March 5, 2009 by pmelcher.

How was 2008 compared to 2007? What are industry trends in the production and sale of stock images? Selling-Stock has launched a survey (http://www.jimpickerell.com/surveyshared.aspx) to gather information from photographers, designers and illustrators concerning their 2008 income and cost of doing business.

Go to http://www.jimpickerell.com/articles2/admin-article-view.asp?id=2022 to review our 2007 Income Survey results. The 2008 survey asks the same questions and will provide comparative numbers enabling creators to make informed decisions about trends.

In this rapidly changing and challenging business environment, many image creators are adjusting their business strategies. Some freelance stock photographers are turning to assignments. For others a staff position, possibly even in a non-related field, is their primary source of income and the revenue earned from freelance work is only a secondary income source. Conversely, amateurs with no expectations of ever earning a living from photography are finding that selling stock can be a lucrative and rewarding supplement to their income.

Many freelance photographers sell into multiple segments of the photography industry. To understand the importance of each we ask photographers the percentage of their gross photography revenue that falls into several segments of the industry. This will help us understand the changing relationships between freelance newspaper and magazine assignment work, advertising and corporate work and pure stock sales.

Selling-Stock encourages every photographer, graphic designer and illustrator who licensed rights to images in 2008 - be it for a few hundred dollars or tens of thousands - to respond to the survey’s nine simple questions. The survey will remain open until April 15, 2009. An in-depth analysis of the results will be published in Selling-Stock.

The survey is designed to gather data from individual creators, not agencies or other organizations that represent creator’s work. However, organizations engaged in licensing images are asked to encourage their image suppliers to participate. Image production companies that produce images specifically for licensing as stock are also asked to respond. Those interested can respond to the survey by going to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/surveyshared.aspx. The more data we can collect, the greater the validity of the results.

All individual responses will be held in strictest confidence and no attempt will be made to identify specific individuals.

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

February 5, 2009 by pmelcher.

As rumors went, the reality follows. Bill Gates wholly-owned Corbis is closing down its microstock experiment, Snapvillage and merging it into its high value brand, Veer. yes, you are reading it right,  Veer will be the new destination for the corbis microstock offering. Called Veer Marketplace, it will develop into a full offering in two phases, this coming year. Not sure if exposing Veer customers to microstock is the best idea for the Veer contributors, but then, only time will tell.

Here is the official e mail send out by Corbis to its Snapvillage users:

“Dear SnapVillage Contributor,

As a contributor you know how fast microstock is growing. So do we! Corbis anticipates that within the next few years, microstock photography will represent more than 25% of the overall stock photography market. We are committed to taking a significant share of this market and providing photographers a leading brand and website to reach customers looking for affordable, quality photography and a great web experience.

We have learned a lot from SnapVillage, and we recognize that as the market has rapidly evolved over the past two years, we need a bigger, better offering to achieve success in microstock.

So today we’re excited to be sharing our plans to roll SnapVillage into a new microstock offering on Veer, which Corbis acquired in 2007. Veer is a highly successful stock agency specializing in creative rights managed (RM) and royalty free (RF). It has a large, established, global customer base, strong brand loyalty and an industry-leading website supported by winning marketing campaigns. These elements provide an ideal platform to rapidly build our microstock business and to help you sell more. We plan to build on SnapVillage’s assets to launch a new microstock-specific section at Veer called Veer Marketplace.

What does this mean for SnapVillage?

In the months ahead, we’ll be inviting SnapVillage contributors and customers to Veer Marketplace. Once Veer Marketplace is launched and fully operational, it will become Corbis’ only microstock brand and SnapVillage will be phased out by the end of the year.

What does this mean for you?

Good news! In the months ahead, we’ll be inviting SnapVillage contributors and customers to Veer Marketplace. Marketplace will offer contributors efficient uploading capabilities, a great user experience and your work will be showcased and marketed within the amazing award-winning design and community for which Veer is recognized. (There will also be other good stuff too but we can’t reveal all our secrets before launch!).

When does Veer Marketplace launch?

