http://psc.photoshelter.com/about/index/news/20080911

Today, we regret to announce our plans to close The PhotoShelter Collection, our stock photography marketplace, effective October 10, 2008.

Going forward, PhotoShelter will focus our energy and resources on enhancing the PhotoShelter Personal Archive our original product that today provides thousands of photographers worldwide with bulletproof backup storage and robust ecommerce capabilities for managing image sales online. We will continue our commitment to developing new ways to use technology to advance the art and business of photography.

Just one year ago, we started the PhotoShelter Collection with a mission to change the image marketplace for good. Our objective was to provide an unprecedented selection of fresh, diverse, and authentic imagery culled from a global community of thousands of photographers, while * industry standards by treating our contributing artists fairly. Rather quickly, we built a unique position in the industry, fueled by integrity and a true passion for photography.

The PhotoShelter Collection became a haven where photographers could find a better deal based on our 70/30 revenue split, and access to professional insights directly from world class image buyers. Buyers welcomed the Collection as a much needed alternative - whether they liked the access to content never before seen, or simply because they appreciated our approach to better treatment for photographers.

Our unique approach, however, was insufficient to change buyer behavior on a grand scale and generate revenues quickly enough to satisfy our goals for this product line. Hence, our decision is to close the Collection.

We want to express our deepest gratitude to our contributors and buyers - for your participation and support of our company, our community, and our mission. It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with you.

As for the future of PhotoShelter, our team will refocus heavily on supporting our original product, the PhotoShelter Personal Archive. We'll continue adding new features that help individual photographers use our technology to market and sell images directly to their own clients. We'll also be hard at work developing new innovations that make best use of our industry knowledge and world class technology team. Our financial position remains solid and we look forward to working with the photography community for years to come.

More details can be found in a personal statement on CEO Allen Murabayashi's blog "A Picture's Worth" and FAQs posted at photoshelter.com.

Given their very bad sales performance, this isn't exactly coming out of nowhere. I always got a chuckle at their upbeat PR stuff and at the (far too many) "I love Photoshelter" postings. Personally, I wrote them off when they made the unwise decision to prohibit microstock imagery.

I hope those of us who managed to make a few sales there will see our money.

Very sad news   

I guess I don't have to worry about the whether the images I have pending will be approved or not.  Now I've got to decide whether to send them to Alamy or microstock.

Actually I am glad they are closing. I registered few months ago, sold 0. Dont like them.

I whish every site closes, except: FT, SS, DT, StockXpert, IS and 123rf, that would increase or sales, this way small sites are just taking away customers.....

Wow.  I never expected that.

However:
"4.    A crowd-source model for stock will likely never work
Licensing a photo is not a simple proposition. It is not like selling a widget. There are huge intellectual property issues, technical issues, and meta data issues that are difficult for even full-time pros to grasp. Companies that represent collections of stock photography have to build entire divisions of staff to deal with rights clearances and lawsuit that arise from improper clearance."

Well, it already works.  Witness all of us.

How can one be glad that they closed!
They tried it to change for the best but because of microstock they couldn't accept microstock-styled images or even the same images that should be understandable. They tried the best but it didn't work i guess this was the last chance the future from now on its solely subscription.
It's sad!

I am a bit surprised they are doing that in less than 1 year from the (real) start. Usually new business doesn't take off until year 3...

I agree MikLav, it seems awfully short sited.

... I think they brought a fresh perspective to stock.

A fresh perspective? I must have blinked/hiccuped/left the room. I didn't see anything fresh in what they were doing. That they offered high commissions was a bit unusual, but that's hardly a fresh perspective. A fresh perspective might have been to welcome both microstock and traditional stock images, but they chose not to do that.

That being said, I, too, am disappointed and 'unglad' they're gone.

"4.    A crowd-source model for stock will likely never work
Licensing a photo is not a simple proposition. It is not like selling a widget. There are huge intellectual property issues, technical issues, and meta data issues that are difficult for even full-time pros to grasp. Companies that represent collections of stock photography have to build entire divisions of staff to deal with rights clearances and lawsuit that arise from improper clearance."

A bit sudden, I wonder if they had thier fingers burnt with an image they supplied, they had good points but the Shoot the Day which was going to "change the face of stock photography" only had 3000+ photographers sign up, many of them had images turned down so it did not do what it was meant to, I quite liked the forum and the feel of the site, but all the hype was just hot air, oh well never mind!

David

They never grasped the impact microstock has had on this industry, and were in for a long, uphill battle in a falling macrostock market. Their grossly inflated self-confidence at the launch a year ago also sent out all the wrong signals. An "all others are wrong, but we are right" attitude, only works on very rare occasions.

So what's this Personal Archive? Storage place for photos? When I signed to PSC they were nagging me to upgrade my account. It's good that I did not decide to do this.

OMG ... I was sure I would get at least one sale there someday.

Definitely sucks.  I really liked the site and the imagery they had.  Definite bummer...

Seems to tell me that the industry cannot support higher commissions.  You either give the money to the contributors or use it for marketing.  Sacrificing marketing for happier contributors just may not be economically feasible. 

fred

There are plenty of agencies paying higher commissions that have been doing so for the last thirty years.

It's just frankly most "photographers" would never make those agencies, because they only take one a handful of new shooters a year.  And when I say handful I mean less than ten.

Although the agency I've decided to go with for my general stock pays 60%, and the agency I'm having a portfolio interview with next month for my kayaking work pays a little over 70%.

They are out there, but they are specialist.  And you must know both your trade and your market.

Vincet Laforet had an interesting post today on the closing of photoshelter

Interesting, yes, but heavily biased. As I suspected, the decision to 'pack it in' was related to funding. The ultimate reason for their closure was ar poor business model, in which their attitude towards microstock pricing (i.e. ignore it rather than compete with it) played a dominant role.

As far as all the 'this sucks' and 'I was hoping they'd make it' comments go, don't you people realize you had a hand in this by participating in the microstock market? You can't have it both ways.

They never grasped the impact microstock has had on this industry, and were in for a long, uphill battle ...

Yep. The saddest part of this may be that their now ex-CEO still doesn't get it.

I had only a few images there, but I still spent a lot of hours on processing, uploading, waiting and, not least, keywording, which was a lengthy process at best. I feel sorry for the substantial amount of people who uploaded hundreds of images, all for nothing. The people at PSC managed to whip up a mass anger at the whole microstock business, in the process convincing an army of photographers that their work was worth as much as that of the pros. The most realistic scenario now is that PhotoShelter will manage to convince the same people that they will make lots of money if they buy storage space at their site. They will probably provide a seamless migration from PSC to the PhotoShelter archives. I�m leaving that site for good.