After the announcement of the
Shutterstock/Facebook agreement that makes images available FREE of charge to businesses that advertise on Facebook, I contacted Shutterstock for additional clarification.
In this time of ever declining stock photo prices it is great when we can report a significant license fee for stock images. Last week one of the remaining, small, independent photo agencies negotiated a campaign of global scope entailing unlimited print, web and marketing uses of 7 images for a period of 10 years for a total fee of $415,000.
Many traditional RF and RM agencies and production companies are adding images to the
Offset collection. I’ve found images from Blend, Aurora, Tetra, National Geographic, Westend61, fStop, Johner, Gallery Stock, Cavan Images and Radius Images in the few searches I’ve conducted.
At the recent Interactive Advertising Bureau’s 2013 Digital Content NewFronts conference in New York 75% of the senior executives attending said they plan to shift more of their advertising budget from television to digital video ads over the next year.
Shutterstock has done a deal with Facebook that will give businesses that advertise on Facebook
FREE access to the Shutterstock library that now totals more than 28 million images. Each time a Facebook advertiser licenses a Shutterstock image the Shutterstock artist will earn a royalty – presumably the $0.25 to $0.40 subscription rate.
ImageBrief that connects creative and marketing professionals to a curated network of more than 7,500 professional photographers in 115 countries has published an
infographic that outlines some of the risks professional photographers face in the current market.
The American Society of Media Photographers, joined by National Press Photographers Association (
NPPA), The Digital Media Licensing Association (
PACA), American Photographic Artists (
APA), This Week in Photography (
TWiP), Professional Photographers of America (
PPA), Coordination of European Picture Agencies Stock, Press and Heritage (
CEPIC), Graphic Artists Guild (
GAG) and American Society of Picture Professionals (
ASPP), has mounted a campaign to address the far-reaching Terms of Use of the image sharing service Instagram.
Getty Images has made a number of strategic decisions in the past few years that have resulted in declines in both its “Creative” (RM and RF) and microstock lines of business. These decisions have also aided Shutterstock in its rise to a commanding position in the market with its subscription licensing model. I want to emphasize that when I talk about declines I am not referring to Getty’s other lines of business - Editorial, Footage, Other or B2B music – which as far as I can tell are still growing.
Getty Images has watched the rise of Shutterstock – to the company’s chagrin – and is trying to build Thinkstock to a position where it can take market share away from Shutterstock. Read this story to see why I think Getty is unlikely to be successful and why their fortunes are likely to further decline.
Photographers who are licensing their images based on usage (RM) need to give some careful thought to the lag time between creation and when they are likely to see any money. This is particularly true if they are licensing their images through an agency as the lag time seems to be getting longer and longer.