After Part I (Oct. 28, 2004) of "A New Paradigm Shift In Stock Photography" Part II is online.
Part I kept an eye on recent developments, particularly online micro-payment agencies like Can Stock Photo, Dreamstime, iStockPhoto and RF Subscription model agencies like ShutterStock.
Part II looks at four additional online marketplaces for stock image sales like Absolute Stock, Acclaim Images, My Loupe, The Stock Solution and -- what they call "other options not covered in this review" -- hubs like Photographers Direct, Digital Railroad, Independent Photography Network (IPNStock), mySite/myLoupe and Mira.
No blandishments, the review gets straight down to the nitty-gritty, e.g.:
Some might ask why we did not include Mira.com, the stock agency of the Creative Eye Cooperative, in our list of online stock photo marketplaces? The answer is because Mira has been around for over seven years now, and little has changed. This agency (which originally started with the digital collections of the ASMP photographers who opted into their "in house" stock agency) keeps trying to re-invent itself every few years, but never seems to get off the ground and into mainstream e-commerce. On the days we visited their site, searches were slow and their current e-commerce solution seemed clumsy. It was also difficult to get online price quotes for rights managed images. Mira's new technology partnership with ImageSpan Inc. may solve these problems, but Mira's photographers have heard of similar claims before. This is a shame, because of all the agencies we've reviewed in this article, Mira has the highest quality content.
The final advice ("Conclusions & Recommendations") where to turn to -- "being based on the current statistics" -- seems to be somehow delusive, but this doesn´t affect the overall quality of the review published at InkJetArt.
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