Recent Stock Photo Industry Press Releases

Dreamstime challenges community with new feature - Stock Rank

New Flash-Interactive Feature Announced Simultaneously With 6 Million Image Benchmark

Nashville, TN, July 01, 2009. Dreamstime.com, a global photo community and worldwide leader in the stock photography industry has introduced Stock Rank - a new “photo-review tool” to enable members to test their photo IQ in comparing and ranking images.

The new imaginative flash-interactive tool pairs two images on the screen and challenges the contestant to select the best photo - the photo most worthy of purchase or download - based on concept, subject, aesthetics, lighting, composition, etc. This feature was initially established as a quality assurance system utilized primarily by the agency's editors as part of their training to review the commercial aspects of stock submissions.

AlwaysHD Teams Up with Stock Footage Search Engine Footage.net

Partnership Provides New Distribution Channel for AlwaysHD.com

Mobile, AL, June 24, 2009. AlwaysHD, the online marketplace for high-definition (HD) stock footage, this month became an official supplier for Footage.net, the premier stock, archival, and news footage search engine. Through the partnership, select footage from AlwaysHD's contributing cinematographers and computer graphics artists now is available to be searched alongside clips from Footage.net's 30 other stock footage suppliers, which include ABC News, BBC Motion, and Getty Images.

AudioMicro Upgrades Music Licensing Platform; Teams with SlideRocket

[StockPhotoTalk readers are in for a treat today: the first 20 readers to sign up for the service using the promotion code “PHOTOTALK2” get access to 2 free downloads credits (an $8.99 value). The code is valid for 20 uses and will be active until 7.31.09]

AudioMicro upgrades its music licensing platform with a cleaner, smarter interface, and improved search tools; brings stock music and sound effects to the SlideRocket marketplace

Los Angeles, CA, June 24, 2009. AudioMicro.com, the web's largest micro stock music and sound effects licensing destination, has launched a new version of its website, targeted at purchasers of royalty free music and sound effects. New visitors to AudioMicro.com will find a completely revamped user interface and design, making it a rich and simple destination for discovering and licensing stock audio.

Visitors to the new AudioMicro homepage experience improved utility and design, including:

iStockphoto Debuts Best of Breed Search Technology and the Vetta Image Collection

Highly Relevant Results Cut Search Times By Up to 50 percent

Calgary, Alberta, June 24, 2009. A recent survey of more than 28,000 iStockphoto customers found that search and quality of collection are two of the top reasons for choosing iStock. Enter Best Match 2.0 and the Vetta™ Collection. The Best Match algorithm provides more relevant results and saves people time when searching. Seventy-eight percent of customers found it reduced search times - 20 percent of those said search times were reduced by more than 50 percent. Vetta is a collection of top-quality iStock images hand-selected for exquisite art direction and intelligently executed concepts.

In War On Web Piracy, Creators Say “Play Nice or Pay The Price”

C-Registry.us tracks web pirates who prefer stealing to dealing while enabling users to find and contact owners for permission to use their “orphaned works”

New York, NY, June 22, 2009. A new technology suddenly makes it possible for amateur and professional photographers whose work gets stolen online to track down the Madison Avenue ad agencies and Internet businesses that are ripping them off. Empowered with visual recognition and bulk upload capability, creators and rights holders now have both a stick and a carrot for web users of their copyrighted content.

Millions of times every day, people find images online they want to use, but there’s no photo credit and no way to contact the photographer.

Blend Images Announces the Launch of Rights-Managed Flex Packs

Seattle, WA, June 18, 2009. Blend Images, the world’s leading multiethnic stock photography agency, announced today the launch of Flex Packs, a new way of licensing rights-managed imagery on www.blendimages.com.

The new RM Flex Packs offer customers the ability to license the same rights-managed image for multiple usages at competitive rates. It’s a simple and flexible way to license rights-managed imagery for broad commercial use.

Filmmaker-Driven Footage Collection Framepool Gaining Momentum in All Facets of North/South American Visual Media Industries

New York/Hollywood/Paris/London/Munich, June 15, 2009. Framepool, the footage collection run by filmmakers, is making great strides within all facets of the visual media industries in North and South America, reports the company's founder and CEO, Dr. Stephan Bleek.

