{"id":972,"date":"2020-06-26T08:57:30","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T06:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/luisafumi.com\/blog\/?p=972"},"modified":"2020-06-26T08:57:30","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T06:57:30","slug":"a-pebble-in-the-pond-a-free-artists-marketplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/luisafumi-digitalart.com\/blog\/a-pebble-in-the-pond-a-free-artists-marketplace\/","title":{"rendered":"A pebble in the pond: a free Artists\u2019 Marketplace"},"content":{"rendered":"

For nearly a month (since the infamous 1st of June) a couple of disquieting questions have been bouncing back and forth within my skull:
\n–\twhat are we to do if\/when the other agencies follow Shutterstock\u2019s despicable example and start treating their contributors like beggars?<\/em>
\n–\tHow come a fair agency like Picfair appears to sell nearly nothing even though they offer such awfully great pictures?<\/em><\/p>\n

I do know all too well what it\u2019s like to set up a photostock agency – I did it. Once you solve the technical problems (quite a hard cliff themselves) and get it to run fine, you find out to your dismay that keeping it up and running \u2013 server fees, updating, de-hacking, automation, you name it \u2013 is way more expensive (at least in time) than you optimistically thought when you started.<\/p>\n

No, I don\u2019t really think that setting up a new agency \u2013 with so many small ones out there struggling to survive \u2013 would be a solution. What we need is a new concept, something that would entice anyone who needs one or more images having specific requirements. The cue came from Alex Rotenberg<\/strong><\/a> as he told us how a customer, unable to find his images on Shutterstock any longer, got directly in touch with him. <\/p>\n

So why not to put in contact clients and contributors, thus bypassing the agencies?<\/strong>
\nAll it would take would be a surprisingly cheap and simple no-profit<\/strong> site, a sort of artists\u2019 cooperative dedicated to illustrations, photos and video clips, where potential clients may freely ask for images having some specific features. Their requests appear on a board and get immediately sent per E-mail to all photographers who subscribed (for free).
\nA mother knows her baby, a photographer knows his\/her images: the one who has an image that may satisfy the client (say, a kid playing in a puddle) replies uploading ASAP one or more watermarked images onto a page that only the client may access.<\/p>\n

That would be really big news: a thoughtful human response, no AI at all, no 300 pictures of the same lonely puddle in the park taken from 300 different angles. And no time wasted on keywords ( do we all loathe them!)<\/strong><\/p>\n

As far as prices are concerned, that\u2019s all to be seen: fixed price, normal and premium, private negotiation\u2026 a matter of taste. However the cooperative rules must be simple and clear, and accepted by all subscribers; that\u2019s important, the one who doesn\u2019t play fair gets kicked out without ceremony.
\nThe site would be extremely simple \u2013 though attractive \u2013 and wouldn\u2019t require any special server performances, or large amounts of memory, or special skills to run it. The only costs would be:<\/p>\n