Stock
In the fall of 2009, I estimated the size of the worldwide market
for still images and illustrations at about $1.45 billion. In the last
12 months, overall sales have probably remained about the same, with a
few companies seeing sales growth, mostly from taking market share from
those that have gone out of business.
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.
If you have decided you want to enter the microstock world, you can’t get better advice than is contained in Ellen Boughn’s newly release
Microstock Money Shots. Boughn doesn’t promise that it’s easy or that you’ll get rich quick, but she will save you a lot of the frustration that comes from learning the hard way by trial and error.
Two-year-old Pixmac is banking on its “rapid checkout and download”
without the necessity for customers to engage in a complex registration
process to help the company expand its customer base in North America.
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?.
This chart is designed to give the reader an understanding of the number of times images belonging to some of the top microstock photographers at iStockphoto are licensed in a given year and what that can mean in terms of gross revenue.
When I was recently
interviewed by Photonetcast, it became clear that my position on the best strategy for licensing
rights to images is misunderstood, so it is time for another
explanation. Granted, my position is radical, so bear with me.
In the last few years there has been dramatic growth in the use of
images on the Internet, a market for images that virtually did not exist 10
years ago. Some believe that the potential for growth of the Internet is
infinite, and that there will always be an ever-increasing demand for imagery.
So far in this series we’ve learned there is declining demand for images
that will be used in print, and growing demand for images that will be
used online and in electronic formats. Photographers just starting out
should be aware of the number of images already in online databases and
recognize that any images they produce will be competing against those
that already exist.
Though
unit sales are declining for many iStockphoto sellers, many of the same people are also seeing significant revenue increases. Here’s how.
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.
For several years
I have estimated that the size of worldwide market for still stock images and
illustrations at about $1.8 billion. I’ve also claimed that overall
stock photography has been a no-growth business despite the fact that
some companies and individuals could point to growth. Now, at the end of
2009 I believe gross revenue for the industry is no more than $1.45
billion and it will probably continue to decline. The stories here break out various segments of the market and explain the overall trends.l
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Successful stock shooter Jonathan Ross has invested in all tiers of today's stock image market. His experience says that the way to a profitable future is rooted in a unified approach to pricing and quality. Read this transcript of Ross's recent presentation at the New Media Conference, which took place during the CEPIC Congress in Dublin.
Stock image producers often have two misconceptions about
subscription licensing services: They believe subscription licensing is
simple and that for a very low monthly fee customers are allowed to use
any image for any purpose. Neither is true.
Universal Images Group,
the distribution business unit of the Virtual Picture Desk, has been
awarded a contract by the Encyclopaedia Britannica to provide an
extensive online library of low-resolution (150 dpi) images suitable
for educational use. The images will be supplied by numerous producers around the world and, together with Britannica's wholly owned content, will become part of a new subscription service, Britannica Image
Explorer.
I receive regular requests from photographers who want to know how they
can license rights to the images they have created over the years on
film. Here’s what I tell them. Licensing rights to images is very
difficult in today’s market because there is such an oversupply
available compared to the demand.
At the recent CEPIC Congress in Dublin, Ireland, CEO of UpperCut Images Miles Gerstein offered
CEPIC Daily
his assessment of the future of the stock photo industry. Gerstein
previously owned PunchStock, which he sold to Getty Images in 2006, and
Artville, which he sold to The Image Bank in the late 1990s. His years
of experience in the industry provide him with an important perspective
on where the industry is likely headed.