We already know that professional image buyers have slashed spending. This week, stock-industry blogs and coversations were filled with phrases like "40% decline" and "half the revenues of last year." PhotoShelter says the sky is not falling, but its own survey shows that 40% of buyers are reducing image budgets. With iStockcharts data suggesting that iStockphoto revenues declined by 12% from January to February, many wonder if the microstock market is finally beginning to feel the effects of the global financial crisis.
Buyer-respondents to PhotoShelter's recent survey say microstock use might decrease, but in reality, the answer depends on the type of buyers you ask.
ImageSpan, the California-based creator of the LicenseStream platform, has announced agreements with the American Society of Media Photographers, the National Press Photographers Association, and the Worldwide Community of Imaging Associations (known as PMA). Through these new partnerships, ImageSpan will be offering discounts on LicenseStream services to nearly 35,000 members of the three bodies.
Subject to some post-closing adjustments, Getty Images has completed the acquisition of Jupiterimages. Jupitermedia, which will now be called WebMediaBrands, is using the proceeds of the sale to pay debts.
GumGum has added b5media, one of the world's largest blog networks, to its client roster. In slightly more than a year since since its public launch, GumGum ranks among the top 100 Quantcast destinations.
The new microstock arm of the Corbis empire, Veer Marketplace, is live as of Monday. This makes Veer the first major provider to integrate user-generated imagery into a traditional Web site.
Recently, several stock agencies have found it necessary to discontinue operations. When that happens, photographer royalties often go unpaid. What went wrong for these firms and their photographers?
Last week, two leading stock-image companies have made announcements that sent their contributors into apoplectic fits: Alamy released its Commercial Collection. Fotolia cut contributor royalties. Both came as a surprise to the two agencies' contributing photographers.
Getty Images has expanded its photographer grant program to include two $15,000 grants for work that raises awareness of a non-profit. These Grants for Good invite photographers to apply by April 15, and winners will be announced in June at the 2009 Cannes Advertising Festival.
Many may find the total number of images available worldwide for rights-managed and royalty-free licensing surprising.
Sources at Getty Images report that the company had double-digit (10% or more) growth in stock-footage revenue in 2008. This is particularly significant because footage sales in 2007 were slightly down from 2006.
PhotoShelter has asked photo buyers to share what they love and hate about image Web sites. Some of the answers, such as a universal hatred of unskippable Flash intros, are predictable, while others are less obvious.
In November 2003 I began tracking Getty Images return-per-image by dividing the total number of RM and RF images into the total revenue generated in the previous four quarters. In the last four years Getty’s gross revenue from still image licensing has grown about 50%, but as the charts below show, not nearly as fast as the number of images added to the collection. As a result image suppliers have found that they have to produce more and more images each year just to stay even.