June 3, 2009 by pmelcher.

If you are at CEPIC this week, in the lovely city of Dresden, Germany, here are few people you HAVE to see. If you are not going, no problem, they all have a website too.

WorldAssignement.com: Brainchild of Pierre Pankotay, serial entrepreneur , WA is a new platform that finally brings photo agencies and Photo editors together. On a worldwide level. The idea is simple and the execution brilliant. Say you are a photo editor in one country seeking to get a job done in another country. Thanks to WA, you can do a search on multiple fields, based on your needs, and find the appropriate photographer at the appropriate location with exactly the right skills. Since all the photographers in the database belong to a photo agency, you are guaranteed a pre-screening and not fall on some over confident schmuck.

From now on, it will be easy for a magazine, lets say in South Africa, to find a photographer that has diving skills and speak fluent polish equipped with an Olga for a photo shoot in Brazil. A few clicks away easy. Quality guaranteed. More info at worldassignment.com.

PixTrakk : About to be launched by the team behind Pixpalace France and USA, PixTrakk will finally help photo agencies track usage of their images whether in Print or on the web. Because PixTrakk is created by people who have triple experience in publishing, photo agency and technology, it is poised to quickly become an absolute necessity for any photo agency looking to automated their billing or simply keep track of where their images have been published. A combination of three technology power houses, LTU Technologies, TNS Media and Pixpalace, Pixtrakk will finally give user an option not to use the obscenely expensive PixID from Iphone App company Idee, inc. It is scheduled to be launched in September.

Not sure if they have a table but Keedup, New Zealand  based keywording company, is also  ready to change the market. Already well established in editorial keywording, it has launched a specialized service for celebrity agencies. The concept is revolutionary in so much as not every type of agency should use the same standard of keywords, as it is currently done. The markets, thus researchers, use completely different sets of keywords, depending on what market they work in. Yet most keywording companies apply the same rules whether the images are Sports, news or Commercial Stock. The world is about customization, its about time keywording is too.

Of course, you can also waste a whole day attending the IPTC summit and learn some more nothing about nothing or listen to some heated debate  between people you have never heard about about topics you really do not care about. The choice is yours.

Posted in idee, magazine, technology, commercial stock, celebrity, IPTC, CEPIC, web 2.0, keyword, HOLGA, editorial | Print | No Comments »

May 26, 2009 by pmelcher.

This is important for many reasons ( more in a later post)  :
THE YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHERS ALLIANCE DEBUTS IN CHICAGO,
ALAMY FIRST TO PLEDGE SUPPORT

MAY 6, 2009, PAVILION, NEW YORK: The Young Photographers Alliance (YPA) (www.youngphotographersalliance.org) made its debut in Chicago at Picturehouse’s 4th annual event held on Thursday April 16, 2009 at the River East Art Center.

YPA is the creation of Jerry Tavin, co-founder of IC Worldwide (www.icworldwide.com) and Deborah Free, President of Picturehouse Marketing US/Visual Connections (www.picturehouse-us.com). Both are widely-recognized as advocates and leaders in the photography industry. Founded as an international not-for-profit educational foundation, YPA is focused on bringing disadvantaged students opportunities for advancement in photography.

With the elimination of art education in public schools and the ever-increasing cost of a college degree, these barriers are more difficult then ever to overcome. This lack of support directly affects photography students and could prove to have a long-term negative impact on the future of professional photography.

Amid these concerns, YPA was created to inspire and support the next generation of image makers through college scholarships, mentoring programs, internship opportunities and educational seminars, internationally.

“We are pleased that YPA was so well received after our announcement. The enthusiasm and support was immediate, both at the Picturehouse event and the PACA Annual Meeting held in Chicago,” said Jerry Tavin.

In addition to two scholarships already provided by Jerry Tavin and Picturehouse, Alamy (www.alamy.com), pledged a third scholarship for the 2009 recipients.

