StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

+++ Woo Yay +++ Alamy´s CEO James West: "We Can Cannibalize Microstock" +++ Later Water Will Flow Uphill +++ Woody Allen New President Of Tea Party +++

Someone needs to call Wall Street. Quickly.

Someone else needs also to upgrade Excel from version 1998 to version 2011.

Irresponsibly I missed last week´s new episode of the Ray William Johnson show on its new second transmission channel, the Alamy Discussion Forum.

In this post from last week (earlier similar here) Alamy explains their statement on the new Alamy Premium Account and writes "We can cannibalise microstock market share at a much higher price point". I won´t go into more details, the use of images in advertisement (Microstock) or not (Alamy Premium), virtually unlimited usage, etc. - I just don´t believe in the basic principles of this opinion, hardly based on serious calculations.

Alamy refused to publish further Quarterly Statements after their final public Q4/2009 Statement in early 2010, and that´s not because their revenues went through the roof. "Cannbalise": Alamy used to generate roughly 1/30 in yearly revenues of what the total microstock industry generates in revenues per year. Ray William Johnson can´t compete with that.

(Image)

Google+ For Marketing, PR, BizDev, Microstock Google+ Replacing Blogs (Some Early Mixed Thoughts)

A few hours ago Kevin Rose came up with the idea of simply forwarding his blog to his new Google+ account.

 

Kevin Rose is not anyone, he is the co-founder of Digg, and he only received a few hundreds comments and shares for this sentence.

A Few Words With Professional Image Buyer Alexander Karst on Microstock in The German Speaking Countries

Alexander Karst is an old stager in the picture business.

He started his career in 1998 as Web & PR Manager at PhotoDisc where he first met his now partner at Die Bildbeschaffer, Michaela Koch, worked later for Getty Images and Digital Vision, and co-founded Strandperle in 2002.

In 2008 Alexander founded "Die Bildbeschaffer" in Hamburg, again together with Michaela Koch: a new venture which offers the outsourcing of the complete process of buying RM/RF/MS/CC images, rights clearance and pricing as a service to ad agencies and corporates. Now, "Die Bildbeschaffer" not only do the fulfilment – but also do pre- & after-sales jobs: image databases, filling images into the databases, trainings and seminars for all purposes.

As an image buyer, Alexander has been involved from Day One in buying and using microstock. I wanted to know more about Alexander’s buying experience with microstock since the beginning and how it and also his perception about microstock have changed over the years.

 

QuickLinks For 2010-09-27

• "We got german engineering in the house":
  Bad idea. Digital media distribution platform iSyndica is closing. With 2011 being close, getting "one million customers at ten dollars per month by 2011" (or whatever the business goals were later) did apparently not work.
  Parts of the corporate story here, here, here and there.
  The worst part: iSyndica was a good idea (but too expensive for many).

The Butterfly Effect in Microstock

• Here.

• Here.

• Here and here. (From Betta than Vetta)
  

• Apparently not here & not there.

          (More about the Butterfly Effect & Attractors; illustration)
 

QuickLinks For 2010-05-06

• Cutting out the middleman in microstock:
  Money Business Images and their low priced subscription with roughly 20,000 images.
  Compare the images, see who contributes.
  
  

Shutterstock: 10,000,001 microstock subscription images and counting

News about yet another newly achieved millions-of-images-count-milestone appeared from most of the well-known microstock agencies in 2009 about every second month. So generally no big thing.

But now for the first time it´s up to numbers with eight figures. Though already an old number a day later, Shutterstock, the inventor of the subscription model and as the first of the Big Four* microstock agencies, completed yesterday shortly before midnight local time NY its next milestone of 10,000,000 microstock subscripton images.

As known all over the place, the absolute number of images can, but must not necessarily be connected to the financial success of a microstock agency: iStockphoto currently shows roughly 6,3 million, Dreamstime 7,7 million and Fotolia 7,4 million - the latter surprising because Fotolia announced 8 million images two month ago in December 2009.

(Screenshot exclusively and courtesy of Shutterstock)

*I have excluded microstock newcomers like PixMac which predominantly distributes external content from Fotolia and Dreamstime and reaches 10,185,000 images this way.

Update Feb. 16, 2010:

• Fotolia´s image-/file count:
  So while on the topic whether or not Fotolia shows 8 million image files, Fotolia´s EVP NA Garth Johnson added: "Our count is over 8 million now. We separate the Photos and Illustrations from both Vectors and Videos."
  "All together, we have well over the 8 million mark."

"StockXpert is ceasing regular operations"

From the newsletter:

We are sorry to announce that beginning today, StockXpert will no longer sell new credits or accept new members. On February 11, 2010, searching and downloading at StockXpert will cease. This will be the end of image sales at StockXpert.

All SXP members have the opportunity to transfer their remaining credits to iStockphoto. iStock offers the highest quality affordable microstock imagery in the industry. Come and see for yourself. SXP credits will be honored 1 for 1 at iStockphoto.

Running a microstock business from Romania can be a tough challenge

... like elsewhere in Europe where many things are not working in one of - if not the - toughest winters since decades.

