June 21, 2007
Getty Images Acquires Pump Audio
Getty Images has entered the music-licensing business with a $42 million acquisition of Pump Audio, a New York-area music licensing company.
Established in 2001, Pump Audio captured a market niche. It represents independent musicians and labels in licensing music for use in advertising, television, film and the Internet. Last year, it generated more than 80,000 TV placements for its artists.
The acquisition fits into Getty Images' continuing strategy of expanding its portfolio of digital media offerings. Pump Audio positions Getty to become a major player in what it estimates is a $3 billion a year industry. Audio is a natural extension of the company's multimedia products geared to the advertising and broadcasting markets, where Getty already has a large customer base.
The current Pump Audio catalog includes tens of thousands of songs from around the world. Music buyers - which include MTV, Mercedes-Benz, Kodak and a number of creative shops servicing similar accounts - access music through proprietary technologies, such as the online Soundtrack Service and the PumpBox, a client desktop tool.
Pump Audio operates in a similar fashion to a stock-image agency, and its terms favor the original artist. The company accepts submissions, offers an even split of revenue to the artist and does not require exclusivity or transfer of copyright ownership.
Steve Ellis, founder and CEO of Pump Audio, believes the acquisition will be beneficial for both customers and artists. "The combination with Getty Images will give many more creative customers access to great original music," he says. "At the same time, it will provide our contributing artists access to a huge, global marketplace."
Getty Images intends to pursue partnerships that would enhance the existing music licensing service. In particular, the company plans to expand the range of currently represented artists to include major labels, publishers and other audio content owners.
Corbis Gets Creative With Keywords
By: Julia Dudnik Stern
The Corbis Creative Keywords program attempts to marry the latest pop-culture buzzwords and the company's image-search engine. The new keywords, unveiled at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival, are tailored to different cultures and available in several languages. Among the top current searchable keywords in U.S. English are "sporno" (sports + porno) for erotic athlete imagery and "mancation" for the supposedly guy-only activities of sports and drinking. New keywords are added every month.