Pure Reviews

Large announcement on various news items over at iStock.  To of the biggest subjects are the Google deal and Microsoft deal.  Microsoft deal is done and the images are being removed while they are still working with Google Drive.  Read all the important news below. IP Wiki The iStock and Getty Images teams are very happy to announce the relaunch of a new and improved IP Wiki . This is a guide for contributors (and customers as well!) to some of the legal issues that can affect what you shoot and what we can accept at each site. High Fives to Shaun Lombard, Benoit Beauregard and Jeff Feltmate for all your hard work! We will update this regularly so bookmark it and visit often! Forum Shuffle It’s been over 10 years since the forums launched and it’s high time we did some spring cleaning. In early March, we will be making some significant changes to our current format that we hope will make it easier to find the latest news and updates fro...

Quick news update from Fotolia.  They have opened their 22nd office, with the newest location in the Netherlands.  Check it out below. Fotolia settles in the Netherlands! Is Fotolia is the #1 stock photography in Europe? YES Is it a reason to stop expanding our local markets? NO Fotolia is opening a new office in the Netherlands! This will be our 22nd office worldwide, just as our image collection is about to reach 22 million files! As always, we keep striving to be your go-to resource for all things creative!

123RF launches two new features to their site.  First up Audio is coming to the site and they will allow you to set your price points per a chart.  See below for how to upload your stock audio and the royalty breakdown.  Second they have announced a new image size of ML which will push everything up 1 credit from the Large price point.  A full chart is listed below.  Sign up for 123RF look for the link on the right size. Adding 'Audio Stock' to its list of endless digital creative content, 123RF is inviting Audio Composers and Authors to send in their audio clips, sound effects, music tracks and compilations to be included in its all-encompassing collection. You'll be able to access a worldwide clientele via the 123RF.com platform. 123RF can now be viewed as the ideal launch pad for audio professionals looking to market their projects to the creative industry. Contributors get 30% to 60% of the selling price. And the best part is, you get to decide how to ...

Press release from Shutterstock that now allows downloading images directly to your tablet or cell phone on apple products.  Check out the release below. We know our contributors are always interested in getting their work seen by as many customers in as many ways as possible. With that in mind, here’s an update on what we’ve been doing to help you promote and license your images on mobile devices — and let you track your results on the go, too. The Shutterstock App for iPhone and iPad — now with downloading! We recently updated our award-winning app to make it available on iPhone as well as iPad. Both versions let users search and explore images, scroll through a seamless mosaic of options, add selections to Lightboxes, and share them with colleagues. The apps have been a huge hit with customers — to date, over 300,000 users have downloaded and begun using them! This month, we released version 2.5 of the app, giving customers the ability to download images straight to thei...

iStock continues to upset their core contributors by devaluing their work and opening their images up for possible free use on Google drive.  This whole ordeal spurred a massive movement of removing images to their site.  This action has spurred a response from the corporation owned by Getty images.  See the report below that basically says they are just working on it, but don't plan on providing changes right away.  Will you close your portfolio on iStock ? Google Drive You may have already read our last update in the forums but once again, we'd like to thank you for your continued patience. To reiterate from previous posts, royalties have been paid in connection with the Google Drive usage based on all consideration received by Getty Images under the licensing agreement. We understand your concerns relating to the deal and we are making progress in a productive dialogue with Google about these concerns and potential solutions. As many...

Shutterstock updates their royalty rate for referrals.  Payout will increase by once sent and a referred person will be active for 2 years.  See the info below and if you wish to join Shutterstock click here .  SS is consistently one of the highest respected stock photography sites.

