At the end of 2016 Shutterstock had 190,000 contributors. By May 2017 that number was up to 225,000 and in September when they launched
Shutterstock Custom Content they said they had 250,000 contributors. Presumably the number was even higher at the end of the year.
Heritage Images Partnership has announced that their company CEO and friend Sheldon Marshall passed away on 17 December 2017 during an expedition to Mount Everest; one of his long standing dreams. Marshall had been active in the stock photo industry for decades.
Following its
Visual Trends predictions for 2018, Adobe recently released a deep analysis of its first trend –
Silence and Solitude. In this chaotic, always-on world where people are bombarded with constant speeds and feeds, the Adobe is seeing a growing demand for images that convey comfort and regeneration.
One of the things I said in my
2018 Predictions is: “Image creator may be given more useful information about what is in demand.” In recent years we’ve seen a huge growth in the number of creators entering the stock photo business as well as images added to the collections. But we’re no longer seeing a corresponding growth in revenue.
Here are a few stock photo industry changes that I predict will occur before 2019.
1 – At least one radically new and different business model for licensing stock images will be introduced. 2 – Customers will become more disenchanted with the major stock photo distributors. 3 - Image creators may be given more useful information about what is in demand.
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Can blockchains improve tracking of stock photo sales, give creators greater control, cut costs and increase royalties? Various companies are talking about instituting such systems. Announcements are expected in the near future. Such systems may reduce the need for some of the services stock agencies currently provide and remit 80% to 90% of the fee the customer pays to the photographer.
Most commercial users want to be honest. They don’t set out to steal. They certainly don’t want to be chased by a photographer and his/her legal team once it is discovered that they have used an image without permission. If photographers want to license more images to professional users – and get better prices – then they must make it easier for customers to find them once the customers finds an image they would like to use. The process is easy enough if the customer finds the image on a stock agency website, but more and more customers are finding the images they would like to use by searching Google, Bing, Flickr or by randomly searching Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, other social media sites or various publications.
The European Parliament is debating new legislation that could require Facebook, Google, Twitter and other major players to share some of the advertising revenue they earn from making the information produced and supplied by major European press agencies available to readers for free.
Photographers and stock agencies may want to start paying a little attention to all the news about blockchains and cryptocurrency. Promoters say that blockchains can cut out some of the middleman costs and provide a more efficient and less costly payment system between image creator and buyer. With many cryptocurrency transactions it is possible to immediately convert the currency into green backs that can be used at any local store, or hold onto the cryptocurrency with the hope that it will increase in value.
Last week Shutterstock notified its editorial shooters that they had begun showcasing all of their Premier Editorial content on Shutterstock.com. Previously this content has only been accessible through the Shutterstock Premier website. “The new editorial tab will include our historic Rex collection, images from strategic partners, including AP, BFA, epa, and live coverage of breaking news, entertainment and sports events,” they said.
After
PETA (People For Ethical Treatment Of Animals) pointed out that monkeys and great apes suffer immensely when used for photo shoots—and that images of these animals in unnatural settings can harm conservation efforts and bolster the illegal wildlife trade—Shutterstock agreed to remove and ban all such photographs and videos of these species from its collection as well as from those of its subsidiary Bigstock.
Storyblocks has published a
2018 Trends Guide that features predictions for the year ahead based on 64M searches and 38M downloads across their sites in the last year (365 days). The results suggest that creators are increasingly globally aware and creating a strong increase in demand for diverse and global content.
A three-year-old specialist stock agency in France call
HOsiHO (meaning High So High, in French) is finding strong demand for aerial stock photography. The agency has a collection of 3000 aerial videos and stills shot by a pool of more than 40 talented contributors based at the four corners of France.
Recently, a
Microstockgroup post by
Hochmann asked, “Why all the hate towards Getty Images?” He went on to say, “Yes, I know that they give 20% as a commission while a bunch of other companies start at 35% and many of them go above 50%.
But the thing is that in Getty you're getting 20% of photographs sold for $100 or $1000 instead of 50% of 1 dollar.”
Getty Images has sent out a promotion inviting customers to
“Stretch Your 2017 Budget Into 2018 With Ultrapacks” and giving them 31% off if they purchase before the end of the year the right to download a certain number of images in 2018.
VisualSteam has released the results of its 5th Annual Survey of Creative Pros on the issue of Stock Image Licensing. The survey was sent to US art buyers, art directors, art producers, creative directors, photo editors and marketing professionals and provides a glimpse into what is driving image licensing today.
Tim Hinchliffe has reported on the
Sociable blog that Swedish stock image startup Pickit has announces its entry into the US market by establishing an office in Redmond, Washington to be closer to Microsoft.
According to Statista 1,200 billion photos will be taken worldwide in 2017. Not surprisingly, 85% of them will be taken with Smartphones, 4.7% taken with Tablets and only 10.3% were taken with digital cameras. That works out to about 123,600,000,000 photos taken with digital cameras. A very small percentage of these will be made available available for licensing.
Many stock photographers are earning less and less from the new stock images they produce. They are finding that they can no longer expect to earn a significant portion of their annual income from licensing right to the use of their stock images. Consequently, they are looking for other ways to supplement their income.
Jim Domke, creator of the Domke Camera Bag, recently commented about my
Can Customers Find You article. He said, “Those searching for photos on Google or Bing are searching for FREE photos.” I disagree.
A judge published a verdict on November 28, 2017 in the District Court of North Hoilland that could dramatically change the meaning of copyright in the Netherlands, if it is upheld. Masterfile and Mediapro, its representative in the Netherlands, had brought a case against a website operator who had used a Masterfile distributed photo of a “clear close-up of a temperature gauge of a car.” The photo was used without permission and no payment was made by the website operator to Masterfile
Given the low prices, royalty cuts and delayed payments, experienced entertainment shooter are finding they no longer need stock agencies – particularly microstock agencies. When a photographer shoots red carpet or other entertainment events all sales pretty much come the next morning, or not at all. Red carpet event photos have a VERY SHORT shelf life. The trick is getting your photos on the editor’s desk the next morning.
Tired of low stock photo prices? Maybe you ought to license your images to customers direct. More and more customers are finding the images they need by searching Google. Sometimes the image may be one of yours that is represented by an agency. You may be able to get these searchers to come directly to you.
When potential customers see one of your images they would like to use can they find you or your representative. More and more image users are finding the images they would like to use by searching Google or Bing. They also stumble on images that would be perfect for their next project while searching Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and other social media sites.
“Must all Royalty Free photos be model released?” This question came from a stock agent who is considering converting his collection from RM to RF.
The answer is NO. An increasing number of images are being offered under a Royalty Free License for
Editorial Use Only. What the Editorial Use Only means is that “we don’t have a model release for this image,” and thus it can not be used for commercial purposes.