Uploaded byEllen Boughn
ASMP SB3 Workshop "Microstock: End of the World or A New World of Opportunity?"
The document discusses various licensing models and their complexities, including rights-managed and royalty-free options, and highlights the major distributors of stock photography like iStockphoto, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, and Fotolia, each with unique pricing and contributor agreements. It analyzes trends in microstock photography, providing statistics on earnings and user demographics, while emphasizing the importance of keywords and subject matter in photo sales. Additionally, it offers resources for photographers seeking to succeed in the microstock industry.
More Related Content
Similar to ASMP SB3 Workshop "Microstock: End of the World or A New World of Opportunity?"
ASMP SB3 Workshop "Microstock: End of the World or A New World of Opportunity?"
- 2.
- 3. Licensing Models Rights Managed • Usage limited by territory (local, regional, country) • Type of use (editorial, advertising) • Media (outdoor, web, print • Position (on page, on web) • Degree of exclusivity Pricing is complex and depends on all the above. Royalty Free • Traditional-Wide open usage with few exceptions • Microstock-More limitations Pricing is based generally on size of the downloaded image
- 4. Definition of Microstock •User agreement not a complex contract • No locked in time period beyond at the most six months • Technical requirements • Kinds of photographers • Contributors • Volume sales (for some) at low individual download prices • Strong community support among contributors • Millions of photos and illustrations
- 5. Major Distributors iStockphoto • Owned by Getty Images • Market leader by far • Recently lowered commissions to lowest in industry • Offers exclusive contributors access to higher fee collections • Favors exclusives in search results • Have to achieve certain levels of downloads before being able to request exclusivity • Eliminated advantages given to earlier adaptor photographers Shutterstock • Lowest prices but is consistently listed as making the most money for the highest number of photographers • Primarily a subscription service Dreamstime • Most popular among photographers • Pays the highest royalty rate • Very photographer-centric Fotolia • Most popular in Germany • Innovative partnerships
- 6. A Historical Perspective Average License Fee RM in Dollars for Last 20 Years 700 525 350 175 0 1990 2000 2010
- 7. Buyer Numbers Numbers ofNorth American Stock Photo Buyers 2,000,000 Dreamstime.com stats February 25, 2011 1,500,000 Online images: 10,742,131 Monthly images: 428,217 Users: 3,160,994 1,000,000 Photographers: 110,086 500,000 “90% of stock photos sold in 2010 were from microstock”-Jim Pickerell 500,000 if only 33% are active= 500,000 0 1990 2000 2010
- 8. Who are thebuyers? Compiled by www.cutcaster.com February 2011
- 9. Trends in Search“stock photography” ! ©Photoshelter 11/10
- 10. Show me themoney!
- 11. Show me themoney! -Average license fee/top pros=$8.00/image/month -Average for serious amateur is $1.50
- 12. Estimates of MonthlyEarnings* *Lee Torrens: Microstock Agency Research Report - Fall 2010
- 13. Royalties iStockphoto: 15-20% fornon-exclusive contributors and 25% - 45% for exclusive contributors Dreamstime: 30-60% depending on exclusivity and number of previous downloads.Subscription sales $0.35-$1.05 depending on the same factors. Fotolia: 25%-60% depending on exclusivity status and the quantity of previous sales. Subscription downloads $0.30-0.42 credits depending on previous sales and the type of subscription. Shutterstock: $0.25 - $0.38 for subscription sales depending on the contributor’s total earnings history. Non-subscription sales $0.81-$2.85 depending on size and contributor’s total earnings history.
- 14. Is It WorthIt? Production Costs -Can be much less Costs in Time/Staff/Third party services-Can be much more Average RPI (Return per Image) Long term goals/objectives/philosophy
- 15. Payouts Payout Levels Means ofPayment Affiliate Programs Time to payout
- 16.
- 17. Major Subjects Business-Teams, meetingsand even handshakes Objects-Shells, single candle, a piece of pie, a wreath etc Families-During holidays, on vacation, cooking and dining People and animals-pets Concepts-You name it, then shoot it! Sports-Recreational Holiday & Seasonal-Objects and groups of people. tree isolated, box of chocolates, carved pumpkin on the steps Fashion/Beauty. Sells better in micro than in traditional. Sexy women Backgrounds Agriculture and seasonal landscapes Food and Beverage-include people in the background or holding a glass
- 18. ST YLE Keep itsimple Design for the thumbnail Square format Leave the cropping to the end user
- 19.
