Finally Flickr users will have a chance to sell their images via Getty, but don’t get too excited yet, as the Yahoo! announcement says, it’s not for everyone
Getty Images and Flickr are working together to establish the first commercial licensing opportunity for photo-enthusiasts in the Flickr community. The Flickr collection will feature photography selected by Getty Images editors based on their expertise in licensing digital content and insights into customers’ needs. In the next several months, Getty Images will begin inviting selected Flickr members who will have the choice to participate in the collection.
So normal Flickr fans won’t likely see any difference but those who have made a big name on Flickr already might well get selected to be a part of the collection.
While it is a good first step, but let’s see an option where we can all get involved, eh? Apparently “Getty customers usually pay between $29 and $200,000 for an image, depending on how freely they may use it.”, I am sure there are a lot of us who would like in on that kind of action even if it is a slim chance any of our pictures will sell.
It’s clear where the opportunity for Flickr and their users is, and Getty gets access to a bigger inventory. There could be some political fallout for Getty though. As Thomas Hawk says My own expectation would be that current Getty “Pros” are probably none too happy about having a new horde of “amateurs” jointing their ranks and competing with their own image sales.
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5 Comments
Is that the same Thomas Hawk who promised us that by sometime around now zoooooooomr would be the largest stock agency on the web?
Pros will not be bothered by amateurs jointing (sic) their ranks as long as the playing field is level. I will not share the joy implicit in your ‘finally’ until we find out whether Getty will be paying their flickr recruits the same rates as the ‘pros’.
Ah, good point about zooomr
I guess these things are harder to implement than it seems 
Whatever happens it will be interesting to watch I know I’ll be keeping a close eye on it. Even the slightest chance of ending up with some images on Getty is worth the attention!
It will be nice to see some hard working, talented and less known photographers getting a chance. I’m looking forward to see how it turns out.
Not sure if this has progressed at all since July, I can see little evidence of it on Flickr other than the occasional rumour that surfaces. If it does happen, my concern would be that only those ‘popular’ (I use the term loosely) photographers will be selected – there are many many talented photographers on flickr (I’m not one of them) that get virtually no exposure (I am one of those), mainly due to the way in which flickr promotes users. The strong get stronger and sod the rest would be an apt moto at times.