Pay-per-use versus pay-what-you-want: contrasting approach from new agencies
Two new picture agencies are attempting to break into the stock image market with their own innovative licensing models.
GumGum intends on providing new services reserved to online publishers. Images bought from GumGum cannot be used in print or off-line publications. Launched this month in the US, the service offers two different licensing models - pay-per-use and ad-supported.
Pay-per-use allows publishers to licence content on a cost-per-mille basis. The user will pay an image according to the number of online views registered by a tracking code linked to the image. In the ad-supported scheme, publishers do not pay to use an image. However, an advertising unit is displayed with the picture. The revenue generated is used to pay the content owner.
'We believe paying a flat rate to licence content for online use is illogical,' the founders say. 'Offline, the flat rate model works because distribution is finite. Online, a story lives forever'.
Meanwhile, Moodboard, a new UK-based online stock image library, offers royalty-free images in a pay-what-you-want scheme. The company was formed by Mike Watson, founder of Digital Vision, which Getty Images acquired in 2005 for $165m.
The site offers microstock, royalty-free and rights-ready images in four different packages. While most of the images available on Moodboard follow the traditional royalty-free business model, Moodboard Unlimited makes it possible for users to set their own prices on photos purchases.
'Moodboard has been created in direct response to what the design industry wants,' says Watson. Kirsty Hunt, a spokeswoman for Moodboard, says agency that is trying new things to change the status quo imposed by leading stock libraries.
For more information, visit www.gumgum.com and www.moodboard.com.
