In May I
analyzed the sales of a few photographers who are major, direct suppliers to Getty. A major issue that all Specialist Agencies need to consider is whether the breakdown in the various price ranges in this analysis are representative of Getty’s total sales? Specialist agencies need to check their own figures against this baseline to determine if this is an accurate representation of Getty sales as a whole.
| |
Percent Total |
Percent Gross |
|
Estimate |
Estimate |
| |
Unit Sales |
Revenue |
|
Total Images |
Gross Revenue |
| |
In Price |
Generated |
|
Will Be Sold |
Generated |
| |
Range |
By Images |
|
In 2018 |
In 2018 |
| over $1000 |
1.06% |
32.40% |
|
100,700 |
$90,720,000 |
| $500 to $1000 |
1.80% |
16.31% |
|
171,000 |
$45,668,000 |
| $200 to $500 |
5.60% |
29.61% |
|
532,000 |
$82,908,000 |
| $100 to $200 |
2.89% |
7.28% |
|
274,550 |
$20,384,000 |
| $100 to $50 |
4.50% |
5.67% |
|
427,500 |
$15,876,000 |
| $50 to $20 |
11.41% |
3.53% |
|
1,083,950 |
$9,884,000 |
| $20 to $10 |
18.12% |
2.44% |
|
1,721,400 |
$6,832,000 |
| $10 to $5 |
21.48% |
1.67% |
|
2,040,600 |
$4,674,000 |
| Below $5 |
33.14% |
1.09% |
|
3,148,300 |
$3,054,000 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
9,500,000 |
$280,000,000 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Over $50 |
15.85% |
91.27% |
|
1,505,750 |
$255,556,000 |
| Below $20 |
72.74% |
5.20% |
|
6,910,300 |
$14,560,000 |
Based on this analysis I determined that the average price-per-image licensed was about
$29 despite the fact that a few images were licensed for prices over $1,000 and 1.8% were licensed for prices between $500 and $1,000.
If the average price-per-image licensed was $29 and gross Creative revenue was $280 million then the figures in the fourth column are the approximate number of total images from all sources in the price range that Getty will license in 2018. The figure in the fifth column is the gross revenue that would be generated for Getty from all images licensed in the price range.
As we learned in the
previous story Specialist Agencies represent about 26% of the Getty's gross revenue. Thus the Specialist Agency share of the number of images and revenue would be about 26% of numbers in columns four and five.
In 2017 I did a similar analysis with some of the same photographers and a few different ones and the average price per image licensed worked out to about
$55. When developing an average a lot depends on the number and the amount of the few sales over $1,000, but in 2018 there also seemed to be more of the below $10 sales and at lower prices.
In my analysis one-third of the sales were for gross license fees under $5.00,
55% were for gross license fees under $10 and
84% were for gross fees of less that $50. Contributor royalties tend to be 30% or less of these numbers.
It is also interesting to note that only 15.85% of the uses were for prices above $50 and
72.74% were for prices under $20.
Call To Action
What each Specialist agent needs to do is organize all 2018 sales in a single Excel database indexed on the gross sale price. Then determine the number of sales in each of the above nine price categories.
Determine the number of sales and the total “gross license fee” for each category. (Use the fee that Getty reports as “gross fee,” not the royalty paid.) Then calculate the percentage of the total for each of the 9 categories.
At that point each agent can determine if their results are about the same as I discovered, or if there are dramatic differences.
Depending on the results the agent may want to go to the next step of sharing the information with other agencies. When sharing the information, it will be important to share the number of sales in each category so a new combined percentage can be developed.
It would also be important for each agency to supply a single “Gross Revenue” figure that is the sum of of all reported licensing of their images by Getty in 2018. By combining these numbers from all respondents it would be possible to determine the percentage of Getty revenue earned for each category.
My bet is that the 139 Specialist collections represent a lot more than
26% of Getty’s revenue. Independently each agency has no leverage.
Together they have a lot of leverage.
The best way to approach the sharing of information might be through a trade association like CEPIC, BAPLA or DMLA in order to insure that the individual results of each individual agency are not exposed to other suppliers. Only, the combined results of all participating agencies would be generally shared. It would be important to know the names of participating agencies, as well as the total number of each agency’s images currently in the Getty collection, in order to make an accurate assessment of the importance of the group to Getty.
Assuming that all 139 Specialists Agencies will not participate, I would hope that most of the 41 listed below would share their information. That would give a very strong indication of how important the Specialist Agencies are to Getty in terms of gross revenue generated. Of course, the more agencies that participate in the analysis the better.
| |
2016 August |
2018 June |
|
Images |
| |
|
|
|
Added |
| age fotostock |
84,306 |
112,895 |
|
28,589 |
| All Canada Photos |
90,463 |
107,363 |
|
16,900 |
| amana images |
199,933 |
225,932 |
|
25,999 |
| Aurora |
39,917 |
40,326 |
|
409 |
| Aurora Open |
18,789 |
28,805 |
|
10,016 |
| AWL Images |
130,547 |
142,878 |
|
12,331 |
| blue jean images |
41,880 |
48,145 |
|
6,265 |
| Caiaimage |
26,332 |
35,594 |
|
9,262 |
| Cavan |
|
93,364 |
|
93,364 |
| Cultura |
164,301 |
230,617 |
|
66,316 |
| De Agostini Picture Library |
217,630 |
314,261 |
|
96,631 |
| Design Pics |
64,653 |
73,825 |
|
9,172 |
| Dorling Kindersley |
96,074 |
99,793 |
|
3,719 |
| First Light |
46,750 |
60,655 |
|
13,905 |
| Foodcollection |
26,133 |
63,416 |
|
37,283 |
| Fotosearch |
104,032 |
92,216 |
|
-11,816 |
| fStop |
40,112 |
46,312 |
|
6,200 |
| Gallo Images |
162,351 |
183,113 |
|
20,762 |
| Gallo Images ROOTS RF collection |
18,615 |
38,094 |
|
19,479 |
| hemis.fr |
70,504 |
72,350 |
|
1,846 |
| Hero Images |
41,317 |
56,828 |
|
15,511 |
| Image Source |
107,814 |
122,653 |
|
14,839 |
| imageBROKER |
80,439 |
199,995 |
|
119,556 |
| Johner Images Royalty-Free |
42,376 |
76,517 |
|
34,141 |
| Juice Images |
22,889 |
72,995 |
|
50,106 |
| Maskot |
22,313 |
32,203 |
|
9,890 |
| Minden Pictures |
210,854 |
123,160 |
|
-87,694 |
| National Geographic |
223,188 |
197,341 |
|
-25,847 |
| National Geographic Magazines |
|
58,240 |
|
58,240 |
| Nature Picture Library |
11,940 |
16,038 |
|
4,098 |
| Oxford Scientific |
62,075 |
60,876 |
|
-1,199 |
| Panoramic Images |
52,564 |
55,471 |
|
2,907 |
| Perspectives |
69,192 |
110,093 |
|
40,901 |
| PhotoAlto Agency RF Collections |
79,607 |
85,196 |
|
5,589 |
| Photononstop |
52,038 |
66,673 |
|
14,635 |
| robertharding |
87,697 |
101,924 |
|
14,227 |
| Science Photo Library |
93,188 |
90,453 |
|
-2,735 |
| Science Source |
99,544 |
98,698 |
|
-846 |
| Tetra/Blend Images |
435,228 |
295,524 |
|
-139,704 |
| Universal Images Group |
59,226 |
59,486 |
|
260 |
| Westend61 |
149,011 |
265,648 |
|
116,637 |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
3,645,822 |
4,355,966 |
|
710,144 |