“Hope has two daughters: Anger and Courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.”—Saint Augustine
This past week has been filled with Getty acquiring MediaVast and adding WireImage, FilmMagic and ContourPhotos to the already vast Getty collection.
And now recent headlines are stating that Getty is in negotiation with Jupiter Images. If Getty does acquire Jupiter images what does it mean for the artists who have contributed to these collections?
Many in the community are crying foul: "Is Getty trying to monopolize the Stock industry or is this just sound business?". Are the customers and artists the losers in this “Brave New World” approach to business? Will the customers be forced to pay higher prices? Will the creators (artists) be squeezed out of business? In the past when Getty acquired Artville, many of the artists were dropped from the collection only to give birth to BrandX, now a Jupiter asset. Will Getty again follow the same trend? It’s possible and only time will tell. Artists will have two choices: accept the consolidation or look for new opportunities. The choice is yours. For those of you with the courage to look for new opportunities consider PhotoSpin.
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2 comments:
I am not sure if Getty would really be able to keep up with growing number of royaltry free stock photography web sites, such as a new one Image Catalog, http://www.imagecatalog.com, and free photo station, just to name a couple. I personally think they would be playing cat and mouse trying to keep up.
I agree that the current wave of aqusitions concentrates too much on too little.
At the same time, cropping the market a bit might not be a bad thing - there are a lot of so-so players out there. The good part is that the buyer base seems to be growing - as well as the stock material produced.
If you are in the distribution market this must be a golden age. So much to choose from simply filter out the bad stuff.
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