The new end

February 1, 2010 by pmelcher.

Finally..all in one place. Micro and traditional RF have finally united in one, simple to use, website. The entity behind it ? Well, Getty Images, of course. Some were already playing with it, others were staying away from it, Getty jumped in it, two feet at a time.

No more of this ridiculous RF branding that presupposed that RF image buyers are actually faithful to brand like they would be to a car manufacturer ( oh, dear, I only buy Honda’s) . They need an image quick and easy, and that’s all. They don’t care if it was shot by Joe Boobleeboo or that guy that grossed millions of dollars last year ( ya, right).

Because the pricing is by subscription only, there is no price comparison. Thus images are downloaded based on their value to the customer, not by how much they save. Amateurs are now on the same level as super pros ( are they any left in the RF space ?) . Meta search engines like SpiderPic can stuff it as the cannot compare pricing.

Getty has finally broken a few old barriers here and fighting back against its odd competition. Shutterstock, as well as the Alamy’s and other volume based image banks must be shaking in their winter boots. There is volume her, there is extreme ease of pricing, there is very strong search capabilities and most important, there is superb ease of use. No more of this pricing on size, no more pricing based on collections (or brand), no more of different offering/different sites. All in one place.

Furthermore, once downloaded once, an image can be used over and over without any additional license fee. Thus big companies ( book publishers, corporations, small image intensive design companies) can easily create a in house database and store images until they need them again: for free.  Why need to go anywhere else? This is going to suck the air out of a lot of RF based businesses ( that was predictable) by attracting a lot of customers.

Pay once, download once, use infinite time is something that we are probably going to see expand like a wildfire through the industry for a multiple of reasons : Poor or nonexistent DRM, inefficient tracking systems, expensive legal process, especially for RF.

This new launch by Getty will certainly have a huge impact across all aspects of the RF photo sector. It will be very interesting to see who will try to compete via others means, and those that will just decide to shut down. One thing is sure, there is no turning back now.

By the way, this is the same model that they plan to roll out for editorial usage very soon. (more on that another day)

Posted in license, technology, commercial stock, Midstock, Search, Royalty free, getty, prosumer, Microstock | Print | 8 Comments »