Does Getty Images + iStockphoto = iRobot?
Did the big Getty turn against us working photographers by gobbling up iStockphotos? Now even the “low-balling” RF shooters who ripped the value rug out from under the traditional RM market have been “low-balled”. This could only happen by the largest microsite being gobbled up by the largest supplier of visual content, and brought into the fold, or should we say chewed up and swallowed whole. Won’t it be a case of grand cosmic irony if the “traditional RF” suppliers start crying about the threat to the value of their work?
I come to write this after responding to a post over at Thomas Hawk.
I replied:
I am one of those professional photographers you refer to in your post, and yes, I agree that this is a bit of a scary wake up call. Personally, I’d love to see ….
(con’t)….Getty raise Micro (& RF) prices by 50% immediately, and in 18 mo. another 50%. The prices are really so low that even 50% won’t cause more than a slight disgruntled hiccup.
I haven’t wanted to get into the RF field, not because I dislike the sales model, but I just thought giving away all rights to an image should be worth more. Obviously there are many amatuers that don’t care about that. For the majority of micro contributors, it’s more about the thrill of “selling” – regardless of the price. A recent article summed it up by saying the few pennies they earn are simply “gravy” to help pay for a new lens, not a mortgage and college fund. It’s a sad statement watching the downward spin in value, such that the ‘traditional’ RF agencies many of us rallied so hard against are now looking more like “The Good Guys”. Worse, is that it really isn’t a surprise to many of us, that our original fears of devaluation in the market have come true across the board.
We can argue until we are blue in the face trying to tell another artist to value their work. Howvere, if they don’t want to listen, they won’t hear a word you say. I made a recent post on my own blog called MicroMicro Everywhere where I address the downward sprial of value in the stock photo market. I’ve been saying for awhile that “Microsites are where Photographers that don’t value their own pictures go to sell photos to clients that don’t value photography.”
Between news like this, and the exponentially accelerating decline of the film camera market, it’s becoming a brave new world for a lot of people, and the challenge I face in learning to adapt and flex.
Maybe I should just take a shot at trying to be one of the Top Photographers to survive? I wonder how these “hobbiest’ microstockers will feel now living inside the belly of the beast?
