Getty Continues To Destroy The Ability To Make A Living Selling Photos
Read this article about how a recent deal between Getty and Google continues to drive photographer’s ability to make a living into the ground. Doesn’t’ surprise me. The business model of giving something away for FREE, or virtually so, is a proven money-maker for eventual profits on additional related services. Make no mistake about it, Google and Getty eventually do make money, on searches, Google ads, data mining and the like. And they do so in the Billions of dollars. It’s one thing if the owner of the products (photos being represented by Getty) are the ones to make the decision to hand out free, or nearly free images, in hopes of making additional money later on. It’s another thing to have an agent you’ve trusted with your products (photos) to take it upon themselves to make the decision to give your work away for you. As I’ve said to our guests of our Invitational Photo Tours, “anybody can give anything away for free. Hold out for a reasonable and fair payment and if they pay, you then know your work is good. If not, you need to work harder.” Thanks to A Photo Editor, Rob Haggart, for bringing this to the world’s attention.
