Digital Railroad has extended a discount to members of the PhotoShelter Collection, which is scheduled to shut down on Oct. 10. Those joining DRR by Oct. 31 will receive 20% off annual membership fees.
DRR membership of $50 per month—or less, in cases of annual subscriptions—covers a custom e-commerce Web site with 100 gigabytes of storage space and access to the company’s stock-licensing Marketplace and Research Network services. DRR also charges transactional fees: 10% on e-commerce through the photographer’s DRR-hosted Web site and 30% of Marketplace sales.
On Tuesday, the Marketplace reminded the industry of the value of images used in national print advertising campaigns. This month, Oklahoma-based Weatherpix Stock Images will take home $20,000 in royalties for DRR Marketplace sales. Two different photographers’ images from the Weatherpix collection were used in print ads for the Discovery Channel and Dupont, for a total of $25,000 in licensing revenues.
In what has been perceived by observers as head-on competition between two rivals similar in both business purpose and services, DRR has emerged victorious. However, the company has faced its share of challenges.
For example, the Marketplace launched in April 2007 with a 20% to 80% respective revenue-split between DRR and image owners. This ratio was revisited last July, when DRR exited beta after a little over a year in business and increased its share of revenues for both e-commerce and Marketplace transactions. At the time, the company said it had always planned to raise its prices; however, the move came as a surprise to many of its photographer clients.
January layoffs of 24 staffers were also a surprise and were interpreted by some to mean that DRR may not be a financially sound business. DRR assured its customers that staff reductions were motivated by a change in the business focus, rather than purely financial considerations.
Today, DRR says it is on track to pay contributors over $1 million in commissions in 2008. At the same time, the company still owes royalties on December 2007 sales, and the answer given to photographers is: “We are working on it.” The Stock Artists Alliance is aware of the issue, which currently appears to be limited to just a few delay complaints.
In response to last week’s announcement of the closing of the PhotoShelter Collection, DRR issued a statement assuring the industry of its long-term commitment to the business. The company currently hosts over 10 million images, almost one-third of which is available for licensing through the Marketplace. Its members include some of the best known contemporary photographers and agencies, such as Douglas Menuez, Ed Kashi, Jeff Pflueger and VII.