Paul Melcher is a highly influential and visionary leader in visual tech, with 20+ years of experience in licensing, tech innovation, and entrepreneurship. He is the Managing Director of MelcherSystem and has held executive roles at Corbis, Gamma Press, Stipple, and more. Melcher received a Digital Media Licensing Association Award and has been named among the "100 most influential individuals in American photography"
Photo app EyeEm announcement today that it will be opening an image licensing database made of photos submitted by its users brings an interesting though to the photo tech space. Considered by many as the gentle Instagram’s – its ToS does not attempt a copyright grab- it has managed toContinue Reading
How brands use photography on social media should be an indication on how to monetize photography on social media. By now, most of them are fully aware that having a presence on social media is an absolute must. Minimum, the big three, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Since the buzz recentlyContinue Reading
Listening in to Shutterstock’s financial results feels a little bit like being thrown back in time when Getty Images was a publicly traded company, with the numbers being obviously different. First the main numbers. Shutterstock has reported full year revenue of $235.5 million for 2013, up an impressive 39% (1). WhileContinue Reading
This week, on the same day actually, two companies released a new mobile photography marketplace app. Both with same underlying concept : With this app, anyone can shoot and submit their pictures to be licensed to image buyers worldwide. In a world where everyone snaps an images every 3.5 hourContinue Reading
The Western European Photo-Merchandise market is on track to reach a retail value of €618 million in 2014, up from an expected €578 million in 2013, according to the latest photo-merchandise research from Futuresource Consulting.”Fueled by photo-cards, canvases and calendars and potentially evolving ‘hot’ single image gift sectors, the photo-merchandiseContinue Reading
by Rey Flemings, co-founder and ceo of Stipple. We’ve never had access to reams of data like we have today – as marketers we should be thrilled. We can measure performance until the cows come home, and at times we do. Unfortunately, it’s made us myopic. Great Data, Wrong MediumContinue Reading
With the limited test release of its new user interface, Twitter is revealing that it is craving to become much more than your 140 characters text app. The obvious reason ? Text lead to poor engagement, photos – and videos – are much, much more attractive. Facebook knows that (Continue Reading
The next frontier in digital revenue is the yet untapped landscape of the millions of photographs uploaded and shared everyday. Photographs are considered by many to represent more than 75% of the internet real estate, yet no one has yet successfully cracked its full revenue potential. With almost unlimited resources,Continue Reading
If you have been reading this blog, you already know that we strongly believe that the next big disruption to the pro licensing scene is already in your hands. Not so much because everyone has a camera and can potentially shoot ( nothing new here) but rather for its ability toContinue Reading
Instagram knows more about photography than Getty Images does. Or Corbis. Or Associated press. Or even Shutterstock. In 3 years years, it has aggregated more information about which photograph works better than the combinations of the best photo editors at any photo agency. It is not just Instagram. Flickr doesContinue Reading