The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in 2024
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In case you haven’t noticed, at Stock Photo Secrets, we LOVE stock photos! And this passion leads us to know it all about the stock photo market – and stock media as a whole.
This resourceful, versatile, and accessible market does a great job serving every creative’s visual needs, and we think it’s time for you to know all about it too!
Join us in this complete stock photo research, a full overview of the stock photo market today, and discover just how big and wide this industry is and everything you can get from it!
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April 6th. 2023 Breaking News: Shutterstock is Collaborating with AI for Good to Advance Responsible AI Solutions Shutterstock announced recently that they're participating in ITU's AI for Good platform to find ethical AI applications that help progress some of the UN's Social Development Goals. As part of this collaboration, two Shutterstock executives will deliver a keynote on the upcoming AI for Good Summit in July 2023. This is consistent with Shutterstock's defined stance of creating ethical AI tools and impulsing an industry standard for responsible and inclusive use of AI tech, which includes developing their own AI image generator trained with legal images only, creating a Contributor Fund to compensate artists for the use of their work in AI model training, and launching the Create Fund to finance excluded artists to produce niche, authentic content. To learn more about the initiative and Shutterstock's involvement you can read here.
April 6th. 2023 Latest Information: EyeEm Filed for Bankruptcy in Germany The photo-sharing and stock photo marketplace platform EyeEm has reportedly filed for bankruptcy in Germany, where the company is based. This news comes less than a year after being acquired by Swiss investment group New Value AG (Talenthouse AG). Reasons for the filing can be speculated, but there are no clear news as to what will happen to the brand and platform moving forward. Find out everything we know about what happened to EyeEm.
April 3rd. 2023 Last Incoming: Midjourney Stops Free Trials for AI Image Generation Amid Fake Photos Controversy The popular AI Image generator Midjourney has officially halted its free trial access until new notice, citing user abuse and GPU shortages as the reasons. This decision coincided with the viralization of fake photos created by users on Midjourney, that caught mainstream media attention as they were confused with real images at first, sparkling a debate about the legality and ethic responsibility in such a tool, and questioning Midjourney's terms of use. Get informed on the situation with Midjourney's free trial and fake photos here.
March 23rd. 2023 News Today: Canva Announces new AI Features and More Updates in Canva Create 2023 Canva's annual event Canva Create 2023 happened and the company made big announcements in it. New Magic, AI-powered features to make visual creation and editing easier than ever, along with some user-requested features; a new Brand Hub that improves and replaces the Brand Kit, and more. Get the scope on everything coming to Canva this year, here.
March 21st. 2023 Just In: Adobe Joins the AI Game with Adobe Firefly Creative software giant Adobe has finally made public Adobe Firefly, a family of generative AI models that will be integrated into the different apps in the Adobe ecosystem. At this time, they have released a text-to-image generator and a tool to create stylized text, but more features to create and edit different types of media content are to come soon enough. Here you can read everything about Adobe Firefly's features.
March 20th. 2023 Breaking: The USCO Says AI-Generated Media Cannot be Copyrighted The US Copyright Office sent out a new guidance today that establishes that AI-generated images are considered machine-made (not human-made) and thus they do not meet the criteria to be copyrighted. They do add that if sufficient human influence in the creative process can be proven, then the resulting creation might be copyrightable. This relevant policy might pave the way for the incipient legal frame for AI-generated media. To get all the details about the USCO's new AI image guidance, read our article.
March 15th. 2023 Out Today: OpenAI Launched ChatGPT 4, an AI that Understands Images The AI tech lab OpenAI announced today the rolling out of ChatGPT 4, the latest version of their language-processing AI software, which is now a multimodal AI application capable of analyzing both visual and text prompts with impressive capabilities. Discover ChatGPT4 and its applications here.
February 7th. 2023 Latest News: Getty Images Sues Stability AI for Copyright Infringement in the US Following the lawsuit they introduced in the UK last month, Getty Images has now sued Stability AI --the developers behind Stable Diffusion-- for alleged copyright infringement in the US. The agency maintains their claim that the startup copied and processed millions of Getty's images to use in AI training for Stable Diffusion, without permission. See how this story unfolds so far, here.
January 25th. 2023 Just Out: Shutterstock Launched Shutterstock Generate, Its Own AI Image Generator Shutterstock has unveiled their very own AI Image Generator, named Shutterstock Generate, which is built on the Dall-E 2 model (through partnership with OpenAI) but has the particularity of being trained exclusively with Shutterstock content, and thus being a lot safer, legally speaking. Furthermore, the images created with Generate are under a royalty-free license, deemed suitable for commercial use. Learn it all about Shutterstock Generate here.