QuickLinks For 2010-01-27

• Changes at Veer Marketplace:
  Veer Marketplace content will now be front and center in our search results, along with RF content Veer has from macro photographers and partners. We will streamline our web site so that there is a single search grid (rather than the two separate RM/RF and VMP grids that we currently have). [...]
  We will simplify the customer experience on Veer by only offering easy-to-license RF imagery, including all the imagery from our Veer Marketplace contributors. We will continue to have a wide variety of images from premium-priced images to value-priced images, all offered under the RF licensing model.
  Translated: RM will be removed from Veer.

QuickLinks For 2009-12-15

• New increased credit prices at Dreamstime. As much as most contributors are understandably delighted, some see things different:
  Any news about an increase in commissions is good news, however I also feel that Dreamstime should put some effort into their marketing of the site to try and get themselves up there along with iS, SS and FT. They need to be seen to be actively promoting the site in order to get the volume of sales to make it worth while staying. If Dreamstime don't market themselves properly a price rise is pointless. (abbreviated)
  Related:
  • Dreamstime adjusts Royalties and Pricing
    (Aug. 14, 2008)

QuickLinks For 2009-12-09

• What´s new at iStockphoto in 2010 here and here?
  Regardless of the new tiered collections, changed prices in some cases ("iStock’s largest files were too expensive") and the ongoing fight with other people in Calgary about exclusive contributors: "We now sell three times as many files as we did back in 2006 ... What´s even more amazing is the average number of downloads per contributor has also risen significantly since 2006".
  Related:
  • iStockphoto: New pricing, a new premiere collection and more changes
    (Dec. 10, 2008)

QuickLinks For 2009-12-08

• New programs need to be disruptive in order to compete with core models:
  It's the first time we had to remove a product since our inception, 5 years ago.
  No matter how difficult is to withdraw features that required a lot of work, I consider such move wiser than supporting a program that proved neither able to compete with our core model nor able to help it grow.
  Dreamstime´s Serban Enache indirectly on the sometimes ambiguous difference between managers and leaders when admitting mistakes: one man, one word, that´s it. Worth reading.
  Background here and here.

SS acquires BSP: How to get into single image sales through the backdoor

Acquire another credit-based micro agency which additionally doesn´t offer a subscription plan: more details.

Read Jon´s announcement here on the SS forum: "Though we studied the possibility of building a credit site from scratch, in the end we decided that acquiring and building upon the momentum of a solid brand like BigStockPhoto.

What we did with subscriptions - we plan to do with credits".

Shutterstock: Adam Riggs moves to Frankfurt

Here and here (german only). English release may follow later here.

Related:

• A Short Midsummer Conversation With Shutterstock´s Jon Oringer on Microstock Footage
  (Aug. 05, 2008)
• A Short Conversation With Shutterstock´s Jon Oringer
  (Dec. 30, 2007)

Dreamstime adjusts Royalties and Pricing

"Similar on getting married, trust someone after the long run not on your first date" (on page five here). In a move long expected and with respect to the highly competitive market long, long overdue, Dreamstime has revamped its royalty and pricing structure with some interesting details.

While some contribitors usually have ambivalent feelings anywhere about these changes ("credit royalties will decrease"), the "repositioning" enables DT "to attract more buyers with the extra budget": "for 5 years we've kept a royalty of 50% for all non exclusives against 20% which was the minimum of the industry. The agency awarding you 20% had bigger prices than us and lower commissions. Which means better budgets to drive traffic."

 

 

Fotolia launches Premium Subscription

Just in, and apparently aimed at Shutterstock, Fotolia launched today the full resolution Premium Subscription with some similiarites to the previous Corporate Account.

Prices start higher at Fotolia with €249/month for 25 images/day (Shutterstock: €199), but align with a 12-months subscription (FT with €2.061 vs. SS with €2049). This comparison is not valid for the US where SS starts at $249/month, like Fotolia, and 12-months subscription are $2.061 (FT) vs. $2.559 (SS). Dreamstime in comparison: $239 and $2.399.

Fotolia vector and video files now count as 3 respectively 10 downloads. -More here.

Dreamstime Stock Rank: did you try it?

Super cool and educating: Stock Rank.

OK, you´re probably all better than me, but overall not too bad for the first play. Now, it can only become worse... .

Rest of the story here.

 

 

Polylooks: Deutsche Telekom launches its new Microstock Community

Just a quick note from Day One of the CEPIC congress.

The Deutsche Telekom/German Telecom has launched its new microstock portal Polylooks - with the microstock Mediastore, a Community (beta) and the magazine Augenblicke.

Polylooks operates with credits. Photographers receive 50% commission for exclusive and 35% for non-exclusive content. The pricelist for photobuyers gives an overview about the price tags for single images and subscription images. The website is currently only available in German.

Partner of the new microstock community is Hamburg-based mid-/microstock agency Zoonar which contributes around 150,000 images to the new portal.

