Macrostock
Alamy has reported that in the last eight weeks it has added a record
1.2 million images to its collection which now exceeds 22 million
images. In January alone the collection grew by 620,000 images.
A year ago
the company had in the range of 18 million images on its site.
Over 20,000 photographers and 500 picture agencies have contributed mages to the
Alamy.com site.
If you license rights to your photos for textbook use then here are a few articles you should read.
Photographers who license rights to their images based on how the images
will be used tend to be adamantly opposed to microstock. The principle
reason for such opposition is that microstock images are licensed for
use at very low prices. With microstock there are a few price variations
depending on how the images will be used, but they are minimal compared
to those used by rights-managed sellers. All other aspects of the
microstock business tend to get ignored. I want to examine some
of these other aspects of microstock licensing and point out how
traditional agency photographers might benefit if their agencies would
adopt some of them.
It time for rights-managed sellers to adopt many aspects of the microstock pricing strategy.
The immediate reaction of many RM sellers will be, “I’ll never sell my images as royalty-free.” That’s not what I’m proposing. Photographers will continue to manage the rights to their images. They will continue to be able to license exclusive and restricted uses to their images. But from the customer’s point of view the basic pricing model will look and feel just like the microstock model that they have come to prefer.
Paul Melcher recently wrote a story that asked, “Are You Carving a Photography Niche – or Digging Your Career in a Hole?
” Melcher argues that there are few inadequately covered niches left and points out that perhaps those niches that do not already have thousands of images available exist because there is no demand for the subject matter. He also asks: “If you do not know who your customers are, if you do not have your own data, how can you niche yourself?”
Unemployment in the United States may be affecting freelance
photographers in some not so obvious ways. While many photographers and
designers have either lost their jobs or are under employed what we
often forget is that those who still have viable businesses may now be
competing with the unemployed as they produce new images as a way or
earning a little extra cash.
A better question might be, “What’s NOT up with stock photography?”
Answer? Royalties, number of paid productions, royalty free and rights
managed revenues and photographer satisfaction.
There are two primary factors that should be considered when quoting a
price for textbook use: image size (1/4, 1/2 or full page) and size of
the print run. This article provides a historical perspective on pricing images for textbook uses and offers an update for the current economic climate.
Recently on Linkedin Jacintha van Beveren observed that “The old
photography business model is gone,” observed and asked if the road to
survival and future success is through “creativity and flexibility or
stubborn protection.” Neither.
When I published “Top Pros Stop Shooting” in my other newsletter Selling-Stock received an unusual number of comments from industry leaders. Most of those who commented had some disagreement with
the positions I took in the article. Since PhotoLicensingOptions readers will have missed
seeing these comments, I have printed them here along with an editorial response.
Many rights-managed and traditional royalty-free production companies
are having trouble finding photographers willing to shoot for them. Many
of the photographers who were rights-managed and traditional
royalty-free stars five to ten years ago have given up shooting stock,
or at the very least dramatically cut the number of images they produce
and the amount they are willing to spend production.
One of the things RM and traditional RF photographers tend to overlook
is average price-per-image-licensed. Photographers worry when their
images are licensed for low prices. They track their average
royalty-per-image-in-file and the trends of their monthly royalty check.
But is a lower royalty check the result of fewer images being licensed,
a lower average price-per-license or both?.
Ed.: Tom Grill originally wrote on the subject of volume relative to
price last November. The sentiment remains true today: like it or not,
the industry is changing dramatically, and the winners will be those who
can adapt to the new paradigm.
This story provides links to a five part series of articles designed to help photographers understand the major trends impacting the industry in 2010 and help them plan for the future. We outline some of the issues to consider, new business models to explore and things to focus on in order to have a profitable business. Following the first five stories are links to some additional articles on the business of stock photography that may be of interest.
Veer has relaunched its Web site,
billing the new treatment as uncomplicated. While Veer still carries traditionally priced stills, it is certainly
catering to the no-hassle customer segment with simplified licensing
and prices that span the gamut—starting at $1.
Looking for some vacation reading material? Here are some suggestions.
If you want to know how successful stock photographers do it, here are
links to a series of interviews done over the last couple years. There
are lots of different strategies. Some of these photographers are among
the world’s most successful. Other’s like Todd Klassy and Holger Mette
are relatively new to the business, and have adopted unconventional
strategies that may be the wave of the future.
On Thursday, Toronto-based Mastefile acquired Norwegian microstock Crestock. Both companies announced the deal late on Friday, without disclosing financial details.
This story provides a list of useful articles that will provide the reader with a good background on the current state of the stock photography business and where it is headed.
If you are in the stock imagery business and want to stay current with
worldwide industry trends, the annual CEPIC congress is a must-attend
event. Held every year in early June—this year in Dublin, Ireland, at
the brand new Aviva Stadium—the congress provides an opportunity to
meet industry leaders and exchange ideas.
How does demand for images compare to what many agree is an
oversupply?
What does the competition look like in terms of the number of images available online? Everyone knows there are billions of amateur images floating around the Internet, but what is the quantity of unique images currently available in professional collections?
In a letter to its contributors, Corbis has disclosed it will be
seeking liquidation of the Sygma business entity in France. The company
acquired Sygma in 1999 and has had numerous well-publicized legal and
management issues with the former agency’s photographers, staff and
assets.
Alamy will no longer make financial information publicly available. Since Getty Images went private, the U.K. company's quarterly numbers have represented the only reliable sales data in the industry.
What is top-quality photography for a major advertising campaign worth?
Evidently, art buyers at Campbell-Ewald, one of the largest advertising
agencies in the U.S., think $2,500 for “all advertising” and “all
print” rights is fair and reasonable, as evidenced by a recent
negotiation for the use of one of Hans Halberstadt’s photos.
Is it time to institute a system of floor prices for the use of
rights-managed images for editorial purposes? Is there any price so
low—$50, $30 or $20—that the image creator would prefer not to make the
sale?