GDUSA has been covering stock imagery for three decades. It is clear that the story of stock imagery for creative professionals is an evolution from analog to digital, from slow to fast, from lack of choice to abundant choice, from expensive to affordable. And, most of all, from complex to simple.
The next step in simple, says stock industry veteran and serial entrepreneur Oleg Tscheltzoff, is the Dollar Photo Club. In an interview with GDUSA, it became clear that Tscheltzoff has thought long and hard about how to eliminate the last obstacles to easy image access. Honing in on the values of simplicity, predictability, and efficiency, he explains: “Customers are tangled up in plans they don’t need, use, or even understand. Pricing structures have become an unruly mess that needs to be scaled back and simplified for the benefit of customers — not for companies and shareholders … So we’ve created Dollar Photo Club, which gets right to the point, offering straightforward access to over 25 million professional images for $1 each, at one low monthly fee. Dollar Photo Club customers pay only for what they use, nothing more, and always just $1.”
Tscheltzoff says that the new venture from Fotolia, a royalty-free image provider he founded in 2005, delivers high-resolution photos “always at the biggest size” and also offers vectors. Approved members can access the 25 million premium content images, and a reported 150,000 more are being added each week. For members, there are other select benefits and offers from high-value partners as well. The bottomline, he says, is that simplifying the price will be a significant time-saver, since it eliminates shopping for price on traditional sites, does not require signing up for large plans with lots of credits or downloads. “There is only one plan and one price,” says Tscheltzoff. In response to our question, he says that video and audio are under consideration, but not likely to be launched in the near future.
Click here to learn more about Oleg Tscheltzoff
