Stock
In the story above Tom Grill offers his thoughts on where the stock photo business will be in five years. (If you haven’t read it yet
click here.) While I agree with a lot of what Tom has to say, I believe the vast majority of photographers will find that stock photography will offer much less of an opportunity than the picture Tom paints. In the next five years it will become increasing difficult to earn a decent living, or even a profit, from producing still images on speculation. Remember profit is defined as revenue earned minus expenses and time invested to produce the product. There will always be a handful of photographers who are exceptions to the rule and buck the trends, but there will be fewer of them.
PicScout, which says it now commands the world’s largest index of fingerprinted and owner-identified images, released a new user interface for Google and Yahoo! The company is acting on research findings that show 70% of creatives using the two search engines to find images.
Eye tracking studies by Jakob Nielsen, a Web site consultant and author of a number of books about design and user interface, show that users pay close attention to photos and other images that contain relevant information but ignore fluffy pictures used to “jazz up” Web pages.
Based on some recent discussions with producers of video stock John Lund offers some thoughts on the possibilities, and limitations, of motion stock and how stock footage might fit into a photographer’s future.
Skeptical photographers are struggling to understand whether Corbis’ new Contributor Gateway and the elimination of foreign office fees will actually benefit them. Many have focused on the royalty reduction from 40% to 37.5%. In order to participate in the Gateway, contributors must sign a new contract with Corbis and agree to this lower royalty rate. However, the 35% foreign sales office fee that is currently being deducted from sales made by any office outside the contributor’s home territory will be eliminated
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?”
A Selling Stock subscriber recently asked, “Do you have any idea of what are the actual market shares of Getty and Corbis worldwide?” A lot of guess work is required to answer that question as there are no longer any numbers publicly available to help in such an analysis.
I’d like to encourage you to take a look at some of the “Free Stuff”
available on this site. Click on this link
(
http://www.photolicensingoptions.com) and you find a list of Free Stuff
in the column on the right. The stories listed will give you a good
sense of the resources available on this site.
PicScout’s Image Tracker software has helped Glen Carner’s Hawaiian Art
Network dramatically grow revenue in less than a year by locating
infringements and assisting in the collection of appropriate fees for
unauthorized uses. Currently, revenue recovered from infringements
accounts for about 50% of Hawaiian Art Network’s income.
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.
Photographers whose business it is to produce stock images that are
designed for use in textbooks should IMMEDIATELY look for another line
of work. For years the major textbook publisher -- not fly by night
organizations -- have been paying fees based on minimal press runs.
Then, with no regard whatsoever for the written contracts they executed
with the sellers, they have made extensive additional uses of the images
without making any attempt to compensate the image creators in any way
for the use that exceeded the original license agreement. These
additional uses have resulted in millions of dollars of extra revenue
for the publishers. Such actions were not occasional oversights, but
policy.
In his biography,
The Age of Turbulence, Alan Greenspan said, “The presumption of individual property ownership and the
legality of its transfer must be
deeply embedded in the culture of a society
(emphasis mine) for free market economies to function effectively. In
the West, the moral validity of property rights is accepted, or at least
acquiesced in, by virtually the whole of the population.” I was
struck by how this relates to the photography business today. The concept of individual property ownership is no
longer deeply embedded in the culture of our society. A large segment of
the population believes that certain property should be free to all and
that the creators have no rights once the property is shown to anyone.
Using the creative works of others without permission or compensation is
becoming the morally accepted standard.
ASPP has published a very informative guide for picture editors and
researchers on locating copyright holders of imagery when the name and
contact information is not readily attached to an image. The guide, and a
link to a downloadable PDF, are available free or charge.
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.
Photographers marketing their images through online web sites should be
alert to common art scams that seem to be growing in frequency. This is
particularly true for those trying to sell physical works of art (fine
art prints).
As we move forward in the digital publication age, a group of
celebrity photo agencies has untied into the Editorial Photo Agency
Guild, which is leading the way in attempting to establish some pricing
principles for the use of photos in iPad applications. The need for a
unified approach in bargaining became apparent when People magazine announced its plans to launch an iPad application and provide it free to print subscribers.
The 24th annual Graphic Design USA stock survey shows increasing use of microstock by professional graphic designers.
I asked iStockphoto COO Kelly Thompson why the company choose to base
“redeemed credits,” the number that serves as the basis for the new
contributor royalties package, on the number of credits downloaded
rather than the monetary value of the credits.
iStockphoto has announced a major restructuring in how photographer
royalties will be calculated in 2011 and beyond. In addition, within the
next few weeks they will create a small, higher priced Agency
Collection with images from shooters from some of the major traditional
RF brands and selected iStock contributors who will be invited to submit
images to the Agency Collection.
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.
One of the questions of the Stock Artists Alliance spring survey asked:
“What other issues would you like to see SAA address in the year?” The
answers, particularly with regard to the general attitude toward
microstock, were very revealing.
If you have decided on a career as a freelance photographer, your
vocation will be marketing and your avocation, or sideline, will be
photography.
Photographers should be alert for textbook publisher requests for new
image licenses to extend print runs on books that have already been
printed without obtaining such licenses. In many cases, image owners may
be entitled to high retroactive usage fees for copies already printed
and distributed, as well as a fee for the new books the publisher
intends to produce.
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.
Phrases like “it’s not all doom and gloom” pop up often, but those who offer such encouraging analysis are typically in the top tier of the profession. While their experience is certainly real and laudable if not amazing, is it representative enough to be touted as a roadmap to a successful career? Common sense, economics, mathematics and every available source of statistical information says no.