So Bigstock has announced that they are going to start doing subscription sales this year.  Joining what seems to be a new industry standard they are setting their royalty base at only $0.25.  Sadly this seems to be more and more common ( Fotolia , iStock , 123RF , etc).  The odd part of this announcement is that Bigstock was bought by Shutterstock so they could have pay as you go style site.  So this begs the question of why start moving your site to the SS formula with lower royalties.  How do you feel about the changes, comment below. As you know, we already offer Bigstock customers the flexibility of pre-paying with credits. Next week, we’ll be offering our customers an increasingly popular way to buy images:  subscriptions. How will this affect me? Subscriptions can generate higher download volumes, which can increase your total earnings from Bigstock. Here’s how you will earn royalties from Bigstock subscriptions: Eve...

iStock announcement for their 2013 royalty rates.  Very few changes, so read all about it below! Royalty Rates for 2013 First, we wanted to say thanks to those of you participating in or following the continuing dialog of the past few weeks. We'll never be able to answer every question or address every issue as quickly or as completely as we wish we could, but we're working to improve in this area and will continue these efforts. As Rebecca has explained in her recent comments, the increased communication is something we're dedicated to and plan to continue. There will be no changes for the Redeemed Credit targets for 2013, the targets will remain at the same levels as 2012. To review where these targets stand, please see: http://www.istockphoto.com/help/sell-stock/rate-schedule Several key topics have surfaced through this dialog, there are specific conversations happening on many of these elsewhere in the forum and we hope you will continue to participate. One topi...

  Fotolia did some minor tweaks this month that gives you two options for your portfolio.  First up you can now exclude video files from subscription sales.  Second they have changed the pricing for extended license files that now requires a minimum of 20 credits.  It also can't be lower then your highest price offering, so you cant have a 24 credit Standard XXL license and get the Extended License under 24 credits.  Log in and check out the changes.

 A few changes to note that have gone into effect at a few sites. Dreamstime : Dreamstime has launched a mobile image section allowing you to submit cell phone photos and digital model releases.  To celebrate this new feature their next assignment will be mobile shots.  Also their is now a new category called "Mobile."  Other requirements are 3 MP minimum resolution still applies and we will not accept upsampled images.  DT is accepting model releases from: Model Release, ASMP Release and Easy Release (on both iOS and Android).  Join today ! Shutterstock : SS has launched a new features called Portfolio Pages that allows contributors to show off their work via personalized URL's.  Another feature on your portfolio page is allowing you to create public sets.  So log in and and set up your today or join Shutterstock here . Bigstock : Bigstock has launched a new partner system that will open their collection to other companies with ...

YAY has added some new distributors so go check them out, link below.  Must give props to YAY for not only showing each distributor, but also shoing their commision rate and price range, etc.  You can also opt out of all or just a few.  Join YAY here . You'll find details and the opt-out option under My Account > Photographer > API details .

Alamy has adjusted their contributor contract for the coming year.  The biggest change was a 10% increase on commissions to Alamy from the Photographers side.  Alamy still has one of the highest payouts rates to photographers, but still following the trend of dropping royalty rates in the industry.  See Alamy writeup below. The latest version of the Alamy Contributor contract, published on 20th November 2012, included some important changes to our terms. For Contributors who registered before 20th November 2012, the new contract came into force on 5th January 2013, 45 days from the notification date of 20th November 2012. For Contributors who registered from 20th November 2012 onwards, the new contract was in force from the point of registration. What changed? The most important changes to our terms were increased Alamy commission on direct and third-party distributor sales. All key changes are summarised below, for...

I want to talk a little moment away from out typical photography posts to talk about Kylie Minogue's new hit album "The Abbey Road Sessions."  This is a stellar album with a staggering 16 songs including some great classics with some new hits.  It's very rare that I find an CD that has as many good songs as this.  Out of the 16 songs total, I only felt a 4 of them where just ok.  To all my bloggers if you have not enjoyed Kylie's music in that past this is a great album to pick up, after all she was in the Olympics for a reason.  Top classic song hands down on the album is "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" and my favorite new song would have to be "On A Night Like This".  If you are a traditional fan of Kylie you notice a slight shift in her music as she has a lot more slow paced songs compared to her club hits of the 90's.  This is just more of a showing how she can change with the time Her full line up of songs is as follows: 1. A...

YAY Images hit the 3 Million mark this past weekend.  The image was by Wavebreak Media and is of three happy women.  Great job to YAY for the continual growth and if you are looking to join click here . Official post below by YAY : This weekend we approved image number three million at YAY Images. Congratulation to Wavebreak Media! The image shows three happy women. With over 70,000 images added from Wavebreak the last couple of weeks it's no surprise that they managed to get image number three million. In total we got over 177,000 new images in the last 30 days.

