Photo Selling Options

Ninety percent of new products fail for a variety of reasons. When photographs are an inherent part of the product it is often difficult to decide what to charge for the use. When a product is first being designed and launched it is impossible to determine how successful it will be. Often product developers are under funded. Here's an explanation of how leasing rather than a one-time licensing fee may be the answer to making the sale.

Imagestate Media Ltd and Imagestate Media Partners Ltd has ceased trading through its website and as of February 1, 2012 has entered Administration. The assets of the above companies have been acquired by a new investor. The ongoing business of Imagestate will be managed by Impact Photos. Heritage Images will operate separately.

In the U.S. it is possible to copyright a specific visual representation of a concept, not the concept itself. In what may be a precedent setting decision in the Patents County Court in London His honour Judge Birss QC has decided that a concept, or visual technique can also be copyrighted.

Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com) has delivered more than 200 million licensed image downloads to its customers since its founding in 2004. This number far exceeds that of any other company licensing rights to stock photography. The company’s closest competitor in the microstock arena is iStockphoto. According to the latest figures from istockcharts.multimedia.de iStock has licensed 116,134,740+ downloads. (The + probably represents a few thousands above this number.)

There’s a lot of buzz on the Internet about a new “social media” site Pinterest.com. It is designed to let people organize and share pictures they find on the web.  “People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.” Users can browse pinboards created by others, discover new things and get inspiration from people who share their interests -- all without paying a penny to use the pictures.

Arius3D Corp. and Masterfile Corporation have agreed to extend to March 31, 2012 the closing of the previously announced proposed acquisition by Arius3D of all of the issued and outstanding securities of Masterfile.

Recently, a stock agent suggested that the industry needs to establish a floor price for Rights Managed (RM) images to stop the continued decline in license fees. He is frustrated because his overseas distributors seem to be making an increasing volume of sales at prices that are “close to microstock pricing.”

In an effort to go after a share of the $15 billion educational textbook market Apple Inc. has launched iBooks2 software with an aim to quicken the adoption of the iPad in the educational market. The company has been working with Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to produce digital textbooks that can be delivered on the iPad. Currently, these three companies are responsible for 90% of the textbooks sold in the US.

Mobile communication is rapidly changing the way the world gets information. More and more of the information we need will be delivered via mobile devices. This shift is likely to change the demand for visual materials. Here are some things to consider as you plan for the future.

According to an eMarketer study in 2012 U.S. marketers are expected to spend more on online advertising than on newspaper and magazine ads combined. Marketers are expected to spend $39.5 billion this year compared to $33.8 billion on print.

Cordón Press (www.cordonpress.com), Spain’s number one editorial agency, has just
announced the acquisition of Latinstock Spain (www.latinstock.es) for an undisclosed amount.

Earlier today Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he would delay a cloture vote on the Protect IP (Intellectual Property) Act (PIPA) bill and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) announced he will postpone further action on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). On January 14th the White House’s announced its refusal to support the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

Fotolia has added 3128 fine art images from the deviantART (dA) collection to its offering.  (Click here to see the images.) The images are available exclusively at Fotolia.com. Learn more about the deviantART site and what it offers Fine Art photographers.

It seems to me that 30 or so years ago photographers could have verbal agreements (a handshake, if you will) with others in business and both sides would feel an ethical obligation to honor the agreement.
Today, honoring agreements is often secondary to maximizing profit.

The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) has submitted its comments on “Remedies for Copyright Small Claims” to the U.S. Copyright Office. The Office asked for comments related to a study it is undertaking at the request of Congress to assess whether and how the current legal system hinders or prevents copyright owners from pursuing copyright infringement claims that have a relatively small economic value. The Office also asked for potential alternatives to improve the settlement of these claims.

The White House says the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) goes too far.
"While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious
problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not
support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases
cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global
Internet," leaders from the Obama Administration officially responded
Saturday morning on whitehouse.gov. "We must avoid creating new
cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the
Internet."

After reading my story on “Who Controls The Price” Terri Petrie of Greenhighlander.co.uk asked, “How could a stock agency allow for more creator control of prices?”

The photography business has changed dramatically -- and at a very rapid pace. Kodak is near bankruptcy and trying to sell off its photographic patents. Most of the photo labs that used to process film and make prints have long since gone out of business. Locally, Penn Camera Exchange the largest photo equipment supplier in the region is closing 5 out of its 8 stores. Professional photographers aren’t the only ones who are hurting.

Not too long ago the primary way to keep up with new trends in photography and what the industry leaders were doing of thinking was to attend industry events. This often meant traveling to New York, Chicago, Las Vegas or New Orleans (in the U.S. – I’m not sure where all in Europe) and fitting into the schedule of the event organizer. Now, it is becoming possible to participate in such educational programs while sitting at your desk and often at your own convenience in terms of time. This story offers a few examples.

The Association of Commercial Stock Image Licensors (ACSIL) and Thriving Archives have released the results of the ACSIL Global Survey of Stock Footage Companies 2 (AGS2). The AGS2 is a comprehensive examination of current business conditions within today's footage industry, providing strategic, action-oriented information and insights to footage industry leaders.

After reading "Licensing Images in Today's Market" a reader asked, “What are the right photos to shoot? What subject matter sells best in today’s market?&rdquo. This story will help you decide what to shoot if your goal is to make money selling your pictures.

Most photographers considering marketing their images as microstock want to know what they can expect in the way of return-per-image (RPI) from their accepted images. The question is impossible to answer because so many variables are involved. However, by extrapolating from the data we have gathered over more than 2 years on 195 of the top selling iStockphoto photographers we get an interesting picture of the range of possibilities.

Our semi-annual analysis of iStockphoto sales has once again produced interesting results. As of January 2, 1012 istockcharts was tracking the sales of 38,163 of the more than 100,000 iStock contributors. More than 90% of the images in the iStock collection belong to this group of contributor. Combined these contributors have had a minimum of 114,875,519+ downloads since each started working with iStock. During 2011 alone a minimum of 18,615,558+ images (and probably about 21.5 million) were licensed for use.

Corbis Images (www.corbisimages.com) and The Associated Press (www.ap.org) have launched their Media offering that provides customers with more than 10 million images covering a  range of breaking news, sports and entertainment, archival and creative images.

If you're new to this site, or have missed some of the stories we have published in 2011, check out these links to 52 of this year's most important and thought provoking stories. This summary of information should provide you with a good understanding of the state of the stock photo industry at the end of 2011. If you need more historical perspective check out the “Top Stories For 2010.”