Veer Marketplace will launch in two phases with a small sampling of affordable images that can be purchased a la carte in late February, followed by a full launch mid year with contributor upload capabilities and credit-based pricing and subscriptions. You can read more details about this in the attached FAQ.

It will take time to complete this process so please bear with us. By mid-year you’ll have the chance to sell your work to a whole new crowd of people and become part of the Veer community.

Questions?

Want to learn more about Veer? Wondering if there is anything you need to do? Please read the Contributor FAQ to learn more about Veer Marketplace.

We also invite you to join the conversation about Veer Marketplace. We’d love to hear from you so register and create a profile to make sure as Veer Marketplace grows, we continue to meet your needs.”

Posted in Midstock, commercial stock, prosumer, corbis, Royalty free, Microstock | Print | 3 Comments »

January 14, 2009 by pmelcher.

According to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, Flickr was inches away from releasing FlickrStock, allowing users to license their images for a fee. Apparently Getty convinced the Yahoo executive that an exclusive deal with them was much better.

Getty protected its valuable Istockfoto asset thanks to this deal and delayed the opening of the flood gates. I would love to have heard how Yahoo was convinced to drop such potential revenue. Or is getty paying them a fee to be their “exclusive” representative ?

more here

Posted in Midstock, license, technology, commercial stock, No sense, yahoo, getty, flickr, prosumer, Microstock | 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 26, 2008 by pmelcher.

Daryl Lang is a lucky guy. He gets invited to Corbis’s secret meeting on rooftops. And not me. I wonder why ?

Corbis executive team, apparently out for a week-end stroll, decided to inform some lost contributors that, in effort to make the company profitable, after only  15 years of trying, they would cut photographers royalties. Their logic is simple. After an apparently doom and gloom presentation about the future of the industry, how it will shrink to a peanut size, they declare that the only solution is to reduce the commission pay-out to photographers.

Make sense for a Starbucks Latte induced Seattle executive .

The logic is clear cut:   “we (Corbis) expect less revenue thus we will give you ( photographers) even less. After all, we are in it together.” However, there will be no salary cut for the senior management . If Steve Davis legacy is intact, the current CEO must be close to $800,000 a year with other senior execs making in the $400,000. But their salaries will no be touched. After all, continuing to run a company that has NEVER posted a profit and making sure it doesn’t should be rewarded well.

The rooftop meeting apparently welcomed a slide show by Mr Shenk who, according to that lucky, lucky Daryl Lang “  …forecasted that the total stock image licensing business will fall from $2.3 billion dollars in 2007 to $2.2 billion in 2011.”

No mentioned was made about the source of these wacky pretty numbers and what they included or didn’t. But what it shows is that Corbis has no intention of taking more market shares and will just ride the wave of this downfall. Cool !!. What a great company that is. They cut staff, they cut royalty to “some” photographers, the ones apparently most impacted by Corbis lack of sales, and they announce that they will do nothing to grow. However, they will keep more of what is left.

No one mentioned, for example, the web ready Corbis-Veer new pricing at $40, $9 less then Getty’s . It would have been nice to ask if this was a company wide policy to slash prices too.

The leisure, casual, dress-down-Friday meeting was apparently a new corporate attempt to make contributing photographers swallow a hard pill. And it seems it will work. Pro stockers, desperate to make any revenue at all, will seemingly accept anything these days. Even the fact that they could make 70% royalty if they moved to Snapvillage, the midstock arm of Corbis, or if they switch to shooting celebrity portraits and belong to the Outline brand.

There is a class system being instituted at the Bill Gates photo agency with photographers receiving different types of royalty based on what they shoot. You are a complete amateur, you get 70% of a growing market. You are a season pro, you get 40% of a declining one.

It is doubtful that any photographers will leave the paper tiger, as there are no alternatives anymore. If anything, Getty will continue to trim its contributing sources in order to keep the best. With the successive failure of all co op photo agencies models, the ineffectiveness of the trade associations and the impossible tasks left to the medium size agencies, its a grim horizon facing pro stockers. But then again, it always was:  “This is our company together.” Ya, right.

Posted in Midstock, Photoplus, commercial stock, prosumer, finance, getty, corbis, transaction, Royalty free | 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 »

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 »

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 »

May 6, 2008 by pmelcher.

