Category: Micropayment Stock Photography
News
Dreamstime Partners with Imagio.cz to reach Czech & Slovakian customers
Dreamstime, a Brentwood Tennessee based micro-payment stock photography business, has announced that it has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Imagio.cz based in Prague to distribute the dreamstime stock photography in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. “The stock photo market in our region is currently ruled by classic international stock agencies that customarily offer images at elevated prices. The awareness of the various micro stock agencies and photo shopping options is limited among Czech and Slovak internet users,” introduced Martin Maun, Imagio.cz Project Manager.
News
iStockphoto announces 2nd annual Punctum Day Awards winners
iStockphoto, the micro-stock business owned by Getty images, has announced the ten winners in its second annual Punctum Day awards. The finalists were identified by the iStock community and a panel of guest judges selected the winners. The Photo of the Year, “Late Trash,” is a creation by Trent Bell (TrentBell) of Biddeford, Maine, and showcases the innovation and vision of iStockphoto’s contributors. The company explains that ‘Punctum’ refers to a profound reaction an excellent image creates.
Editorials
Microstocks: the Latest Fossils
Recently, attracted by an internet link to photos of “Living Fossils,” I clicked into a slideshow in Popular Science’s online magazine. The usual suspects were there- platypus, opossum, tuatara- but the usual credit lines weren’t. None of the small niche specialist agencies were represented, nor were any of the giants. Not even a microstock! Instead, the credits included nine photos gotten through Creative Commons (CC) licensing, and one through GNU General Public Licensing. Of the two remaining, one was in the public domain, and one was from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (presumably acquired free).
News
Pond5 launches micro-payment stock footage site with more than 50,000 clips
New York based Pond5.com, a micro-payment stock footage community site, has announced that it has emerged from beta testing with the launch of version 1.0 of its website. The new site, located at pond5.com, offers more than 50,000 broadcast-quality SD and HD clips available for instant download, starting at $5 per clip. Prices on Pond5 are controlled by the contributors and start at just $5, with an average price of around $40 for HD footage, and $20 for SD footage.
News
AudioMicro now representing AE Music Publishing Archive and Ric Viers
Los Angeles based micro stock music licensing platform, Audio Micro, announces deal to represent the AE Music Publishing Archive (a division of Asylum Entertainment) and clips from world renowned sound designer Ric Viers. Having launched in May 2008 the fledgling site has now added a significant amount of content with over 1000 clips from the AE Music Publishing Archive, including work from multiple Grammy nominated composer, David Arkenstone, and over over 15,000 new sound effects from Ric Viers.
News
PicScout signs Splash News to provide free celebrity photos on picapp
Image details: Mya spotted on the beach in Barbados served by picapp.com
PicScout, a technology company best known for helping stock licensing companies monitor distribution of their content, has announced that it has signed a distribution deal with the Splash News and Picture Agency to offer celebrity news images at no cost to bloggers on picapp.com. The company launched the beta version of picapp.com in March 2008 as an ad-supported model where bloggers can embed free images accompanied by an advertisement that generates royalties for the content contributor. The company also offers content from a variety of sources including Getty Images, Corbis, Image Source, and many others.
News
iStock announces Punctum Day awards and incentives for exclusive contributors
iStockphoto, the micro-stock business owned by Getty images has announced it will repeat the so-called “Punctum Day” awards on August 19. Last year, the company gave awards to contributors of various categories of content. In addition, iStock has announced several incentives for exclusive contributors; it will give 100% of revenue to its exclusive photographers whose images sell on a given date to be announced after the fact; it will allow more photographers to participate in its program to allow iStock contributors to submit to Photodisc; and it will offer personalized keywording assistance to exclusive photographers.
News
Fotolia signs deal to license images for online invitations on Pingg.com
Fotolia, an online marketplace for micro-priced stock images, has announced a partnership with pingg.com, a new online invitation and event management website. With this agreement Pingg users have the option to license images from Fotolia’s collection of nearly 4 million images in order to create an online event invitation as part of a premium service called pingg Plus+. “Fotolia has built an incredible collection of high-quality images. Partnering with them enables us to offer the pingg consumer the widest selection of images anywhere for designing and personalizing their online and print invitations.” states Lorien Gabel, Co-Founder/CEO of pingg
News
Dreamstime translated to six new languages
Dreamstime, considered one of the largest micro-stock companies after Getty Images’ iStockphoto, has announced the beta launch of its web-site in six languages. Speakers of Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, German or Portuguese can now search Dreamstime’s database of over 3MM images in their own languages. The move provides further evidence of the continued explosive growth in demand for stock imagery at micro-stock prices world-wide.
