Getty Creative Collection Transformation

In the last four years there has been dramatic shifts within the Getty Images Creative Collection. It is unclear how this has affected gross revenue generated as Getty has stopped providing a public breakdown of the revenue segments of its business. Nevertheless, it is believed that since 2016 annual gross Creative revenue has consistently generated about $280 million of the company’s roughly $850 million in gross revenue.

There has been very little change in revenue generated year to year despite the massive change in the number of images available for licensing and the creators of that imagery. In August 2016 there were 14,992,119 images in the Creative collection. In June 2018 there were 23,922,471 images available and as of March 2020 there are currently 30,472,764 images. Obviously, more images does not result in more revenue.

During this same period Getty has been licensing more uses year to year, but at lower and lower prices per-image-licensed. This has resulted in flat revenue, at best, for the company. It has also resulted in lower and lower average royalties for images creators because sales are spread among so many more creators.



In 2016 there were 208 different collections in Getty Creative. Some of these collections were, and continue to be, wholly owned by Getty, but the majority were provided by independent agencies whose work Getty represented.

Between 2016 and 2018 there were dramatic changes in the number of images each outside agency added to the collection. (See link above.) In this two year period the vast majority of agencies added very few new images, or started pulling back on the number of images they had in their collections.



There seems to have been two major reasons for this. First, as license fees declined, (See here) more and more of the photographers who were trying to earn a portion their living producing stock images stopped producing as they discovered that this was no longer a productive way to spend their time.

Second, many image producers who already had images in the Getty collection, determined that at the prices charged Getty was devaluing their work and they wanted their images pulled so they could try to license them for more reasonable prices elsewhere.

Shutting Down Right Managed

Getty’s decision in November 2019 to shut down Rights Managed licensing led to a massive decline in the number of collections represented. For years Getty had been licensing many of its RM images at Royalty Free (RF) prices through Premium Access deals. Now they gave RM suppliers the choice of either licensing all their images at RF prices or having them removed from the collection. Virtually all the independent agencies decided to remove all their images if there was no longer a chance of obtaining higher prices for some uses.

As a result, 98 of the the 208 collections (47%) that were represented by Getty in 2016 are no longer available through the company’s website. In 2016 these collections represented 40% of the images in the Creative collection. By 2018, collectively, these agencies had, on average, reduced their share of the total collection by 17%. However, at this point these 98 agencies only represented 21% of the Creative collection because Getty had added so many additional RF images from other sources. As of March 2020 the following agencies have zero images with Getty.

	2016 August	2018 June	2020 March
360cities.net		4,058	0
AFP Creative	3,811	55,887	0
age fotostock	84,306	112,895	0
All Canada Photos	90,463	107,363	0
Allsport Concepts	2,594	2,584	0
Altrendo		2,330	0
America 24-7	1,856	1,847	0
Arcaid Images	5,774	29,423	0
Archive Photos	24,954	38,713	0
Art Images	1,159	1,150	0
Asia Images	15,740	8,032	0
Aurora	39,917	40,326	0
AWL Images	130,547	142,878	0
Axiom Photographic Agency	18,792	19,383	0
Bettmann	903	3,434	0
Biosphoto	1	39,809	0
Blend Images	343,271	200,696	0
Caiaimage	26,332	35,594	0
Canopy	48,254	56,320	0
Car Culture ® Collection	4,767	9,860	0
CGIBackgrounds	5,336	5,336	0
Chic Sketch		119	0
China Span	9,809	10,657	0
Conde Nast Collection		1,344	0
Corbis Historical	3	7	0
Da Vinci Codex Atlanticus	2,238	2,238	0
De Agostini Picture Library	217,630	314,261	0
Discovery Channel Images	4,387	4,387	0
EyeEm RM		0	0
First Light	46,750	60,655	0
Fototrove	1,147	1,110	0
Gallo Images	162,351	183,113	0
Genuine Japan		0	0
Glow		26,972	0
hemis.fr	70,504	72,350	0
Hero Images	41,317	56,828	0
Historic Map Works	42,078	42,074	0
Hoxton	709	3,983	0
Hulton Archive	44,026	44,456	0
Iconica	42,614	40,064	0
Ikon Images	11,831	14,461	0
Illustration Works	8,112		0
Images Bazaar	11,206	13,014	0
Inmagineasia		9,275	0
iStock		0	0
iStock Unreleased +		0	0
Johner Images	21,127	2,459	0
Juice Images	22,889	72,995	0
Lonely Planet Images	734,694	804,970	0
LOOK	64,946	67,656	0
Minden Pictures	210,854	123,160	0
Mint Images	4,648	4,420	0
Moment RF & RM	637,599		0
Moment Select	13,731	12,946	0
Flickr (added to Moment)	19,375		0
Mondadori Portfolio	11,364	11,375	0
National Geographic Magazines		58,240	0
Nativestock	1,458	1,458	0
Nature Picture Library	11,940	16,038	0
Nordic Life		0	0
Nordic Photos	7,042	5,955	0
NYonAir		0	0
OJO+	3,867	3,865	0
Oxford Scientific	62,075	60,876	0
Panoramic Images	52,564	55,471	0
Passage	53,553	46,285	0
Perspectives	69,192	110,093	0
Photographer's Choice	235,567	259,157	0
Photolibrary	496,271	526,003	0
Photonica	18,586	18,594	0
Photonica World	11,558	11,579	0
Picture Press	39,564	50,021	0
Pixta		718	0
Popperfoto	1,922	2,298	0
Radius Images	34,223	33,707	0
Retrofile	8,056	2,363	0
Riser	2,007	1,918	0
robertharding	87,697	101,924	0
SambaPhoto	7,607	6,932	0
Science Faction	21,412	21,260	0
Science Source	99,544	98,698	0
Sino Images	18,966	47,092	0
Snapwi.re	778	777	0
Stock4B	23,131	23,673	0
StockFood Creative	35,110	34,448	0
SuperStock	39,525	38,893	0
Taxi	57,056	64,107	0
Taxi Japan	16,344	15,804	0
The LIFE Picture Collection	905,678	11,965	0
Topic Images	29,197	31,365	0
Universal Images Group	59226	59,486	0
Untitled X-Ray	2,061	2,932	0
VisitBritain		67,226	0
Visuals Unlimited	32,756	31,193	0
WaterFrame	35,797	39,994	0
WIN-Initiative	18,709	19,352	0
Yann Arthus-Bertrand	4,441	7,848	0
ZZVE Illustrations	6,275	6,251	0
98 Collections	5,917,471	4,915,126	0
Total Getty Collection	14,992,119	23,922,471	30,472,764