Over the past year, Framepool's newly-opened subsidiaries across America have fulfilled custom footage requests for major projects in advertising and entertainment. Highlights include JWT's most recent Microsoft campaign and Mother’s latest KY campaign, plus work with a number of agencies in South America; original documentaries for cinema and TV (including "Betty Ford: The Real Deal", "Build It Bigger: Abu Dhabi", "Act of God", "End of America"); dramatic TV series (including Fox's "Fringe" and ABC's "Castle"); nonfiction entertainment (including several Animal Planet series); and ...

Snapixel: Flickr Meets iStockphoto

Snapixel combines Flickr and iStockphoto to make it easy to sell and share photos

San Francisco, CA, June 10, 2009. Say goodbye to the old photography stock houses and say hello to Snapixel.com. Photographers and enthusiasts can get paid a fair price for what they already love to do and stock users have a fresh new resource to fulfill their creative needs.

Created by three photographers who were fed up with the current photo stock offerings, Snapixel offers photographers more than the traditional stock photography house. How much more? Well to start with, compared to the 20% photographers get from the sale of their photos from most other stock houses, Snapixel pays 60% to the photographer. That’s a huge difference.

Corbis Now Offering Retna’s Celebrity Photography

The latest coverage from the red carpet, film, music and fashion now at Corbis

London, UK, June 10, 2009. Corbis, a leading visual media provider for the creative community, and Retna today announced a new agreement to make Retna’s celebrity and entertainment photography available through Corbis.

With the new partnership, Corbis is in the process of adding 250,000 images from the Retna archive and will be adding thousands more of the freshest images every week from Retna’s comprehensive red carpet and breaking news entertainment coverage.

In Tough Economy, New Survey Shows Design Professionals Use More Stock Photography to Cut Costs

Over 40 percent say they are using more stock photos this year compared to last year, according to the survey by International Communications Research, sponsored by Shutterstock

New York, June 09, 2009. In an economic climate where graphic designers are often asked to produce more with fewer resources, a new survey by International Communications Research (ICR) shows that over 40 percent of designers are using more stock photography to lower costs in 2009 compared to last year.

Designers today have responded to the economic downturn in a myriad of ways, according to Ami Brophy, CEO of The Art Directors Club in New York, a top organization for art directors and designers in the U.S.

iSyndica Releases Video Syndication to Complement Microstock Photo-distribution Service

Sellers of videos on stock footage sites such as Fotolia® and Revostock® can now syndicate their content through iSyndica's patent-pending virtual distribution server

Nashua, NH, June 08, 2009. The lives of videographers seeking to sell content via the Web just got easier, now that iSyndica's revolutionary virtual-distribution server supports video syndication. iSyndica provides a single platform through which users can sell their videos on six different Web sites, saving hours of work spent uploading, tagging and submitting content to different sites. With iSyndica, users upload their content once and then choose the channels over which they want to distribute it.

Veer Marketplace opens for image submissions

Calgary, June 08, 2009. Veer, a producer and provider of visual elements and design-related products, today opened the contributor section for Veer® Marketplace, a new low- priced image resource on veer.com. Photographers and illustrators from anywhere in the world can now create accounts and begin submitting their work to Veer Marketplace.

The Veer Marketplace site now provides these innovative features for contributors:

Options for fast image upload

• Contributors can upload images via their preferred FTP client or through an advanced web-based upload tool
• Contributors can submit many images simultaneously through a bulk upload system

Image Source announces the launch of ‘Cross-Media Pack’

A new product category within the visual content industry

London, UK, June 04, 2009. Image Source, the world’s leading producer of royalty free stock imagery, today announces the founding and launch of a totally new product category, known as ‘Cross-Media Pack’, at the annual CEPIC congress in Dresden.

The ‘Cross-Media Pack’ delivers a new concept to the visual content industry, offering customers the ability to purchase matched high-end stills and motion using the same premium models, styling and location all under one simple, royalty free licence.

Corbis Introduces Refreshed Web Site and New Photography Collections

Updated web site with more customer-friendly interface and new collections helps clients find the right images for their projects

Seattle, WA, June 01, 2009. Corbis, a leading visual media provider for the creative community, today announced it has refreshed its web site at www.corbis.com and launched several new rights-managed photography collections. The enhancements make finding and licensing images from the Corbis web site easier and more convenient for customers.

