Welcome to a carnaval of foolishly innovative ideas

September 15, 2007 by pmelcher.

Getty and $49:

How many association of photographers does it take to bring down Getty? Apparently 6 is not enough. After sending an e-mail to Jonathan Klein, they are answered by a posting from Nick Evans Lombs. Personally, I would have been insulted. But that is just me, I guess. The giant was grateful enough to listen and modify the license, but only in duration. A bis slap in the face of these associations who were complaining about the pricing, not the terms.

What we have here is an exact replica of what mega distributor Wal-Mart does : squeezing suppliers to better increase their revenues.

C’mon guys, time to pull out the big guns, not your little whistle. Threaten to pull out your images or start a submission embargo. See how Wall Street  reacts if thousands of Getty contributors band together and stop submitting. I can guarantee that Jonathan Klein, himself, this time, would answer. And where are the trade association like CEPIC, BAPLA, or PACA. Do they approve ?

The photo agency killers:

First Alamy, then a myriad of smaller platforms, and now Photoshelter. The idea? band together enough independent photographers  on a distribution platform to create a global offering that can compete with the agencies. But the result smells very much like an agency to me. You submit, they license. The only difference is that they have no control over what is being submitted and rely entirely on their search engines to do the editing. There is no creative intelligence, nor do they have an editorial desk. By saving money on these key and essential poles of a photo agency, they offer alluring commissions to photographers. But, as much as a photographer needs help in licensing his images, he also needs help in knowing what content to create. None of these platforms offer this service.

Instead, they follow the microstock model of “you should submit in masses and the best images shall win”. That model has proven somewhat effective for the platforms ( does any make a profit ?) but terribly ineffective for the contributors. PhotoShelter insists that the presence of a linguist in their staff will create all the difference. A bad image, perfectly key worded (if there is such a thing), remains a bad image.

However, let’s see how they do as they, once again, follow DigitalRailroad in their every footsteps.

Posted in keyword, CEPIC, PACA, getty, Microstock | Print | No Comments »