January 17th. 2023 Getty Images is Suing Stable Diffusion for Copyright Infringment in the UK Getty Images has filed a lawsuit in the UK against Stability AI, the startup responsible for the AI image generator Stable Diffusion, alleging they have infringed the companies' copyright as well as that of the artists they represent, by using images from Getty's library to train the AI generative model, without authorization or compensation. See more information about this latest development here.
January 12th. 2023 Shutterstock Expands Its Partnership with Meta Today Shutterstock and Meta announced that they're expanding their long-term collaboration for AI tech development, and that Shutterstock will be providing legally-safe datasets to train Meta's new AI capabilities, confluenting both companies' commitment in AI innovation. Find out all about this ongoing partnership between Meta and Shutterstock here.
December 22nd. 2022 Latest Announcement: PantherMedia Welcomes AI Image Submissions PantherMedia issued a communication today saying they will now accept AI-generated images from contributors. Their submission requirements for this type of imagery includes a series of steps to grant the legality and ethic source of the pictures. All the details about PantherMedia's AI image submission guidelines are in here.
December 19th. 2022 News Today: Dreamstime is Accepting AI-Generated Images on Its Library Dreamstime informed contributors that it will now accept AI-genereated visuals to license on its platform, albeit adding a few requirements to ensure transparency and legal safety. One of said requirements means that they will not have "fake people photos" (AI-generated images of people's faces) on its library. For more info on Dreamstime's conditions for AI image submissions read here.
December 5th. 2022 Now: Adobe Stock Opens for AI Generated Images Submissions Adobe Stock announced today that they're officially accepting AI-generated images from contributors to license on its marketplace. The agency has new, dedicated guidelines for AI image submissions that seek to ensure an ethical, responsible and legal use of AI generative tools, as well as a legally safer background for photo buyers. Here you can read all about the new submission requirements for AI-generated photos on Adobe Stock.
November 10th. 2022 Just Out: Canva Launched Its Own AI Text-to-Image Generator Canva made its proprietary AI image generator available on its platform today. The new tool is accessible from a button on Canva's design panel, and it lets you generate four images at a time from a text description. You may also use style filters to define how the image should look, and further edit the image with Canva's editing features. For more information on Canva's Text-to-Image read this article.
October 25th. 2022 Annnounced Today: Getty Images Partnered with BRIA for Ethical AI Visual Tools The prestigious Getty Images has announced its entrance into the AI tech space, through a partnership with BRIA, an AI-focused company with a strong ethical approach to AI visuals. The collaboration will initially develop AI image editing features to offer to Getty's customers, but will in the future include powerful transformative tools to combine stock images with custom AI visual elements. Read all the details about Getty and BRIA's partnership here.
October 25th. 2022 Brand News: Shutterstock Partners with OpenAI for New, Ethical AI Image Generator Shutterstock has announced today that they partnered with OpenAI to bring a Dall-E-like, text-to-image generating tool named Shutterstock Generate onto Shutterstock's website in the coming months. This new AI model is trained solely with Shutterstock content, and its contributors will be compensated for their work's participation in training datasets and the download of AI-generated images resulted from them. Learn it all about the new Shutterstock Generate tool here.
October 5th. 2022 Launched Today: Unsplash rolled out Unsplash+ Paid Membership Popular free stock photo site Unsplash --owned by Getty Images-- announced today the launching of Unsplash+, a new paid subscription that gives users access to premium content with unlimited downloads, and royalty-free licensing, among other perks. Get the full details of this new service here.
October 5th. 2022 Out Today: Freepik Acquired Iconfinder and Original Mockups It was formally communicated today that Spanish stock graphics platform Freepik has acquired competitor company Iconfinder and 3D graphics provider Original Mockups. Both companies will be merged into Freepik's platform, increasing the value in its offer and hopefully positioning it as a complete graphic resources provider. For more information read the full news report here.
August 30th. 2022 Newly Announced: Shutterstock Partners with Fiverr Today it was announced that freelance marketplace Fiverr and Shutterstock have partnered, to integrate Shutterstock's assets into the design services platform, making them available to license and use in projects designed on the site. This way, both companies hope to better serve the freelancer creative community, and the end users. All the details of this integration can be found here.