“We think the Young Photographers Alliance is a great concept, and we’re excited to be involved at this early stage.”
Alan Capel, Head of Content, Alamy

YPA is also pleased to announce the position of Erin Moroney of Axiom Photographic Agency (www.axiomphotographic.com) as their European Liaison. “I’m delighted to be part of YPA.  In this current climate, it’s very easy to be cynical about the industry.  It’s refreshing to be involved with an organization that is so committed and passionate about nurturing new, young photographic talent.”

YPA is receiving endorsements from various organizations as well. ASPP Executive Director, Cathy Sachs states, “The American Society of Picture Professionals is very pleased to add its support to this wonderful new initiative.  The mission of the Young Photographers Alliance dovetails very well with our own educational and mentoring programs.  In addition the whole photography community has an opportunity to come together to share the passion of these disadvantaged young photographers, and create a nurturing environment for them.”

In New York on October 13, 2009, the evening prior to Picturehouse, a reception to announce the first Young Photographers Alliance scholarship recipients will be held at the Metropolitan Pavilion. In addition, a Silent Auction of the work of many of the scholarship applicants as well as professional photographers will be on display. All proceeds will be divided between the scholarship funds of the students and YPA’s various projects. More information about YPA’s programs and events will be available in the coming months.

Start looking for travel coupon.

#######

Be involved or die…

Posted in commercial stock, CEPIC, PACA, editorial, france | Print | No Comments »

May 15, 2009 by pmelcher.

There is no standard in photography captioning and metadata. That lossless group of taxonomist geeks who have been mismanaging the IPTC organization  have made a mess of the whole thing and its getting worse. Someone should get fired for good.

Not only IPTC is not a standard, it is now being implemented properly by anyone. The whole thing is ridiculous.

Every single one photo application you open these days has a different header for the same fields . Depending on what software you are using, the fields have different names ? why is that ? where is the standard ? Should you ever want to educate someone on how to properly caption his/her pictures, it is impossible as you cannot even exchange proper field name’s with them.

At the time when there is more images exchanged and used  worldwide, it is impossible to write or read metadata in a standardized way. It is as if this was invented and managed by Microsoft employees : a mess with no logic and practicality whatsoever.

Someone with a brain should take this organization over  and really do some productive work instead of spending time in 8 hour long session explaining to people how a standard is not standardized. And it really doesn’t matter who does it, but lets stop the massacre.This is ruining everyone’s work .

Lets have a simple 6 fields entry that would be the exact same for all software application that would contained the minimum information necessary, like copyright, description, contact info, date, location and keywords.  Make them stick to the image regardless if it is cropped, resized, altered, spit on, whatever. The metadata should travel with the images like its pixels.

And that is it. After that, you can attached EXIF , XMP, Word, Side cars, Dublin beer  and your dog to it, should you want.  Who cares ?

look at that :

“QCode:
A special IPTC format to express the code of a concept which was introduced with the family of G2-Standards. Typical for the format is having a string, then a colon, and finally another string. As the G2-Standards require to have potentially long strings as globally unique identifiers the major goal of QCodes are to shorten them and to make the controlled vocabulary visible this code pertains to. The format of a QCode is in short: “short name for the controlled vocabulary”:”code of the concept” like e.g. subj:06011000 “

who has time for that crap ?

KIS : keep it simple, you geeks !! Simple, useful and agreeable to use . We do not need to know the shoe size of the the photographer. Complicated does not mean intelligent. It just means complicated. And software developers, if you do not stick to the standard than go play somewhere else, we will not use your products. Go mess with someone else’s mind.

As the CEPIC members are about to sit in their chairs for eight long hours to listen to a bunch of nerdy taxidermist talk about field #110 and how it took them 15 meetings to agree on what it should do, they should start a revolt and throw their chairs at them.

Field #110 ? who has the time to fill 110 fields for every images ?  What is wrong with these people ? do they ever caption images themselves ? Certainly doesn’t look like it.

Enough blabbering, IPTC people ! 6 fields, all named the same way and that is it !!

Posted in technology, commercial stock, No sense, IPTC, keyword, CEPIC | Print | 3 Comments »

February 24, 2009 by pmelcher.

