August 19, 2008 by pmelcher.

  According to Sellingstock.com, the CFO of A21 just quit. Left his company. Just like that. Not surprising really when you look at A21 recent  numbers. Rising cost of operations, lowering sales, the company is heading straight for a wall, head first. Amusing part is that the only two other public or ex public companies in this business have also posted negative results for the second quarter of 2008.( Jupiter and Getty). None of them have signaled community portals( Alamy or Photoshelter) as the cause of their financial suffering . Some have accused the rising price of oil ( ya, right) and, others more bluntly, the ever shifting move from traditional commercial stock to Microstock.

Even if Getty and Jupiterimages saw Microstock coming, they both underestimated its impact tremendously. It is no longer in the original 8% of existing Getty customers that istock is eating in, but rather 25% and growing. Jupiterimages is struggling to integrate their own microstock offering into photos.com hoping to elevate the price per image. Who will be the first to shut down some of its more traditional divisions in order to save the leaking ship ?

No one knows how Corbis is doing in these hard times. Surely, their Snapvillage is not a player in the microstock field, and if the public  companies revenue are any indication, they must be hurting too. In a Bill Gates kind of way. More layoff before years end ? definitely. But not just at Corbis. expect Jupiter, A21, Getty and others to lay off some weight.

There are no clear solutions for these companies. They were build with very expensive infrastructures that do not work well with lower pricing. Although Getty’s project used to be an Internet company only, they have lost their objective and have fallen  heavy into the overhead trap. When they purchased PhotoDisc, they were going to go all speed ahead in high technology/low headcount. Apparently they got sidetracked, allowing Istock, Dreamstime, Shutterstock to continue and achieve what they only dreamed of achieving. Buying Wireimage was cute but will certainly slow down their growth considerably. They have inherited a mastodon of inefficiency, who was busier to reach high market shares rather than being profitable. Results: lots of personnel, huge operation cost, a big mess and waay too many photographers. Jonathan Klein even said himself at the last Getty shareholders meeting : Mediavast was never profitable.

Everyone knows that Getty purchased Wireimage to get rid of it, not to make it grow.

The next 3 years will see the industry giants engage in any and all enterprise that will help them cut their cost to a minimum while not engaging in significant investments. Not an easy task if they want to also grow at the same time. Certainly less of an easy task when lesser size companies are starting to move on the next step. Mostly European, these companies have grown organically using the more slower pace path of reinvesting their profit. Much more careful on their investments than the big loud 3’s, they have now reach a level of financial strength that they can now start to retaliate.

Some are acquiring, others are merging. While the corporate mend their wounds, alliance are forming  in the back alleys of the industry. Interestingly enough, most have hired ex Getty, Corbis or Jupiter staffers who have learned, from within the beast, what not to do. These agencies are extremely ambitious and battle savvy. They have all they need to succeed : knowledge, relations, expertise, endurance and cash. Most will never publicize their acquisition or mergers because they couldn’t care less about what the rest of industry knows. They have drawn a very precise path and their definition of success is  far from Wall Street . Very far.

The race is far from over : Neither Getty nor Corbis have succeeded  cornering the market. In fact, both have abandon the idea as they realized it is almost impossible. While Corbis is still figuring out how to turn a profit, Getty has spend the last 10 years acquiring companies they felt they could not compete with or create internally. Like pasting dollars bills on their obvious shortcoming.

JupiterImage is surviving only thanks to its internet properties while A21 keeps on borrowing money. Neither have a bright future, not, at least , in the photo licensing world.

A reasonable expectation is that our universe is about to see its giant stars implode. They are about to break apart because, similar to  the laws of the universe, they cannot survive under their own weight. Too much manpower, bureaucracy, equipment, replacement, fiscal obligation are making them crumble.

They ate too much.

Posted in Jupiter, technology, commercial stock, finance, corbis, Royalty free, getty, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

August 6, 2008 by pmelcher.

The photo agency industry continues to complain and whine about its condition, endlessly consummated by demons it has created.

For one, it has created this endless pool of incredibly mediocre photographer that has for far too long managed to make a living taking pictures. Its not amateur photography that is getting better, it is just pro photographer that are getting worse and lazier. The over reliance on a defunct principle that they were the only one to own the channels of photography sales made photo agencies indifferent to the quality of their product. After all, it was them or nothing. Even Getty, who once believed it could corner the “distribution of image” market and set it own rules got a nasty wake up call when Istock through the first kick and Flickr the second punch.