May 31st. 2022 Latest News: Shutterstock Acquired Splash News Just today, Shutterstock announced the acquisition of Splash News, a leading provider of celebrity, red carpet and live events, editorial imagery. Splash News' extensive photo and video archive as well as tens of thousands of freshly new images will be added to Shutterstock Editorial and The Newsroom service, furthering the agency's plans to dominate the editorial licensing market. Full details on this acquisition can be found here.
May 11th. 2022 Just Announced: Shutterstock Acquired Pond5 It was released today that Shutterstock bought video-first marketplace Pond5 for $210 million cash, and they will integrate Pond5's collections into their services for global customers, in an effort to build the world's largest premium video and editorial content provider. The complete coverage and details on the transaction are here.
December 13th. 2021 Recent Announcement: Getty Images Becomes Publicly Traded (again) It was recently communicated that prestigious stock photo agency Getty Images will go public in the NYSE at an enterprise value of $4.8 Billion. The operation, that sees the company acquired by a SPAC and comes after Getty being privately traded for 13 years, will be completed within the first half of 2022. All the details on this strategic move by Getty Images here.
October 28th. 2021 Latest News: Depositphotos Acquired by VistaPrint Depositphotos Group announced today that they are now part of global design company VistaPrint. The acquisition means that Depositphotos stock agency will remai operating as a separate brand, yet will accelerate product development, expanding their tean, growing its library and increasing presence in North America and Europe. Crello, Depositphotos' user-friendly image editor, is now rebranded VistaCreate and integrated to Vista parent brand. The companies say they will be hiring new talent and rolling out exciting updates in the coming times. More information about Depositphotos' acquisition here.
October 26th. 2021 Out Today: Shutterstock Introduces Flex 25 Plan + Creative Workflow Tools Shutterstock rolled out their quarterly product update today, including Flex 25, a multimedia subscription for single users that lets you download stock images, stock videos, and stock music files indistinctly. Very similar to what iStock added to their offer a few months back. It's a good resource for small budgets with multiple content needs. Plus, they also launched two new features within their incipient Creative Workflow suite, that aim at enhancing creativity and collaboration for Enterprise customers, and a new AI-powered music search tool. Like this, the agency continues on its path to take on competitors like Adobe Creative Cloud with a complete workflow solution for visual content creation. Get all the details on these new Shutterstock developments here.
September 7th. 2021 Newly Announced: Shutterstock Acquired PicMonkey Shutterstock made it public today that they acquired PicMonkey, a popular graphic design and image editing software with a user-friendly concept that doesn't require design skills. The company intends to integrate PicMonkey's tools to their offer, giving Shutterstock subscribers the chance to create stunning visual content easily and faster. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's pretty much exactly what Canva design platform offers to its customers. Shutterstock --and the stock photo industry in general-- have seen the value in integrating design software and stock media resources in an accessible-for-all concept, and now they're set to build their own. Learn it all about this move and what PicMonkey by Shutterstock will offer here.
July 29th. 2021 Latest news: Shutterstock Launches Shutterstock.AI, acquires 3 AI-based platforms Just today it was announced that Shutterstock acquired 3 companies providing AI-powered marketing services, and they also launched their own subsidiary, Shutterstock.AI where they will offer content discovery and performance prediction services fueled by AI-analysis of their large image bank. Exciting! Get all the details on this launch and the newly-acquired companies here.
March 30th. 2021 Just In: Getty Images Acquired Unsplash The latest news in the stock photo market is today's acquisition of free photo library and community Unsplash by the prestigious stock media powerhouse Getty Images, a move that promises to bring interesting developments in the industry! Read the full article on the acquisition, including industry experts' comments.
How Big is the Stock Photo Market?
| Market Size - Number of Companies | 30+ dominant agencies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue Generation | $4 Billion by 2023 | |||
| Industry Growth Rate | 5% Annually | |||
| Main Product | Still images (Stock Photos and Vector Illustrations) | |||
| Number of Images Available | 350 million+ | |||
| Geographic segmentation | North America, Europe, APAC and ROW. |
Not bad, huh? And wait until you know this!
How about that? This is no niche market, my friend! Especially when you consider this industry is 100 years old.
And it's not only about photos, though they sure are the most prominent:
And where are all these original images coming from?
As you see, many photo buyer prefers stock images over custom photography. For marketing and advertising, for social media like Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, to illustrate a blog post or to add visual impact to an app. Creatives around the world are using stock photos to make it happen.
This is a prolific and very interesting market to analyze and as an avid stock photo researcher, I'm all for it.