Alamy launches free Find a Photographer service

Oxfordshire, UK, 28 May 2009. Alamy is launching a free service to allow picture buyers to directly contact photographers for commissions and assignments. Alamy Find a Photographer uses an interface based on Google maps to provide up to the minute contact details and locations for photographers who sign up to the service.

It is open to contributors who have more than 100 images and more than 10 sales with Alamy. They must also be experienced in conducting assignments and/or commissions and have a website showcasing their work.

Global ImageWorks to Make Footage Database Searchable through Footage.net

New York, May 26, 2009. Global ImageWorks, a boutique full-service stock footage company, and Footage.net, the stock footage search engine, announced today that Global ImageWorks is adding its entire database to the Footage.net search platform.

"We are extremely pleased to have Global ImageWorks on board," said Footage.net president Domenick Propati. "At Footage.net, we're focused on making footage research as simple and efficient as possible. The addition of this unique, high-quality collection to our search platform will greatly enhance our ability to help footage users discover the best motion content as quickly and easily as possible."

Blend Images Expands Distribution of Rights-Managed Image Collection

Seattle, WA, May 21, 2009. Blend Images, the world’s leading multiethnic stock photography agency, announced today the continued expansion of its rights-managed distribution network, making the collection available in major image markets.

The Blend Images rights-managed collection is available non-exclusively in the U.S., U.K., Europe, Japan, and Asia through select distributors. Rights are cleared through Blend Images upon request for exclusivity.

Fotolia Launches PhotoXpress

Microstock photography pioneer Fotolia launches free, premier-quality RF image bank

Hartford, CT, May 21, 209. Today, PhotoXpress announced the launch of the world's largest free, premier-quality image bank, offering creative professionals Royalty Free image licenses for personal or professional use -- from Web site design and brochure illustrations to advertisements and editorial imagery.

"Small businesses, home businesses, consultants and students need images to help improve the look of their marketing campaigns and presentations. They struggle to find high-quality, affordable images for their company brochures, Web sites, advertising and newsletters. Today, the struggle is over," explains Patrick Lor, President, PhotoXpress North America.

VIVOZOOM – World’s Only Microstock Business to Give Legal Guarantees on all Images

Launched today by Imagepick Inc., VIVOZOOM radically changes the commercial image market by offering warranted Stock Photography at Microstock prices

Chicago, US/London, UK, May 21, 2009. Extensive market research in North America and Europe has revealed an unmet demand for guaranteed high-quality imagery at “Microstock” prices. VIVOZOOM’s unique offering will allow image buyers the opportunity to license high-quality images at affordable prices without compromising their requirements for legal guarantees.

“Our market research was invaluable in highlighting serious industry concerns about Microstock”, said Lawrence Gould, CEO.

Free AudioMicro Lite iPhone App Now Available in iTunes App Store

Stock Audio Company’s Free App Puts More Than 50 Professional-Quality Sound Effects in Your Pocket

Los Angeles, CA, May 15, 2009. AudioMicro.com, a crowd-sourced marketplace for commercial music licensing, today announced the availability of AudioMicro Lite, the company’s latest iPhone app. The free app includes more than 50 professional-quality sound effects as well as a “Sneak Attack” feature, which sets the iPhone to play a specified sound effect when the device is moved by an unsuspecting person. AudioMicro Lite’s sound effects were contributed by members of AudioMicro.com, a worldwide stock audio community.

Corbis Opens Sygma Preservation and Access Facility

New Facility Outside Paris Will Preserve Sygma’s Extraordinary Photography Collection for more than a Thousand Years While Making Images Accessible for Photographers, Researchers, Iconographers, Historians and Creatives Worldwide

London, May 15, 2009. Corbis, a leading visual media provider for the creative community, today announced the opening of the Sygma Preservation and Access Facility, the culmination of the Sygma Preservation and Access Initiative started in 2004. The announcement was made at an event held at the new facility outside of Paris, France, attended by photographers, photo editors, government dignitaries, and executives from Corbis and Locarchives, the document management company that built the facility.

