Under cover of the Holidays

by Paul Melcher 

ImageSource, the number 1 independent royalty free company who bravely resisted the Getty web ready price cut to $49 is going midstock with Fotolia. A few days ago, French microstock company Fotolia announce the creation of a premium value collection called “Infinite” that would be priced around $20. The announcement came, surprisingly, a few days before the industry, buyers as well as sellers, go into the holidays slump. Inside the announcement, there was a mysterious allegation that the new collection was populated with images from pro photo agencies. However, no names were given.

I had to find out. It wasn’t too hard. This is the original, priced at $119 for the smallest size:

This is the Fotolia version, priced at 16.60 Euro :

And finally, there is the Getty version, who, as you might remember, was not allowed to price it at $49.00 :

As you can see, same image, different prices. So, depending on where you shop, you can get a nice rebate. I am sure that ImageSource will have a lot of explaining to do when they come back from their vacation. This surprising move seem to indicate that even they are under the pricing pressure of m icrostock but are ashame or afraid to admit it. It also shows that the Midstock model that companies like Zymmetrical.com have followed since its inception is becoming more the norm. Getty, Corbis, and now ImageSource and Fotolia are following the trend of pricing images at budget value rather than dirt cheap. Istockphoto is also slowly raising its price and entering the dance.

I am sure that we will see more traditional royalty free entering the midstock dance, probably at first with retired image and later withe new production. Pro photographers already do, so why not the agencies? The merging of micro and traditional is not far away anymore and 2008 should see the final steps, this time in the open.