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Corbis launches micro-stock beta site SnapVillage.com
Corbis has become the last of the big three to enter the micro-stock business with the beta launch of SnapVillage.com. Rather than purchase one of the existing micro-stock sites as Jupiter and Getty did, Corbis has developed its own micro-stock site in-house. Having built the site from the ground, up, Corbis has included unique pricing and purchasing features that will set it apart from other micro-stock sites.
With regard to pricing, SnapVillage will offer images with a royalty free license for $1, $5, $10, $25 and $50. What makes Corbis’s micro-stock pricing model unique is that each photographers will decide at what price level to sell his or her images. Corbis will also offer customers a subscription service on SnapVillage for $199 for 30 days for a maximum number of downloads of 750 during that period. Photographers can opt out of participation in the subscription offering, making their images available only for single downloads. Corbis will pay SnapVillage photographers 30% commissions across the board on single image sales and $0.30 each for images downloaded through the subscription service. Photographers will submit their images on a non-exclusive basis, meaning they’ll have the freedom to place their images on any other non-exclusive micro-stock sites.
The creators of SnapVillage have made simplicity for both photographers and buyers a priority. Aside from providing contact and PayPal information for commissions payments, the website does not require any application or approval processes for photographers or any pre-pay obligations of buyers. Images submitted to SnapVillage will pass through a screening process by a team of photographers hired at Corbis’s Seattle headquarters to ensure images meet technical and quality standards, where needed, have the required model and property releases.
According to CEO, Gary Shenk, “SnapVillage is a major step forward for microstock with fresh, thoughtfully designed innovations that simplify and improve the experience of licensing low-cost, user-generated, royalty-free photography via the Internet.” Shenk adds that like iStockphoto photographers at Getty, successful SnappVillage artists will be offered the opportunity to have their imagery featured among higher-end higher-priced) brands at Corbis. “We're excited about also using SnapVillage as a farm club to find great photographers who can sell their photographs on Corbis.”
Website: www.SnapVillage.com
Posted in: Corbis, News, Photographers, Stock Art Buyers, Stock Photo Companies, Stock Photography Subscriptions
