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Articles from July 2010
While proliferation of digital stills has not led to growth of
still-licensing revenue as a whole, continued and explosive growth of
online video most certainly will. Video, particularly advertising and
corporate projects, continues to command higher budgets than print.
Online video advertising is also more affordable than spot television,
which has led to growth on both ends of the spectrum: larger companies
are adding it to their mix; smaller businesses that never produced video
before are adopting it.
The Picture Archive Council of America has announced that Condé Nast vice president of editorial operations will kick off the 2010 PACA conference.
So far in this series we’ve learned there is declining demand for images
that will be used in print, and growing demand for images that will be
used online and in electronic formats. Photographers just starting out
should be aware of the number of images already in online databases and
recognize that any images they produce will be competing against those
that already exist.
Photopreneur—a popular Web
site dedicated to helping professional and enthusiast photographers earn
income from their images—has announced the release of the
Amazing Public Domain Images Sourcebook. Published by New Media Entertainment, Photopreneur’s parent company, and available via Amazon.com,
the title helps art directors, photo editors and others seeking free
images source them among the millions currently available online.
As recently as five years ago, almost all (an estimated 98%) of all stock-photo revenue came from print uses. In the last five years, demand for images to be used electronically has
grown dramatically. Today, such uses account for roughly 20% of the
total industry revenue.
Though
unit sales are declining for many iStockphoto sellers, many of the same people are also seeing significant revenue increases. Here’s how.
Toronto-based Masterfile has launched a royalty-free subscription service, which provides a fixed number of images in a set resolution for a flat fee.
Ed.: Tom Grill originally wrote on the subject of volume relative to
price last November. The sentiment remains true today: like it or not,
the industry is changing dramatically, and the winners will be those who
can adapt to the new paradigm.
Traditionally, the primary uses of still pictures were in printed
products such as magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, direct mail
promotions, catalogs and—to a much smaller degree—posters and product
packages. An estimated two thirds to three quarters of all revenue
generated from stock pictures (in the range $1 billion worldwide) comes
from print image uses, but this demand has steadily declined for a number of years.
The International Press Telecommunications Council and the Picture
Licensing Universal System have released a second version of the Photo
Metadata Toolkit for Adobe Creative Suite. The package of eight files
is available for free download.
Specialist image provider StockFood has announced a new offering:
features, which include images, editorial text and recipes as an
all-in-one solution for publishing clients.
More and more people are producing pictures of a quality sufficient to
satisfy the needs of many who want to use pictures. Thanks to the
Internet—and to a great extent microstock—it is now much easier than in
the past for people to earn a little money from the images they have
produced and to make contact with customers who might want to use them.
The “Going Pro” series of articles targets not the successful
professional but the person just starting out, or the microstock
photographer who has had some success producing images that sell and
believes it is time to quit his or her day job and go into photography
full time. What are the things they need to be aware of before taking
the big plunge of trying to turn something that is a fun hobby into a
career?
As little as five years ago, approximately 98% of all stock photo
revenue came from print uses. There was little or no Internet and small
business uses. Today about 20% of industry revenue comes from Internet and small business uses. The needs of these new customers were hardly addressed five years ago, as all traditional sellers focused on the high end of the market. Consequently, when someone
wanted an image for these purposes they either took the picture
themselves, or copied something off another Internet site and paid
nothing for its use. In the last five years the demand for images that
will be used electronically has grown dramatically.
On Sunday,
The New York Times ran a lengthy piece on the protracted legal battle
between technology startup Infoflows and Corbis. On Monday, Infoflows
followed up with a press release under the headline, “Jury Finds Bill
Gates-owned Company Committed Fraud; Corbis Faces $20 Million Judgment
and Permanent Injunction.” Corbis, however, says that the battle is far
from over and points to the somewhat odd timing of the press coverage.
Ed: Shannon Fagan was one of
the speakers at the New Media Conference held in conjunction with the
June 2010 CEPIC Congress in Dublin, Ireland. Fagan has been in the
stock business for a decade, is represented by most major agencies and
is the president of the Stock Artists Alliance. He shares his
observations about the state of the industry with Selling Stock readers.
For several years
I have estimated that the size of worldwide market for still stock images and
illustrations at about $1.8 billion. I’ve also claimed that overall
stock photography has been a no-growth business despite the fact that
some companies and individuals could point to growth. Now, at the end of
2009 I believe gross revenue for the industry is no more than $1.45
billion and it will probably continue to decline. The stories here break out various segments of the market and explain the overall trends.l
Popular video-sharing site Vimeo is in the process of adding Creative Commons functionality.
