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A21’s ArtSelect launches PostersEtc.com targeting college students
a21, Inc. (OTCBB:ATWO), owner of the stock photo business Superstock and the framed art supplier ArtSelect, has launched a new poster site called PostersEtc.com iwith a focus on wall art intended to appeal to college students looking to decorate their dorms. “ArtSelect.com has been providing home decorators with high-quality custom-framed art prints and wall decor for over a decade now,” says Bruce Slywka, General Manager at ArtSelect. “Now, we are expanding our reach into this growing market by introducing a new site with a little more attitude.”
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1st annual Visual Culture Awards extends call for entries
A new international photography competition has been launched in Charleston, SC called the Visual Culture Awards. Founded by Mikayla Mackaness, she explains that “The Visual Culture Awards is not moneymaking: this competition has been created for the sole purpose of encouraging and supporting visual makers in cross-cultural communications”. Awards will be offered in nearly 20 unique categories including Pictorial, Environmental Portrait, Photographic Story, Architectural, Nature, Multimedia, Sports, Self-portrait, and many more. Winners will prizes valued up to $1000 or more and a host of other benefits including an exhibition of their work at the Chareston Center of Photography and the opportunity to be featured on abouttheimage.com.
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Jupiter combines Photos.com with micropayment site Stockxpert in single subscription
Touting that it is now offering the best of both worlds in a single subscription. Jupiterimages, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM), has announced that it is now offering a single subscription product that incorporates the Photos.com collection of more than 360,000 professional images and the Stockxpert collection of more than 1.3 million micropayment images into a single subscription product. The new service will be branded as Photos.com Plus and Subscriptions are available for one month, three month and one year terms (limited to 750 images per month) with monthly subscriptions starting at $249.95.
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The Medical File launches royalty-free collection and assignment division
The Medical File, a rights-managed (RM) stock licensing company founded by industry veteran Barbara Gottlieb specializing in medical imagery, has announced that the business is growing in two unique directions with the launch of a royalty-free (RF) image collection and an assignment photography division. According to Gottlieb, “we have made these additions to be able to supply all the forms of medical imagery our clients are looking for: Illustration and Photography; Color and Black and White; 1, 2 or 3 Dimensional and Animation; Stock and Assignment”.
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Digital Railroad partners with Qualex to offer print fulfillment
Digital Railroad, a leading provider of online archiving and marketing services to professional photographers, has announced that it has partnered with Qualex, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eastman Kodak, to allow contributing photographers to offer prints and print-related products utilizing the images currently available in the members Digital Railroad archive. Through the Qualex fulfillment service member photographers will have the opportunity to generate additional revenue from each image with terms where the photographer will receive up to 90% of the gross sale price, less the product fee (a fee meant to cover the cost of production and fulfillment).
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Photolibrary and AGE Fotostock sign distribution agreement
Photolibrary, one of the leading independent global stock licensing companies, has announced that it has signed a distribution agreement with AGE FotoStock to represent its entire collection of more than 5000,000 rights managed and royalty free images in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Asia and the Middle East. In addition, AGE Fotostock will represent content from Photolibrary on a global basis through its offices in Barcelona, Madrid, New York, and Paris and globally through AGE’s THP channel partners. “This latest representation agreement illustrates Photolibrary’s commitment to representing the very best rights managed imagery available, thus continuing our key offer of creative excellence for users of http://www.photolibrary.com” remarked Glenn Parker, Photolibrary Group CEO.
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Latin Stock launches royalty-free stock photography collection
Latin Stock, a stock licensing company with more than 20 years experience in image distribution in Central and South America has finally made the leap into the production side of the business with the launch of a new Royaly-Free (RF) image collection offered for non-exclusive distribution through a network of global partnerships. The company touts an innovative approach has allowed them to produce a unique collection of more than 3,500 images with 100% of the collection produced in LatinAmerica, with Latin models, Latin photographers in authentic Latin settings. The images will be offered at prices starting at US $49 for web resolution US $129 for lo-res files.
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Peter Arnold launches royalty-free stock photo collection
Peter Arnold Inc. a specialty library from NYC featuring an eclectic collection of Medical, Nature, and Science imagery, has announced that it has just launched a Royalty Free (RF) image collection. The images can be licensed online and download in file sizes ranging from 1 to 50 Megabytes. The Royalty Free line will complement the more than half million images already available for Rights Managed licensing.
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New Approach from Down Under: Affordable Stock Photography (.com)
While reporting on an industry rife with new business models, we’re always on the look-out for new approaches to the business of selling and marketing stock photos. Photographer David Ewing of Melbourne, Australia, has recently taken over a small on-line stock photo agency which offers a slight variation on the standard way of marketing of royalty free stock photography: he offers the images at only one, medium file size. Contributing photographers set their own prices for their images. Ewing began as a principal contributor to the agency called Affordable Stock Photography (ASP) originally founded in 2003 by a US (Texas) search engine optimization company called Subia Creative. He assumed control of the business when Subia decided to exit the stock photo business, earlier this year.
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Mary Evans now representing Castle Howard image collection
Mary Evans Picture Library, a specialty library from the UK featuring historical images, has announced that it has signed a deal to be the exclusive global licensing agent for the official image collection of Castle Howard in Yorkshire. Castle Howard is one of Britain’s finest and best-loved stately homes. The construction of Castle Howard took more than 100 years before it could be said to have been finally completed, and spanned the lifetime of three earls and numerous architects and craftsmen. Castle Howard, known to film buffs as the fictional Brideshead in Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited”.