Northfoto Launches NorthOut: Outsourced image processing and editing services

Budapest, Hungary, May 13, 2009. Northfoto, Central and Southeastern Europe’s leading provider of digital content for print, outdoor and e-media, is proud to announce the launch of NorthOut, a new division providing low-cost image editing, keywording and re-touching solutions for both editorial and creative photo agencies, as well as print or web based publications.

NorthOut, which recently began outsourcing operations in Bucharest, Romania, and will soon follow up with teams based in Budapest, Hungary, has in place a number of packages designed specifically to drastically reduce the growing overhead costs related to labor intensive image processing.

Getty Images and Agence France-Presse (AFP) Renew Partnership Agreement

Paris/Seattle, May 11, 2009. Getty Images, the leading provider of digital media and Agence France-Presse (AFP), the global press agency, announced today that they have renewed their agreement. The renewed contract takes effect on 1st June 2009 and extends the partnership between the two companies for a further three years.

The strategic relationship between AFP and Getty Images was formed in 2003, to provide customers around the world with a comprehensive editorial photography service that leveraged the complementary strengths and experience of the two companies.

Pond5.com Celebrates 150,000 Clips, Inaugurates Free Clip of the Week

Breakout stock video footage marketplace is now the fastest growing collection of inexpensive royalty-free footage on the web.

New York, NY, May 2009. Stock footage marketplace Pond5.com announced today that it has marked a significant new milestone: it now offers video producers over 150,000 broadcast quality, HD and SD royalty-free stock video clips available for instant download. Its collection has been doubling in size every 6 months since opening for business in early 2006. The site is now the fastest growing collection of stock video footage on the web, with an enthusiastic global following at all production levels.

Patrick Lor Selected as Fotolia President, North America

Former iStockPhoto Co-Founder Tapped to Head Up Rival Microstock Agency's Operations in US

New York, NY, May 06, 2009. Today, Fotolia, one of the world's leading sources for high quality microstock imagery and video, announced the expansion of its executive team with the hire of Patrick Lor, co-founder of rival firm iStockPhoto, as the company's new President for North America.

The hire will bring Lor out of retirement, after his company sold to Getty Images in 2006. "Fotolia has continued to be an innovative pioneer in the microstock space. They continue to democratize the microstock industry, keeping stock imagery affordable for small business owners, non-profit organizations, and other groups that would otherwise not be able to afford the costs of licensing imagery associated with other companies," says Lor, of his decision to join the team.

Masterfile Launches Local Service in South Asia

Toronto/Düsseldorf, April 2009. Masterfile, one of the world’s leading independent stock photo agencies, is expanding operations in South Asia by launching local service for clients in India. Masterfile India, based in Hyderabad, will be the exclu- sive distributor of the Masterfile Collection in South Asia, serving clients in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Fotolia Announces Stock Video Collection

Leading source for legal, low-cost imagery announces launch of microstock video collection

New York, NY, April 28, 2009. Today, Fotolia, one of the world's leading sources for legal, low-cost imagery announced the launch of its microstock video collection, which will supplement its current library of more than five million images and illustrations with a collection of more than 10,000 royalty-free video clips at microstock prices.

Snapixel Opens Stock Photography For Next Generation of Photographers

Snapixel Launches Openstock™ Ready-to-License System to Sell Photos

San Francisco, CA, April 28, 2009. Snapixel (www.snapixel.com), a new photography site that combines elements of the photo sharing site Flickr and the popular stock photography site iStockphoto, announces Openstock™, an innovative system that provides photographers with an easy-to-market solution to sell photos.

"The Snapixel model extends selling power to all levels of photographers. While not every image belongs in a stock photography marketplace, our ultimate goal is to widen the creative spectrum of traditional stock photography, without decreasing the value." said Ivan Wong, COO and Co-founder of Snapixel.

PicScout applauds Google for its new Similar Images Search

[This isn´t a real press release from PicScout, but a marketing gig from their blog, distributed today by their marketing department]

Herzeliya/San Francisco, Apr. 26, 2009. What a thrill it is to see Google's recent announcement of its new "similar image" search! One couldn't ask for better publicity. Free, too! First, it further validates the huge interest people have in finding and using images online, either for personal or business uses. When people search for images, they are most likely looking to use them for some purpose that very well may require licensing. If Google is helping people do that faster, all the better!

