free library built in was one of the key features of the app for a long time.

Chris Demiris

Co-Founder of LumaTouch

The API integration has been invaluable in creating a seamless editing experience for users – something that Demiris and the LumaTouch team have prioritized since the inception of the app.

“The API integration with Storyblocks made it possible to create a cohesive and interesting user experience. It doesn’t feel tacked on in any way, and it made the integration feel like it was truly part of the app. The Storyblocks integration feels like it was meant to be.” – Chris Demiris

Flexibility and affordability fuel business growth

For Demiris, Storyblocks emerged as a better choice over other stock media providers like Shutterstock and Getty, primarily because of how Storyblocks’ unique licensing model stood out for the industry. “Shutterstock was one of the providers trying to get our business, but they just did not have a licensing model that made sense for us. Everybody else was trying 
to charge per song, and we just couldn’t do that either,” he notes.

The choice to go with Storyblocks has been extremely cost-effective in the long term for LumaTouch and as the business has grown, they have also been able to maintain a predictable budget. “From a business sense, having the fixed cost per year and having it reasonably increased has been truly valuable to us and has kept us on the Storyblocks platform,” Demiris says.

The benefits of the Storyblocks subscription also extend to their customers, since LumaTouch heavily promotes the Storyblocks library as part of their core product offering. Their What’s Happening panel, which contains educational videos in the LumaFusion app to help onboard customers, is the most prominent example of this with videos on how to use the Storyblocks integration, explaining the benefits of Storyblocks content and incentivizing users to buy in. 

“Storyblocks definitely drives sales, since it’s one of the key features that we mention. We have heard from customers how much they appreciate the cost of the Storyblocks subscription, compared to other royalty-free media services. It’s low-priced, and they appreciate the value they are getting out of it as well.” – Chris Demiris

Building products that drive satisfaction

Looking ahead, LumaTouch is committed to continually enhancing LumaFusion, recently launching version 5.0 with customer-driven features like speed ramping and advanced keyframing. As of 2024, LumaFusion has maintained a 4 out of 5-star rating on the app store, monitoring and integrating user feedback to ensure that they’re not just a tool that drives business success, but also a platform that helps creators achieve their vision.

“That’s the most satisfying result. Usage and sales are important, but real success is how happy our customers are. Storyblocks fit the bill from day one, and it continues to be invaluable to us.” – Chris Demiris

As competition in the video editing space continues to grow, the team at LumaTouch knows how important it is to differentiate, while remaining hyper-focused on customer satisfaction. That’s why Demiris is confident that Storyblocks will remain a crucial partner in this growth, supporting LumaTouch’s vision of building a product inspired by what users need most.