Getty's New Subscription Service . . .

Stock Asylum Staff Report
August 16, 2005

As promised last month, Getty Images has launched a new subscription stock photography product that will compete directly with similar offerings from JupiterImages and others.

The new services, accessible from the Getty "Royalty-Free Zone," will let designers, advertisers, web developers and other stock photography users download up to 50 images a day for a single monthly or annual fee.

Subscribers may use the images for almost any purpose during the subscription period. No new uses are permitted afterwards, though continued use of materials created during the subscription period is allowed, the company said.

Named "Creative Express," the new service includes some 50,000 images from Getty-owned brands like Digital Vision and Photodisc. The same images will be available for regular royalty-free sales, but will be marked with a special "download link."

Royalty-free buyers should be aware of this link because the best subscription images tend to be used very frequently, increasing the chances that these images will be seen elsewhere. This has been a problem with all types of royalty-free, but is even more of a concern with images from subscription services.

Getty spokesperson Molly Lohman said the company sees the new service as an entry-level offering and does not believe it will cut into sales of royalty-free and rights-managed imagery.

In fact, subscribers using the Creative Express search can see royalty-free and rights-managed images along with the subscription images. Subscribers may limit their searches to just the subscription images, but, by offering a wider search, Getty clearly wants to whet subscribers' appetites for the more expensive products.

Creative Express offers two pricing levels for single-user contracts in the United States. The "web" level lets subscribers download digtital images of one to three megabytes for $399 a month or $1599 a year. The "print" level offers 10- to 16-megabyte files for $499 a month or $1,999 a year.

Subscribers may use images acquired at either level for advertising, promotional materials, other forms of print, broadcast, theater, electronic publication and web design, according to Getty.

Subscribers will receive a 10 percent discount if they purchase a high resolution royalty-free license for a subscription image.

Lohman said the service has already signed up its first subscribers. She said the company makes no projections about how popular this service will become.

 

Getty Images can be found at: http://www.gettyimages.com

Creative Express is at: http://www.gettyimages.com/express