You know it’s coming…you are just not sure what to do about it. A few weeks ago, Apple released the new version of their personal DAM called Iphoto. Besides being one of the worst photo organizing application, it came out bundled with a little gadget that allows  it to recognize faces and tag them accordingly.

The technology is not really new. Picassa has offered the same, on line, for quite a while. The principle is rather simple. The computer recognizes where faces are located in a picture and asks you to tag it appropriately. After a few examples, the application takes over and continues automatically based on what it has learned from your input. It will still make some errors, which you can correct, but overall, it will be pretty efficient.

Myheritage.com, a family history website has offered the same technology for a while, with a twist. It tries to match your face with a celebrity and tells you who you look like.

Those are two consumer-oriented usage. What surprises me is that no photo agency search engine has even remotely tried to apply this technology to their work flow. Especially in the editorial world, where 95 % of the searches of people  are made with proper names. A photographer shoots Bill Gates at an event, the image is processed automatically to add his name to the IPTC field and added to the database. What a time saver !!!. Or , you finally find out the name of that woman sitting next to George Clooney at the last Miramax party. You upload her picture with the right info and hop! your whole database is updated in seconds.

Now, lets take this a step further. You just figure out what species that bird is. With the same technology, it can update any and all images with the same bird. Even better, you take a picture and it will scan the internet to find out  what species it is and automatically add it to your images. This could be done for almost anything in your images. On the search side, a user can upload a generic image of a bird for which he has forgotten the species name and the database will return all the images with the same species in it, along with its name.

Currently, photo agencies spend a fortune on key wording. Some even have in house departments that keep on growing, as they process more and more images. Others give their content to be key worded by batteries of  9 to 5 keyworders based in India or other low wage countries. No one really mentions it, but this has become one of the highest added cost of images processing since they have become digital. A whole underground world, with its tight rules and regulations , its specialized software and its priests. It has almost brought key wording, the act of adding words to an image, to a science. Or, at least they would like it to be. They have “structured” vocabulary, words you can or cannot use, “standards” and other super secret sauce that you should respect if you want to be successful. They control a broad range of scary sounding anagrams, like IPTC, XMP, Dublin core, that they spend hours discussing during closed door sessions around the world. The more complicated, the more esoteric, the more people think it is important, if not fundamental.

They usually sit next to the IT guys and exchange complicated sounding words with looks of complicity while the rest of the room looks upon them with complete blindfolded admiration.

But all this is soon going to change. Besides the new steps of auto tagging, image search is coming out of its infancy. You currently also have similar search, color search and exact image search, giving the meaning of an image its rightful place, next to its description.

Why don’t we see any of these more often ? probably because image key wording has generated its own business, and jobs, a bit like Microsoft has created help desk jobs because it crashes all the time. It has grown out of a shortcoming. It plugs in a hole between the photograph and the person looking for it. It has replaced the fame knowledgeable researcher that agencies used to have with a generic obtuse answering machine. Image Key wording has now become an evil growth on the side of the photography business, managed by  librarians who would like you to believe that they are a solution. The amusing part is none actually access you database history to see what words are actually being used by your clients and how successful the results are. For them, and the rest of the key wording industry, if a client can’t find the right image, it is because they are not using the right keyword.

A bit like stock  photo agency editors who decide what image should make it through your system without ever looking at what images are actually published, the key wording industry has absolutely no relations with actual users. Nor do they seemingly care. They believe the users should be keyword friendly, and not the opposite.

Image search is going through a long awaited evolution and is now beginning to offer the proper tools to match a need to an offer and those who will win will be the ones that understand how to apply this technology to better serve their clients.

Posted in idee, technology, commercial stock, celebrity, Search, PACA, CEPIC, keyword, editorial | Print | No Comments »

December 17, 2008 by pmelcher.

