Thursday, September 11, 2008
PhotoShelter Collection Failure
My heart sank today as I read an email from PhotoShelter announcing that the PhotoShelter Collection is closing. I have spent hundreds of hours over the past year getting over one-thousand stock images on-line and pushed through their incredibly difficult keywording system. There are hundreds of other photographers in the same position.
Honestly, I never expected Digital Railroad and PhotoShelter to both succeed longer term. They were too similar to one another, but I didn't expect PhotoShelter to bail out so fast.
As one of many who have invested so much time with them as a stock agency, I was very angered by CEO Allen Murabayashi blog posting blaming their failure on the industry instead of their own incompetence and failure as business people. Listing things like Getty's dominance, PhotoShelter's inability to succeed on the research request market, and the "crowd-source model for stock will likely never work", Mr. Murabayashi is oblivious to all of the other profitable stock agencies in the marketplace who are succeeding on those very fronts and whose names are not "Getty", the most notable of which are Alamy and Digital Railroad. (DR certainly beat PhotoShelter to the research request market and appears to be doing quite well.)
One thing that is not debatable is that it takes a long, long time to gain traction in the stock industry. The fact that the PhotoShelter Collection didn't have the resolve or the capital to build a business over the longer time makes me highly question their ability to be sustainable as a company, even though they've pledge to keep operating the Photoshelter Archive. As of this writing the galleries and search features of my website are all driven by and integrated with my images on the PhotoShelter Archive. Now I, and all of their photographers I believe, will have to reevaluate that as PhotoShelter no longer deserves our faith and confidence.
How many weeks will be before an email appears completely out of nowhere, just like the one we received today, announcing that the PhotoShelter Archive is dead? All customer lightboxes inaccessible? All integrated websites non-function effective immediately?
Honestly, I never expected Digital Railroad and PhotoShelter to both succeed longer term. They were too similar to one another, but I didn't expect PhotoShelter to bail out so fast.
As one of many who have invested so much time with them as a stock agency, I was very angered by CEO Allen Murabayashi blog posting blaming their failure on the industry instead of their own incompetence and failure as business people. Listing things like Getty's dominance, PhotoShelter's inability to succeed on the research request market, and the "crowd-source model for stock will likely never work", Mr. Murabayashi is oblivious to all of the other profitable stock agencies in the marketplace who are succeeding on those very fronts and whose names are not "Getty", the most notable of which are Alamy and Digital Railroad. (DR certainly beat PhotoShelter to the research request market and appears to be doing quite well.)
One thing that is not debatable is that it takes a long, long time to gain traction in the stock industry. The fact that the PhotoShelter Collection didn't have the resolve or the capital to build a business over the longer time makes me highly question their ability to be sustainable as a company, even though they've pledge to keep operating the Photoshelter Archive. As of this writing the galleries and search features of my website are all driven by and integrated with my images on the PhotoShelter Archive. Now I, and all of their photographers I believe, will have to reevaluate that as PhotoShelter no longer deserves our faith and confidence.
How many weeks will be before an email appears completely out of nowhere, just like the one we received today, announcing that the PhotoShelter Archive is dead? All customer lightboxes inaccessible? All integrated websites non-function effective immediately?
Labels: Photoshelter
posted by Terry Smith Images at
1:12 PM
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6 Comments:
I agree. My exact thoughts on this. Strangely enough I cancelled my PhotoShelter Personal Archive account yesterday, because I felt they had abandoned it and only focused on the Collection. My gut feeling was right I see today.
Very disappointing!
Amen Brotha!
One year is way to short to pull out that abruptly. They raised 4.5 million of dollars two years ago and its gone already? I'm canceling right away.
I had not nearly as many images, but I was rather upset about this announcement. Somehow I was not surprised, although I really thought they would try longer. I inquired with other photographers that I know are quite successful if they made a sale through Photoshelter, but no.
I myself never made any sales with them (but I have made many, even significant ones, directly from my own website).
It is too bad, I really liked the concept, although did not care much about the quality of many pictures I saw accepted.
I'm with you all the way. Any sensible entrepreneur knows that to attempt to establish a company with stiff competition you need at least five years' worth of capital. If you don't have it, forget it ! PS was alive for a very short time, which means they had not only little capital but little business acumen.
As for the PhotoShelter Archive, I wouldn't touch it if they paid me. I see another pink slip on the horizon. Isn't funny that Allen's blog is in pink ? And he announced on 9/11 - very poor judgement.
There are WAY too many stock portals out there right now and I probably get one or two invites a day to join some sort of portfolio hosting site that promises tons of traffic but delivers almost none.
Due diligence is the name of the game folks, ask for references, check them and reach out to peers before wasting good money and valuable time on all the snake oil out there in worldwidewebland.
I think the guys making the most money in stock are niche focused and are selling direct to clients. The agency model, while not dead, is in serious need of a revamp. When a company like Getty, who as we all know is the largest stock provider, appears to be struggling, you need to really look at who you're selling through.
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