Today, the photo agencies have a lot of excess weight. Photographers they keep because of old friendship or by pure habit, endlessly submitting the same images in the hopes that the Golden age will soon return. While they wait, in absolute stubbornness, the majority have decided that playing with pricing will offer them a new opportunity.

Amidst unverified rumors that their competition is doing the same, prices are being slashed to levels that have never been seen and that defies even the law of gravity. Since print publications are not doing so well either, everyone is more than happy to comply, bringing the whole market to a spiraling absurd end. To top it all, Angelina’s twins selling for an allegely $14 million just adds more photographers in the pool, hoping that they will too, one day , hit the jackpot.

Take Florida based photo agency prphotos.com ( created by some wireimage ex pats), for example. Someone there with a brain the size of  sand has decided to offer red carpet images for web usage on a subscription basis. That wouldn’t be so bad if the prices were not so ridiculously low. Some of its offering is as low as  “Under A Penny Per Image”. At that stage, what is the point ? With what seems 5 people on staff, how do they intend to pay their bills?

Do they still believe the internet is the dumping ground of photography ? But more important, what does it say about how they value their photography ?

We haven’t seen the worst of it yet. There will be more of these whacked-cracked photo agencies popping up everywhere, one “smarter” than the other, offering waccadoodle prices in a desperate hope to become the new Google of photography.

Getty, now privately private will soon release a lot of weight ( read photographers) that will in turn compete not on quality but on sub pricing flooding of an already over saturated market with less than attractive images. It will not just hit editorial, but commercial stock as well, until only a few agencies survive. Already photographers have a hard time. If they associate themselves with foot-shooting agencies and their magic potion pricing, they will have to take other jobs to make ends meet.

There is no salvation in stupid pricing. It is just stupid.

Posted in celebrity, magazine, commercial stock, google, flickr, getty, editorial, finance, Microstock | Print | 1 Comment »

July 29, 2008 by pmelcher.

This is not the next challenging mountain  path of the Tour de France. It is neither the now too familiar trend of the Getty stock. It is, however, the devastating path of the Jupiter Image stock.  Minus 68% in six months, for a company that is neither linked to the subprime rate or the price of oil, that is pretty bad. It looks to me, and I am not a stock market expert, that this little company is going right down the exit and is just prime for 2 fruity options : being acquired or shut down.

Insider info has also informed us of massive lay offs in New York last week, apparently kept very hush hush. As much as the numbers are unconfirmed, they are talks of maybe 100’s. As we all know, when a public company is failing, the first to be offered at the altar of the Wall Street gods are the employees. The old rituals of human sacrifice revisited for the business world.

There is no doubt in anybody’s mind that Alan Meckler and is team are doing the right thing. It is somewhere in its application by the common employee that something went wrong and thus they should be punished.

Without significant numbers, it is hard to figure out why Jupiter is having such a hard time. Guess is that they are suffering from the same effect as Getty Images : a declining rights manage market, a suffering traditional RF demand, and a microstock division not covering for the losses.  The “Call” where Alan Meckler will reveal it all  is scheduled for August 7. He is probably hoping that most people will be on vacation.

“That is obviously a bellwether of what the future brings and the fact of the creative destruction that is going to happen here.” once said Alan Meckler to PDN. I guess that was not the kind of destruction he had in mind.

Posted in Jupiter, commercial stock, finance, transaction, Royalty free, getty, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

July 27, 2008 by pmelcher.

Who said that editorial photography doesn’t pay ? Dave Hogan, or “Hogie” for those who know him well, is hosting the British prime minister in his 1.2 million pounds house for the summer.

I have had the pleasure of working with Hogie for many years while at ImageDirect and can reassure everyone that he deserves every penny that he has ever made. His talent is only matched by his friendliness and  his ease to work with.

read the full article here

Posted in celebrity, magazine, photojournalism, finance, transaction, editorial | Print | 1 Comment »

July 24, 2008 by pmelcher.

Apple cracker jack buys debt from A21. Press release of the week Month Year :

a21, Inc. Signs Non-binding Letter of Intent with Applejack Art Partners, Inc.

Translation: A company with the dubious name of A21 (probably taken from a heavy drinking casino party) signed a non binding ( meaning its worthless) letter of intent ( meaning they might or might not do it) with Applejack ( a fruit juice company? it’s actually the name of the owner spelled backwards. Genius !!) to pay for its out of control debt.

