In an effort to move beyond the often-repeated cliché of photographers not being good businesspeople, this article series will endeavor to highlight business decisions that are often made by stock shooters and agencies to their detriment.High on this list is the over-reliance on the opinions of others when deciding on the next stock shoot or the future direction of an entire image collection.
The potentially cannibalizing effect of microstock on traditional licensing is an issue that comes up often, and the panel discussions at last month's PhotoPlus Expo and the annual conference of the Picture Archive Council of America were no exception.
Our recent coverage of Veer was unexpectedly timely, given today's announcement of Corbis acquiring the Canada-based stock-image retailer and type foundry for an undisclosed sum. Though this purchase is unlikely to be in the vicinity of the failed Getty/Jupitermedia deal valued at about $350 million, the alliance of Veer and Corbis may still have a rather significant effect on the industry.
The stock photo industry lost an irreplaceable leader when Jane Kinne passed away this past weekend. For more than 50 years Jane fought for the rights of photographers and stock agencies. No one has given more to our industry.
Imagestate Media has announced the receipt of £2 million (about $4.2) in investment capital from Beringea. The investment will enable Imagestate Media to further expand its already comprehensive digital content base and extend its offering of still images to motion and other rich media content.
Given the microstock discussion that took place during the recent Getty Images conference call with industry analysts, there may be a misinterpretation of iStockphoto’s strength in the worldwide marketplace.
"Due to client needs, increased stock photography resources, and improved quality of those resources, our stock photography purchases have increased over the last few years," says Richard Davia, the principal of brand experience at Continuum....
While stock-industry insiders and analysts tend to focus most of their attention on the Big Three, it is noteworthy that buyers often look to a less publicized, smaller company: the Alberta, Canada-based Veer. In a recent survey of stock-photo buyers conducted by the Piper Jaffray investment bank, Veer outranked Getty Images, Jupiterimages, Corbis, Punchstock, Mastefile and Fotosearch, emerging as today’s preferred royalty-free brand among high-end image buyers.
In addition to entirely unauthorized image use, reuse of images beyond the scope of the original licensing agreement is a prominent issue in the business of stock licensing.