Agencies/Distributors
PhotoShelter and
Agency Access have just released a free ebook entitled “
What Buyers Want From Photographers.” The information resulted from a 35 question survey sent to Agency Access’ global database of 55,000 photography buyers. 500 responded to the survey.
In December the United States Postal Service released 3 billion copies
of a first-class postage stamp that showed a low angle close up of the
head and crown of the Statue of Liberty, symbol of American freedom. About
a month ago the service was shocked to discover that the image supplied
by Getty Images was not of the 305 foot tall statue designed by
sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi and located on Liberty Island off
the tip of Manhattan, but of a half-sized replica outside the New
York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
One way to satisfy customer demands for lower prices without reducing
overall operating costs is to cut the amount paid for the product you’re
selling. Over the past decade some stock photo distributors have used
this strategy very effectively. This article examines the effect that discount prices are having on the ability of stock photographers to earn a living.
Every photographer detests copyright infringers. When one of their
images is used without compensation they want to be paid not only their
normal fee for the use but a reasonable amount for chasing down the
infringer and enough penalty to insure that the infringer won’t do it
again. The goal is to give everyone incentive to be honest. But is going after infringers really accomplishing that goal and is it generating more business for the future?
The new
Getty Images Contributor Agreement is now available. It raises a number of issues for Getty photographers. Photographers must sign the new contract before the end or April in order to continue to submit new images. If they choose not to sign Getty will continue to license their images until their current contract expires. At that point their images will be removed from the database.
Cutcaster recently conducted a survey using their own database and Adbase’s email list of creatives in multiple industries in North America. The professional backgrounds of the recipients cover most industries. They received 344 responses almost all of which came from North America with the next largest groups being South America and the UK. See the preliminary results at
http://blog.cutcaster.com/2011/02/10/picture-buyer-stats-released-market-information-for-online-image-users/
Veer (
www.veer.com) has announced the introduction of an Extended Customer Protection Plan, providing customers with up to $250,000(USD) coverage for 100 Veer Credits. Veer credit prices range from $0.78 to $1.41 depending on the size of the credit package purchased.
Science Photo Library, has signed a licensing agreement with
Global Grid for Learning, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cambridge University Press and one of the most comprehensive digital educational content collections in the world.
Two companies have announced new video offerings.
age fotostock is promoting its
THP Photo & Video Services (Technological Hosting Platform) that consolidates imagery from many suppliers and hosts it for distributors around the world. Stock Footage Online (
www.stockfootageonline.com) has launched a new site with links to 80 leading stock footage specialist libraries.
Corbis Images has announced a new worldwide distribution agreement with London based
Demotix , the multi-award winning source of “Street Journalism.” Later this month, Corbis Images will begin offering an edited selection of breaking news photography from Demotix through
corbisimages.com.
iStockphoto has announced plans to introduce a new higher priced Vetta
collection of video clips. Video producers are rebelling over the
proposed royalty split for this higher priced product. Clips in this
collection will be handpicked for their art direction, conceptual
execution and rarity and will be made available at higher prices than
other exclusive content.
In a previous story I said that Flickr photographers receive 20%
royalties when their images are sold on the Getty Images web site. In
fact, Flickr photographers receive 20% of RF image sales,
BUT if their
images are licensed as RM they receive 30%. Also, there will be
no change in royalty rates in the new contract.
Getty Images has announced that as of April 1, 2011 they will have a new
contributor agreement. For American photographers the date may have
some relevance. We call it April Fools day and it is usually celebrated
with practical jokes and hoaxes on family, friends and work associates.
However,Getty’s move may not be a joke.
Getty’s move to sell some of its royalty-free images on both
www.gettyimages.com and www.istockphoto.com is presenting some problems
in pricing usages and is sure to drive more Getty Images customers to
iStockphoto.
Many Western stock photographers are beginning to wonder if it isn’t
time to explore the potentials of the Chinese market. I asked Jerome
Lacrosniere, CEO of ImagineChina in Shanghai for some information about
the state of the Chinese stock photo industry.
Here are links to a few items I spotted on the Internet that are worth reading. They include observations on the Getty Images search engine, World Assignment photographers and Should I Work For Free.
iStockphoto has added a new collection of “editorial use only” stock
images to www.istockphoto.com. These images are intended for use by news
outlets, publishers, magazines, bloggers and presenters as a
descriptive visual reference to a product, place, event or concept.
The stock photo industry has evolved in many interesting ways in the
last 50 years. This story looks at the changes from mostly editorial rights-managed, to the 1976 copyright law change, to the print catalog era, to CD-rom delivered royalty-free, to the Internet and finally to microstock. We identify some of the key drivers of these changes and show how some unrelated developments made the changes inevitable.
Alamy has reported that in the last eight weeks it has added a record
1.2 million images to its collection which now exceeds 22 million
images. In January alone the collection grew by 620,000 images.
A year ago
the company had in the range of 18 million images on its site.
Over 20,000 photographers and 500 picture agencies have contributed mages to the
Alamy.com site.
Photographers trying to license rights to their pictures are constantly
looking for ways to make contact with potential customers. Any given
image is potentially marketable to buyers worldwide. Individual
photographers are unlikely to ever meet most of these potential
customers. Thus, photographers tend to employ a variety of middlemen
operations to assist them in finding customers. One such operation is
Photographers Direct (PD) which has helped more than 15,862
photographers (about 5,000 currently active) make contact with over
20,280 unique buyers worldwide.
Pixmac has removed its exclusively restrictions for its contributors and
raised commission rates. Contributors will now receive 30% of the
revenue collected or at least $0.25 per download for the first $200.00
in earnings. Once their total earning exceed $200.00 they will receive
40%.
For many photographers seeking to earn some, or all, of their living
producing stock images, one of the most important decisions in 2011 will
be whether to retire from the stock photo business or get into
microstock. Many photographers who are licensing their images at
rights-managed or traditional royalty free prices have seen their
revenue decline significantly in the last couple of years. They are also
skeptical that it is possible to earn any significant money licensing
images at microstock prices. As a result quite a few are choosing to get
out of the stock photography business.
Getty Images, Inc., has unveiled its new Photos.com site, developed for
value-conscious small business owners, marketers, graphic designers, web
designers and other creative professionals. Photos.com currently offers
2.5 million royalty free images and illustrations.
With the introduction of The Costco Art & Image Gallery, Corbis and Costco will sell individual prints and posters as retail products. The images offered are a select group of some 20,000 professional pieces of fine art, photography and illustration from the Corbis collection of more than 6 million images.
Recently, a new country album by Taylor Swift shocked the music industry by selling over 1million copies in its first week. This is unheard of in a music business, which has suffered similar woes to stock photography. In the past decade, album sales have declined by more than 50%, yet Taylor Swift managed to buck the trend. Is there a lesson to be learned by stock shooters from her success?