The press release continues:

Transaction Would ( note the word “would” here. It can be replaced by IF, Maybe, Sort Of or Would Not) Result in Applejack Owning a Majority Stake in a21  ( making the company formally known as a21 now called 21applesjack)

Jacksonville, FL,( Who in their right mind has headquarters in Jacksonsville, Florida? Why not Middleof Nowhere, Arkansas ? ) July 22, 2008 . a21, Inc. (”a21″) (ATWO.OB), a leading ( in what universe?) online digital content marketplace ( new buzz word alert. No one is an agency anymore, everyone is a marketplace. The stock photo world is a giant Mall), today announced that it has entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) with Applejack Art Partners, Inc. (Applejack). Pursuant to the LOI, Applejack would purchase all of a21’s outstanding notes ( that’s another word for debt) (an aggregate principal amount of $18,000,000) from the holders of such notes and also purchase all of the shares of a21 common stock owned by a21’s note holders (an aggregate of approximately 41 million shares). a21 would then exchange approximately 110 million newly issued shares of its common stock with Applejack in satisfaction of approximately $13,000,000 of such notes.( woopsie, another $13 million dollars borrowed against worthless shares)

The closing of the transactions contemplated by the LOI is subject to various conditions, including execution of definitive agreements by a21 ( ya, like they would say no. They just issued a press release even before the deal was signed), the note holders ( they want their money back, no objections here), and Applejack ( intention unknown). It is the intent of all parties to complete this transaction as described in the LOI as soon as possible.( You betya, specially those a21 guys)

In addition, on July 16, 2008, Applejack made a credit facility available to a21 pursuant to which a21 could borrow up to $500,000 with the consent of Applejack. One hundred thousand dollars has already been advanced to a21. The amounts outstanding under the credit facility bear interest at 12% per year.( they couldn’t wait for the deal so they already borrowed a hundred grand to pay the bills, or the gas for the car)

So, here is the deal in plain English:

Dude,  I owe a big “aggregate principal amount”  ? can you help ?

How much?

not much, about $18 million.

what do I get in exchange ?

Bro, give me a break. I ‘ll give you some of my worthless common stock if you want. How’s 151 million of them?

Ok.

Dude, you rock. Can we agree to maybe agree in the future ?

sure

Can I tell everyone that we are thinking about maybe agreeing ?

ya

By the way, while you think about agreeing , can I borrow 100 grand ?

Sure.

John Ferguson, Chief Executive Officer of a21, said, “We are excited to be working with Applejack and believe the transaction should be beneficial to a21’s stockholders, employees, and other stakeholders. This transaction will result in a significant reduction in a21’s outstanding indebtedness and position the company to execute its growth strategy.”( growth strategy that has been up to now : borrowing money to pay for a failing company)

Jack Appelman, Chief Executive Officer of Applejack, said, “We are pleased to make an investment in a21 and believe that our complementary product offerings should result in greater sales opportunities and efficiency for both companies.”(Good luck on this one, Appleman).

end of press release.

Please  note that nowhere in this release is there any mention of photography or photographers. A21 could be selling candies, it would sound the same.

Furthermore, I am sure that all the photographers currently submitting images to SuperStock are overjoyed at the prospect of continuing not to see any sales and pleased to realize that the management is  focused on confabulated  financial deals rather than photo licensing.

NOW IT MAKES MUCH MORE SENSE : ( send by one of my readers)

 UPDATE :   On July 10, 2008, a21, Inc. (the Company”) entered into an amended and restated employment agreement with John Ferguson, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, pursuant to which Mr. Ferguson will be entitled to receive (in addition to the compensation specified in his original employment agreement): (i) a special bonus of up to $125,000, in the event that the Company undergoes a change of control and a greater than $9,000,000 reduction in the amount of the Company’s outstanding promissory notes occurs; and (ii) an increase in the severance payments to be received in the event that Mr. Ferguson is terminated by the Company without Cause (as defined in the agreement) after a change in control of the Company from an amount equal to six (6) months salary, or $125,000, to an amount equal to twelve (12) months’ salary, or $250,000, payable over a period of one year.

as per yahoo business news

Posted in commercial stock, No sense, finance, transaction | Print | No Comments »

July 10, 2008 by pmelcher.

As per a press release of today : “Open Text Corporation (Nasdaq: OTEX; TSX: OTC), a provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software, has acquired eMotion LLC from Corbis Corporation of Seattle, Washington. Open Text purchased the division for approximately US $5 million, net of cash and assets, effective July 2, 2008.eMotion is a provider of hosted business applications for managing digital media assets and marketing content. eMotion is headquartered in Seattle and has an office in Rockville, Maryland.

