What does Shenk think about all of you?

Interesting article on the rise of Microstock and amateur photogs for everyone out there. Amateur photographers are shaking up the global market for licensed images far quicker than video is for broadcasters, and even Bill Gates's privately held image bank, Corbis, is having to reinvent itself.

Here is the last sentence of the article, ""There will be a shake-out in this space in the coming years but we're happy with what we are doing. We think Corbis has the resources and patience to succeed in the long-term. We will beat them with better [commercial] execution.""

I agree with him about Corbis having the resources (see Bill Gate's pocketbook) and the shakeout (see LO and hearing Albumo up against the ropes) but we will have to wait and see if they can execute better. Up to this point they haven't instilled us with confidence.

Breaking News

Corbis on the verge of Profitability. CEO Gary Shenk mused "I have the moment planned when I can send Bill Gates the first dollar." Bravoooo.

And in other news, Corbis laid off 3/4 of its staff today to get there.

Corbis offers Bloggers Ads with Corbis Images embedded in them ;-)

Corbis, Mr. Billy Gate's stock photography house, will allow users to download images for their blogs from its website free of charge. Butttttt.....

And there is always a but in these things. The catch is that each photo which is downloaded will either include an ad overlay on part of the image, or embedded advertising that pops up when a Web user runs a cursor over the picture. Each photo that is downloaded will also come with an embedded banner advertisement beneath the photo. The service will allow people with blogs to add copyrighted images legally, said CEO Gary Shenk at the Reuters Media Summit in NYC on Tuesday. The service is in beta testing right now.

Interesting Reports

The NYT reports that Corbis receives more "than 85 percent of its revenue from licensing images at an average price of $250 each". I'm not sure how they will sustain that over time. I'd like to see how that is trending and how fast it is moving.



The WSJ said recently after the acquisition of Pump Audio that images "costing more than $500 each accounted for about 40%" of Getty Images´s total revenues from the previous year. It goes on to point out that demand is dropping as I type this. Well, it doesn't include me in the article.

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.