For most of the 80’s and throughout the early 2000’s, the recurring motto in the stock photo industry was “It’s the content, idiot”. Key to any growth of photo agencies and successful career of any photographer was the ability to offer great content. Rule number one was to appeal to clients and crushContinue Reading
Confusion and mixed messages are creating a worried atmosphere in the world of Splash News contributors. First, the news broke that Silverhub Media signed a worldwide and exclusive distribution deal with Shutterstock. The news made no sense, SilverHub having little to no content of value for the microstock giant until itContinue Reading
An Interview with Ulf Schmidt-Funke by Stefan Hartmann for PICTORIAL Magazin 04/2016. It was – actually – a discussion about an entirely different topic. But Ulf Schmidt-Funke was just about to travel to the USA, where he planned to meet with major market players – including Reuters, New York TimesContinue Reading
Rumors have been rampant for a while. First Shutterstock was believed to be the buyer, a rumor quickly killed by no other than Jon Oringer himself during their last quarterly report. At the last DMLA conference, the target moved to China Visual Group and remained there. It is confirmed today:Continue Reading
I was recently invited to speak at B&H Photo Video . Here is the resulting podcast: “Anyone, I mean, anyone can submit their photos for sale in the stock-photography market. (Are you a foaper?) But the question remains: is it worth it? No doubt, the industry has been transformed by corporate conglomerationContinue Reading
Public photo industry surveys are so rare and few that it is always a refreshing exercise to review one when they do come out. VisualSteam just released the 2015 edition of its Art Buyer Survey and it surfaces some interesting trends. Leslie Hughes, VisualSteam’s President and CEO, said, “Art BuyersContinue Reading
You wouldn’t think about it this way, but Wall Street tends to be highly emotional and jittery when it comes to stock photo licensing. When companies with voracious growths – anything above 30%- show any signs of slowing down, it starts running for cover. The reason is very simple: theContinue Reading
Responding to an increasing demand for reliable insights on the stock photography market, the three top stock photography industry experts, Lee Torrens, Paul Melcher and Amos Struck, have officially launched Stock Photo Insight (http://stockphotoinsight.com), a consulting service providing calls with all three experts simultaneously. In addition, Stock Photo Insight isContinue Reading
Jon Oringer of Shutterstock said it well: barrier of entry in stock photography licensing today is very low (actually getting lower), barrier to scalability is very high and getting higher. In other words, it is easy to find and regroup content to license (UGC or not). It is much harderContinue Reading
Will convenience be the powerful feature to make Adobe’s $800 million gamble succeed in the stock photo market? Launched amidst a flurry of Creative Cloud updates for Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere, Adobe Stock is a fully integrated stock photo offering within the company’s flagship product. Created with the content ofContinue Reading