No New Images Added

In addition, fifty of the collection still represented by Getty have, on average, added no new images since June 2018. In 2018 collectively they represented 1,863,831 images and today they have 1,861,809 images. A few of these collections are wholly owned by Getty. Some the company bought years ago, but they have done nothing to add new images to these collections.

Those that are still independent companies have either stopped producing new images or determined that it is no longer beneficial to add more images to the Getty website because sales and prices are so low. Thus, 71% of the collections that were on the Getty site in 2018 now only represent 6% of the images still in the Creative collection.

	2016 August	2018 June	2020 March
ArtBox Images RF	4,573	4,572	4,571
Asia Selects	10,604	10,508	10,501
AsiaPix	10,282	24,108	24,143
Aurora Open	18,789	28,805	28,279
Best View Stock	29,602	30,951	30,937
beyond fotomedia	10,583	10,431	9,198
BLOOMimage	41,182	39,507	39,018
Collection Mix: Subjects	65,414	92,250	100,031
CSA Images	25,037	28,580	28,492
Cultura	164,301	230,617	216,146
Dex Image	16,978	16,994	16,979
DisabilityImages	10,557	11,100	11,373
Evok Images	385	843	713
EyeEm Premium	2,824	14,538	16,937
foap		111,772	110,889
Foodcollection	26,133	63,416	66,137
Fotosearch	104,032	92,216	87,647
fStop	40,112	46,312	50,236
Fuse	30,984	4,259	4,184
GeoNova Maps	1,154	1,154	1,153
Glowimages	53,194	49,042	49,012
Gulfimages	5,788	5,788	5,786
HEX	2,796	4,681	4,677
imageBROKER	80,439	199,995	209,323
Imagemore	29,917	27,246	27,233
imagenavi	68,909	70,831	71,208
Imagewerks Japan		9,322	9,317
Imagezoo	23,827	23,739	21,614
IndiaPicture	19,929	28,017	31,599
Ingram Publishing	9,570	9,514	8,860
Ivary	7,234	7,231	7,227
IZA Stock	6,348	6,348	6,345
Loop Images		2,673	2,709
MedicalRF.com	11,900	11,901	11,897
MILATAS	8,099	9,047	9,081
MIXA	36,943	36,922	36,855
OJO Images	53,702	53,076	52,930
ONOKY	22,367	25,569	25,719
PhotoAlto Agency RF Collections	79,607	85,196	87,935
Photographer's Choice RF	183,934	203,838	193,808
photosindia	34,096	34,096	34,093
PictureIndia	8,323	121	121
redchopsticks	10,351	10,353	10,353
Refinery29		1,170	897
Rubberball Production	35,208	35,324	35,322
Score by Aflo	34,342	34,340	34,332
Silkroad images	1,860	163	163
UFO RF	4,353	4,890	4,890
VStock	90	4,487	4,961
XiXinXing	5,984	5,978	5,978
	1,452,636	1,863,831	1,861,809

Significant Reduction In Number Of Images

Another 19 brands reduced their collection by a significant amount in the last two years. This . may because they converted some RM to RF and removed the rest.