- 20. Contracts • User agreement •Short term • Can be restrictive
- 21. Third Party ServiceProviders • Scanning • Keywording • Dust Busting • Logo Removal • Post Production
- 22. Typical Photos (Courtesy ofCrestock and Dreamstime)
- 23. Jan Martin Will ©JonMartin Will/Dreamstime
- 24.
- 25.
- 27.
- 28. © Dmitriy Shironosov| Dreamstime.com
- 29.
- 30.
- 31.
- 32.
- 33.
- 34.
- 35.
- 36. © Epicstock |Dreamstime.com
- 37.
- 38.
- 39. © Dgareri |Dreamstime.com
- 40.
- 41.
- 42.
- 43.
- 44.
- 45.
- 46.
- 47. Resources Books Microstock Money Shots-TurningDownloads into Dollars. Ellen Boughn 2010. AmPhoto/ Random House. For sale at the SB3 Book Table. Taking Stock: Make money in microstock creating photos that sell. Rob Sylvan 2010 Peachpit. Blogs/Forums www.microstockdiaries.com www.microstockinsider.com www.microstockgroup.com www.mystockphoto.org www.ellenboughn.com/blog Uploading/Keywording and Analytics http://www.prostockmaster.com A free multi agency distribution process. http://www.cushystock.com/ http://www.deepmeta.com/ http/www.lookstat.com www.picNiche.com www.findphotokeywords.com This is an interesting service for those wanting to see what images exist for any given string of keywords from a variety of stock sites. http://www.arcurs.com/tools Successful microstock photographer, Yuri Arcurs, has developed several tools and loads of information for the microstock photographer. www.microstockcharts.com This is a tool to help you analyze your earnings. You can link to pages showing the best selling images of the top photographers at several microstock companies. Contact Information for Ellen Boughn SKYPE | Twitter | Facebook name: ellenboughn www.ellenboughn.com ellen@ellenboughn.com
- 48.
- 49.
Editor's Notes
- #2 It’s neither\n\n
- #3 ME: after image/Pres Tony Stone/LA; First Executive editor/Corbis; Punchstock; Workbookstock; UpperCut Images; SuperStock; Dreamstime; Microstock Money Shots,; Crestock(Masterfile)\nMicrostock: NEither the end of the world nor intirely a new world of opportunity\n
- #4 \n
- #5 User agreement vs stock contract \nTech requirements much stricter\nPros, amateurs and hobbiest\nmany buyers are designers, small businesses and individuals\nMillions of contributors-high percent outside North America\n\n\n\n
- #6 istock photo pays out 1.8 million dollars a week to photographers.\n
- #7 Plus many thousands more photos accepted ....over 200,000 weekly\n
- #8 \n
- #9 \n
- #10 \n
- #11 \n
- #12 \n
- #13 istockote that in 2011 iStockphoto is changing the way commissions are calculated and expanding the royalty rate range to 15% -\n20% for non-exclusive contributors and 25% - 45% for exclusive contributors. It will also be calculated based on the quantity of\ncredits spent on a contributors’ files in the previous year rather than their lifetime quantity of downloads.\nFotolia doesn’t pay contributors based on the purchase value of the credits used to purchase each image like other microstock\nagencies. It calculates royalties from a set credit value (currently US$1) which is lower than the cost of purchased credits. This\nmeans the actual royalty rates are lower than the published numbers. The lowest possible rate is 20.83% for USD, possibly lower\nwith other currency combinations.\n\n
- #14 How do the costs differ from traditional stock? \nmay be about the same excluding expensive productions needed in RM\n
- #15 \n
- #16 Technical requirements are much stiffer for microstock than for traditional stock\nSubmit the minimum to start. \nIf there are no minimums limit first submission to a dozen or so images. \nFollow the submission guidelines to a t. \n
- #17 NO sleeping cats\n unless you submit for editorial on Dreamstime, Shutterstock or iStockphoto\n\n
- #18 \n
- #19 \n
- #20 \n
- #21 \n
- #22 \n
- #23 \n
- #24 \n
- #25 \n
- #26 \n
- #27 \n
- #28 \n
- #29 \n
- #30 \n
- #31 \n
- #32 \n
- #33 \n
- #34 \n
- #35 \n
- #36 \n
- #37 \n
- #38 \n
- #39 \n
- #40 \n
- #41 \n
- #42 \n
- #43 \n
- #44 \n
- #45 Keywords: braying, zebra, stripes, mouth, yawn, mammal, open. What keywords to use to ensure that someone who wanted a photo that made an announcement? Shout? Yell? Noise?\n
- #46 Snowboard, snowing, Cold? parka? Boots? teens, googles, Ski lift? vacation? \n
- #47 \n
- #48 \n
- #49 \n