Microstock
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.
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.
Don’t tell Cathy Yeulet that you can’t make money in microstock. She operates
Monkey Business Images,
one of the most successful microstock production companies. However,
unlike many microstockers, she is not new to stock photography. For
many years, Yeulet operated a successful rights-managed business in
Oxfordshire, U.K. When traditional royalty-free first began to take
off, she created the BananaStock brand, which she sold to Jupiterimages
in 2005 for approximately $19 million in cash.
She started uploading images to iStockphoto in March of 2008.
This story provides a list of useful articles that will provide the reader with a good background on the current state of the stock photography business and where it is headed.
If you are in the stock imagery business and want to stay current with
worldwide industry trends, the annual CEPIC congress is a must-attend
event. Held every year in early June—this year in Dublin, Ireland, at
the brand new Aviva Stadium—the congress provides an opportunity to
meet industry leaders and exchange ideas.
How does demand for images compare to what many agree is an
oversupply?
What does the competition look like in terms of the number of images available online? Everyone knows there are billions of amateur images floating around the Internet, but what is the quantity of unique images currently available in professional collections?
A comprehensive comparison of the various sizing and pricing strategies between the top 6 microstock photography sites.
A Russian photographer asks what subjects he should shoot for
microstock in order to maximize his earnings. With hard work, he feels he can duplicate the results achieved by Yuri Arcurs, particularly because shooting in Russia can be much cheaper than Arcurs' Denmark location. Yet there are flaws to that logic.
This story provides links to some of the stories on this site that may be of interest to someone new to the stock photography business, or someone who might to have a
brief refresher course on some of the things that have been happening in the
last few years. Many of these stories will also give you some idea of developing trends and what the
future might hold.
This is a list of 14 articles that will provide microstock photographers, or those considering contributing to microstock sites, some useful background and insights into the industry.
This article by Ellen Boughn raises the question of whether there is a
need for specialized niche microstock collections, argues the case for
them and points to Vivozoom and Microstock Israel as indications that we
may see more of them. Jim Pickerell presents counter arguments as to
why the success of such sites is unlikely.
Jim Pickerell has a long history in stock photography as a stock shooter, an agency owner, and an industry analyst. In this wide-ranging interview he shares his experience and insight on the future of stock photography.
For those who think that the use of photography in education will remain the same, here are some numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Only a couple years ago, a researcher for a major book publisher said the company would never use microstock for a textbook, because of the "difficulty of securing rights." Though that was puzzling given typically solid microstock releases, I came away believing that maybe the textbook market was a last bastion of hope for photographers trying to license images at rights-managed prices. But things have changed.
Chris Barton, a photographer and the managing director of Photographers Direct, has written an article highlighting multiple uses of the same microstock image and asking why a reputable company would do this to itself. There are numerous answers, and most are so mind-bogglingly simple as to make anyone wonder why stock-industry insiders are still having this meaningless debate.
In January we published an analysis
of the units licensed in 2009 by a group of iStockphoto’s most
successful contributors and asked the question “Has Microstock Reached
a Plateau?” The first quarter 2010 results seem to confirm this is the case. As a
baseline, on June 1, 2009 we did a count of the total number of images
licensed in May 2009 by a group of 196 out of the 250 top selling iStock
contributors. (Information on some of the top 250 was not available.)
There were 442,533 images licensed by this group in that month. Average monthly sales were up only 5% by the end of 2009, but they were down 1% to only 3.9% by the end of March 2010. See the full analysis and the implications for the future.
There is a persistent idea among many image creators that a photographer somehow devalues his work if he ever licenses it for low prices. Yet recent years have shown that volume can be as significant a factor as price, and there are numerous other considerations.
If stock photography as a profession is going to survive, we are going to have to find a way to develop a two-tier pricing system. One tier would be for commercial use of images, and the other for personal and small use.
After publishing my article on a Two-Tier Pricing System I’ve had a
series of discussions with several photographers. There seems to be some
general misunderstanding as to why I think such a system is in the best
interest of all photographers regardless of whether they currently
license their work as rights-managed (RM), traditional royalty-free (RF)
or Microstock. Two-Tiers is not just another pricing model. The
whole purpose is so all images can be made available to all customers
at appropriate prices depending on how the customer intends to use the
image.
Anyone who has heard the term microstock has probably heard of Yuri Arcurs. He is recognized as the worlds most successful microstock photographer but is much more than just a photographer: he is a brilliant businessman adept at marketing, self-promotion and managing a large staff.
Photography has a long way to go. Compared to other digitized creative forms, like music, it is light years behind. And, for once, that could be a good thing. Like the youngest brother of a family, it can learned from it’s elders. For once, it has not yet been touch at full impact by the whole free file sharing tsunami that hit music a while back. Certainly the dams are leaking and breaking, but we are no where near what the music industry has experienced.