Login
 user ID: password:

Artwork by Penelope Dullaghan

 
my page members portfolios jobs forum clubs gallery experts blog
Browse Clubs  |  My Clubs  |  Sessions Club
CLUB PHOTO

View All Photos

Design Industry Career Watch
Frequent postings to keep you abreast of job leads, design industry news and case studies.

Type: Public
Created: 01-29-2007
Total Members: 239
CLUB MODERATOR:
Offline Nomi
WHAT CAN I DO NEXT
JOIN
CLUB HOME PAGE
Design Industry Career Watch Journal  (Write a new entry)
Offline Nomi
Subject: iStockphoto, the "David" to Corbis’ “Goliath”
Date: Apr 18, 2007 17:11
Visible to: Public - Everyone
 

When you think of Bill Gates, the words “financially challenged” probably don’t come to mind. I mean, let’s face it; things have pretty much been going his way. That is certainly true of Microsoft, but his lesser-known corporation, Corbis, is finding it hard to turn a profit. A photo-licensing business Gates started in 1989, Corbis has spent millions building an archive of the

most beloved and iconic images in existence (think Marilyn Monroe over the subway grates) which it licenses for about $250 a pop. In addition, Corbis keeps a staff of professional photographers who generate stock images for clients in marketing, media, and advertising sects. This accounts for half of Corbis’s $250 a year in sales—an impressive number, but not a profitable one.

The trouble is, Corbis is meeting with unexpected competition from the “little guys,” micro-stock photo agency sites that rely on the crowdsourcing approach, empowering their member communities of amateur or semi-pro photographers to post and sell their work for populist prices of $1 to $15, depending on the size of the image. iStockphoto has benefited from the fact that digital photography and image production make it possible for anyone with a good camera and a copy of Photoshop to set up a photo lab at home to produce commercially viable images. Ad agencies increasingly rely on stock photo sites such as iStockphoto rather than undertake the expense and effort of producing their own commercial shoots.

Just go to iStockphoto and do a search on “girl on phone,” for example, and you’ll see how many options are offered by iStockphoto’s members. To begin contributing to iStockphoto takes little commitment and expense on the photographer’s end, and can result in a lucrative practice—some of iStockphoto’s most successful contributors make six-figure annual incomes just selling their work on iStockphoto alone. As a photographer, iStockphoto puts you directly in touch with “the market”—you click around, observe what images people click on heavily, what images people buy, and pretty soon you are acquainted with what sells and what doesn’t. Microstock sites created a more transparent transition from amateur to professional. Recently bought by Getty, iStockphoto's highest level "diamond exclusive" contributors have been offered hard-to-get pro contracts with Getty.

As stated in a recent New York Times article, Corbis is now redirecting the vision and strategy of the company to compete with the micro-sale model and crowdsourcing method espoused by iStockphoto. They’ve promoted President Gary Shenk to CEO and are implementing his vision of a crowdsourced microstock business that he promises will be “as easy to use as iTunes.”  Said Mr. Shenk in the Times, “If we can use this type of opportunity to find the next great group of Corbis photographers, that also makes it a great opportunity for us.” What does this mean for all you digital photography buffs out there? It means that immediate opportunity to profit from your passion is on the rise. If you haven’t yet thought of selling your photography on microstock sites, what are you waiting for?

View Times Article

Best,

Nomi Altabef
Director of Student Experience
Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design
  ( comment on this )  
User Policy | Contact Us | Privacy | Copyright | Design Courses | Design Programs sessions

Copyright © 2007, Sessions.edu, Inc. All rights reserved. All text, images, graphics, animation, videos, music, sounds, and other materials on this website ("site") are subject to the copyrights and other intellectual property rights of Sessions.edu, Inc., its affiliated companies, and its licensors. Sessions.edu, Inc. owns the copyrights in the selection, coordination, and arrangement of the materials on this site. These materials may not be copied for commercial use or distribution, nor may these materials be modified or reposted to other sites.