Great news over at Pocketstock!!!  They have dropped their payout rate to $30 instead of the ultra high old rate.  For a new company whose sales could be slow at first it is good to know that the $30 mark is in striking distance and more in line with the industry standard.  Below is the write up of what is new at the company. Here is your update on the latest news from Pocketstock. Some of you may not be aware that although we have been actively seeking new content since April, Pocketstock was launched to customers in August, meaning our images have been available for sale for a relatively short time. Since August we have been hard at work building our customer base, which takes time. Progress has been relatively slow but that is something to be expected when a new company enters into such an aggressively competitive marketplace that is driven by discounting, offers and subscription. Over the last two weeks, as part of our drive to sell to the top global brand...

Alamy has tweaked its editorial images by giving buyer more options on how they can sort through the images to find the perfect content.  See the full write up below and join Alamy here . We’ve been working on a project aimed at engaging creative buyers while making life easier for our editorial customers.  We want creative buyers to be able to see creative images without having to search through editorial images at the same time.  But we don’t want editorial customers to lose the great Alamy experience they have always had, and so we have added some improvements for all buyers. We have had internal and external teams of editors reviewing the images on Alamy starting with the existing creative collection.  The aim of this is to individually highlight visually striking images that will appeal to creative professionals. Customers now have three new search options; New, Relevant and Best of. These search options provide new ways to get your images ...

iStock has some updates this month talking about its technology upgrades, updates to digital model releases and editorial images.  Check out all the info below. September Performance Despite downtime related to the launch of our new way to pay, iStock's performance in the month of September matched our overall expectations. Early trends show that we are attracting more new customers with the option to download without purchasing credits. On the other hand, the calendar meant this September had fewer working days than recent years, which partially offset those gains. Regarding individual contributor results, we've been seeing mixed reports in the September sales thread and other sources. We do know that technical issues are making it difficult right now for contributors to clearly track their performance. We are looking into the underlying numbers to see what other factors may be at play in the September results. Technology Update Today we released a fix ...

Below is the layout of iStock's 2013 Royalty rates.  Overall there are very few changes from last year.  All the percentages are the same, but some of the redeemed credit categories have dropped.  For example for non exclusive last year the credits where 2,000 and are now 1,500.  Where do you fall on the chart below? 2012 Redeemed Credit Targets Below are the 2012 Redeemed Credit targets for iStockphoto contributors. We know that this news is behind schedule and we apologize for the long wait. Other projects and factors, both at iStockphoto and within the wider Getty Images business, have delayed our ability to definitively publish these numbers. We are happy to announce that there is no increase in any of the RC targets over the previous year — all redeemed credit targets for all file types will stay the same for 2012. These targets will determine your starting/minimum royalty rate for 2013. If you reach a new target during the remainder of ...

Getty ( and iStockphoto ) is sold to new investors, but contributors should notice very little change from the transaction.  See below for the official writeup. About the Sale of Getty Images: Since they acquired us in 2008, Hellman & Friedman have been committed to our business. Their goal has always been to grow and strengthen Getty Images and then sell the company, when the time is right. We and Hellman & Friedman have identified a new owner to take the business into its next phase. We’ve now formed a new partnership between The Carlyle Group, the Getty family and Getty Images management to acquire Getty Images from H & F. We believe this new partnership is in the best interest of our Company as a whole, our employees and our contributors and image partners. This new ownership is a positive move in the continued growth and success of Getty Images. Carlyle has an investment philosophy that is very similar to Hellman & Friedman, and we are conf...

Fotolia updates their submittable process which allows you to categorize, keyword, title, etc several images in on batch.  Check it out next time you upload some images, see official write up below.  New to Fotolia, join here . We are happy to announce the launch of a new feature that is sure to be appreciated by large content uploaders: the multi-indexing tool. Imagine you're uploading a series of 50 images via FTP and need to index them all. Thanks to a dedicated interface, this new feature will save you time by letting you index all your images at once. How does it work? Once uploaded, all your images will be listed in a new section within your Files Management area: the "Indexing"...