This story provides links to a five part series of articles designed to help photographers understand the major trends impacting the industry in 2010 and help them plan for the future. We outline some of the issues to consider, new business models to explore and things to focus on in order to have a profitable business. Following the first five stories are links to some additional articles on the business of stock photography that may be of interest.
The Picture Archive Council of America has announced its 2010-2012
executive board, which is managing the preparations for the 15th annual
PACA conference.
Veer has relaunched its Web site,
billing the new treatment as uncomplicated. While Veer still carries traditionally priced stills, it is certainly
catering to the no-hassle customer segment with simplified licensing
and prices that span the gamut—starting at $1.
Looking for some vacation reading material? Here are some suggestions.
If you want to know how successful stock photographers do it, here are
links to a series of interviews done over the last couple years. There
are lots of different strategies. Some of these photographers are among
the world’s most successful. Other’s like Todd Klassy and Holger Mette
are relatively new to the business, and have adopted unconventional
strategies that may be the wave of the future.
Half of the survey respondents reported a greater than 5% drop in revenues between 2008 and 2009, and more than a fifth continue seeing a decline in 2010 compared to 2009.
After the U.K. Office of Fair Trading referred the planned merger of
Rex Features and Getty Images to the Competition Commission for further
investigation, the Seattle announced it would not pursue the
acquisition further. Separately, Getty has announced a new five-year
agreement to handle the photography of The European Tour and The Ryder
Cup, as well as a new product launching under the Thinkstock brand.
Shannon Fagan is a former President of the
Stock Artists Alliance and an Advisory Board member of the
Young Photographers Alliance.
In
the past 18 months, he has attended every major industry conference to
gather information on stock photography and licensing’s current
direction.
He has contributed both Rights Managed and
Royalty Free images directly to Getty Images, Corbis, Veer, Blend,
Image Source, Cultura, Spaces, Tetra and many other brands. He has a
deep knowledge of the stock photography industry, both from personal
experience, and from his role helping other photographers develop their
businesses. The following summarizes a few of his thoughts that were
first published on
Greg Ceo’s blog.
The stock-licensing industry remains in the midst of a profound change
affecting image production, quality, pricing, distribution and use.
Some trends, such as the downward slide of average image prices, have
held for years, but there are also newer, paradigm-shifting
developments. These include a middle market finally taking shape, the
long-predicted microstock shakeout, the fascination with touch
computing and all things Apple, a change in the overall content mix
and, perhaps most importantly, an evolution of the traditional stock
business model from client service-driven boutique to online
content-delivery platform.
Shannon Fagan is a former
President of the
Stock
Artists Alliance and an Advisory Board member of the
Young Photographers
Alliance. In the past 18 months, he has attended every major
industry conference to gather information on stock photography and
licensing’s current direction. He has contributed both Rights Managed
and Royalty Free images directly to Getty Images, Corbis, Veer, Blend,
Image Source, Cultura, Spaces, Tetra and many other brands. He has a
deep knowledge of the stock photography industry, both from personal
experience, and from his role helping other photographers develop their
businesses. The following summarizes a few of his thoughts that were
first published on
Greg
Ceo’s blog.
The recent CEPIC Congress proved fruitful in making alliances for
PicScout. The San Francisco-based company announced picking up more than
50 new photo-agency clients at the stock industry’s largest
international gathering.
A 14-month review of data from the leading microstock supports the theory of the fastest-growing industry segment having reached a plateau, with flat unit sales and revenue growth resulting from price increases.
The following material was compiled from
iStockcharts.multimedia.de and shows the sales of 198 of iStockphoto’s top contributors in the 14 months between May 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010. (I’ll use the word “contributor” instead of “photographer” because a significant number or the top sellers are illustrators or graphic designers selling illustration, not photography).
On Thursday, Toronto-based Mastefile acquired Norwegian microstock Crestock. Both companies announced the deal late on Friday, without disclosing financial details.
Two-year-old Cambridge, Mass.-based ImageRights International has
launched a free version of its flagship service, which helps
photographers and illustrators monitor the use of their content and
recover licensing fees.
Successful stock shooter Jonathan Ross has invested in all tiers of today's stock image market. His experience says that the way to a profitable future is rooted in a unified approach to pricing and quality. Read this transcript of Ross's recent presentation at the New Media Conference, which took place during the CEPIC Congress in Dublin.