Microstock News

Fotolia have announced the launch of photoxpress.com, a site which offers free stock images via the fotolia free API. fotolia members have been adding images to the ‘free collection’ for several years by opting in if their images do not meet the standards of the main collection. Photoxpress currently offers almost 350,000 images.

Image users are free to signup and download up to three images per day. Upto ten images can be download by completing a profile at the site which includes receiving a registration code via SMS.

The site is great, but I’m failing to see the advantage for stock contributors at fotolia here? Is there a profit share? who would want to advertise on a site that attracts people not willing to buy anything? One of my images was featured on the front page with links to lots of my other photos (for free) but there is no mention of me, my name, nor a link to my profile or any links to images from fotolia.

I still stand behind what I wrote in microstock photos for free, I think ‘free’ marketing works well and is beneficial to all involved if done correctly. The dreamstime free collection includes a link back to the contributing photographers profile page and a selection of thumbnails of their paid images, most microstock photographers are happy with this deal.

I would urge any fotolia contributors who have donated free images to not make snap decisions into deleting them until fotolia have made a response. Fotolia have done nothing wrong technically, and as contributors to the free collection we all ‘opted in’ to give the images away for ‘free’; it was only an assumption that this would be in reward for a printed text credit or link to our profiles from the source.

The internet is riddled with free stock photo sites so photoxpress has some work to do if it wants to be a success. The competition has image quality and usage terms just as good as those on photoxpress, but few have so many images. Marketing has been given a jump start by this launch due to the controversy it’s caused in the microstock community but also the fact that this site, while a separate entity, is linked to the reputable brand fotolia has. Time will tell if the site becomes as popular as sxc.hu which spawned stockxpert.

Discussion on microstockgroup.com

Photoxpress.com

Fotolia.com Review

Microstock photos for Free

Former iStockPhoto Co-Founder Tapped to Head Up Rival Microstock Agency’s Operations in US

NEW YORK – May 6, 2009 – Today, Fotolia (http://www.fotolia.com), one of the world’s leading sources for high quality microstock imagery and video, announced the expansion of its executive team with the hire of Patrick Lor, co-founder of rival firm iStockPhoto, as the company’s new President for North America. The hire will bring Lor out of retirement, after his company sold to Getty Images in 2006.

“Fotolia has continued to be an innovative pioneer in the microstock space. They continue to democratize the microstock industry, keeping stock imagery affordable for small business owners, non-profit organizations, and other groups that would otherwise not be able to afford the costs of licensing imagery associated with other companies,” says Lor, of his decision to join the team. “They also continue to make it possible for talented photographers to connect with an audience of potential buyers, without the hurdles and costs of traditional stock firms. It’s a pleasure to join such a talented global team, and I look forward to working with them on bringing the company even more success as we continue to expand and enter new ventures.”

Lor will be overseeing North American operations for Fotolia, which currently has a presence in 10 countries worldwide. He will be working with co-founder and CEO Oleg Tscheltzoff on continued expansion strategies for the company, which has nearly 4 million monthly unique visitors (comScore), more than five million images available for license and more than 1 million members worldwide.

“Patrick had tremendous success with his work at iStockPhoto, and I’ve always admired his talent and what he was able to achieve,” explains Fotolia co-founder and CEO Oleg Tscheltzoff, “Fotolia has seen a tremendous amount of growth over the past years, and we’ve continued to expand both our physical presence globally and our service offerings. We have a number of exciting projects in the pipeline and are thrilled to have Patrick on board to help us bring Fotolia to the next level of success.”

The hire announcement comes on the heels of Fotolia’s expansion into the microstock video market, which was announced on April 28.

Since its launch in November, 2005, Fotolia has grown to offer one of the world’s largest libraries of legal, micro-priced images on the Web, offering professional and amateur photographers the ability to connect with more than 500,000 media buyers worldwide – from small businesses and design firms to some of the world’s most recognizable brands. With the launch of its stock video offering, Fotolia continues to expand its reach into new markets, satisfying the needs of videographers and video buyers worldwide by providing high-quality, low-cost alternatives to traditional stock video offerings.

About Fotolia
Fotolia.com is one of the world’s leading providers of affordable stock imagery, with a database of over five million images and over one million international members. With web sites in 10 languages, Fotolia, LLC is based in New York and has offices in 11 countries. In 2007, Fotolia became the first independent microstock agency to enter the traditional stock marketplace with the launch of Fotolia Infinite Collections. For more information, please visit www.fotolia.com.

Press Contact:
Michael Conner
Director of Communications
Fotolia, LLC
P: 541-704-0800
Michael@fotolia.com
www.fotolia.com

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Canstockphoto.com have announced that they now accept stock video footage. This follows last weeks news from fotolia that their video collection is now live after several months of accepting new footage uploads.

Unlike fotolia who had to grow a collection of clips before launch, new videos uploaded to canstock will be available for immediate download and sold alongside a growing collection of 80,000 video clips on fotosearch.

Commissions for footage sales range from $5 for low resolution up $25 for full HD (sale prices to buy those videos range from $9.80 to $39.80).

Canstockphoto review