Corbis acquired eMotion, Inc. of San Francisco, California for an undisclosed amount in July 2005.

Corbis is a visual media provider for the creative community, licensing the widest array of award-winning contemporary, historical and entertainment photography as well as extensive collections of acclaimed illustration and footage.

Waterloo, Ontario based Open Text is a leading provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software solutions. It offers a wide range of ECM products that help its customers ensure compliance with industry regulations and internal policies, controlling information flows, and helping solve other content-intensive business challenges. Open Text currently employs approximately 2,700 people worldwide.”

end of press release.

credit Techfinance.com

In 2005, Scott Wilson, CEO, eMotion said : “Corbis and eMotion’s services are a natural complement,”

Mmm. I guess not. At least not long term.

“Our clients are increasingly seeking ways to manage the still and moving imagery they use in their creative projects,” said Mark Sherman, about the deal, senior vice president of assignment & representation and emerging businesses at Corbis, at the time.

I  believe he got fired since.

One year later Business Week Magazine added ( 2006):
“A year ago, finishing off a year when revenue rose 20%, Corbis’ leaders confidently predicted that they would turn the company profitable. That didn’t happen. Instead, organic revenue growth slowed to 4%, though overall growth topped 34%. The total take was $228 million, thanks to the company’s mergers and acquisitions spree. (Getty Images grew 17.9% to $733.7 million, mostly organically, and pulled in $150 million in profits.)”
Ouch !!

the  same article continues:
“Corbis’ acquisition spree was partly aimed at placing bets in emerging markets. For instance, last July the company bought eMotion, a provider of hosted digital-asset management software. Yet image licensing remains a dominant part of its business. To boost profit potential, Corbis is beefing up its own collections and the custom-photography service, which involves assigning photographers to capture images. “end of Business Week Magazine quote.
You remember that guy from Star Wars Episode I ?  The Rasta guy with the tongue sticking out after being caught in the electric field of  Anakin’s pod racer ( do i sound like a geek right now?) ?

Well, whatever his name is, that is the Corbis management right now: tongue sticking out saying : blabadabaaaadabadaaaaa. Bladaabadaaaaaaaaaa.aaaaaaaaa.

Corbis ex- CEO, Steve Davis said, according to the Corbis press release, at the time: “In 2005 we doubled our global footprint ( How the hell do you double a footprint ? With bigger feet ?)  and rounded out our content and service offering. As a result we are the only company in the industry with the ability to provide comprehensive solutions—great content, the rights to use it, and the ability to manage it.”

And  I should add, big feet …

Shouldn’t someone have smelled E-Motion footprint at the time,because, apparently, it smelled bad. Certainly, not the sweet smell of success.

By the way, how much is a “footprint” going for these days ? 1 dollar a footprint ? what the hell is a footprint in photography ?

Gaaaaaaaaary ? any idea ? where is Gary anyways?

There he is (or was):

British Journal of Photography july 4th 2007, reports ( almost exactly a year ago):

“Days after taking on his role, Corbis’ new CEO has slashed 160 staff in 17 offices worldwide.

Gary Shenk took over from Steve Davis on Monday (02 July 2007), but the decision to cull 15% of the company’s workforce was announced late last week. The job losses are as a result of a three-month strategic review, led by Shenk and his management team, which is driven by the ambition to pull Corbis into profitability for the first time.”

and probably out of the “footprint” business.

the article continues :

“Corbis is also to sell its Digital Asset Management (DAM) division, which currently manages media libraries for large corporations. The service, which was officially launched only last summer (BJP, 16 August 2006), came about after the acquisition of eMotion in 2005. Like the Assignment Division, it has been performing well, says Perlet, and has won 25 new customers in the last 12-18 months.”

I guess ( actually, I know) Corbis hates, just painfully and  physically hates, anything that performs well.

E-Motion:

Bought in 2005,

analyzed in 2006,

destroyed in 2007,

sold in 2008.

Welcome to the club, dude.

Corbis  does it, again

Posted in Canada, technology, commercial stock, multimedia, No sense, corbis, transaction, finance, getty | Print | 1 Comment »

July 8, 2008 by pmelcher.

By now, you must have read all about the Getty Image/Flickr deal. In a nutshell, Flickr announced that Getty Images has the right to go through the Flickr collection and pick and choose the images that they want to distribute.

