ShutterPoint Blog

The dialog between SAA-led coalition and Getty Images came out on November 16th. The Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) has been pressing Getty to alter the licensing terms of their new $49 web-resolution image offering for rights-ready and rights-managed images. Members of the SAA coalition, which consists of over 50,000 artists, felt that the price reduction will result in a “loss of high-value digital licensing revenue.” Finally, the SAA is pleased with the updated, stricter licensing terms. In a nutshell, the new terms allow electronic or web usage only, single use at a maximum of 180×150 pixels in web or other electronic media for commercial, editorial or internal projects for up to 3 months.

OK, 180×150, for 3 months? The thumbnails on Getty website are almost that size (170 by X, where X depends on the aspect ratio). The $49 deal doesn’t sound so great with these terms. The SAA coalition insisted and successfully proved that creative work should not be sold for cheap - this seems to be the basic idea the news release is trying to convey. Based on recent comments on ShutterPoint Forums, it seems that our members are persuaded that Getty backed out of their original $49 and this reverses the trend of dropping prices.

I disagree. The changes demanded by the SAA coalition members apply only to rights-managed and rights-ready images, not to royalty-free. Here are the definitions:

Rights-Managed – Images are licensed according to a finite set of rights, including time, placement, location, exclusivity and image venue. Record of these rights can be tracked.

Rights-Ready – These are Rights-Managed images that are packaged into multi-use offers for one price, so they save money and save re-licensing.

Royalty-Free - Images are licensed by file size and price only. The rights are not tracked and the images can be used again without further licensing.

To clear things up, Getty did reduce prices for RF web resolution images. Royalty-free images are currently offered on Getty.com for $49 sized around 350 x 500px, depending on original file resolution. These images can be used multiple times for multiple projects.

But why would Getty create their $49 product in the first place? In my opinion, they realize that nowadays image buyers have a lot of cheaper alternatives to buying digital stock images. Getty simply wanted to be competitive. They wanted a share of the market where the buyer does not have the budget to license Getty’s more pricey images.

There are a few discussions concerning ShutterPoint’s introduction of standard licensing currently on SP Forums. Some contributors are concerned that ShutterPoint will start offering images at low prices. Others, realize that participating in the new license offering is the way to go.

There are buyers out there who would not buy images at all unless they are very affordable (single digit price). These are are potential customers who are being neglected by photographers who believe their images are too good to be offered for a low price. Photographers who understand this type of image buyer and his/her needs, will offer standard licensing and will profit by catering to a variety of customer types.

Unlike some other websites, ShutterPoint is being flexible and gives members the opportunity to offer images to several types of buyers with different licensing requirements. We are opening the door to a new type of image buyer and hoping our members will take advantage of new opportunities.

ShutterPoint is a big advocate on empowering the photographer to be able to set prices on their images. Although photographers are free to price their images at any value over $20, many hesitate to put a high price on their image. They are thinking “who would buy an image for even $20, now that buyers can easily get similar or even same quality images for a buck or two elsewhere.”

We at ShutterPoint constantly discuss the trends of digital image prices. Especially now that big agencies like Getty (ASMP article on the topic) and Corbis (PDN article) are reducing prices for their RF web-resolution images, this is a hot topic.

Should we allow pricing under $20 or keep this minimum? How much are images really worth? Since the inception of ShutterPoint in 2003, we have been offering virtually unrestrictive image licensing - the true definition of royalty-free. Image buyer obtains the image and he or she can use it in unlimited ways and quantities - be it framed art work in their home or thousands of copies of printed calendars. We feel that our usage allowance was always very generous and such allowance should have a higher price tag. Photography is an art and should be valued as such.

As ShutterPoint grew the stock photography industry was changing and it became clear that:

a) digital images are becoming extremely affordable and very accessible, and

b) the demand for common-subject affordable images is growing.

Nowadays most small businesses have websites, millions of people maintain blogs, print projects can be ordered over the internet by anyone, and there are many other changes that transform any computer-user into an image buyer. This image buyer needs a web resolution image to be used as a design element on a website, or a small image to be used on a personal business card. This image buyer does not need a full image license for a full price. He or she needs a limited image license at an affordable price.

Now that it is clear what the image buyer needs, it is our job to provide it to him/her. Here comes the big news (of course details about this change will be available very soon and will be communicated via newsletter and website). ShutterPoint is going to start offering a limited image license - the Standard License. The standard license will have a pre-set price model aimed to make images affordable. Photographers will have the freedom to choose which licensing they would like to offer on each of their images. They may opt out of standard license offering and keep the full license offering as is. Full image license will still be available at the price photographers set.

The standard license offering will present the image buyer with many opportunities and at the same time it will boost sales for the photographers. The current stock photography market offers a wide variety of images with a wide variety of technical quality at a wide variety of prices. ShutterPoint team is getting ready to respond to this ever-changing market.

So how much are images worth these days? We believe that it all depends on the quality of the image and how it will be used by the image buyer. Considering the technical quality of the image is good, price is typically higher if the image is unique and has a high artistic value. Price is lower if the image is easily achievable and contains a common subject (e.g. apple, paper clip, keyboard, etc.). Please keep this in mind when pricing your images and when making the decision whether or not to opt in for the new standard license offering coming soon to ShutterPoint.

Stay tuned for our official announcement very shortly.