U.K.-based Science Photo Library chose PicScout's Image Tracker to monitor the online use of the 250,000 specialized stock images it represents.
Alamy had gross sales in Q4 2007 of $7,750,000, up from $7,506,000 in Q3 and up 22.5% overall for the year. Total revenue for 2007 was $29,254,226. Detailed statistics on the last two years of Alamy's operations are provided on its Web site.
SnapVillage, which has been building its collection since its June 2007 launch, is now serving image buyers worldwide.
Why is there such a big difference between the actual number of images on the Getty site and the number keyworded with an orientation? Getty responds.
In their drive to address the needs of the 3% of stock photography customers with the biggest budgets, RM sellers have ignored microstock buyers. They should be exploring new strategies, and viewing these buyers as an opportunity to expand their customer base and grow revenue.
To answer an ever-growing demand for video content from its clients, Newscom has added broadcast-quality video from Reuters to its array of text and visual content.
The New York-based micro-payment Web site Fotolia announced that it has passed the 3-million-image mark. At midday on Tuesday, the Fotolia home page advertised 3,010,147 stock images.
The newly launched Storyline Collection by Thought Equity Motion redefines stock footage for the advertising market. Created by agency veterans, the collection intends to reduce the costs and time involved in producing video-based ads, particularly those destined for online distribution.
Some photographers on the iStock (IS) forum are having great fun pointing out that they make more on iStock than the average Alamy photographer. They focus on the statement I made that "the average gross RPI for all images on the (Alamy) site is about $2.80." Since Alamy photographers get at least a 65% royalty, that comes out to a photographer royalty of about $1.80 per image annually.
Corbis says the skyrocketing global weight-gain is driving more people to leading healthier lives. Surpassed only by environmentalism, "globesity" was at the top of the Corbis list of cultural trends affecting visual communications during 2007.
Getty Images is on the auction block, hoping to be sold for more than $1.5 billion. Final bids are due by the end of January, but people briefed on the situation cautioned that it is unclear which firms would submit. Among those companies showing interest are private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Bain Capital.
Intellectual property owners the world over are grappling with format shifting, the consumer practice of making digital copies of works published in other mediums. Examples of format shifting include scanning an image from a book or copying a song from a CD to a computer. Both present significant challenges to artists in a global culture where technology advances at faster speeds than legal systems.
Munich-based PantherMedia has added English language and international e-commerce components to its stock-licensing Web site. Claiming the status of the first German midstock, the royalty-free agency is looking to expand into global markets.
According to WPP, the world's largest media buyer, the Internet advertising spend in Sweden in 2008 will surpass spending for television advertising. The same is expected to happen in the UK and Denmark in 2009.
On Jan. 14, Alamy posted a video of an event they hosted for contributors in November. During the presentation, CEO James West provided details relative to sales of the top 100 photographers and agencies represented on the site.
Vancouver-based maXx images has relaunched its Web site. The site is now fully e-commerce-enabled and offers access to over 3 million royalty-free and rights-managed images.
Corbis has entered into a new distribution agreement with Japan's amanaimages, a division of The Amana Group and the fourth-largest global player in stock licensing.
Founded in London in 2001 and now headquartered in New York, the World Picture Network has announced that it will discontinue its daily news-image feed as of February. WpN CEO Brian Miller said the feed, which distributed images shot on spec to breaking news outlets, was unable to compete with larger companies in a crowded industry.
CogniSign, a technology company that specializes in image and video search, has officially launched xcavator.net. The meta image-search engine exits beta testing with 6 million images, which represent the aggregate inventories of four microstock and two rights-managed stock agencies.
RM sellers have focused on the top of the market for so long they have lost sight of the whole market for stock photography. It's time for some outside-the-box thinking.
There appears to be little or no growth in the volume of uses at traditional prices. In addition, there is reason to believe volumes will decline. The dilemma for RM producers is how to expand their customer base without losing revenue from existing high-end customers.