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Photo News Round-Up
• The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has described the rough treatment of two photographers trying to cover a protest in Beijing as unfortunate.
• Photoshot appoints Comstock veteran Jim Mellor to post as Senior Account Executive, Jim brings more than 15 years industry experience 15 years ago to Photoshot’s US operation.
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Thought Equity Motion develops licensing models to serve emerging media producers
Denver based Thought Equity Motion, a leading stock footage licensing company, has announced that it has developed new pricing and licensing options to serve the needs of emerging media producers. The footage will be offered in different “stores” that are segmented for the user based on the intended use. In a specific store the user can browse through content that has already been fully cleared meaning web content producers can create online video ads using top notch footage from the “Web Store” with clips starting at just $49.
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Fotolia collection reaches four million images
Fotolia one of the leading mico-payment stock licensing sites has announced that it hea received its 4 millionth image. The image (featured here) was submitted by Christopher Völlmya of Switzerland. With 4 million images Fotolia is certainly not the largest stock library but Since launching in late 2005 Fotolia has grown at a rapid pace serving the needs of more than 300,000 media buyers from around the world.
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blinkx signs deal to publish editorial content from Getty Images and split ad revenue
blinkx, one of the leading video search engines, has announced that it has closed a deal with Getty Images to publish editorial footage from Getty Images along with contextually relevant advertising to generate advertising revenue to be shared. Recent multimedia content from Getty includes entertainment capsules, sporting recaps, and footage from the upcoming Democratic and Republican Convention feeds in the United States. “We’re delighted to partner with Getty Images, a company that is considered the gold standard in its industry,” said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO, blinkx. “Our viewers will enjoy Getty’s diverse range of high quality content. In addition, with Election Day approaching in the States, our American audiences will particularly appreciate Getty’s up-to-the-minute Democratic and Republican National Convention feeds on blinkx.com.”
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Flat Pyramid creates 3D model content marketplace
Flat Pyramid a recent start-up from Los Angeles has launched a licensing platform exclusively for 3D computer graphics and 3D model content. The company is banking on what it sees as a shift in consumer behavior to embrace 3D content previously used only by big companies, in computer games, or in movie special effects.
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Photobucket signs deal allowing users to print photos at local Target stores
Photobucket, one of the most popular sites photo-sharing sites with more than 46 million users, has announced a partnership deal with Target allowing user to print images from PhotoBucket to be picked up at any of the 1,648 stores located in in 47 states in the US. In addition Target customers will be encouraged to take advantage of Photobucket’s service to share images online. “Photobucket has emerged as a leader in online photo and video sharing,” said Mark Schindele, senior vice president, Target. “The site has an active community of more than 22 million monthly visitors in the U.S. Through this collaboration, our guests can now combine Photobucket’s creative tools with the convenience and quality they have come to expect from Target Photo.”
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iStockphoto survey reveals 38% of Americans unclear on legal issues when downloading content
Getty-owned, iStockphoto, who recently celebrated its ‘Punctum Day’ by giving away 100% royalties to contributors on august 25th to the tune of more than $200,000, has announced that it has conducted a survey to gain insight into consumer behaviors related to the creation and use of multimedia content. The survey of more than 1,000 people conducted by KRC Research revealed a few surprising statistics. According to the research, 33 percent of Americans are using downloaded digital content, but nearly 30 percent are unaware that permission may be required for its use. This lack of awareness spikes to 38 percent among Americans in both the 18–24 and 65 and older age groups. When asked about whether this means large numbers of people are illegally downloading images from iStockphoto, Kelly Thompson Executive Vice President at iStockphoto stated, “All of our images are protected with a watermark and our community of more than 65,000 contributors has proven to be the ultimate police force, they seem to find everything”.
Lifetouch expanding with 200 new jobs
Lifetouch, the world’s largest portrait photography company, has announced that it is expanding with 200 new jobs at its national customer contact center in Muncie, Indiana. The 70 year old company best known for its school portraits offered in schools around the country and it’s nearly 800 photography studios in Target and J.C. Penney stores, currently employs approximately 22,000 people in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
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Muzu TV signs deal with ITN Source enabling users to create online music video channels
The London-based start-up Muzu TV, an ad-supported video platform where fans can create custom online music video channels, has signed a deal with ITN to provide users access to more than 80,000 hours of content from ITN Source’s music archive. The archive also includes footage from Reuters, Granada, and Channel 4 interviews and performances, as well as interviews handpicked from ITN’s iconic shows such as The Tube, Tony Wilson’s So it Goes, Mike Mansfield’s Supersonic and The South Bank Show. “We are really excited about the partnership with ITN. This deal will give fans access to an extensive archive of incredible classic music content from the last few decades. In addition, through ITN On’s daily music news blasts that will be featured on our homepage fans will have access to music news as it happens from all over the world and the ability to offer exclusive new interviews with some of the world’s most popular musicians.” states Ciaran Bollard, MUZU TV Co-founder and Business Development Director.
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PhotoShelter now offering limited collection of fine art prints
PhotoShelter, a digital storage and stock photography marketplace for more than 42,000 photographers, has announced that it has compiled a selection of images from the PhotoShelter collection to be offered as prints for a limited time at photoshelterprints.com. The images were hand-picked by the company’s editors to include a wide variety of subjects ranging from exquisite floral still life to Las Vegas Elvis impersonators. Print prices range from $100 to $450 and all images are printed on archival quality Kodak Pro Endura Supra paper.
