Macrostock
I have been looking at some of the Visual Trends 2018 reports. I hope they are helping customers because I don’t think they are doing much for image creators. Take
Getty’s trend report which evidently came out of the UK office. They say, “our Creative team analyzed 1 billion searches and 400 million imagery downloads on GettyImages.com, studied advertising trends, and examined pop culture shifts to predict three defining visual trends of 2018.
Visual China Group (VCG) announced on Monday, February 26th that it has acquired 100% of 500PX, INC. (
500px) shares through its wholly-owned subsidiary, VCG Hong Kong LTD.
500px is one of the leading online visual creative communities in the world, founded in 2009 and based in Toronto, Canada. With more than 13 million professional and hobbyist photographers from over 195 countries and regions, the 500px community has produced over 120 million unique images diversity and creative trend. 500px is renowned globally for its community, image licensing, and custom photography.
Depositphotos, a global stock photography, stock footage and editing tools provider, has launched the
Focused Collection, a marketplace of more than 400,000 premium images by selected artists which have previously never been available on stock photography platforms. The company partnered with 500px, Image Source Premium, Westend61, StockFood, MintImages and other major agencies to bring to life this collection of rare and authentic images, aiming to serve the needs of editors, websites, advertising agencies and corporate clients.
Copytrack has completed its
Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and will be launching a Global Copyright Register (GCR) this summer that will work in conjunction with their Global Copyright Enfocement services (copytrack.com). With their Presale and ICO they have a total of 8,600 investors who have purchased around 16 million tokens. The purchase of images found on the GCR will be tracked in a Blockchain and paid for using cryptocurrency tokens.
Getting images into the Getty Images collection so potential customers might see them has just become more time consuming for image creators. As of February 9th, 2018 Getty has ended its practice of adding custom keywords to the basic list of words photographers submit.
Recently, a
Microstockgroup post by
Hochmann asked, “Why all the hate towards Getty Images?” He went on to say, “Yes, I know that they give 20% as a commission while a bunch of other companies start at 35% and many of them go above 50%.
But the thing is that in Getty you're getting 20% of photographs sold for $100 or $1000 instead of 50% of 1 dollar.”
Given the low prices, royalty cuts and delayed payments, experienced entertainment shooter are finding they no longer need stock agencies – particularly microstock agencies. When a photographer shoots red carpet or other entertainment events all sales pretty much come the next morning, or not at all. Red carpet event photos have a VERY SHORT shelf life. The trick is getting your photos on the editor’s desk the next morning.
Tired of low stock photo prices? Maybe you ought to license your images to customers direct. More and more customers are finding the images they need by searching Google. Sometimes the image may be one of yours that is represented by an agency. You may be able to get these searchers to come directly to you.
“Must all Royalty Free photos be model released?” This question came from a stock agent who is considering converting his collection from RM to RF.
The answer is NO. An increasing number of images are being offered under a Royalty Free License for
Editorial Use Only. What the Editorial Use Only means is that “we don’t have a model release for this image,” and thus it can not be used for commercial purposes.
SilverHub Media is an editorial agency launched in 2016 by long time Getty senior executive Nick Evans-Lomb and Adrian Murrell. On 11/14/2017 Companies House in the UK announced that SilverHub Media will be dissolved within 2 months “unless cause is shown to the contrary.” Rumors have it that SilverHub is saying this was an administrative error.
It was recently called to my attention that EyeEm has 3,494,298 images in the Getty Images collection. Add to that the 2,755,731 in the Moment collection (from Flickr photographers) and these two collections represent 29% of the combined RM and RF collections currently on Gettyimages.com, and 41% of the RF collection alone. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the current number of images each brand has at Getty.
One of the interesting questions raised by the chart in the
previous story and the chart below is the annual revenue each collection might possibly generate. Certain specialized collections may have provided very few images and thus generate much less than the larger collections. However, by using the attached chart brand owners may be able to get a senses of whether their images are selling as well as those of their competitors.
Moody’s Investor Service reports that total Getty Images revenue for the twelve months ended 30 September 2017 was
$836.8 million.
Alamy had a very good year in 2016 with total turnover
up 31% to 19,185,668 £ compared to 14,627,376 £ in 2015. However, much of that percentage growth was due to strong sales in the U.S. and a declining exchange rate in the pound compared to other currencies. Based on the U.S. dollar rate at the end of each year the total turnover 2016 was $23,675,114 compared to $21,569,529 for 2015.
Photographers at
PhotoPlus Expo report that they are receiving invitations to join
AdobeStock, but Adobe wants them to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) before they get information about what the invitation is all about.
Blend Images LLC, a leading stock photography agency, has announced that CEO Rick Leckrone has resigned, effective immediately. Sarah Fix, Creative Vice President has been named CEO by Blend's LLC Managers.
Benji Lanyado, CEO & Founder of
Picfair, the London-based fair trade photography platform, has used a
blog post and a
tweet to call on the photographer community to turn away from free images websites that offer "exposure" in return for free images.
Have your images that sold a year or two ago sold again recently? If not, it may be because the images are now buried so deep in the search return order that customers no longer see them.
Photographers placing images with agents that seek to license uses at higher prices ($100 or more), and generate a lot of their sales via distributors, need to think hard about whether such an approach is in their best economic interest.
In a speech at PhotoPlus Expo in 1998 Jonathan Klein told the stock photography community, “We also know that the stock photography industry has not historically focused on the needs of customers and, frankly, needs to in order to SURVIVE!, That is where we are now.” Getty Images developed a strategy that was totally focuses on "the customer," but it hasn't necessarily worked out.
Effective October 1, 2017 a new French law obliges clients who use commercial images in France to disclose whether the body shape of a model has been retouched to make the individual look thinner or larger.
Contributors report that Getty Images believes there is still a demand for RM imagery. However, they are seeing fewer high quality submissions on a consistent basis, despite the fact that they have many more RM contributors than was once the case. The company is trying to encourage more production by posting increasingly frequent shoot briefs on the Getty contributor website.
The big question for the industry is, “Why would customers agree to pay slightly higher prices?”
Everyone seems to believe that the only way to get, or keep, customers is to constantly give them lower and lower prices. I think there are a couple other things customers want:
(1) better quality and
(2) the ability to find what they need quickly. The industry is missing out on both these levels.
How much would we have to raise prices to begin improving the pricing situation?
Not all that much. Many image creators would like to see the industry return to the much higher prices of old. While it is easy to justify those former prices based on the cost of production and the value the customer receives from using the image, a return to such prices is not likely to happen. On the other hand, if a strategy could be developed that would increase prices by just a small amount, it could begin to move the industry in the right direction.
According to sources
Getty Images has reduced the royalty share of sales for all commercial RF collections supplied by agencies and distributors to
15% of the gross sale price.