[stevebrot]

I was invited this evening to to participate in Flickr's new licensing offer. I assume this is intended to replace the Getty Imaging arrangement that fell apart earlier this year.

https://www.flickr.com/marketplace/join/

Does anyone have any additional information about this scheme and whether it makes sense to deal in this space?


Steve

[Sagitta]

I was invited this evening to to participate in Flickr's new licensing offer. I assume this is intended to replace the Getty Imaging arrangement that fell apart earlier this year.

https://www.flickr.com/marketplace/join/

Does anyone have any additional information about this scheme and whether it makes sense to deal in this space?


Steve

Posting 'for the dot' since I was invited as well. I'd like to see what others think of this.

[jpzk]

Same here ... invite was received today ...
I too am waiting what this is all about and I am somewhat leery of the Paypal account linking to Flickr.

Not quite sure what to make out of this so I'll do like you guys: wait and see ?

[jatrax]

Flickr Takes on 500px and Getty with New Commercial Licensing Platform
http://www.microstockgroup.com/flickr/flickr-launches-new-commercial-licensi...-martketplace/
Flickr Opens Photo-Selling Marketplace With Select Photographers
Flickr launches image marketplace initiative: Connect

Not much information available, just smoke so far. They state contributors will receive 51% of the net, which is quite high. No word on what the sale price might be or what the license terms might be. It is noted that Liz Lapp the former curator for Shutterstock will be the curator at Flickr marketplace. It is also not completely clear if they are selling digital downloads or printed and framed, or both.

Apparently an attempt by Yahoo to monetize the Flickr image library. However, the glaring issue will be locating an image in an uncurated, un-keyworded library. Other stock image libraries are keyworded, titled and captioned from the ground up. How Flickr will handle that will be interesting to see.

Also note that they have started selling creative commons images.
Is Flickr Selling Your Images as Wall Art? | Professional Microstock Forum

[stevebrot]

However, the glaring issue will be locating an image in an uncurated, un-keyworded library. Other stock image libraries are keyworded, titled and captioned from the ground up. How Flickr will handle that will be interesting to see.

The communication I received indicated that they will be be actively keywording images. How this might be done is anyone's guess. I suspect it probably helps if an image is already titled, keyworded, or has descriptive text.

As for the creative commons stuff...put something up and say its free, you have to expect someone will take you up on it.


Steve

[stevebrot]

No word on what the sale price might be or what the license terms might be.

Those are my concerns. Yahoo has a FAQ page and while complete, it is not particularly helpful.

https://help.yahoo.com/kb/flickr/SLN24532.html?impressions=true


Steve

[Sagitta]

Reading through the license agreement, I'm torn.

The "If anyone steals your stuff, we sick our corporate lawyers on them for you" part is negated by the "give up your moral rights" bit.

[jatrax]

The communication I received indicated that they will be be actively keywording images. How this might be done is anyone's guess.

Interesting, that is old school. But maybe the only way. Keywording is an art and expecting casual Flickr users to do that on their own is not likely to have a good result. But if they are selective about which images they chose and do the keywording professionally it might work out. There are certainly many, many excellent images on Flickr from photographers who never thought about selling them.

Did they give any indication how images are selected? By photographer or curator? If selected do all your images become eligible or just those you or someone nominates?

It seems they are offering RM, RF and "microstock", so I wonder if instead of actually selling the images they are really just going through a number of agencies. Or maybe just Getty who has all three license types.

Actually based on this:

+ Which Getty Images collection will my photo be sold through?

Any photos submitted for licensing and accepted by Flickr could appear in either a rights managed, royalty free or microstock collection.

I think it is just a relationship with Getty, Flickr is going to select, curate and keyword images and then feed them into Getty. Which part of Getty you end up in will be what decides what you get paid.

I would also assume that your 51% comes out of what Getty pays Flickr which is from what I hear about 15% of the actual sell price. So 51% of 15%.

---------- Post added 12-12-14 at 08:00 PM ----------

I suspect it probably helps if an image is already titled, keyworded, or has descriptive text.

Depends on if they use straight keywords or controlled vocabulary. If they use a CV then existing keywords may not be much help.

[stevebrot]

It seems they are offering RM, RF and "microstock", so I wonder if instead of actually selling the images they are really just going through a number of agencies. Or maybe just Getty who has all three license types.

My understanding is that Getty is one of several channels for licensing. One that is intriguing is exposure for direct-to-consumer sales as wall art and other stuff. From my invitation letter:

"We want to work with you to increase the visibility of your photos across multiple platforms such as wall art, photo agencies, editorial placements on Flickr and Yahoo, and other media outlets."

Steve

[stevebrot]

Depends on if they use straight keywords or controlled vocabulary. If they use a CV then existing keywords may not be much help.

There are tools (rules engines and NLP) that may be used for reliable conversion of terms and descriptive text into a CV. As with most things, where there is profit potential, there is a way.


Steve

[jpzk]

As I mentioned before, isn't it a bit awkward to link one's Paypal account there?
What do you people say ?

[stevebrot]

As I mentioned before, isn't it a bit awkward to link one's Paypal account there?
What do you people say ?

Awkward for the photographer, but convenient for Flickr and definitely good for Paypal. I guess one would have to consider the alternatives, particularly when you add in direct-to-consumer sales. I for one would not be interested in sharing my bank account number for electronic fund transfer. A payment escrow service like Paypal is a reasonable solution.

Steve

[jatrax]

As I mentioned before, isn't it a bit awkward to link one's Paypal account there? What do you people say ?

I've heard other people mention a concern about Paypal but I have never understood it. After all, transferring funds for online sales is what they do. I have mine linked to all the agencies I submit to and it has worked flawlessly for years. I make a sale and the money shows up in my Paypal account. I use it as my business account and business purchases are made out of it with a debit card, as well as payments coming in.

I do keep a relatively small balance in the account so if it got hacked the loss is small. Much better than having your checking account linked for direct transfer which is the only alternative in some cases. Most agencies really hate to send checks and penalize you by charging a fee to do that.

All that is in the US though, not sure about other countries and I know in some places Paypal either does not work or there are additional fees involved that people dislike. As I understand it those restrictions and fees are due to the individual countries banking laws, not Paypal. But that's just what I have read.

PS: You should change your Paypal to a "merchant account" if you are going to receive funds. There is an amount above which they require that but I do not remember what it is.

[NicoleC]

It seems they are offering RM, RF and "microstock", so I wonder if instead of actually selling the images they are really just going through a number of agencies. Or maybe just Getty who has all three license types.

Actually based on this:
I think it is just a relationship with Getty, Flickr is going to select, curate and keyword images and then feed them into Getty. Which part of Getty you end up in will be what decides what you get paid.

I would also assume that your 51% comes out of what Getty pays Flickr which is from what I hear about 15% of the actual sell price. So 51% of 15%.

My guess would be that they are becoming one of Getty's "partner" sites. A typical RF stock image sale in the standard Getty collection on a partner site pays 28 cents, at least it's what Getty pays direct to stock contributors.