Over time royalty rates have declined. Usage fees have dropped dramatically in the last few years. And the huge oversupply of images is making it less likely that any images will ever be licensed. Faced with these facts many photographers have pulled back on new production of stock images, if not dropped out of the stock photo business entirely.
Before dropping out photographers might want to explore Lightrocket (
www.lightrocket.com), a Singapore based company with an online search engine that gives photographers and small stock agencies the opportunity to inexpensively expand the reach of their marketing. Lightrocket enables the image creator to talk directly to the customers interested in using their images and only license use when the fee offered is fair. In addition the photographer keeps 100% of any fee negotiated. LightRocket takes no service fees or commission on photographer sales via its site.
With a
Launch Special Lightrocket is offering 20GB of storage for $39 per year for a Standard membership or $49 per year for Premium membership.
The service is the brainchild of photographers Peter Charlesworth and Yvan Cohen, co-founders of OnAsia Images, an online photo agency created over a decade ago representing a select group of professional photographers covering the Asian region.
Although offering similar features as competing players such as PhotoShelter and Smugmug, including personalized photo websites, secure cloud storage, archive management and secure file delivery, LightRocket differentiates itself by promoting its archive and its members’ work directly to its client base of around 6,000 professional picture buyers.
LightRocket also differentiates itself from others in this sector by placing emphasis on maintaining a curated site which more editors seem to be looking for today. The site’s founders have always focused on the editorial side of the business. As a result they send out pitches to between 2000-3000 clients per week and expect to see that volume rise as activity on the site expands.
It’s a strategy that seems to be working. “We had editors from National Geographic in Washington get right back to a couple of photographers in response to stories we sent out. The photographers were thrilled and it demonstrated editors are willing to go direct to the photographer when they find a picture they like,“ said Yvan Cohen.
Despite its editorial focus, the site also has a significant collection of commercially oriented, more generic images and is looking to expand into this segment of the market.
The company’s founders recognize the challenges faced by photographers today. “The market is experiencing massive over supply,” said LightRocket CEO Peter Charlesworth. “When the number of buyers doesn’t increase at the same pace as supply, the laws of economics determine that prices will fall and opportunities for sales will get harder. This is why we are seeking to find a balance between providing online services as well as opportunities for sales – ensuring our users get all round value.”
Customers can only download watermarked previews without permission. If a customer is interested in an image or a story they can click the 'contact' icon (the silhouette of a bust) and this will enable them to drop a note directly to the photographer and start the enquiry/negotiation process.
If an agreement is reached with a prospective client, the photographer has three options for delivery:
1. FTP Push whereby the photographer selects the images to be delivered and then browses to 'FTP Push' in the 'Actions' drop down in gray tool bar above the panel of thumbnails in the archive. The files are delivered straight to an FTP address but there is no record of the download.
2. Setting access and granting download rights: Using this method, a photographer can grant download rights to a registered user who has been added to their 'contacts'. In this instance, once download rights have been granted the user can download any files for which access has been given. A record of the download is displayed on the member's download activity page. The user can then follow up with the client regarding usage and record specific usages in the download record for that file.
3. Sharing files with links: This is a very quick and convenient means of sharing files regardless of whether the files have been 'published' to the archive and regardless of whether the recipient is registered on LightRocket. All you need to do is select a file in the archive and click 'share' in the drop down list of 'actions'. A pop up box appears with options to grant 'view only' access or 'view + download' access. Other options include re-sizing, limiting the number of downloads per email and setting an expiry date for the permissions. The user can also edit the covering email.
Distribution Through Getty Images
Many editorial photographers believe it is important to make their images available through Getty Images. Lightrocket has recently announced a distribution partnership (http://www.lightrocket.com/getty) with Getty that allows LightRocket premium annual members to apply to become Getty contributors via LightRocket. The agreement is unusual in that accepted LightRocket Getty contributors enjoy a non-exclusive submissions policy, allowing the same files that are accepted by Getty’s editors to be distributed elsewhere.
Once accepted by Getty their editors will choose the files they want to represent. There is no guarantee they will represent all the photographer’s work.
Participating with Getty is entirely voluntary. Photographers who place their images on Lightrocket and not required to allow Getty to represent their work.
Many photographers feel that Getty is massively under pricing many of the images it licenses. Thus, not only does the photographer get a small royalty, but the price Getty charges may be significantly less than the photographer could have obtained if he negotiated the license himself. Thus, many photographers will undoubtedly choose not to exercise the Getty option.