(credit : Creatista / Zymmetrical.com)

It’s like playing with a set of Tarot cards. Or looking down at coffee residue at a bottom of coffee cup. Or better yet, hopping that the big round glass ball will reveal its wonderful secret.

Running a photo agency is  just really a never-ending game of predicting the future. On any given day, one has to figure out what will be the next big story. Picking from a thousand of daily news items, the trick is to pick the ones that will last longer than the time it takes to read them because of national, if not international interest.

And everything is game : a local murder, a politicians comment, a weather system coming through, a celebrity that might get engaged, everything can be the next big story. And, in order for the images to be relevant, it also has to be timely. Too soon, no one cares, too late, it’s over and done. Thus, as much it is important to have the right pool of photographers that will add even more value to an event, it is the constant act of divination that is crucial.

Wire services have minimized the gamble to a minimum by covering everything and having photographers everywhere.  That is what corporations do : minimize and rationalize risk. The little and medium guys cannot afford to keep an international pool of photographers  always on the ready mode. So they have to carefully pick and choose.

Get it right once and it’s luck, get it right often and it is talent. Because there is even more  than just predicting what will everyone will talk about tomorrow. There is also predicting what the media will think is the next big thing. And they have their own vision of the importance of a story. So its not just figuring out what will be hot but what the medias will think will be hot and thus, make hot.

It is certainly not a science and can not really be taught by anything else than experience and an acute sense of human sympathy ( Etymology: Latin sympathia, from Greek sympatheia, from sympathēs having common feelings, sympathetic, from syn- + pathos feelings, emotion, experience). Knowing what people will care about tomorrow, not what is important.

Scarlett Johansson getting engaged is not important but everyone cares. Darfur is important but no one cares anymore. So what is a savvy photo agency to do ? Get images of Scarlett’s new ring, and forget Darfur.

Now, if it had been a really good photo agency, it would have known or smelled it, and would already have the picture, even before the story broke. How ? By brightly anticipating the engagement and having someone follow her for the last week.

This is just not in the celebrity world. It is useless for a small or medium agency to have 2 full time photographers follow Hillary and Obama everywhere in the hopes of getting a picture that will sell. It is, however, very important to read their schedule carefully and smell the right photo op. When and where will it happen ?

Same goes for commercial stock albeit in a different way . Trying to forecast the need of imagery is similar. The parameters are slightly different but the divination game the same. However, it is more a science when it comes to Commercial stock. Companies like Corbis and Getty will hire field engineers, card readers, to investigate the future. Others, who cannot afford to pay expensive fortune tellers will just put up as many images as possible in order to cover all potential needs now and forever. Nether approach usually  reap a lot of success. If it did, Getty would no longer have any competition, would they ?

A really good stock agency could make a fortune with maybe no more than 100 new images a month. A really good editorial agency could do with 10 stories a month. You have the 10 top stories of the month  every month over a year, and you will be making more than Getty Images.

But it is not because you have the divination gift that others do not, which makes it a tad harder. You can also  beat the divination game by having a better photographer, one that will make the better images even if they are not the first, making the event more caring. But that is beyond the point here.

So, while the Getty whale is about to sink deep into silence ( pay attention to Jamd.com and viewimages.com, two great divination tools) in its never ending quest for more revenue, that Jupiterimage will be the first let microstock merge with its traditional offering  ( announced in Russia this week), that traditional Commercial RF and RM are about to reunite in their last yearly bacchanal in Malta, that someone somewhere is about to launch the first model that will pay you to use their images (Picapp ?), and that about anything and everything is fair game these days, one should keep in mind that with no talent there will be no success.

PS: A big thank you to all those who have donated already. If you too want to keep this blog free, do you part here. The recession is coming and its my birthday soon.

Posted in celebrity, magazine, Zymmetrical, commercial stock, Midstock, photojournalism, news, editorial, wire service, getty | Print | No Comments »

May 4, 2008 by pmelcher.

