Another One Bites the Dust - Corbis buys Veer

Say it ain't so Joe. The last of the "Independents" feel like they are gone. We have always been a big fan of Veer. They have one of the best designed sites, reek of coolness, offer Veer merchandise to buyers who make large purchases which they use effectively to promote themselves and have very creative emails, which we actually open and enjoy here at Cutcaster. And now onto the sad news ;-)

Well, they are no longer independent but I hope they stay just as cool. Corbis, mighty Mr. Bill Gate's company, picked them up as well as some cool Veer merchandise at the same time for being such a great buyer ;-) today for an undisclosed sum of cash. Rumors of either Getty or Corbis gobbling them up had been swirling for the last month and was hitting the wires again today. Seems to me that Veer lacked a truly productive sales force to handle it's clientele and they reached a tipping point. They can now leverage the Corbis sales structure to handle that and Corbis gets the cool branding that Veer represented.

Here is a link to the press release.

We haven't heard anything more than grumblings at Cutcaster but has anyone heard what the price was? I'd say at least 8 figures in the range of 10-20mm but what do we know.

Snapvillage- Corbis's new project

StockPhotoTalk reported today that SnapVillage launched its beta site today, empowered by Corbis but catering to user-generated photography. I'm not sure how sweeping the changes are for those participants in the microstock world but they are proclaiming big things in the press release. Some of the advantages are pricing that empowers photographers, access to premium markets and streamlined image submissions. How important are these issues to you? How would you rank what are most important to you?

The NYT ran an article on SnapVillage today quoting Gary Shenk, who said that "the company is not just acknowledging the growing importance of microstock sites, but also recognizing the threat to its higher-price images. "Cannibalization is going to happen in our industry", Mr. Shenk said. "We can either let it consume us or be part of it".

They still have to work out some bugs as they are in beta so I won't comment that much on the platform just the offering.

The best thing I see about the new offering is that photographers can now set their own price. That is a step in the right direction but how will they assure or at least avoid photographers who price their content too high or too low. Understanding the market and how the market is pricing content out there is a lot for people who spend a lot of their time doing their passion. Photography. Do people really want to keep changing their prices if they are not getting sales or moving up their prices if they are getting a slew of sales. How will SnapVillage capture those extra sales or extract that extra dollar out of every download for their customers?

I think it is a good start but don't think they have gone far enough. Cutcaster will build off the power it gives back to the creators to set the terms and pricing in addition to empowering the buyers to choose a lower price they can only afford or want to pay. Providing information that is easy to understand and visually see for people is the best way for them to capture value and educate themselves on the market trends. Allowing them to set the price is only one step in a much larger picture.

For those of you outside the US, this site will not be available to you for a while.