Ready to dwell into the details?
Stock Photo Agencies: Know the Players, Know the Game
Let’s start with the seller side. Now when you think of stock photos, you may assume the seller would be a stock photographer. But in the stock photo market, you actually buy from a middleman: the stock photo agencies.
These companies compile large catalogs of professional photos created by talented artists –what we call stock photo libraries— cleared for commercial purposes, and they sell/manage licenses for their use in exchange for a fee, later splitting the profit with the artists.
Let’s get to know these players better!
- Traditional or macrostock agencies – Most of them got started way before the Internet era, later jumping onto the web and digitalizing their libraries, but sticking to their system of selling Rights Managed images on demand, which are custom and tend to be costly.
- Microstock agencies – They surged in the early 00s with the boom of massive Internet access and revolutionized the stock photography industry. These are online-based businesses that sell flexible, preset Royalty Free licenses at very low prices under a micropayment system based on volume sales, be it on-demand packages or monthly/annual subscriptions.
While some traditional agencies are still very important in the industry –Getty Images, anyone?–, microstock agencies have completely taken over the market in the last almost two decades and some of the biggest names in the field –like Shutterstock, iStock… — work under the microstock model. For this reason, at Stock Photo Secrets we focus almost exclusively on them.
This is quite a dynamic space, too. There's a continuous emergence of new companies, others that close their doors, and a constant flow of acquisitions, fusions, partnerships, and what have you. To keep up with all these headlines and announcements, we have a dedicated News section you should check!
Top Stock Photo Agencies
| Stock Photo Agencies | Images in Library | Year of Launch | Subscription Plans | On-demand Purchases | License Type | Pricing Range per Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stockphotos.com | 8 million+ | 2020 | Yes | Yes | Royalty Free | $0,29 to $12 |
| iStock | 100 million+ | 2000 | Yes | Yes | Royalty Free | $0,21 to $33 |
| Shutterstock | 220 million+ | 2003 | Yes | Yes | Royalty Free | $0,26 to $9,80 |
| Getty Images | Hundreds of millions | 1995 | No (tailored enterprise solutions) | Yes | Rights Managed - additionally Royalty Free (not all images) | $115 to thousands of dollars |
| Adobe Stock | 160 million+ | 2015 | Yes | Yes | Royalty Free | $0,26 to $9,99 |
| Photocase | Millions of images | 2001 | No | Yes | Royalty Free | $8 to $20 |
| Depositphotos | 100 million+ | 2009 | Yes | Yes | Royalty Free | $0,22 to $4,90 |
| 123RF | 110 million+ | 2005 | Yes | Yes | Royalty Free | $0,22 to $10 |
| Dreamstime | 105 million+ | 2004 | Yes | Yes | Royalty Free | |
| Bigstock | 82 milion+ | 2004 | Yes | Yes | Royalty Free | $0.16 to $21 |
| Photodune | Millions | 2011 | No | Yes | Royalty Free | $2 to $30 |
| Storyblocks | 400,00+ in wholly-owned library / 10 million+ in contributor's marketplace | 2017 (2001) | Yes | Yes (contributors' marketplace only) | Royalty Free | Cents (unlimited downloads) to $9,99 |
The companies at top of the game today are mostly early birds that got the worms, pioneers that launched in the early 00s when digital imagery, mass access to the Internet, and online shopping was relatively new. However, they deserve all the credit for growing their business and maintaining their position across almost two decades in an increasingly competitive space, and most of all for redefining the stock media industry as a whole.
Just a glance over their websites is enough to know these agencies are huge today: high-end designs, top-notch technology, massive image libraries, great offers, and cool bonus services are common traits among them.
To know them in-depth, see our list of the 20+ Best Stock Photo Sites. To learn more about one agency in particular, visit our Stock Agencies section, full of detailed reviews!
But let’s have a quick roundup right now anyway:
Stockphotos.com
-You must be 18+ years old and the copyright owner of your images.
-Images with recognizable people or private property must include the appropriate release documents.
-Photos must be 4MP or higher.
-You submit them to a parent company (Ingram) and opt in to sell your work across various partners, including Stockphotos.com.
-Non-exclusive distribution only.
-Royalty-free licenses only.
-Royalty rates are up to 40%
-Minimum payout is $50
Sign up here to become a contributor to Stockphotos.com
![iStock Banner > The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]](https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/iStock-Banner.jpg "The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]")
- Visit iStock Website
- Read our iStock Review
- Save with our iStock Promo Code
-You must be 18+ of age and hold the copyright of all the submitted work.