Jon Arnold Images and John Warburton-Lee announce the creation of AWL Images

Whitchurch/Shropshire, UK, April 23, 2009. We are delighted to announce the launch of www.awl-images.com, an exciting new website offering the very best of travel imagery with over 70,000 tightly edited images covering 200 countries worldwide.

AWL Images Limited is a joint venture that brings together the specialist travel collections of John Warburton-Lee Photography and Jon Arnold Images to create a truly global travel collection.

Portray Limited Acquires Action Plus

London, Apr. 22, 2009. Action Plus, as 30-year old sports image library, based in London, has been acquired by Portray Limited, a company wholly owned by industry veteran Stephen Hearn. For 30 years, Action Plus was owned and operated by Richard Francis, a well known and sought after car and motorbike event photographer.

The library, mostly editorial with news/feature images deep in over 300 different sporting elements, now extends to over 1.3 million images and has over 20 worldwide agencies representing the content.

imense launch Annotator, the first semi automatic keywording tool

Cambridge, April 20, 2009. With more sales channels available for photographers, and more of those channels expecting metadata and keywords to be supplied with image files, photographers are becoming bogged down in keywording, meaning less time for doing what they do best, creating images.

imense are delighted to announce the launch of Annotator, a simple to use, cost effective, semi-automated keywording tool designed to dramatically reduce the time it takes for photographers to keyword their images by up to 4 times, whilst at the same time providing more commercially relevant keywords.

Shutterstock Sponsors Free Arts NYC

Shutterstock employees volunteer to bring a day of art to underprivileged children in New York City

New York, NY, April 17, 2009. Shutterstock, the world's largest subscription-based online stock photo agency, is sponsoring Free Arts NYC, a New York based charity organization that delivers creative art programs to underprivileged children throughout the city.

In addition to the sponsorship, Shutterstock employees donated a day to create art and mentor low income, homeless, abused and neglected children at the "Shutterstock Free Arts Day" on Saturday, April 4th. More than 75 children attended the event held at the Grand Street Settlement, Beacon Center.

National Geographic Digital Media Unveils New Immersive Web 2.0 Photography Application - "Infinite Photograph"

New app offers unprecedented interaction with shared online photos; Launching with shots of natural world dubbed 'As Seen on Earth'

Washington, DC, April 15, 2009. National Geographic Digital Media (NGDM) today launches Infinite Photograph, a cutting-edge Web 2.0 photography mosaic application that will allow users to interact with shared online photographs by clicking on color patterns to create an infinite array of stunning mosaics in a variety of themes.

Gearing up for Earth Day, the first Infinite Photograph theme debuts April 15 at www.ngm.com/infinite, featuring mosaics created from user-submitted photos of the natural world as part of National Geographic's My Shot "As Seen on Earth" hub, found at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/myshot/infinite-photograph/earth.

Dreamstime Introduces New Flash Browser Feature

New Flash Browser Feature To Be Showcased at 2009 Picturehouse This Week

Nashville, TN, April 15, 2009. Dreamstime.com, one of the world's premier community-based stock photography agencies, is pleased to introduce its newest search engine advancement-the Flash Browser.

To improve the visual experience, Dreamstime has installed a new Flash Browser to illustrate a larger sized and enhanced visual representation of the DreamFinder™ search results. Photo buyers can now experience image previews in a full, crystal clear screen display

Alaska Stock Image Stamps Out Global Warming

Anchorage, AK, April 09, 2009. Alaska Stock Images, a very well established Rights Managed brand for specialist stock imagery, announced that a polar bear image it represents will be used by Canada Post as part of an international postal awareness campaign on the effects of global warming. The image of the lone polar bear swimming in melting sea ice in Bellot Strait near Resolute Bay, Alaska was created by Alaska Stock photographer Amanda Byrd.

“I am truly honored that my image of the polar bear has been chosen to be part of Canada Post's commitment of global warming awareness, and I am excited that this stamp will be viewed in some 30 other countries,” remarked Amanda.

Blend Images Repositions Brand, Launches New Campaign

Seattle, WA, April 08, 2009. Blend Images, the world’s leading multiethnic stock photography agency, announced today the launch of its new marketing campaign and corporate identity.