Now, seldom know that Flickr has been shopping around for the last two years for a way to license its content. They have approach many existing companies in order to investigate their options. I am not at liberty to say which but lets just say they are not your traditional mom and pops. But like with any huge company, time is not an issue and most potential, at first very excited, ended their conversations with a resentful puff and walking away with what everyone thought was a goldmine. When you looked closer, it is more like a coalmine. Lots of digging for little return. One huge issue, is that, although Flickr has a clear copyright policy, most people don’t care and upload whatever they want anyway. Since nothing is for sale, no copyright infringement lawsuit has ever surfaced, but most certainly a lot of “cease and desist” notices have circulated.

The second very important issue, is that Flickr has a beautiful facade, but behind it,  lies a dump yard of crappy snapshots. Their “Interrestingness” engine is a model of programming done with genius. Only the best images  surface, hiding the ugly muck below.

While these talks where going on, some mash up 2.0 companies tried to take advantage of Flickr’s API to lure users to shift platforms and take advantage of their licensing engines. That was a lost battle as Flickr monitored those links very closely and shut down  any one who  apparent motivation was money. No more than a little slap on the hand.

Getty, having a whole department in charge of making new deals could simply  not let go. These guys lose their job if they do not make any new deals. So they came out with this wackadoodle arrangement: Flick makes deal with Getty Images.

Wait a minute, Flickr doesn’t own, nor does it represent any of its content. It is only a sharing platform. How can they make a deal on behalf of their users ? They can advise them, yes, but certainly not make a deal for them. Getty will still have to ask each and everyone of them for permission to license their images. But be no fool, this has been going on for a long time. I do not know of any photo agency that has not already contacted users of Flick in order to represent their work. And those who didn’t are either fools  or not in the commercial stock business. This deal doesn’t change that, as Flickr cannot dictate anything to its users.

Furthermore only Getty, or its retarded companion Corbis, could afford such a deal. It will take them a huge time to edit through the content and find the pearls. And that is money spend, not received. Let’s say they do find a photographer with great talent, nothing guarantees them that he or she will sign up with them. Nothing at all. Or they have might have already signed with someone else. This is Gargantuan work for little return.

This deal is just a pack of hot air. We all know that Getty is no fool and that this is just a big PR balloon. It will fly, get some people very excited and overheated, and just disappear after a short sting.

What is however captivating is that Getty now officially announced, with this deal, that it can no longer trust its own suppliers or photographers with providing them with the right images. It is  also an admittance of the failure of both  their internal “creative research and intelligence” and in its long held belief that it had secured the right partnerships. To proactively and officially reach out to amateurs is sending a loud and clear message that their current content is not adapted anymore.

After thought : So what happens to those poor pro photographers schmucks who paid $50 dollars to get their images on Getty Images under the brand “Photographer’s Choice“? Let me get this straight : you’re an amateur and upload to Flickr, Getty images includes your images for free. You are a pro unwilling to upload to Flickr, maybe because you don’t want then stolen and you have to pay $50 per approve image ? It doesn’t compute

Posted in Search, license, technology, commercial stock, yahoo, web 2.0, corbis, finance, flickr, prosumer, getty | Print | No Comments »

July 7, 2008 by pmelcher.

Even in a world of quirky names, content continues to rule. Picapp, the source for free legal images for blogs, has just signed up celebrity news agency Splashnews as a new provider. Here’s the deal : 2 companies, one similar idea. How to license images to the high volume community of bloggers worldwide ( 6 billion , I believe). Also, how to license images without these images ever leaving the server, thus avoiding illegal duplication. ( Orphan work anyone ?)

Historically, Picapp was the first to launch, with a revenue sharing deal that made advertising the only source of revenue. GumGum, not far behind, launches with a similar idea. However, the user here has a choice of adverting or paying a pay per view fee.

But the business model is not enough to grab attention, you need the right content. Again, two strategies : Picapp leverages its existing relationship through Picscout and draws the big guns ( i.e Getty). Gumgum, in order to outsmart them and after looking at the blogosphere, goes for entertainment. After all, the celebrity obsessed blogs are not only the most active, but also the biggest consumers of photos. What would be a celebrity site with no images, right ? They quickly signed Pacific Coast news, Splash news and Starmax. The show can begin. And it did. While Picapp runs around making deals with blog publishers and refine their offering ( ie multi size images, hidden Picguy, etc), GumGum seems to be satisfied with their offering.And it seemed to work.

But Picapp is no dumdum. They just signed Splashnews too, realizing they where the biggest money making content provider of Gumgum. Ouch ! The result will soon be felt. One has vast offering, from sports to paparazzi celeb, while the other seems stuck in the muck. Same technology and very similar business model. Who do you think will win?