-You must provide model releases and property releases when applicable.
-Photo requirements are minimum 720 x 960px, 5kb, and maximum 9000 x 9000px, 3GB.
-You apply from their parent company's contributor app (on iOS or Android), with 6 samples of your work. Video samples are submitted via YouTube link only.
-The company reviews your samples and informs you if you've been accepted. Sometimes, you might be offered to also sell on Getty Images.
-You start as a non-exclusive contributor, you might apply to become exclusive after getting in.
-Royalty-free licenses only (you can apply as an Editorial contributor, separately).
-Royalty rates are 15% for photos and 20% for vectors and videos. Exclusive contributors earn between 25% and 45% per sale.
Get the Contributor by Getty Images app for iOS – for Android
![Shutterstock Banner > The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]](https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Shutterstock-Banner.jpg "The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]")
-Only 18 year-olds and older may apply and must be copyright owners of all content they submit.
-Model and property releases are required.
-Photos must be at least 4MP.
-You apply through the Shutterstock Contributor portal (there is a Contributor app available, later on).
-Submit 10 initial images. You'll be informed of approval or rejection (including rejection reasons, so you can improve and try again).
-Non-exclusive deals only.
-Royalty-free licenses only.
-Royalty rates increase in a level scheme based on your volume of sales. Ranges from 15% to 40%.
Sign up to become a Shutterstock contributor here
![Getty Images Banner > The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]](https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Getty-Images-Banner.jpg "The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]")
- Visit Getty Images
- Read our Getty Images Review
- Buy at a lower price with Getty Images Ultrapacks
-Getty Images has much higher quality standards, so it's harder to get in.
-They offer exclusive distribution deals only.
-They work with both royalty-free and rights-managed licenses.
Get the Getty Images Contributor app for iOS – for Android
![Adobe Stock Banner > The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]](https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Adobe-Stock-Banner.jpg "The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]")
-All contributors must be 18 or older, and legal owners of the submitted content.
-Model releases and property releases are required when appropriate.
-Photos must be a minimum of 4 MP.
-Apply through the Adobe Stock website, with your Adobe ID (which you can create for free).
-Submit samples of your work for their approval.
-Non-exclusive contract by default. You can apply for exclusive/premium distribution.
-Royalty-free licenses only.
-Royalty rate is 33%.
Submit your work to Adobe Stock
![Photocase Banner > The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]](https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Photocase-Banner.jpg "The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]")
- Visit Photocase
- Read our Photocase Review
- Save with our exclusive Photocase Coupon Code
![123RF Banner > The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]](https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/123RF-Banner.jpg "The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]")
- Visit 123RF
- Read our 123Rf Review
- Save more with our 123RF Offer
![Dreamstime Banner > The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]](https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dreamstime-Banner.jpg "The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]")
- Visit Dreamstime
- Read our Dreamstime Review
![Bigstock Banner > The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]](https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bigstock-Banner.jpg "The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]")
- Visit Bigstock
- Read our Bigstock Review
- Save big with our Bigstock Coupon Code
![Photodune Banner > The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]](https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Photodune-Banner.jpg "The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]")
![Storyblocks Banner > The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]](https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Storyblocks-Banner.jpg "The Stock Photo Market: What, Who, How and Where of Stock Photos in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]")
What About Free Stock Photo Sites?
You may wonder why we aren't including those stock photography websites that offer stock images free of charge. After all, there are a lot of creatives that when in need of a picture or illustration, resort to these sites that let them download images for free, usually under a variation of creative commons license or under public domain.
There are two main reasons as a researcher we are not focusing on these providers:
Not as relevant – The fact they don't generate revenue makes it less valuable info for buyers and sellers alike.
Not as useful – Public domain images and free stock photos in general, are just not as valuable as paid royalty-free images. It's very often impossible to know the copyright holder has actually given permission to have the pictures distributed this way, as well as granting all models and property depicted are correctly waived for commercial use. Add that several creative commons licenses require attribution. Way too many risks and hassles to use these images safely.
Stock Photo Buyers: Meet your Tribe
Let’s now turn to the other side and look at who buys stock photos. You know why YOU need them, but have you ever been curious to know what other people do with stock images? Being such a profitable industry, have you wondered in what kind of company you are as a customer to stock photo agencies? This is where you get your answers.
