I have been thinking about this for a while now. The microstock revolution started a few years ago but it still felt very old. It changed the game mostly for producers of content, opening the door for an entire new breed of photographers. Now you can fairly easily pay for your hobby with income from microstock and thousands are doing it.
One thing that hasn’t really changed is the licensing. There are two main choices, royalty free(RF) and rights managed(RM). RF images are paid for once and used forever. This is the main license for most microstock sites. RM images are paid for based on where and when they will be used. For example if I wanted to use a RM image for a magazine I would be charged based on how long I wanted the rights and how big my subscriber base is.
GumGum is out to change all that with a very web based pricing model designed specifically for images used on the web. GumGum wants to use a CPM model. CPM is a term that means “Cost Per Thousand, (no idea why it is not CPT). This is a pricing model used heavily in the online ad space. As a photographer I can upload an image and set my CPM pricing. Then a designer comes along and gets code to place my image on there site. GumGum keeps track of the impressions and charges the designer. This has a couple of interesting aspects from a photographers point of view:
- I continue getting revenue for the life of my image on a site, assuming people are still looking at the page. This is similar to a RM license but last forever.
- The image size you are uploading in theory can’t really be used for prints etc. The technology they use also helps stop a lot of typical image theft tricks.
From a designers point of view I think they get a fairly low cost image (the the video below $.20 per CPM) so they don’t have to pay a lot if the site/page is not successfully.
There are a lot of other things that are pretty cool. Check out the demo video below or go to the GumGum site.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Nick Davis 02.15.08 at 11:22 pm
Hey Bill, I like the new look of the site! Very clean and professional looking. Are you signed up with GumGum, or is this another potential one for you?
Bill 02.16.08 at 9:01 am
Right now it is just a potential since last I checked there upload was still broken. I will give them a try though. I like the model.
Nick Davis 02.17.08 at 9:03 pm
Looks interesting…we’ll save you from MicroStock yet!