The world economy, as we all see, is not doing well. Between massive layoffs and the beginning of a deflation trend in the USA, signs are all pointing towards catastrophic changes ahead. what does it mean for the photo industry ? Let take a look and make some predictions.
The first place photo agencies and image buyers are going to save is on what is seen as non essential cost. Trade shows, reunions, festivals, awards, all will see a dramatic cut on attendance. Already National Geographic in the USA and PICTA in Germany have been canceled. Two reasons for this : they will not find sponsors and they will not be able to book enough presence. More shows will follow. The ones probably the most hurt will be photojournalism shows as on both side of the market, creators and users, there is no more money. Visa Pour L’image in Perpignan will certainly will see a huge decline in its attendance, especially from US participants, as the cost of attending is rising every year, with no tangible return. But others, like PACA, or even CEPIC will greatly be impacted , for the same reasons. The only shows that might survive are the ones that get image buyers and sellers together, like Picturehouse. But the attendance might be only local, as everyone else will continue to save on travel cost.
When times get thought, companies tend to rely on their finance department for help. Thus creative management is replaced by bean counting management. For some unknown reason also known as the turtle reaction, they no longer look at what will make them more money but rather what will save them money. This will accelerate the adoption of the subscription base licensing scheme as it makes easier for everyone to manage and budget. Agencies working only with freelancers photographers on a commission basis will try to follow until they realize it is too cost prohibitive. Which will be too late.
Smart businesses will see this as an opportunity, as failing agencies will hit the market for a bargain price. Some will be great opportunities, other will be rotten fruits. Either way, there will be more consolidation.
All image buyers will rush to budget photography. If you though microstock was doing well, wait until 2009. no one will care so much about great photography, or at least no enough to matter. Any image with a good price will do the job. Since more freelance photographers will hit the market after being laid off  their staff job, it is not the supply that will lack.

Even assignment and wedding photography will be hurt. First, because companies will reduce their marketing dollars and not feel that a CEO head shot needs a pro, especially with the husband of the marketing VP who is unemployed and has this cool Canon 5 D mark II he bought before being laid off. Others will be happy to do assignment work for free if they can keep the licensing rights.Furthermore, ex newspapers staffers will join the growing ranks of wedding photographers and will slash down prices.

If anyone gets married anymore or hires a photographer.

Than, there is also the looming SAG strike. The SAG is the Screen Actors Guild and every single movie star is a member. 75% of their membership is already out of work so couldn’t care less if they went on strike. That would create havoc on the editorial celebrity world, one of the last healthy places for photography. No more premieres, no more red carpet, no more award shows. Some photo agencies only cover those. It would be a catastrophic blow to them. Others might precipitate their photographers into the street to chase the celebrities, doubling the already overwhelming amount of paparazzi in the streets. Besides the fights amongst them, accident with celebrities will happen and laws will pass.It is already an over saturated market anyway, so prices, like others, will plummet.

Not a pretty picture : There are no safe heavens. There is not one photo agency or publication that will not be tremendously  affected  by this economy. not one.  No one will be able to pull into their degrees to find solutions.  The ones that will survive will do so by pure brilliant instinct, by being ingenious and street smart. There are ways to navigate more or less safely.

Posted in Midstock, newspaper, license, celebrity, commercial stock, magazine, prosumer, photojournalism, transaction, editorial, finance, PACA, CEPIC, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

October 11, 2008 by pmelcher.

It is not really the photo industry that is in danger of extinction, but rather a weird and strange animal that appeared about 50 to 60 years ago out of pure greed.

Let me explain:  When photography became a job, the first photographers were troopers who would get up in the morning with the firm intention to get an assignment, or 2, before the end of the day. They would look for both stories and clients and when they fit together, they would be rewarded with money. Publication or ad agencies would never dream of licensing images that were not specifically shot for them : how plebeian !! Photo agencies where then created mostly for photographers to share and organize resources. Since they became the repository of all images shot, they start to accumulate stock image made of past assignments. And thus, like any sound business, started to license those too.

And then, with the success of bigger Stock houses, like The Image Bank, a creepy, greedy little animal started to emerge. The stock photographer. Never did nor would talk to a client directly, they would get up in the morning with the sole purpose of taking images that could one day be licensed. Like movies that go direct to DVD, their images where exclusively shot for stock.