Related:

• Deutsche Telekom To Launch New Microstock Community
  (April 19, 2009)
• Deutsche Telekom to launch Microstock Community with Stock Agency Zoonar
  (May 13, 2009)

Fotolia raises between $50 million and $100 million Venture Capital from TA Associates

Some competitors of Fotolia have taken pride in the past months to spread the rumor that Fotolia was already or was about to be sold at that time.

TechCrunch/Erick Schonfeld, in another new article on Fotolia - and no further comment from me - emphasizes that "Fotolia Takes A Massive $50 Million To $100 Million Round" from TA Assiociates, but mentions also "there are some rumors going around in venture circles that Fotolia got sold outright for $150 million. Our source, however, emphasizes that the company was not sold. Instead, after competitive bidding from more traditional venture firms, TA Associates came in with a massive injection of capital."

Now you take your calculator and assess:

1. The underlying company evaluation, and
2. The underlying estimation of the microstock image market size.

 

PhotoXpress by Fotolia offers 350,000 free images

Lor’s ambitions are to have close to a million photos available free of charge and PhotoXpress will remain independent from sister site Fotolia, however the two are intricately connected. PhotoXpress members will be able to license up to 10 images daily, free of cost.

Professional ad agencies and firms who might need more than 10 images a day will be sent to Fotolia. In this sense, PhotoXpress is a lead generator for Fotolia. But more than that, it is a way for professional photographers to expose some of their work for free to a larger Web audience, while inculcating a respect for copyrights among Web consumers. It is an attempt to bridge the two worlds, and Fotolia wanted to do this before its competitors did.

Lor says the biggest challenge is convincing the photography world to give away stock photography for free. PhotoXpress is still working out if the site will make any revenue - the obvious revenue stream is third-party advertising on the site, but Lor couldn't confirm or deny that there will be ads on the site. PhotoXpress's main competitor is Hungarian site Stock.xchange.

Sources: TechCrunch/Leena Rao (above/compiled) and Fotolia.

A sudden surprise before our CEPIC session on free images. -Check the license agreement (e.g. "limited to a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels in website uses") and check with your wife before using some partly strange stuff over there (1; 2; 3 and 4; initial keyword: beach).

Related:

• Patrick Lor, Co-founder of iStockphoto, joins Fotolia (May 06, 2009)

 

Deutsche Telekom to launch Microstock Community with Stock Agency Zoonar

Hamburg-based mid-/microstock agency Zoonar has sent out emails to photographers stating that Zoonar is supporting the Deutsche Telekom/German Telecom regarding the launch of a new image portal run by Deutsche Telekom, including a microstock agency, a photo community and an online magazine for photography ("Augenblicke").

The new image portal will apparently launch by the end of May and pay photographers a 35% commission.

Related:

• Deutsche Telekom To Launch New Microstock Community (Apr. 19, 2009)

QuickLinks For 2009-05-07

• iStockphoto Subscription Update by Kelly Thompson:
  We hear you and understand you aren't happy with the royalty percentage. We'll see what we can do, but don't expect miracles. [...]
  Subscription on iStock is not good enough. Photos.com is our best opportunity at creating a competitive subscription site, and you should want to be involved. [...]
  All that being said, it's probably going to be next week before we get back to you. Given the reception, the most likely outcome will be for us to look for alternative sources of images for Photos.com/JIU.
  Over 400 replies currently on over 20 pages.
  A comment* by RapidEye:

Patrick Lor, Co-founder of iStockphoto, joins Fotolia

Patrick Lor, co-founder of iStockphoto, a Getty owned-online marketplace for microstock photography and video, has joined rival Fotolia as the President of Fotolia North America.
According to Lor, his non-compete contract expired with Getty recently, which left him available to get back into the stock photography business.
iStockphoto was initially launched to democratize photography and let all people use images, Lor says. He was disappointed to hear of iStockphoto’s aggressive price increases following the Getty acquisition and maintains that Fotolia’s prices are much more fair for consumers.
Lor hopes to launch some new services in the future but won’t reveal what those are just yet.

Sources: Leena Rao/TechCrunch (compiled/accentuation in bold above by me) and Fotolia.

Regardless of the small mistake in the TC post - iStock (since 2000) is way longer in business than Fotolia (since 2005) - it´s a strange time for iStockphoto:

QuickLinks For 2009-05-06

• Results of the Subscription Shuffle Survey:
  If you´re less interested in the emotional aspect (see this pix & the picture below)
  
  Byline: "Do you feel lucky, punk?" [The image was removed lately]
  
  ... of the discussions (1; 2) over at the iStock forum mentioned here earlier (1; 2), check the preliminary results of the unofficial Subscription Shuffle Survey.
  
  To be fair, please note that in threads like the two mentioned above the negative comments of some members might prevail which might not reflect the opinion of the majority of contributors.
  Also, and again to be fair, the results of the quoted and ongoing survey above might not be representative for the majority of contributors.
  Again, you need to read both threads mentioned above yourself for a complete and balanced overview.
  
  Either way, Shutterstock reacted quickly with a New Marketing Program to the news that "iStock contributors will have the opportunity to sell their images through Photos.com and Jupiter Unlimited subscriptions".