Shutterstock has signed a 3-year exclusive worldwide distribution agreement with
Starpix, a boutique celebrity, red carpet and event photo company that provides photo coverage on the East coast for leading film studio clients and publishers.
A look at the Starpixnyc web site seems to indicate that the company’s focus has been on assignment work, and licensing use of images immediately after an event, since there is no searchable database of archived images on the site. Over 163,961 of their images can be seen
here on the Rex Features website under srpix.
StarPix was formed in October 2001 and is headed by co-founders
Dave Allocca and
Marion Curtis. Two other photographers - Krisitna Bumphrey and Patrick Huban – contribute work to the agency.
Starpix has unique access to entertainment events in and around New York City. They have created image content for major film studios such as Sony, Warner Bros., Paramount, 20th Century Fox, The Weinstein Company, HBO and Netflix. They have also contributed to the New York Post and Associated Press for over 15 years.
It is unclear whether Shutterstock will receive a share of the revenue earned by Starpix photographers when they work on assignment or whether this is simply a distribution agreement for secondary revenue when Shutterstock licenses rights to archive material.
Others operating in this segment of the industry tell us that about 90% of the revenue generated from red carpet and event work comes from uses within a month or so after the event. Only 10%, or less comes from archive sales. In addition, our sources tell us that the demand for red carpet images is “weak and getting weaker all the time.”
This distribution deal with Starpix follows Shutterstock’s recent global distribution deal with
BFA as well as a US distribution deal with
AP. Shutterstock is investing significantly in its editorial business and these content partnerships are changing the editorial image licensing landscape.