Armed with research analysis, spreadsheets, and a whole lot of corporate culture, they started multiplying. Mostly because their images where much cheaper than sending a photographer on assignment. There was no other cost involved than just the licensing rights. In a way, they murdered a large part of the assignment business and open the door for more photographers, with doubtful talent, to enter the arena.

For a while, a lot did well, as travel prices surged. They managed to live off the Rights managed tradition of exclusivity even thought they never shot those images for that client . And then came in the real experts. Marketing gurus with intense software licensing experience. They turned pricing around by licensing images as service rather than a product : the RF guys ( and girls).

The “stockers” got their first warning shot. Prices went down. Shields were raises, hundreds of thousands of email send out, forums, debates, heated conversation plagued the industry for a while until tales of high income started to surface. Some stockers where actually making more money than before. The second gold rush started. Everyone, suddenly started shooting RF. Agencies followed, as RF was to be the wave of the future. And it was, for a while.

Until file sharing entered the photo scene. People started exchanging their photographs, for professional usage. As the cost of maintaining  a server became too steep, these exchanges were tagged with a fee. A very low fee, but indeed a fee.And a flood of new stockers invaded the scene. Very smart ones, very talented ones, and very useful ones.If there was a market in stock photography, historically controlled by a few selected pompous “pro”photographers, then it should be for everyone.

You can still hear the stockers screaming as they are being trampled by the masses in a last effort to save their “territory” . But lets face it, we all know it is a dying breed of irrelevant photographers. Beside exploiting an immature market, they had no talent. They were the refuseniks of the assignment world, incapable of being hired for a photo shoot . And now, even their private grounds is being destroyed by the hungry masses.

So now what ? Well, besides microstockers who will, in the majority, not be able to sustain a living with their photo sales, there will be less in less “pro” making stock photos anymore. Not because they don’t want to but because they will not be able to make a living out of it. Some might be capable of moving up to assignment works, others, the majority, will leave the profession altogether. And that will be a good thing. Photoshelter’s Collection recent demise is a good example that these images are no longer welcomed on the market .The oversupply of images that we a currently experiencing, will be drained from the middle, that disappearing bread of stockers. They will no longer exist and no longer produce.

And finally, the photo world will be repopulated by photographers that really enjoy taking pictures, rather than analyzing spreadsheets. From the part time amateur to the full time pro, passion of great photography will reappear as being the leading reason for being in this industry, not greed. No more of these small business mentally photographers that thought of themselves as a superior breed. The playing field is leveled and the industry’s parasite, the pro stockers, are out.

Posted in license, magazine, technology, commercial stock, web 2.0, prosumer, Royalty free, transaction, PACA, CEPIC, Microstock | Print | 4 Comments »

July 15, 2008 by pmelcher.

The truth about your photo organizations is that they have either no idea what they are talking about or they have no idea  what they are doing. Either way, they are slowly becoming obsolete and useless.
Take PACA for example. The Picture Archives Council of America is preparing for its next “international” meeting to be held in New York sometime in October of this year. One of the panel they have organized for their members   is called ““What Role Will Technology Play With New Business Opportunities?”.
I had to read it twice. Does it say “will” ? Like in the future “will” ? Has anyone at PACA looked around and noticed what is already going on here and now ? How technology is running their business already. For an industry that currently runs 95% on technology ( it always did , by the way) it is a weird panel to have. But this is not the worst part.

The worst part is that they are “excited” to announce that they have secured the participation of  Ben London/Executive Director, Northwest, of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Now, I do not know this gentleman and I am sure he is a fine person but inviting the RIAA to explain what opportunities exists in technology is like asking a bear what to do in winter.

I wonder what went into the PACA committee’s collective brain who set that up : “lets find an industry that has completely missed the boat on new technologies and is currently gasping for air, for what they think about new technologies and opportunities ?”

