Subscription
There is increasing dissatisfaction among iSockphoto contributors as a result of
Googlegate, and other recent moves by iStock. Many of the approximately 5,000 exclusive contributors are exploring the option of giving up their exclusive and placing their images on multiple web sites. Shutterstock is actively pursuing iStock exclusive contributors and has created a direct email address,
wbva@fuhggrefgbpx.pbz, to guide them through the signup and approval process.
Shutterstock has reported revenue of $42.3 million for the third quarter, a 36% increase over Q3 2011. The company expects to generate revenue of $44 to $45 million in the fourth quarter. Based on that projection revenue for 2012 will be between $164 and $168 million, up $44.7 million compared to the 2011 revenue of $120.3 million. This will be a 37% increase in revenue for the year.
At the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA) international conference in Chicago over the weekend PACA and CCC (Copyright Clearance Center) offered a proposal for collecting revenue for the unlicensed use of images on social media sites and distributing a share of that revenue to the creators whose images were used
Shutterstock has raised $76.5 million by selling 4.5 million shares at $17 each. This was above the expected price range of between $13 and $15 per share. Today, the stock is trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SSTK” at $22 per share.
Masterfile has launched a Super Value collection of 1.7 million photos, illustrations and vectors available through a $50 subscription allowing 50 downloads per month (all file sizes). The images are not restricted to a daily quota: they can be downloaded at any point, as needed, during the term of the subscription. 3-month and 12-month options are also available.
In the near future photographers can expect to see are some dramatic
changes in the way subscriptions are defined. Until now, most
subscriptions have allowed customers to download 25 images per day for
the duration of the subscription ranging from 1
month to 1 year. Now a number of new options are being introduced.
Shutterstock has filed plans with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering (IPO). The company intends to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SSTK” and hopes to raise around $115 million through this IPO. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have yet to be decided.
Four non-disclosed sources have told Reuters that
Shutterstock is looking for underwriters for an initial public offering (IPO). A Shutterstock spokesperson refused to comment on the report or to supply financial details about the company.
A new search engine called
PicturEngine is getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere. It has recently been released in Beta after four years in development. The founder, Justin Brinson, also owns two agencies: Corner House Stock Photos and Picturesque.
ShutterstockImages LLC has announced the addition of four new members to its board
of directors. Steven Berns, Executive Vice President and Chief
Financial Officer of Revlon, Jeff Epstein, former Executive Vice
President and Chief Financial Officer of Oracle, Thomas Evans, President
and Chief Executive Officer of Bankrate, and Jonathan Miller, Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer of News Corp.'s Digital Media Group,
bringing the total number of board members to six. The new appointees
bring diverse experience to Shutterstock's board, managing complex,
multi-market businesses across internet, media and technology sectors.
Shutterstock has announced a yearlong partnership with
TED, the non-profit dedicated to ideas worth spreading. This partnership is designed to encourage more dynamic, visual presentations from the world's most inspired thinkers. As part of this partnership, Shutterstock is providing complimentary subscriptions to speakers at TED2012 and TEDGlobal2012. Contributors whose images are downloaded as part of these subscriptions will receive their normal royalties.
This article provides a selection of stories that will help the reader
better understand microstock photography and the state of the market for
images at microstock prices at the beginning of 2012. Some of the
stories in this list were written as much as two years ago, but provide
background on the subject.
Shutterstock (
www.shutterstock.com) has delivered more than 200 million licensed image downloads to its customers since its founding in 2004. This number far exceeds that of any other company licensing rights to stock photography. The company’s closest competitor in the microstock arena is iStockphoto. According to the latest figures from
istockcharts.multimedia.de iStock has licensed 116,134,740+ downloads. (The + probably represents a few thousands above this number.)
Shutterstock Images LLC has released its
Shutterstock for iPad app, available for free download now in the Apple App Store.
Just 8 months after launch
ImageCollect.com, a celebrity picture library offering images at microstock prices, has doubled in size in 3 months and now has more than three million images available for download. The library contains archival imagery and current content supplied by top entertainment photographers. The company expects to have more than 5 million images by early 2012.
In an effort to give volume customers a better deal and compete with Getty’s Premium Access and Thinkstock programs
Corbis Images has launched a new Royalty-Free (RF) subscription service that offers customers easy access to more than one million RF images at greatly discounted prices. The service, called ‘OnDemand: Royalty-Free’ is available to all customers to help solve their creative storytelling needs.
Shutterstock has introduced a new tool in the Shutterstock Darkroom
section of its site that is designed to help contributors better
understand Keyword Trends. The tool allows them to compare five keywords
at a time in order to determine the relative number of times a
particular keyword is used to request images on Shutterstock.
The new
Getty Images Contributor Agreement is now available. It raises a number of issues for Getty photographers. Photographers must sign the new contract before the end or April in order to continue to submit new images. If they choose not to sign Getty will continue to license their images until their current contract expires. At that point their images will be removed from the database.
Stock image producers often have two misconceptions about
subscription licensing services: They believe subscription licensing is
simple and that for a very low monthly fee customers are allowed to use
any image for any purpose. Neither is true.
Universal Images Group,
the distribution business unit of the Virtual Picture Desk, has been
awarded a contract by the Encyclopaedia Britannica to provide an
extensive online library of low-resolution (150 dpi) images suitable
for educational use. The images will be supplied by numerous producers around the world and, together with Britannica's wholly owned content, will become part of a new subscription service, Britannica Image
Explorer.
A comprehensive comparison of the various sizing and pricing strategies between the top 6 microstock photography sites.