Getty and Flickr, Sitting in a Tree ....

Hey, happy Tuesday. It's great that we could even be in this debate about whether an opportunity which may be handed to us will be worthwhile.

I'm not saying that it's a good deal: 20% is peanuts. Low-priced Royalty Free models are for suckers, and they diminish the industry -- that hurts everyone involved.

OTOH, not many agencies give you 70% -- that's primarily PSC. Other companies that have traditionally been less about MicroStock, eww, are turning that way now to try to stay afloat, in some cases they are creating new models practically giving images away: Alamy.

It stems from the fact that there are so many photographers taking so many pictures. Barriers to entry (into the stock sales industry) seemingly are lowering, with better cameras, software and wider, easier distribution and archival access of the internet.

But, even with all of those monkeys pounding away, it still requires skill to produce work of salable quality consistently, and release it, and tag it, and put it in the right place. Look through flickr and try to imagine: who would Getty contact to establish a professional relationship? Do they know what they are about? Are they already selling work?

That 20% may be a wakeup call for some, but for others with great quality work, it may always be a wrong number. Some people came to flickr to show their work, but have no interest in selling it. There could be a variety of reasons, and a flattering contact from Getty may influence them to change that feeling, but it may not. There is a lot involved in sales that may be too much for some. For others, there may be a philosophical argument, a feeling of selling out.

Getty is known to promote their archives aggressively, but will an entry into a lower end pool work out to entrée to their upper echelon? That sounds like a pipe dream.

/..

There's a lot of coverage; here's a few links:
photographyblog.com: "Photoshelter Warns Flickr Users"
photographyblog.com: "Getty Offers Flickr Photos as Stock Images"
Getty
I don't see Flickr here yet: am I missing something?