The following is a list of the 131 highest producing contributors to iStockphoto and shows the number of downloads they had in March 2009 and approximate figures of the royalty revenue this represents. The data came from istockcharts (http://istockcharts.multimedia.de/). The first column is the total number of downloads for the individual as it was listed on istockcharts on March 2, 2009. The second column show downloads as of April 1st and the third column is the difference between these two numbers or total downloads for that individual for the month.
Alamy has removed the "comments" feature from its corporate blog. The company has also announced that it is restricting its online forum topics.
Six months after the initial announcement of the partnership between Time Inc. and Getty Images, the two have launched jointly owned Life.com. While the new Web site is a treasure trove for image lovers and history buffs, its image-use policies raise a number of issues for both consumers and content owners.
A start-up that makes photos shoppable has gotten the attention of Google, who joined its $5.75 million Series A financing round.
Agence France-Presse and Getty Images have extended their longtime still-image partnership with an agreement to distribute each other's video content. The worldwide deal, which allows both agencies to market content in English, is in place as of this month.
Beyond a higher level of personal involvement with Getty Images, iStockphoto chief operating officer Kelly Thompson does not think much will change at the Getty-owned microstock business after last week's resignation of its founder Bruce Livingstone. The newest member of the Getty Images executive committee shares the background of this decision and the company's plans for the near future.
For the third year, Corbis will sponsor the largest simultaneous advertising portfolio review in the world.
In 2006 I examined many of the factors that are impacting on stock photo market and leading to price declines. There were also a number of factors leading to declining sales volumes to traditional customers. These include the general demand for printed products, the tendency to use images multiple times but only pay once, trends in book publishing, postage costs, crowdsourcing of images and various types of guerrilla advertising. Since that time the situation has become worse.
As tax time draws near in the U.S.,
Outright.com, the Web's only free bookkeeping, accounting and tax software service specifically designed for the solopreneur, offers photographers advice on the hardest-to-classify business deductions.
Recently, the owner of a top microstock portal claimed that the cost of creating an image should dictate its initial price. However, this is not what happens---at either his agency, other microstocks or among traditional agencies. It is time to let go of the fiction that image pricing has anything to do with production costs.