Half of the survey respondents reported a greater than 5% drop in revenues between 2008 and 2009, and more than a fifth continue seeing a decline in 2010 compared to 2009.
After the U.K. Office of Fair Trading referred the planned merger of
Rex Features and Getty Images to the Competition Commission for further
investigation, the Seattle announced it would not pursue the
acquisition further. Separately, Getty has announced a new five-year
agreement to handle the photography of The European Tour and The Ryder
Cup, as well as a new product launching under the Thinkstock brand.
Shannon Fagan is a former President of the
Stock Artists Alliance and an Advisory Board member of the
Young Photographers Alliance.
In
the past 18 months, he has attended every major industry conference to
gather information on stock photography and licensing’s current
direction.
He has contributed both Rights Managed and
Royalty Free images directly to Getty Images, Corbis, Veer, Blend,
Image Source, Cultura, Spaces, Tetra and many other brands. He has a
deep knowledge of the stock photography industry, both from personal
experience, and from his role helping other photographers develop their
businesses. The following summarizes a few of his thoughts that were
first published on
Greg Ceo’s blog.
The stock-licensing industry remains in the midst of a profound change
affecting image production, quality, pricing, distribution and use.
Some trends, such as the downward slide of average image prices, have
held for years, but there are also newer, paradigm-shifting
developments. These include a middle market finally taking shape, the
long-predicted microstock shakeout, the fascination with touch
computing and all things Apple, a change in the overall content mix
and, perhaps most importantly, an evolution of the traditional stock
business model from client service-driven boutique to online
content-delivery platform.
Shannon Fagan is a former
President of the
Stock
Artists Alliance and an Advisory Board member of the
Young Photographers
Alliance. In the past 18 months, he has attended every major
industry conference to gather information on stock photography and
licensing’s current direction. He has contributed both Rights Managed
and Royalty Free images directly to Getty Images, Corbis, Veer, Blend,
Image Source, Cultura, Spaces, Tetra and many other brands. He has a
deep knowledge of the stock photography industry, both from personal
experience, and from his role helping other photographers develop their
businesses. The following summarizes a few of his thoughts that were
first published on
Greg
Ceo’s blog.
The recent CEPIC Congress proved fruitful in making alliances for
PicScout. The San Francisco-based company announced picking up more than
50 new photo-agency clients at the stock industry’s largest
international gathering.
A 14-month review of data from the leading microstock supports the theory of the fastest-growing industry segment having reached a plateau, with flat unit sales and revenue growth resulting from price increases.
The following material was compiled from
iStockcharts.multimedia.de and shows the sales of 198 of iStockphoto’s top contributors in the 14 months between May 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010. (I’ll use the word “contributor” instead of “photographer” because a significant number or the top sellers are illustrators or graphic designers selling illustration, not photography).
On Thursday, Toronto-based Mastefile acquired Norwegian microstock Crestock. Both companies announced the deal late on Friday, without disclosing financial details.