What is a stock image agency?

Stock agencies sell usage rights for images to business and to the public. Stock image houses have either purchased the image outright from a photographer or they act as an agent for the photographer who has retained copyright ownership of their image. When acting as an agent for the photographer, the stock agency retains possession of the original image and will use its own staff to edit, catalogue, market, and negotiate rights to any image on file. Stock agencies must also have a temperature and humidity controlled environment to archivally store the (millions of) images on file and have trained staff to handle them.

Two of the larger players are GettyOne (opens in new browser window) which has recently acquired several other agencies and has annual revenues of $250 million, and Corbis which Is wholly owned by Micosoft chairman Bill Gates and has revenues of $100 million (est). See Revenue section for more information on stock image agencies.