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Getty answers critics of the $49 web-use product
Getty Images has responded to the howls of criticism of its all collections $49 web-use product by way of a letter posted to its contributor site from the company’s EVP of Imagery, Products and Services, Nick Evans-Lombe. In the letter, Evans-Lombe makes the following points in defending the one low price for images from any collection:
- Image demand is growing exponentially and the vast majority of that demand concerns on-line usage;
- Traditionally licensed imagery is missing the opportunity presented by this demand because the licensing process is to slow and the prices are too high; and
- The file size of 500kb is less than half the size of the smallest file previously available.
Having made the case for the controversial product, Evans-Lombe does grant one concession to those photographers unhappy with it. He reports the company has decided to limit the license term on images from its rights-managed and rights-ready collections to three months.
The entire letter from Nick Evans-Lombe to the Getty photographers about the $49.00 web-use product is posted below.
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Getty Images' Revolutionary Online Product
There has never been such exponential growth in demand for imagery.
This is a good thing. More and more imagery is needed by customers
for their projects. This is excellent news. Also, customers' time and
budget constraints are greater than ever. Customers need to find the
broadest and deepest collections of imagery for all their
communications more quickly, more simply and at appropriate price
points. This is particularly the case for online usages where volumes
are enormous and time constraints are acute. As the global leader in
the imagery industry, we recognize our responsibility to respond to
these facts in a way that is in the best interests of photographers
and customers.
Most of the growth in imagery demand today lies in online usage. How
do we know? We are the major participant in every part of the market,
from micropayment to assignment photography, and everything in
between. We know that in the second quarter of 2007, iStockphoto, the
inventor and leader in microstock, licensed 4.25 million images – the
overwhelming majority of these at a very low resolution, indicating
web use. For the same period, Getty Images' web-use licenses for
rights-ready and rights-managed imagery were less than 1 percent of
iStockphoto's volume.
We ask, why are the best collections of imagery in the world not
attracting online buyers? The answer is simple. For online usages
where the volumes are very high and customers are frequently updating
their communications on a daily basis, the requirements are speed,
simplicity, appropriate pricing and imagery that does the trick.
Traditional rights-managed licensing does not meet these requirements
and so these collections are missing a huge opportunity.
Our new web-resolution product was created to address this
opportunity. Quite simply, you – our photographers – were missing the
exponential growth of the online market. Our new product opens this
opportunity to you by providing your imagery quickly, with greater
simplicity, at a file size that is perfect for this new market and at
an appropriate price point.
It is very early days, and we already know that it is working. How?
Customers are telling us:
"I bought an image today for web use for $49," said a multimedia
editor at a large customer in the broadcast and publishing field.
"Getty Images might be trying to get the microstock users to come back
to buy licensed photographs. I see it as buyers, such as myself,
saying to our marketing dept, 'Hey, I found a great pic for only $49!
Do we have the budget for that?' and they say, 'Totally! Go buy it!'
That's exactly what happened to me today, and I feel like a new option
for stock has opened for me."
In addition, our UK sales team reports the sale of 102 images at the
new web-res price with an online agency customer who'd done little
business with us all year, but who came to us rather than go to a
micro-payment site for these web uses.
We are not unaware of certain concerns that have been raised. Our
interests are aligned. Our new web-resolution product recognizes that
rights-managed and rights-ready imagery has always and should always
be licensed and priced based on usage. The new product is just that –
a new price for a new usage at a newly created file size. The new file
size, which is half the size of the smallest size previously available
at Getty Images, protects the value of your imagery, as well as the
copyright, by making it impossible for these images to be used in any
other way than online. Customers will also want this imagery for use
across other mediums, and will therefore require different licenses at
higher prices, and of course, at larger file sizes. Furthermore, we
will continue to protect copyright and intellectual property through
our various programs to find unauthorized uses of our imagery, and to
bring them into compliance.
In listening carefully to feedback from photographers, we have decided
to reduce the duration of rights-ready and rights-managed
web-resolution licenses to 3 months. We believe that this serves the
interests of both photographers and customers and are grateful to
photographers for your assistance in improving the product.
Getty Images has introduced many new products, services and licensing
models since its inception more than a decade ago. We have worked
together with photographers in the interest of all participants in the
industry. We thank you for trusting us with your talent, hard work and
creativity. We will continue to do our utmost to repay that trust.
Sincerely,
Nick Evans-Lombe
Executive Vice President, Imagery, Products and Services
Posted in: Getty Images, Micropayment Stock Photography, News, Photographers, Stock Art Buyers, Stock Photo Companies
