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Home > News > Special announcements > Announcement
This document was prepared by the Stock Artists Alliance to help educate photographers about a change in Getty pricing strategy.
Nov. 16 — Getty publishes revised license language for web-resolution products that resolves many of SAA's concerns.
Sept. 25 — Getty Images pledges revisions to address concerns. The coalition grows to 17 associations with the addition of Graphic Artists Guild, Pyramide (7 EC nations) and FREELENS (Germany). Here's the full text of the release.
Sept. 14 — SAA announced that NPPA, IPA, SFF (Sweden), IAAP, ACMP (Australia), AIPA (New Zealand), BFP, and PPSA (South Africa) have joined the coalition protesting Getty's move. Here's the full text of the release.
Sept. 10 — The Stock Artists Alliance issued a press release, which was also signed by ASMP, AOP, APA, CAPIC and EP. Here's the full text of the release.
The full text of the letter to Getty CEO Jonathan Klein, signed by the Presidents of the six associations.
In early September, Getty Images began offering a $49 “web-resolution” license across all of its collections, including Rights Managed and Rights Ready, as well as Royalty Free. For $49, Getty will now license a Rights Managed (RM) image for digital use (such as a website, web banner ad, email, mobile device or multimedia project) for one year. A Rights Ready (RR) image can be used for any one project across all digital and web media for up to ten years.
Following are the descriptions posted to the Getty Images site:
Royalty-free images may be used multiple times for multiple projects.
Rights-ready images may be used in web or electronic media for commercial or editorial projects such as websites or email.
Rights-managed images may be used in one commercial or editorial website, email or mobile project for one year.
The $49 license applies to Getty’s exclusive “house” brands as well as third-party collections. So, it includes the premium RM imagery presented in the Stone, Stone+, Taxi and Photonica collections as well as the RM images moved into the RR model over the past year in the TIB, Iconica and Riser collections. It will also affect the images in the Photographer’s Choice RM and RR collections for which contributors pay a participation fee. Only two collections are excluded from the deal, Image Source (RF) and the Arnold Newman Collection (RM) along with selected editorial images.
The price point varies worldwide. In Europe it is 49 Euros (around $70), and in the UK it is 39 pounds (around $100).
Getty’s press release describes the product as offering customers “access the entire breadth and depth of its collections — even the premium collections — for their online media and advertising campaigns.” Jonathan Klein, Getty Images’ CEO, states that “customers who once considered alternative sources of imagery for use in their online media and advertising campaigns, no longer need to sacrifice the quality of imagery.”
By “alternative sources,” Mr. Klein is presumably referring to microstock (such as iStock, which Getty owns) and RF subscription products. Last week, Getty also launched Valueline, a brand which offers RF images starting at $19.
This product was soft-launched two weeks ago, with only Royalty Free ecommerce enabled. Getty reports that RM and RR pricing will be online by late September, with the license available across all collections by calling Getty Sales.
On-site promotions began last week with various taglines such as “All you need is a little pocket change” and “Wipe the drool from your mouth. Now you can license even rights-managed quality images for a flat rate of $49 each.”
The $49 license represents a drastic price cut for web-use licenses of Rights Managed and Rights Ready collections. For example, as shown in the following chart, it slashes fees from 93% to 96% off Getty’s own RM rates for commercial website and major online advertising use.
Rights Ready prices for web and electronic use have also been cut by 92%. Launched just a year ago, this simplified version of RM licensing already offered a substantial discount relative to RM with its broad use licenses and 10 year term.
The only difference from a customer’s perspective between the $49 license and the licenses offered at the established rates is the image size of the file (500KB), which is still sufficient for most digital use.
| Collection | License Use placement / term |
Current Prices | New Price (500KB) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RM | Commercial Website one page / 1 year |
$680 - $870 | $49 | 93% - 95% reduction |
| RM | Web Banner Ad unlimited / 1 year |
$1140 - $1460 | $49 | 96% reduction |
| RR | Web & Electronic unlimited / 10 years |
$550 - $650 | $49 | 91% - 92% reduction |
| RF | Unlimited, Perpetual | $55 - $145 (1MB) |
$49 | 11% - 66% reduction |
In a conference call with Getty Images last week, Getty representatives described the $49 product as designed to meet the needs of entry level, low budget and/or short-term uses because the small image size limits it to those uses.
SAA responded that the 500KB file — about the same size as a preview image on the Getty site — is large enough for almost any web or digital use, so the file size will not prevent use for most high-profile high-budget online uses.
Getty confirmed that this license also applies to web advertising use. These include forms of paid media placement such as over-the-page web uses, banner ads and pop ups.
SAA expressed concern that this means that for just $49, even a major advertiser with a big budget for paid media placement can now license an RM image for one year use in their online campaign. We have asked for clarification as to the extent of online advertising use (such as a web banner ad) allowed within each $49 license.
Getty confirmed that the RM license is restricted to one form of use (such as website, banner ad, email or multimedia or another form of digital use). Within that license, however, multiple page impressions are permitted; so, for example we were told that an image could appear in the same position on multiple pages of a website.
SAA has noted that established RM pricing is based on number of placements on a website (such as a home page), so for customers requiring multiple page uses, the discount is even deeper.
Finally, SAA raised the issue about how the $49 price of web use licenses will impact Getty’s royalty compliance efforts, noting that the valuation applied to misuse on the web would now be minimal which will make pursuit of infringers less economical. Getty confirmed that their commitment to their Royalty Compliance program to pursue infringements is unchanged.
The following associations, representing more than 12,000 professional photographers, including many Getty contributors, have quickly come together to respond.
We have sent a joint letter to Getty Images CEO Jonathan Klein, urging the company to remove Rights Managed and Rights Ready images from this pricing scheme. We have also released a public statement announcing our action and outlining our concerns, in order to raise awareness and spur dialogue about this alarming development.
We believe that this extreme reaction by the market leader to competitive pressure risks undermining Getty’s core Rights Managed licensing business — and the businesses of independent contributing photographers who create and own the majority of imagery in these collections.
Furthermore, we are concerned about the repercussions of this move by the market leader across the image licensing industry, and the potential fallout for the professional photography business in general caused by this sharp devaluation of our highest quality imagery.
As the market leader, Getty’s actions affect the entire industry. We therefore expect this heavy discounting of image values risks the long-term revenue potential of image licensing, whether it be stock or commissioned.
Summary of our concerns:
Read the Joint Association Press Release: http://www.stockartistsalliance.org/info/news/news.htm#Getty49License
Speak with your colleagues, representatives and stock distributors to express your concerns about the effect of Getty’s actions on our industry. If you’d like to write to Getty Images, key contacts are:
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