Stock Photography Has a Transversal Customer Base
Perhaps because of the affordable nature of the offers, one could assume the buyer bunch in this market would be made out just of little fish, but that’s not the case. Yes, small and medium-sized budgets are still making up for a considerable portion of stock photo buyers, but this product attracts bigger companies and even large corporations too, for the same reasons: it’s an instant solution to a problem (and larger businesses tend to have a bigger and more periodic visual content needs) and it’s very cost-effective. Plus, many agencies offer premium accounts and enterprise services that are tailored to the higher end of the buyer side.
Like this, you can be a graphic designer kickstarting your freelance career and committing a hundred bucks a month to a stock photo subscription for materials, and the customer next to you may well be a Fortune 500 company seizing the deal with a large volume subscription and downloading hundreds of images every month.
Stock Photos are a Must for the Creative Community
These are the people that turn stock images into finalized, unique visuals. And the photography element is an essential part of their work.
For the creative community stock photography solves many needs at once and so a lot of the stock photo agencies’ services and bonus features are aimed at them: free image editing tools for basic graphic design, intelligent image search engines, reverse image search, curated image collections, blog posts and more additionals that intend to help inspire their creativity and ease their workflow.
Businesses are the Most Prominent Clients
As we said not long ago, businesses of all kinds and all sizes are benefitting from stock pictures. This includes one-man projects, startups, mamas and papas shops, medium-sized companies, and big corporate organizations. And you will find people buying images to use in anything from flower shops and Etsy-like projects to banking and global product brands.
Be it for marketing and advertising, social media presence, or brand image awareness, businesses and people working for them certainly get the best from stock photos.
The Publishing Crowd is Into Stock Images Too
For the same reasons businesses choose stock imagery, the publishing field also benefits from affordable and professional-like photographs. Editorial content becomes more attractive when visuals are part of it, and having pictures available to include in blog posts, online publishing, books, eBooks, and the like at low prices are very appealing to publishers.
While most commercial-ready stock photographs work to use in publications, these customers tend to be after a type of images that can only be offered for editorial purposes: newsworthy shots, celebrity portraits, etc.
Because most of the people depicted in such images have not (and will not) authorize the use of their likeness for commercial use, it’s absolutely illegal to use them in that way. But they can, however, be used just for editorial reasons like informing and covering issues of public interest.
As more and more bloggers and publishers are out there looking for cheap photos for their content, stock photo agencies are more and more eager to build large collections of editorial stock images to cater to their needs, and having editorial-marked stock photos simplifies photo research for publishers too.
Stock Images are Good for Public Entities, NGOs, and Non-Profits
In a sense, their needs are the same as those of marketing and advertising, only with a different objective. So, of course, stock photography works for them, especially since it’s a low-cost alternative and most of these groups work on tight budgets or at least see great value in spending less.
The Future of the Stock Photo Market: Where Are We Going
We mentioned early on that experts are projecting $4 Billion in revenues from stock imagery in 2023. But beyond the numbers, where is the industry going?
The answer branches out in different ways, but they all stem from the same tech: AI. Artificial Intelligence is the next big thing in the digital, visual, creative world. It's already in use across the top stock photo agencies, in the form of image recognition to improve search results like Adobe Stock has, for example. But that is just scratching the surface in terms of what's to come.
Shutterstock recently made a big move towards the future with the launching of Shutterstock.AI, a subsidiary where they will offer AI-powered solutions for creatives. They already spent $35 million buying three AI services companies for this purpose, and are working to leverage all the data from their huge catalog and members' base to create efficient tools for content selection and performance prediction.
And there are other shoulder companies exploring AI as well. Generated Photos is innovating by offering AI-generated images of people that look realistic and, being fake, are safer to use commercially. Plus the many tools for AI art generation that have been developed lately. Just a few examples.
The actions from Shutterstock –known for being tech-driven– are a strong indicator that we will see AI-powered stock media more and more in coming years. Useful and creative solutions such as identifying faces, predicting the best images for specific audiences, and generating images from text briefs are some of the developments we might see around very soon.
Move Around the Stock Photo Market like a Connoisseur
And that’s the end of the tour! You now know more about the two sides of this vibrant industry that online stock photography is, and have more insider knowledge to use in your favor.
Having a better idea of who the stock photo agencies are, why they do what they do, and how others are using their services surely gives you a greater understanding of where you’re standing in the stock photo market, and also of where this business is going from here.
Did you know any of these details about the stock photo market? How do you plan to use these insights in the road ahead? Do let us know!
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