SnapVillage Commentary . . .

By Ron Rovtar
Stock Asylum Managing Editor
June 25, 2007

SnapVillage, Corbis' new micropayment stock photography brand launched last night, may be a little late to the party, but it brings some badly needed innovation to a market segment that until now has operated mostly for the benefit of distributors, leaving the vast majority of participating photographers little more than financial crumbs.

Though SnapVillage still pays royalties of just 30 percent –– more on this later –– the new brand gives photographers much flexibility in pricing their images and offers the best shooters the possibility of moving up to a regular Corbis contract, potentially making this a real "farm team" approach to cultivating new talent.

In addition, Corbis asks no image exclusivity and lets photographers opt in or out of a subscription service offered on the test (beta) version of the SnapVillage web site.

If the new site lives up to its promise, talented amateur and part-time professional photographers who want to leave their day jobs might just find a workable option at SnapVillage. At the same time, microstock image buyers might like the simplicity of the SnapVillage licensing process.

And (dare we think it?), SnapVillage just might bring some professionalism to a market segment that badly needs it. By skipping some transparent revenue-enhancement schemes common among today's micropayment sites, SnapVillage just might shame the older, more established sites into cleaning up their acts.

The other sites may be forced to bill image buyers for only the images the buyers want, rather than requiring that buyers purchase more expensive "credit packs" that expire if unused for too long.

At the same time, some of these other sites might follow Corbis' lead and end a practice that forces photographers to ask for the money they have earned. Some micropayment sites do not send artists their money until the artists figure out it is owed and formally request it. SnapVillage photographers owed more than $10 will find their money in their Paypal account each month.

"We made these changes because we really wanted to simplify the process," said Corbis Vice President of Networks Adam Brotman.

A possible big advantage for some SnapVillage photographers, Brotman said, is that regular Corbis contracts will be offered to the best shooters. Getty Images, Corbis' biggest competitor, lets some top-selling iStockphoto shooters submit a limited number of traditional royalty-free images to the Getty Images web site. However, Getty, which owns iStockphoto, has announced no formal advancement program beyond that.

"As you know, we have some of the best, most talented directors of photography at Corbis," said Brotman. "They will be scouting, always looking for, candidates to participate on Corbis.com."

"We should be seeing that happen relatively quickly." he added. "Details of the program are somewhat confidential, but I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the numbers. We are truly looking at SnapVillage as a farm link and as an extension of the overall sourcing process of the company."

He said some individual images may also be moved up to the Corbis site, even when the photographer is not offered a Corbis contract.

In addition, Brotman said image suppliers will not need to fill out applications in order to participate. And, submissions can be uploaded directly to the SnapVillage web site, where they will be reviewed before being made available to buyers. Corbis says it eventually will offer artists a bulk upload method.

Images with trademarks, copyrighted items, name tags, license plates and other identifying materials will be rejected, The company said. Images also must have model and property releases where appropriate.

Once images are available for purchase, they will be rated for quality, using several factors, including downloads, views, comments, and the number of times an image has been named a favorite. Photos, vector illustrations and flash files will be accepted. Video is not yet being accepted. Photographs must be about three megapixels or larger, the company said.

Photographers can price their images from $1 to $50 for a standard license. Prices for a "product license" range from $35 to $125. With a product license there is no advertising print run limitation and the image may be used in products created for re-sale, like calendars and cards.

Contributors may change their pricing at will, Brotman said. He said artists also can move images in and out of the subscription service as they see fit. Those who participate in the subscription service will receive $0.30 per download.

Interestingly, photographers are not required to title and keyword their images. "We know that most of our photographers would rather be out taking pictures than sitting in front of a computer filing out forms –– so we are willing to do the work for you," said an entry on the SnapVillage web site. Photographers may keyword their images, but the keywords will be checked for accuracy, the company said.

Buyers also may find the SnapVillage site easier to deal with. Once an image buyer establishes a SnapVillage account, he or she uses a credit card to pay for images.

Image searches can be filtered for relevancy, recency, price or apparent quality, called "snappiness." Prices do not depend on image file size, Brotman noted.

For $199 a month, buyers can purchase a subscription service that permits 25 downloads a day or 750 downloads a month.

With the launch of the SnapVillage beta site, Brotman promises an open dialogue with photographers and customers. Contributors ought to take the opportunity to recommend improvements that will make the site more useful to them.

In fact, this probably is a good time for photographers to strongly suggest that low micropayment royalty percentages, like the 30 percent offered by SnapVillage, are no longer appropriate. Highly automated web sites like SnapVillage and others ought to return higher, not reduced, percentages to photographers.

Micropayment web sites offer little or no human sales support, minimal editing and automated product fulfillment. With sharply reduced personnel costs, these sites are cash cows for their owners. It is now time for the owners to acknowledge their significant debt to the emerging photographers who, as a group, are doing much, if not most, of the real work.

"Crowdsourcing," as this kind of venture is sometimes called, should not be a trendy name for a virtual sweatshop. Corbis is taking the micropayment model a significant step forward. The stock distributor seems interested in doing it right. Photographers should tell the company what it must do for them financially to properly finish the job and lead this new market segment where it must eventually go.

SnapVillage web site is at: http://www.snapvillage.com.

The Corbis Web site is at: http://www.Corbis.com.