I mean, makes complete sense, no ? The RIAA is now known worldwide for its smooth aptitude to deal with change and a prime example of what the photo industry should do. Let’s see what we can take from the RIAA lessons:

Do nothing and then sue everyone.
Desperately refuse the introduction of new technologies and stubbornly hold on to antiquated business models.
Install technology that alienates your customers so intensively that they prefer to break the law then license anything from you.
When desperation comes, jump on any new business model around and dramatically slash your prices ( think iTunes). Regret your decision 2 years later.
Keep on suing. Maybe that will cover the losses
Alienate you artists until they also leave you for new business models
Merge or die.

Rich (it is a very expensive proposition to attend this congress) and successful PACA members will come from the whole world to listen to this man explain how brilliantly the RIAA has handled technology and new business opportunities. And then, after a few drinks, when all is said and done, everyone will go home with the deep satisfaction that this was money well spend . Some will even dream of a potential merger of the RIAA and PACA,  strongly united against the advent of new technologies, new business models and plenty of lawsuits.

Mmm, I wonder why Getty Images decided to sponsor that one event ?

For the latest from PACA, please go here.

Posted in technology, commercial stock, CEPIC, PACA, getty, law, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

July 7, 2008 by pmelcher.

Barely waiting for the ashes of the CEPIC congress to cool down, Istockphoto descended on the island of Malta with a vengeance. In a quite ironical move, the microstock giant has picked the same location than the commercial stock industry association. The difference is that while one was only there to blabber endlessly about photography, the other supplied an opportunity for its contributors to mingle with each other and produce more images. Same place, same industry, two different approach.

Now, most people would react and think : all these photographers are shooting the same thing. What is the purpose? Well, those who have attended the Cepic congress before know that most of the agencies who participate in the congress also keep on trading the same images over and over : You represent me, I represent you, this guy represent us, we represent him, we all represent each other. One day, an agency will end up representing its own work without even knowing it, as it will come back through various representation under a different brand name.

So Istock has thousands of photographers shooting the same thing while traditional stock agency each all represent each other ad nausea. what is the difference ? As we know, volume, quantity, range, depth, millions are the buzz words of this industry, quickly followed by cutting edge, fast search, new website (always a new website), new servers, bigger files.

It used to be that grandad of this industry, Image Bank , claimed high and loud, with proudness and defiance, as badges of honor, the names of the photographers they represented . Today some Istock photographer are better known then any in the traditional world, most certainly the RF world. Lisa Gagne, Yuri Arcurs are better known than any JupiterImage photographers. Go ahead, name one…No, Banastock is NOT a photographer.

So who will criticize Istock for throwing a contributor lovefest in Malta?  Which commercial stock agency will dare throw the first stone, especially knowing that none have done anything equivalent. They throw sub agents lovefest,  a la self declared king of European stock, Alfonso Guieterrez of Age fotostock. Does any RM agency even know their photographers anymore ? I know RF do not, as they rebrand all their images under a theme rather than photographer. RF photo production reminds me of surrogate mothers. You pay someone to have your baby and then you never see them again.

Istock has innovated by creating a market for microstock . It has, however, not lost touch with who the creators are, probably because its founder was an ignored commercial stock photographer before. Lesson learned.

More on Malta Istock lovefest here

Posted in technology, commercial stock, Midstock, web 2.0, CEPIC, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

May 30, 2008 by pmelcher.

In a predictive move, Uber microstock giant Istockphoto, owned by Getty, is launching a contributor-wide call for exclusivity. The 6 top microstock companies share about 90 to 95% of their photographer, thus their content. In order to leave the pack, anyone of them should request exclusivity in order to offer their image buyers something the others do not have. With 1.4 downloads per second ( General Motors only sells a car every 3 seconds), Istockphoto is in a very good position to dry up the contributors pool by sucking them in an exclusive relationship.

Obviously they will offer a higher commission in order to make the offer appealing and help their contributor compensate for their possible losses. It seems, from the outside at least, that unlike the Long Tail theory would like us to believe, most of the microstock sales comes from a pool, rather large, of the same contributors. Otherwise, Istock would have not bothered doing this move. If Istockphoto can take them out of the rest of the market they will certainly make their competition suffer,  a lot. They will also make it even more difficult for new companies to enter the microstock field, at least with pertinent content.