	2016 August	2018 June	2020 March
ABSODELS	9,151	20,423	15,844
Alloy	10,708	52,101	35,512
amana images	199,933	225,932	114,811
arabianEye	47,053	52,796	5,132
Brand X Pictures	37,396	36,981	29,938
Corbis	468,113	569,770	350,536
Corbis Documentary	590,642	600,766	126,238
Dorling Kindersley RF	96,074	99,793	16,999
F1online	21,307	20,880	9,338
Folio Images	7,449	21,074	16,544
Hola Images	8,634	8,629	6,885
LatinContent	5,743	731	130
National Geographic	223,188	197,341	72,135
Passage Unreleased		4,548	2,637
Photononstop	52,038	66,673	17,641
Purestock	33,029	33,022	7,968
TongRo Images	63,478	49,690	39,768
UpperCut Images	8,262	28,003	19,759
Vetta	101,762	59,167	28,473
	1,983,960	2,148,320	916,288

So Where Is The Collection Growth?

Twenty-three brands, most with collections of under 100,000 images, have grown their collections significantly since 2018. The total images for this group was 1,162,013 in 2018 and 1,740,514 in 2020.

	2016 August	2018 June	2020 March
Bloomberg Creative Photos		3,563	7,410
blue jean images	41,880	48,145	54,802
Cavan		93,364	138,959
Corbis Unreleased		6,826	10,299
Design Pics	64,653	73,825	80,839
Ello			90
Gallo Images ROOTS RF collection	18,615	38,094	44,905
Image Source	107,814	122,653	131,356
ImaZinS	968	10,708	37,589
Johner Images Royalty-Free	42,376	76,517	84,817
Luxy	85	9,484	13,177
Maskot	22,313	32,203	43,909
Mint Images RF	13,923	27,760	39,888
MITO images	1,192	2,913	3,336
Publisher Mix		11,113	17,499
Retrofile RF	7,276	12,485	14,488
RooM	27,447	45,081	59,419
Science Photo Library	93,188	90,453	111,122
STOCK4B-RF	12,236	12,642	93,210
Stocktrek Images	23,875	26,509	113,044
Tetra images	91,957	94,828	202,977
View Stock	28,681	57,199	79,933
Westend61	149,011	265,648	357,446
	747,490	1,162,013	1,740,514

Getty also added a significant number of images to 12 of its house brands. Combined these brands had 6,004,331 images in 2018. In less than 2 years they have grown by 65% to 9,907,020. In many of these cases Getty actually owns the images and is not required to pay out a royalty. Thus, they can sell them at any price they want.

However, many of the images in the Stone, Image Bank and Photodisc brands are owned by individual photographers. Many of the images in the Stone and Image Bank brands were formerly RM. Their creators probably decided that, low as future royalties might be at Getty, it is unlikely they would earn more anywhere else. Thus, given the potential low earnings it was not worth their cost inf time and re-keywording to try to place the images with a new agency.

	2016 August	2018 June	2020 March
a-Clip			58,882
E+	892,753	2,450,306	3,839,249
DigitalVision	150,510	197,231	371,891
DigitalVision Vectors		1,065,823	1,560,986
Lonely Planet RF		0	43,245
iStock Unreleased		309,706	908,847
Photodisc	558,184	680,492	884,553
Stockbyte	666,225	669,292	740,118
Stockbyte Unreleased		20,355	135,006
Stone	76,555	80,304	488,216
The Image Bank	463,143	530,822	455,478
The Image Bank Unreleased			420,549
	2,807,370	6,004,331	9,907,020

Most of the new images are coming from 3 suppliers – 500px (currently owned by Visual China Group), Moment (made up of images from Flickr photographers) and EyeEm. Virtually all these images have been shot by amateurs who take pictures in their spare time as a hobby and are more interested in the idea that their work has some value (little as it might be) to someone. The revenue the images might generate is unimportant.

Currently, 16,047,133 of the 30,472,764 images, or 53% of the entire Creative Collection have been supplied by these three companies. EyeEm alone has supplied 26% of all the images in the collection, or about 8 times the number of images they had with Getty less than 4 years ago. Moment images make up 16% of the collection.

Clearly the stock photo business is no longer a way for professional photographer to earn much money and has been taken over by amateurs.

	2016 August	2018 June	2020 March
500px			3,111,596
EyeEm	253,328	4,542,663	8,005,719
Moment	453,639	1,725,673	3183,793
Moment Mobile	29,703	45,749	45,181
Moment Open	1,346,112	1,354,911	1,337,255
Moment Unreleased	410	159,854	363,589
	2,083,192	7,828,850	16,047,133