“The big winner in these data are Internet design and development firms, whose purchases dominate the industry. But while these firms consistently hold the highest market share, both in terms of dollars spent and units purchased, their average spending per image was often lower than that for other segments, particularly creatives. These dynamics can have strong implications for producers and marketers of stock imagery.”

TrendWatch Graphic Arts_2005_

That was 3 years ago. The $71.9 million revenue of Istockphoto in 2007 is a clear proof that this study was correct. It actually did not reveal any secret but confirmed what everyone already knew. So, how as the industry reacted in the last 3 years ?

- The conservatives: Most have continued in their all too familiar ways, producing the same images for the same pricing, even when 90% are now being sold at microstock prices. Voluntary ignoring the microstock noise, that has now grown from a chatter to a scream, they believe that it is just a passing fluke that will die down when the party is over. Some even take a stand against this market by claiming loud and clear that they will NEVER surrender to such pricing model. As if high-priced images had any appeal to any image buyers.  They have the same images available on mid and micro sites, yet priced according to antiquated models. They have capture the attention of the medium mediocre pro photographers whose very livelihood is threatened by this sudden price drop. As the protectors of the pricing “status quo” they stand up desperately like little toy store owners in front of K Mart refusing to sell cheap chinese toys while charging 6 times more for the same products.

- The cold feeters : They understand what the market is up too but have a hard time accepting it. They have been in this industry for a long time with reasonable success and hate seeing prices go down. So they adapt. They either create new collections for these markets or “retire” images and price them lower. One foot in the water, one on land, they think they can continue doing what they know best without loosing on new pricing trends. They enter with little careful steps as walking in the waters of a cold lake, trying to organically figure out its temperature and if they will be able to swim. These agencies confuse their photographers tremendously as revenues become unpredictable.

- The passionate: They can’t get enough. They were early-adopters and cannot wait to do more. Some have caught the wave at the right time and are seeing good results, while others waited and jumped both feet at the same time. They are leaving familiar pricing territories and well know clients for hit and run sales. Less tear sheets but more volume. Less marketing intelligence but more sales data. Some have created their own micro/mid platforms and are hoping to catch up on the Istock wave ( Tsunami ?).

What is fascinating is when you see a traditional RM/RF platform asking their contributors for more “regular business images: people at their desk, answering phones..” . It is also laughable when others stand up on their soap box and say: “The answer is easy, my friends, create more high end RM images”.

Huh ?

When I was at Corbis, the term was “cutting edge” and even back then I was hitting my head against the walls trying to figure out what it meant. And more important, how it is made.

A stock image is by nature an image that is made to please a wide variety of clients. Furthermore, it has to be unfinished so that text and logos can be added. Even other images copied and past into it. Even with our world turning into a global village, local sensitivities are at skin edge. It makes it very hard to create images that will please everyone in the world.

So what is high end RM images ? I would like to see. Because, like the Eldorado or Atlantis before, there is a lot of talk about it but not much to see : Behold the savior of photography, the almighty cutting edge, high end photograph. The secret knowledge that will lead to the golden caves of fortune: How to create a high end image. If you possess that wisdom, that elusive stone, the magic wang that transforms a low end / medium end image into that legendary 6 figure image, then why in the hell would you stick it in a photo agency that will take 50% or more of your sales ?

Most commercial stock photo agencies, right now, should give their salespeople a substantial raise. Because the major reason their sales are still stable, if not rising, is because their client stick with them. Mostly because they enjoy the help and friendship with their contacts there . Its not the pricing, nor the images, those can quite frankly be found elsewhere, its that person on the other side of the phone. Yet, most go on a search for the elusive “sharp, cutting edge, high end” imagery soon to be copied by extremely web savvy microstock shooter.

A good salesperson will tell you exactly what images you need because they sell them everyday. Its not going to be a creative research ( shoot RV people !!, especially the ones being pushed because people can’t afford the gas price, says Corbis ) or keyword search analysis. Not even past sales data. It is going to be these guys behind their screens and desks, day in and day out that can tell you what you need. And they also, have no idea what a cutting edge image is, but they sure do know what an image that sell can be.

Posted in Search, Midstock, license, commercial stock, keyword, finance, Royalty free, corbis, transaction, Microstock | Print | No Comments »