Thursday, May 13, 2010

Getty Images and the Incredibly Shrinking Usage Fee



Everything is about business. Plain, and simple. Getty Images continues to travel on its path of corporate suicide with their latest - slashing non-exclusive stock images to what amounts to a flat rate of $50. Yes, this is somewhat of an oversimplification of the deal, but for all intents and purposes, it's accurate.

The subsciption model isn't new, but it is what is causing so many of the image providers to become unsustainable properties. They only appear to be profitable, and while revenue does come in in the short-term, in the long-term it will not survive.

More than one photographer I've been in contact with raised the concern about this deal, that essentially includes Getty, AP, and Reuters, all agreeing to $50 images for Time Warner. If this is the case, could there be reasonable concerns about anti-trust issues? Indeed, it's worth someone looking into.

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