”We are very excited about the changes to our branding and our campaign,” said Sarah Fix, Creative Director at Blend Images. “Our new logo, website, and our brand identity is bold -- stylistically conveying commercial polish with an editorial edge. Our new ads are provocative – challenging stereotypes editorially, while holding creatives’ attention visually, with fresh imagery and contemporary design.”

AudioMicro Teams with the Blastwave FX Sound Effects Library

... Adding Over 32,000 Effects; Releases iPhone App with 500 Sound Effects

Los Angeles, CA, April 07, 2009. AudioMicro.com announces the addition of the Blastwave FX sound effects library, adding over 32,000 professional quality, royalty free sound effects to its online archive. Headed by Ric Viers, author of the "Sound Effects Bible," the Blastwave FX collection is well known for being a comprehensive, progressive, original collection.

Corbis Launches New Motion Web Site with Significantly Expanded Collection

New Sophisticated E-commerce Web Site Is Easy for Customers to Use and Has Ten Times More Video Clips

Seattle, WA, April 06, 2009. Corbis, a leading visual media provider for the creative community, today announced the launch of a new Corbis Motion web site with innovative features and a considerably larger footage collection, including tens of thousands of high definition(HD), rights managed(RM) and royalty free(RF) clips.

Aurora Photos announces the launch of the Green Collection

Portland, ME, April 01, 2009. Aurora Photos agency founder, Jose Azel announced the launch of the Green Collection, a new compilation of Aurora imagery comprised of eco-photography. To celebrate the collection Aurora will provide a discount incentive to customers licensing images from the Green Collection between April 1 and June 31, 2009.

"Adding timely and relevant green imagery to Aurora’s already strong collection is a welcome move.” Michelle Jackson, founder of Snap Indigo remarks. “The need for these types of important photographs will be around for years to come."

ImageSpan and PicScout Team to Deliver Best-in-Class Image Licensing and Tracking Solutions

Joint ImageSpan-PicScout Service Allows LicenseStream Subscribers to Immediately Monetize and Gain Incremental Value from Content Distributed across the Web

San Francisco, CA, April 02, 2009. ImageSpan Inc., the creator of LicenseStream, the market-leading licensing and royalty payment automation platform for all media, and PicScout, a market-leading image copyright service provider to the digital content industry, today announced that they are partnering to deliver a best-in-class image licensing and tracking service to help LicenseStream subscribers immediately monetize content found by PicScout and obtain more value from that content as it gets published across the Web. The announcement was made at the Web 2.0 Expo

Shutterstock Footage Surpasses 100K Clips

Shutterstock Footage Continues Library Expansion, Surpasses 100,000 Royalty-Free Video Clips - The rapid growth has company poised to capitalize on the global surge in video use

New York, March 25, 2009. Shutterstock, the world's largest subscription-based online stock image agency, just announced that Shutterstock Footage has added its 100,000th clip to its rapidly expanding online library of high quality royalty-free stock footage. Shutterstock was the first company to offer affordable, royalty-free stock video clips by subscription when it launched Shutterstock Footage in 2006.

[Full video here]

iStockphoto Adds 30,000 Royalty-Free and Single-Production Audio Tracks

... to Become One-Stop Destination for User-Generated Stock Images, Videos and Sounds - World's Stock Imagery and Video Sales Leader Offers Industry's Easiest Way to Purchase all Types of Multimedia Under One Account

Austin, TX, SXSW Booth 309/Calgary, Alberta, March 18, 2009. iStockphoto, the world's leading stock multimedia destination, announced its new and diverse audio collection today at the SXSW Music Festival.

iStock's Standard Audio collection includes over 11,000 royalty-free, user-generated sound effects and music tracks. iStock also debuted a new Pump Audio collection of over 18,000 single-production music tracks.

The Flickr Collection Debuts on gettyimages.com

Getty Images and Flickr launch first-of-its-kind creative imagery collection

Seattle, WA & San Francisco, CA, March 11, 2009. Getty Images, the world's leading creator and distributor of visual content and other digital media, and Flickr, a Yahoo! Inc. service and one of the world's largest photo sharing communities, today announced the launch of the Flickr Collection, a creative imagery collection now available exclusively on gettyimages.com for commercial licensing. With the debut of this first-of-its-kind collection, customers can easily access and license the inspirational and unexpected photographs for which the Flickr community is known.