The reaction from competitors will be interesting to watch . They could go down the same path, declaring an exclusion war that will leave most contributors baffled and confused. One aspect of RF, and a strong one, is its non-exclusivity.Why be exclusive with a product that is sold on a non exclusive basis? After all, isn’t a big part of the microstock game in volume and not on a per image sale. Will an exclusivity with Istock generate enough sales to compensate those lost by leaving its competitor ?Only if a huge amount of contributors decide to make the move simultaneously forcing image buyers to follow them. If 6 or 7 photographers decide to pull out their images from other platforms, there will be not effect. If thousands do so, then image buyers will have no other choice to go where the choice is. Either way, Istock cannot loose.

Some contributors might, however.

And for those who are still confused on how successful microstock is, this traffic ranking from Alexa should help them visual it:

Even Getty Images, with all its fire power cannot even come close to Istock and barely makes it over Dreamstime. Corbis and Jupiter don’t even have a chance. As traditional stock companies continue their stop loss policies, as beautifully explained by Julia Dudnik Stern in Chasing Lost Business Ignores New Markets on sellingstock.com ( subscription only), they fail to understand that they are fighting the battle in the wrong battlefield.

Ever thought why most microstock companies are not attending CEPIC, PACA and BAPLA congress ?

Posted in alexa, technology, commercial stock, Jupiter, CEPIC, getty, corbis, PACA, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

May 23, 2008 by pmelcher.

Just imagine. Just imagine if a company like Google, or Yahoo, or even Microsoft put their hand on microstock and social photography. Not only Istockphoto projections of $171 million revenue within a few years would be pulverized into unknown heights but it would be the end of both RM and traditional RF forever.

Why ?, you might ask. Simple. Right now, the only reason Istock is not growing faster is its lack of reach compared to better known sites like Google. Given that firepower, there is absolutely no reason why the whole market not tip over into a microstock Tsunami.  Let’s face it, Rights Managed is a badly protected island. And part of its protection came from the purposely shallow amount of choice. A lack of choice is what makes  RM potentially valuable, or what others call “bleeding edge” photography. Thus, out of a pool of 10 images, it is important to secure exclusivity. Out of a pool of millions, who cares?

Furthermore, it would be so simple to “retire” an image automatically for a higher price, thus making that image exclusive by automation.

Why would anyone  consider putting their images anywhere else than on Google Stock ? Already, everyone, from photographers to photoagency are taking night courses in  SEO to pump up their ranking. Most will buy huge amounts of adwords. If Google opens the gates and starts welcoming images in order to license them, there will be no holding back. From no one. It would be an act of suicide not to be part of it.  And since microstock pricing has now set the tone for commercial usage pricing, everyone will seek the low-priced volume sale. And, besides the user generated sites, no one will survive.

RF would quickly become  standard and no one would even bother with any other of those complicated and boring licensing  models. The only way for agencies and photographers to survive will be to jump, or stay, on the assignment peak. Those who have created a market for their photography, their personal work ~ the way professional photography first started~will continue to be untouched by this whole stock mess.

Not sure this will happen ? Well, think about it. Why did Getty go private ? and more important, why do you think someone paid $2.5 billion for it ? So it can watch it grow slowly like a small pet kitten ? Not their style. And what do you think will happen when Newscorp, Google, Yahoo, AOL and others feel they have managed to control most of the channels. What will be their next target to increase their appeal to advertisers ? Content, you said ? Indeed. By having the most compelling content, eyeballs will be attracted. And who has the highest volume of well targeted eyeballs will sell the most ads. Like it used to be with the TV network. But this next battle is happening online and will include stills.

Hopefully, some will stop asking me why I think this industry has not yet seen the worst ( or best) of it. Why there is no more reasons to attend Cepic or PACA congress. The waters are retreating already and I am no fool.

Posted in google, Midstock, technology, commercial stock, web 2.0, CEPIC, Royalty free, getty, transaction, PACA, Microstock | Print | 4 Comments »