Along with considerable social and economic influence, bloggers have had a significant effect on image licensing. As the social-media segment continues unabated growth, stock-industry insiders can expect bloggers to play an even larger role.
RM and traditional RF photographers complain about declining incomes and the difficulty in getting information from the companies that represent their work. Traditional distributors might do well to adopt a number of ideas popularized by microstock, to improve relationships between photographers and distributors.
Berlin-based royalty-free producer fStop has released several new image galleries. It has also negotiated new distribution agreements, with global partners, including BrightQube, imageselect, Masterfile and photolibrary.
The National Press Photographers Association has joined a growing group that oppose the proposed orphan-works bill.
PhotoShelter's first student-to-pro photography competition, Elevation 2008, has announced five winners. PhotoShelter editors will also be conducting on-on-one portfolio reviews and providing the winners with three free months of the company's Personal Archive.
For photographers, there are three ways to showcase photos: building your own site, traditional agencies and microstock. All carry pros and cons. The more informed your are, the better it will be.
Toronto-based Idée has launched a beta version of the first image search-engine that does not rely on keywords or metadata. Instead, TinEye compares user-submitted images with those posted online by using image identification technology.
Photographers regularly ask why the royalty paid on RF sales is only 20% of the net received by their agent, when the agent pays 40% to 65% on RM sales that are made in the same manner. Royalty percentages have little to do with reality, and nothing to do with the cost of production.