Features
Q&A with a Royalty Free producer gone micro
Maurice Van De Mosselaar of Eyecandy explains the thinking behind Rinky Dink
The recent announcement by the founders of Eyecandy Images, a relatively new arrival on the RF production scene, that they have created a new collection of images, called Rinky Dink Images ™ for distribution at micro- or mid-stock prices, makes it official: more and more pros are jumping onto the “economy” pricing band wagon. RF veteran Ron Chapple, who founded Thinkstock, a brand he later sold to Jupiter Images, has launched his own micro brand called iofoto. Mike Watson, a founder of DigitalVision, has taken similar steps with part of his moodboard collection. Other prominent names in the RF business, both producers and distributors, while remaining quiet about it for the time being, have made it clear they are headed in the same direction.
News
AudioMicro launches micro-payment stock music platform
AudioMicro, a new micro stock site has launched for composers, songwriters, sound designers, and audio engineers to license, collaborate, and communicate on a platform dedicated solely to audio content. With its launch the company has also announced a promotional offer where the First 100 users with 100 accepted stock audio uploads will automatically receive a 1GB Apple iPod shuffle. In addition, contributors will receive royalties of 50% for non-exclusive contributors and 60% for exclusive contributors.
Features
To micro-stock or not to micro-stock? That is the question for Mr. Stock Smarty Pants
Mr. Stock Smarty Pants has been a busy boy of late, meeting with hedgefund managers, investment bankers and assorted Mafiosi (and, if you really think about it, they’re all pretty similar) in hopes of siphoning off at least a small portion of the $2.4 billion that Hellman & Friedman is apparently coughing up to acquire stock industry behemoth Getty Images. Nonetheless, despite his very full schedule of clandestine meetings and drafting of threatening letters, MSSP found time to sort through his voluminous e-mail and select one lucky inquiry for his attention:
News
micro-music at iStock
iStockphoto has announced the launch of a micro-payment stock audio offering. This gives iStock’s 3MM member community a one-stop shopping destination for a wide variety of content types, including imagery, footage, vector art, Flash animations, and audio. Prices for the audio tracks will range form $1 to $25, depending on the complexity of the audio content.
News
Imagestate opens single price web-site with “oneprice”
The London-based provider of still and video stock imagery, Imagestate Media, has launched a new web-site which offers a single price of 39 British Pounds (and US$79 or Euros 59) for any image or video clip. The price covers a one-year license for on-line use only. The web-site promotes the offer with the slogan, “One year Web usage. One Size, One Price.”
News
123RF.com unveils EVO midstock collection
Inmagine’s micropayment site 123RF.com has announced the launch of a new mid-stock line called EVO images. The company has invited select contributors to submit up to 20 images a day for the new collection to be offered for download via the company’s credit system ranging from 5 - 160 credits per image (credits can be purchased at a cost of .70 - $1.00 each depending on volume). Images from the EVO line will be identified in search results with a small EVO logo underneath each thumbnail.
News
JupiterMedia launches Clipart Connection subscription site
JupiterMedia CEO, Alan Meckler has announced on his blog that the company has launched a new subscription site for clip art images called Clip Art Connection. The new site, (the 12th subscription site for JupiterImages), features a collection of more than 1 million unique images with subscriptions as low as $4.95 per week. For customers who crave more content the company also operates a more robust Clipart.com subscription site featuring over 10 million images with subscriptions starting at $15.95 per week.
News
Free-Stock-Photos.co.uk offering web resolution images for free
A UK-based company has taken the micro-stock model to an extreme even beyond what many consider to be the extremely low prices of most micro-stock companies. Free-Stock-Photos.co.uk (FSP) offers use of its images free of charge. Well, not exactly. The web-resolution files can be used only in exchange for crediting and providing a link to FSP. Uses of larger files do cost a fee, comparable to micro-stock fees for equivalent sizes.
News
a21 launches Media Magnet micro-payment stock photography site
Jacksonville Florida based, a21, the parent company of SuperStock, and ArtSelect, has announced the launch of a new micro-payment/mid-stock site called Media Magnet. The new site features a mix of royalty-free content from both commercial image collections and user-generated micro-stock photography. The company states that MediaMagnet’s concept is simple: relevant, fresh content and a simplified search at affordable pricing.
News
LuckyOliver to close its doors
The San Francisco-based low-priced (micro) stock photo company, LuckyOliver (LO,) has announced it will close its doors. In a post on LO’s blog site on April 15, the company’s founder, Bryan Zmijewski, said the web-site will close as of May 15, 2008. He cited a lack of financial resources to fund growth as the principal reason for the decision to cease operating the business.
News
CreateAds.com now offering access to iStockphoto imagery for newspaper ads
iStockphoto, has announced a partnership with CreateAds.com, a self-service ad-creation tool used by Small businesses in the UK to create newspaper ads. Users of the service will now have direct access to more than 2.6 million images from iStockphoto to suit their specific advertising needs. CreateAds.com works with publishers who produce 1,800 weekly and daily publications. Combined, these publications publish approximately 1 million ads per month, one-third of which incorporate photography. According to John Reid, Chairman of The Newspaper Society, “It’s hard to create a bad looking ad using this system”.
