In a little over a month I will be moderating a panel discussion at the
DMLA 2017 Conference in New York on the subject
Prices: Can We Raise Them? Stock photo prices have been declining for years, partially due to oversupply. Must prices continue to fall? Is there a strategy for charging more, to enough customers, that production of new images will become a viable business option for more producers? If so, how? What’s the strategy? If not, will that impact contributor supply? What alternatives are there for agencies to grow their business?”
A big question the stock photo industry is facing, and one I think very little effort has been expended in trying to analyze, is
Are Professional Stock Producers Needed? Can the industry survive and grow with only images produced by part-timers and amateurs who are more interested in having their work “liked” than in earning enough to cover their production costs?
Some photographers are confused about how payments for subscription usage work. I received the following question recently: If say a customer pays $100 per month for the right to download 100 images, but only actually uses 20 images from the library during the month is the photographer royalty share based on 1/100th of what the library received, or does he get 1/20th of what the library received? The first works particularly well for Picture Libraries as they receive income for less work.
Alamy has appointed Andy Harding to take over the role of Chief Executive Officer beginning on December 4th 2017. Co-founder and CEO James West is moving up to the role of Chair after 18 years as CEO.
ImageRights International, the global leader in copyright enforcement services for photo agencies and professional photographers has launched a dedicated
copyright registration service. For the first time, any photographer or agency can register their images with the United States Copyright Office through ImageRights highly efficient and precise copyright service. Previously, only ImageRights members had access to the service.
Footage.net has announced that preview clips from Bridgeman Footage are now available for viewing through Footage.net. Bridgeman Footage is a division of Bridgeman Images, the world's leading specialist in the distribution of fine art, cultural and historical media for licensing. Bridgeman Images represents over 2,000 image suppliers - including museums, galleries, artists, stately homes, photographers, private collections, libraries, universities, auction houses and picture archives.
The District Court of the Southern District of New York, in the case of
Archie MD, Inc. v. Elsevier, Inc., recently clarified the standard by which a copyright registration may be considered valid despite containing inaccurate information.
Since 2012
ImageBrief has been helping image buyers submit briefs to photographers about their image needs. Now Shutterstock and Getty Images seem to be getting interested in offering their customers custom shoots. In June Shutterstock acquired
Flashstock and in early July Getty introduced its Custom Content assignments program to Getty Images and iStock Exclusive contributors.
It is no longer necessary to take pictures in order to win photo contest. Photographers who share their images on public domain sites are sometimes surprised to learn that others have taken their images, entered them in photo contests and won awards.
What kind of pictures do companies really want for their ads? What are they actually buying? In this story we'll look at some ways to get more of what customers want to buy into the images collections. And, maybe less of the images that just sit there and no one ever want to use them.
Hootsuite has announced a collaboration with Adobe Creative Cloud and
Adobe Stock that will give its customers the ability to access, edit, distribute, and measure the impact of social content directly from Hootsuite, thus helping marketers get more value from their creative content.
Shutterstock has produced a new resource called
The Shot List that may be helpful to anyone trying to keyword images. It includes some very broad general guidelines on the kind of imagery customers are looking for when searching for: Landmarks, People, Interiors and Religion and Holidays.
The investment banking firm
Jefferies has downgraded
Shutterstock shares from Hold to Underperform with a price target of $30.00. Shutterstock stock price closed today at $33.69 down 20% from $42.14 a month ago. The stock is down 52% from the high of $65.16 that it hit in September 2016.
Everyday Copytrack is confronted with the question from their users of how they can protect their images. Despite there being no one method that completely protects image online, we suggest other tools and ways that reduce the chances of image theft. Here are the simplest to the most complex methods for image protection as presented by
Copytrack.
I was asked recently if I could provide a definition for “microstock.” The term is probably meaningless today as are the terms Rights Managed and Traditional Royalty Free. All have changed dramatically and overlap in many ways..
A couple weeks ago
we reported that Google researchers had found a way to remove the watermarks used by most stock photographer and stock photography sites. To protect their watermarks Shutterstock engineers have designed a “watermark randomizer” that adds subtle inconsistencies to its marks, ensuring each one is a little different and making them difficult for Google to remove.
Researchers at Google have found a vulnerability in the way watermarks are used by stock imagery sites like Adobe Stock that makes it possible to remove the opaque stamp used to protect copyright.
A readers recently asked what I believe the illustration segment of the stock photo industry is worth. A very good question. Since, I've spent most of my career as a photographer, I tend to think of the stock image business in terms of photography, but the reader is right that a huge percentage of the business involves the licensing of graphics and illustrations, not photos. Let me see if I can break it down.
Increasingly, image creators are turning to online service providers to provide assistance and support in pursuing copyright abuse.
Copytrack is seeing rising customer demand in both Japan and the U.S. Marcus Schmitt, Copytrack CEO, attributes the heightened demand to the Berlin-based portal’s strong international involvement in Asian and US congresses, and associations, such as
Japan Professional Photographer Society and the
Digital Media Licensing Association in New York.
Nobody seems quite sure what the future of
Offset might be. Keren Sacks, the god-mother of Offset, left (or was let go, no one seems quite sure) last December and is now working as a “
Visual Content + Strategy Consultant.”
Workbook, the leading marketing resource for commercial photographers and illustrators, will again be a sponsor of this year’s
Visual Connections Image Expo at the New Yorker hotel in New York on October 25.
A reader has pointed out that
Image Source is offering its customers using the promo code AUG50 a 50% discount on any image purchased during the month.
Cavan Images is also offering a 25% discount all month if customers use the discount code CAVAN25. Will temporary discounts bring in more customers and result in more sales overall?
Stock photographers looking for a way to make some extra money might want to take a look at this
article from the National Law Review. The Law Review argues that law firms need to consistently update their attorney portraits on their websites because “prospective clients may use them to form a first impression” of the law firm.
Time Inc. unveiled plans for a “strategic transformation” that will yield more than $400 million in savings over the next few years. In the last quarterly earnings report total revenues fell 10% year to year while operating income fell from $50 million to a loss of $38 million.
Photographers living in the New York Metro Area who have evidence of a copyright infringement of their work may want to check out
this opportunity for free legal assistance in pursuing their case.