At the end, it is always the same result. Technology is not an answer in itself, it is just a pipe. You can have the greatest system in the world, if you do not have the content, you die. Think Betamax or more recently, Blu Ray. Geeks are the worst managers of their own technology as they always, always make the same mistake in believing it can overcome everything.  It can’t.

Posted in technology, gumgum, Pacific coast news, idee, license, transaction, finance, web 2.0, editorial | Print | No Comments »

June 27, 2008 by pmelcher.

“We think Corbis has the resources and patience to succeed in the long-term. We will beat them with better [commercial] execution” Gary Shenk, CEO of Corbis to the Sydney Morning Herald.

There is long term and than there is eternity. Corbis is gambling that eventually, one day, when no one is looking, for no particular reason, ( probably because there is no one left on Earth), just like that, they will “succeed” and maybe post a profit along with it.

The SMH article is  about the rise of amateur photography and  Snapvillage, the Ireland based subsidiary of Corbis that the money loosing company has build to  compete with Istockphoto and other Microstock.

Posted in Midstock, commercial stock, prosumer, finance, corbis, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

June 23, 2008 by pmelcher.

So revenues from traditional clients seem to decline. Price per image are stagnating, if not dropping, while market shares seem to be eaten away by more aggressive, younger companies that have much lower operating costs. The cost of entry in the photo agency world has dropped so low that a new photo agency is born almost every month. In all categories, RM, RF, Micro, editorial. While they are not really offering anything new, nor do they have any long term planning, they dilute the general offering of stock image on the market by making more of the same images available.

Sites like Alamy, Photoshelter and others like microstock have even broken the traditional link between photographers and agencies and are now just acting as distributors and plain lean mean selling machines. They have little or no personal regards for the photographers they represent, have never met them nor do they intend to, have no connections with their careers, have no clue what they will shoot next and almost couldn’t care less. All they want to do is connect them with as many buyers as possible and collect a percentage on every license granted, a la Ebay.

Some traditional agencies  distributors have already done that (think Getty Images here). Part of Istockphoto recent growth must be heavily tied to its introduction to existing Getty Image clients. It still remains compartmentalized, for now. The very near future will be to see all prices and all contributors on the same platform. There is no reason to keep the brand separated on different websites, is there ?

So, what is a photo agency to do in such a world ? Well, some are looking for collateral revenues. The editorial celebrity space is a good place to look for answers. Most have created their own blogs, along with advertising. Traffic generates attention but also revenue. They were already receiving a lot of hits from consumers looking for the latest images, so why not capitalize on it ? Some like X17 ( x17online)  are doing quite well. Getty Image, with its ViewImages and Jamd’ are also in this space, in a slightly different way.

Splashnews has introduced an interesting experiment recently. Under the heading of Splash Style, they take  online fashion shopping to the next level > here is how it works. You watch one of their paparazzi videos and click on a dress or handbag that you like. It appears on the right as still picture. You can then proceed, by clicking on the still, to go to an online store who will be more then happy to sell you that dress.

Obviously, Splash is taking a commission on the sales, even maybe just on the click to the store. After all, someone might not purchase that dress immediately. While clicking on a specific body part of someone who doesn’t want to be filmed is a tricky exercise, ( go ahead, try it. I’ll wait here.

…Ok, back ? Hard, no ?,

the concept is appealing. How to make money with stills, or videos, on your site, without licensing any images and respecting your traditional clients and no overhead. Without even needing inside information, it is quite evident that this model is not very lucrative. Yet. But it is another very good example of how modern photo agencies need to break out of the traditional licensing model and aggressively seek new revenue streams. We had touched on that topic here.

The days of quietly waiting at a desk for someone to call seeking for an image that you might or not have are over. Gone. Finished. Someone has gotten to them faster, sooner and probably cheaper. Nothing personal, they needed to, in order to survive. They made the mistake of entering this business because it was cheap and looked really easy. Now they are stuck in it. And you are stuck with them.

So, instead of waiting for the good old days to come back, ( which they will not because they never existed), or Getty to call and offer a few hundreds of millions for you archive ( they will not, they have what they need right now), or just some incredible lucky break ( better play the Lotto..), it is time to look for those collateral revenues that might just end up being your main revenue.

Posted in celebrity, magazine, technology, commercial stock, license, finance, getty, editorial, transaction, Microstock | Print | No Comments »