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Stock Photography

By Andrew Hudson

Also see How To Sell Your Photos As Stock Photography



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Contents:



The Big Guys | Other Players | Rights-Managed ("RM") and Royalty-Free ("RF") | RM and RF Photographers | Royalty-Free | RF Photographers | RF Subscriptions | Microstock / Micropayment | Free | Search Engines | Travel Photography | Tips, Links and Publications | Email





Introduction:

About half of the $2 billion stock industry is controlled by three companies. The other half is served by hundreds of stock agencies and photographers. "Traditional" stock photography is "Rights-Managed" ("RM") but an increasing percentage is becoming "Royalty-Free" ("RF"). Very low cost royalty-free sites are called "microstock" or "micropayment" and there are even places to get free images.

Learn more about

stock photography





The Big Guys (by market share)



1. Getty Images, Inc.

gettyimages.com | Based in Seattle, WA, USA | Hoover's profile
Private, owned mainly by private equity company Hellman & Friedman LLC

Getty is the world's largest distributor of high-quality pictures and video. Besides the primary GettyImages, the company has a variety of speciality stock sites including: Digital Vision (RF), iStockPhoto, iStockPro.

Getty was founded in 1995 in Seattle by Jonathan Klein (CEO) and Mark Getty (chairman and descendent of J. Paul Getty). Getty grew by acquisition, buying out many well-known stock companies including Tony Stone, PhotoDisc, and EyeWire

In 2008, Getty Images (previously a publicly-traded company) sold itself for $2.4 billion to Hellman & Friedman LLC, a private equity investment firm founded in 1984. About 15% of Getty Images is still owned by the family of the late oil magnate (and Getty Museum benefactor), J. Paul Getty.



2. Corbis Corporation

Private | corbis.com | Based in Seattle, WA, USA | Hoovers profile

Corbis was founded in 1989, and is still owned by Microsoft's Bill Gates. Corbis has about the same number of still images as Getty but, being less commercial, does about one-third the revenue.



3. Jupitermedia Corporation

NASDAQ: JUPM | jupitermedia.com | Based in Darien, CT, USA | Hoover's profile

JupiterMedia was founded in 1994 by IT magazine publisher Alan Meckler. The JupiterImages division was started in 2002. Meckler owns about 35% of the company and is Chairman and CEO. Brands include: Ablestock (RF subscription), BananaStock (premium RF), , Comstock (RF), Jupiter Images, LiquidLibrary, PhotoObjects (RF subscription), (RF subscription), PictureQuest (RF and RM), Stock.xchng (free), Stockxpert.com (RF community), ThinkStock (RF).



Other Big Players
A21, Inc.

OTC: ATWO | a21group.com | Based in Jacksonville, FL, USA | Hoover's profile

Brands include: Ingram (RF), PurestockX (SuperStock's RF subscription service), SuperStock.

Index Stock Imagery

Private | indexstock.com | Based in New York, NY, USA

CEO Bahar Gidwani has acquired and combined the image resources of twelve companies since 1991. Brands include: Index Open (RF subscription), Index Stock (RM and RF), PhotosToGo (RM and RF), PhotosToGoUnlimited (RF subscription), WebSpice (RF subscription).


Rights-Managed and Royalty-Free Stock Photo Agencies



Direct from the Photographer

as Rights-Managed and Royalty-Free Stock Photo Agencies



Royalty Free (non-subscription)



Royalty Free from Photographers



Royalty Free Subscription



See separate lists for:



Search Engines (Aggregators/Portals)



Travel Photography



Tips, News and Publications



Pricing



Other Lists


Advertising



Search over 1,000,000 stock photos at Getty Images





PhotoStockPlus
BH Photo
PicabooPicaboo
Shutterfly
PhotoStockPlus











Getty Images


PhotoStockPlus





Shutterfly


Shutterfly





Adorama





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