Dreamstime has launched
Stockfreeimages.com a database of almost 400,000 royalty free image that they have culled from their primary collection. They are giving these images away for free. One of the interesting things about the image selection for this Free service is that Dreamstime has chosen to include some of its best selling images from its primary collection.
For example, yesterday we did a story about
Too Many Images being available. In that story we pointed out that Dreamstime has 39,129 images keyworded “Easter Egg.” In the Stockfreeimages collection there are 1,658 images on this subject – many similars to images still found in Dreamstime’s primary collection. The vast majority of the images in the Free collection have only sold a few times or not at all. But, when we searched for “Easter bunny” in the Stockfreeimages collection we found images of an Easter Bunny figurine by Cfdesignz that had been downloaded 84 and 54 times. Going back to the Dreamstime collection the best image we could find from the same shoot had been downloaded only 4 times. It is hard to understand why the company would take some of its best selling images and start offering them for free.
Granted, a key to success in the stock photo business today is to identify all those who use free images and try to up-sell to them. Many designers, SMB executives, webmasters and bloggers have become accustomed to only using free images. The first step in changing their habits is to understand who they are. Stockfreeimages should help Dreamstime do that.
In its promotion Dreamstime makes the point that Stockfreeimages.com currently offers the largest collection of free images on the web that are safe to download and legal to use anywhere. The images span a wide range of topics, addressing whatever visual requirement creative users may have. Dreamstime also remind uses that despite the costly repercussions of copyright infringement, illegal downloads from sites like Google Images and Flickr are still a common occurrence. Stockfreeimages.com helps users protect themselves from the costly fines that often result from these violations. Image use is completely free of charge, but site terms do require users to provide attribution via a credit line.
"With Stockfreeimages.com, users can rest assured that any image they download is not only free and safe, but is also completely legal and will not put them at risk for high infringement fines," says Serban Enache, CEO, Dreamstime. "The site offers a reliable alternative for users who previously downloaded illegally -- whether intentionally or not -- and the wide image selection meets the diverse creative needs of users ranging from SMB executives, to mommy bloggers, to college students."
The availability of Stockfreeimages.com allows Dreamstime to offer high-quality free images in a separate space, without jeopardizing sales from existing customers or creating additional competition for the site's dedicated contributor community. Image copyright violation had been an ongoing issue for stock photographers, causing not only extreme frustration but also significant income reduction, an unwelcome obstacle in an already competitive industry. Dreamstime argues that in addition to providing a valuable resource to the general stock image user, Stockfreeimages.com also serves as the next step in image copyright protection for contributors.
Dreamstime has more than 13.3 million images and claims to be the second leading agency in total customers with more than 12 million unique visitors monthly to the site. It is a major supplier of high quality digital images to the world's largest advertising agencies, national and international magazines, and film and television production companies. The company has more than 132,000 contributors.