Cutcaster offers Corporate Accounts and Cutcaster Credit packages

World’s First User-Generated Source of Images and Vectors Offers Most Flexible Payment and Licensing Options.

San Francisco March 11th, 2009. Cutcaster, the world’s first untapped source user generated images and vectors that can be securely licensed through it’s dynamic marketplace, announced the release of two new ways to purchase photos and vector illustrations. Cutcaster Corporate Accounts and Cutcaster Credits will empower buyers, reward them with deep discounts and make licensing royalty free images and vectors organized and cost effective. These new payment options are in addition to the micropayment pay-as-you-go purchasing system and content bidding model that Cutcaster currently uses

Shutterstock Extends All Footage Subscriptions from 30 Days to Full Year Without Raising Prices

Shutterstock also debuts affordable low resolution video subscriptions - ideal for adding high-impact, compelling visuals to online and interactive projects

New York, NY, March 09, 2009. Shutterstock, the world's largest subscription-based stock image agency, announced today that as a benefit to stock video customers, it is extending all Shutterstock Footage subscription terms from 30 days to a full year at no additional cost. Now creative professionals subscribing to Shutterstock Footage have the flexibility to download royalty-free clips anytime they need them over a one-year period.

"We know that many creative professionals, especially those working in the film, video and TV industry, are looking for innovative ways to cut costs while maintaining top quality," said Jon Oringer, founder and CEO of Shutterstock.

One Year of ClipDealer.com – the rapidly expanding Online Marketplace for Royalty-Free Footage Clips

Munich, March 04, 2009. ClipDealer is looking back on a successful first year of business. The company has grown from nothing to become the largest German online marketplace for royalty-free video footage clips in the mid-range price sector.

ClipDealers’s special quality is that the marketplace offers a fixed pricing system and uploads clips and assigns key words to them free of charge for its top sellers. Consequently, production companies, multi-media and advertising agencies are already flocking in large numbers to avail themselves of ClipDealer’s growing portfolio.

AudioMicro to represent “Family Guy” composer Ron Jones; library surpasses 50,000 tracks

AudioMicro.com to represent over 170 original scores by “Family Guy” composer Ron Jones

Los Angeles, CA, March 03, 2009. AudioMicro.com announces the addition of over 170 original scores by “Family Guy” composer Ron Jones, as the online music and sound effects library surpasses the 50,000 track milestone.

The addition of Ron Jones’ collection permits the popular composer’s work to be available for use in everyday video projects from YouTube movies to short films, all at affordable licensing fees as little as $1 per minute. Central to the deal is Mr. Jones’ belief in the advancement of music placement opportunities for composers through open-minded, crowd-sourced collaboration - the underlying principles of the “micro stock” licensing model.

ImageSpan Announces Radical Innovation - Ties Content Search Results Directly to Payment/Licensing

ImageSpan Platform Delivers a First - One-Click Buying of Digital Content via a Search Result

Sausalito, CA, March 03, 2009. ImageSpan Inc., today introduced LicenseStream Creator 2.0, a new version of its market-leading licensing automation platform that opens content for business with game-changing innovations to accelerate massive online distribution and increase revenues. With LicenseStream 2.0, content creators of all types – from individual creators to enterprises – now gain the ability to publish content directly to the Web and global search engines, enabling anyone in the world to find their search-optimized content and pay for it with a mouse click.

Dreamstime Exceeds 5 Million Images, Enhances Search Engine

Upped to 1.3 million Users - Features High-Tech Enhancements

Nashville, TN, March 02, 2009. Dreamstime.com, one of the world's premier stock photography agencies, is pleased to introduce its newest search engine advancements to deliver the picture perfect every time.

Complimenting the Dreamstime.com DreamFinder™(an unlimited, multi-tiered, in-depth search that is most unique to the stock agencies market featuring refined and extended search options as they pertain to keywords, price, content, model released files, resolution, photos/illustrations, color/monochrome, orientation and more), Dreamstime's custom search engine has become second-to-none in "relevancy."