Industry News: SmugMug Acquires Flickr

[Canon Rumors Guy]

<iframe width="728" height="409" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T4B_qlaN8C4" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe><p><strong>From SmugMug:</strong></p>
<p><em>We’re excited to announce that Flickr has agreed to be acquired by SmugMug, the photography platform dedicated to visual storytellers.</em></p>
<p>SmugMug has a long history of empowering people who love photography and who want to improve their craft, making them a perfect fit for Flickr and our creative community. With SmugMug, we’ll continue to focus on you, the Flickr members who inspire us all with your work.</p>
<p><strong>Nothing will change immediately with regard to your Flickr account.</strong> You will still access Flickr with your current login credentials and you will have the same Flickr experience as you do now. We will continue to work to make your Flickr experience even better.</p>
<p><!--more--></p>
<p>We think you are going to love Flickr under SmugMug ownership, but you can choose to not have your Flickr account and data transferred to SmugMug until May 25, 2018. If you want to keep your Flickr account and data from being transferred, you must go to your Flickr account to download the photos and videos you want to keep, then delete your account from your <a href="https://www.flickr.com/account/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Account Settings</a> by May 25, 2018.</p>
<p>If you do not delete your account by May 25, 2018, your Flickr account and data will transfer to SmugMug and will be governed by SmugMug’s <a href="https://www.smugmug.com/about/terms-flickr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Terms</a> and <a href="https://www.smugmug.com/about/privacy-flickr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Privacy Policy</a>.</p>
<p>Read more detailed FAQs about this transition on the Flickr Blog.</p>
<p>We’re happy that Flickr is your home for photography and we look forward to the next chapter in our adventure together as we join the SmugMug family.</p>
<span id="pty_trigger"></span>

 

[Frodo]

"Nothing will change immediately with regard to your Flickr account"

Yeah, right!

After using Photobucket, Picasaweb, and Google, which have either been killed or starved, (and Irista which is unimpressive), I am cynical about this statement.
The only way forward that I see is hosting through your own website. Ironically, I am almost finished a Squarespace site after considering Smugmug.

 

[neuroanatomist]

I wonder what this means for Flickr Pro users?

 

[ethanz]

I really like my SmugMug site. It's not really a surprise that yahoo got rid of flicker.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I really like my SmugMug site. It's not really a surprise that yahoo got rid of flicker.

It was expected after Verizon bought them. Verizon has no interest in running a photography site, so its good that they will be owned by people who do like photography. What it means for Flickr users in the long run is not revealed, I'd expect very little to change in the next year or two, it takes that long to implement major changes. We might see minor changes like SmugMug being added to the web pages.

 

[DJL329]

I wonder what this means for Flickr Pro users?

According to their FAQ page, nothing will change. At least, not yet.

https://www.smugmug.com/together/faq

Will anything happen to my photos? Will they be moved?


No, you’ll still be able to access your photos as you do currently and they’ll retain the same Flickr or SmugMug URL as always. Over time, we’ll be migrating Flickr onto SmugMug’s technology infrastructure, and your Flickr photos will move as a part of this migration—but the photos themselves will remain on Flickr.


Will Flickr continue to offer a free version? Will Flickr’s price change?


Absolutely. Flickr’s free accounts are foundational to its community of influential and engaged photographers. We are not making any changes to Flickr plans or rates at this time. We’ll let Flickr Pro customers know if that changes.


Will my Flickr Pro subscription change?


Nope! You’ll remain a Flickr Pro member and continue to enjoy all the benefits of a Pro membership.

 

[neuroanatomist]

We’ll let Flickr Pro customers know if that changes.

I suspect they mean 'when'.

 

[Frodo]

We’ll let Flickr Pro customers know if that changes.

I suspect they mean 'when'.

Exactly!
That's why I'll get out.

Does anyone have experience of using Squarespace for photohosting, like you would do with a site like Flickr? I have purchased a Squarespace business account and it seems like I can have up to 1000 pages, which presumably includes 1 gallery per page, with 250 photos per gallery. I have not been able to find a total storage limit like Flickr's 1TB.

 

[AvTvM]

STRIKE! I like. flickr has deserved corporate death 1000x over. f' em. Not listening to their users/customers. Just love it when stupid companies fail and/or are gobbled up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr

Smugmug won't win me over either, though. Will never post my own images under other people's rules and censorship.

 

[JMZawodny]

I wonder what this means for Flickr Pro users?

Well for me, it means I deleted my account yesterday. I wish Flickr had remained an independent entity and that Yahoo! (Marissa Mayer) had never bought them. It went downhill from that moment onward.

 

[LDS]

I wish Flickr had remained an independent entity and that Yahoo! (Marissa Mayer) had never bought them. It went downhill from that moment onward.

Mayer came to Yahoo only in 2012 - Flickr was acquired in 2005, and paid a fraction of what later companies like Instagram would have been bough for.

Staying independent means to be able to generate profits - and these business models rarely do - the only path being trying to sell user data to advertisers.

 

[Hillsilly]

I'm curious what this might mean for Smugmug users. It would be great if they can integrate more of the community aspects of Flickr.

 

[Hector1970]

Not sure how they will resurrect Flickr.
I'm a long time user with a Pro account but it's been a dying site for years.
It was a handy internet storage spot for me.
It's interesting the new owner doesn't know what he going to do with it and is going to listen to its customers.
As a customer I can tell him that I haven't a clue what he should do with it.
The user community on it is more or less dead.
The whole Explore thing became sort of random whether your picture got on it or not.
It was the only fun bit of it as you got to get some feedback on photos or thousands of view suddenly.
The groups got swamped with stupid groups and stupid copy and paste awards.
It almost needed an independent human input into showcasing the best of Flickr but its all so subjective its hard to do.
A slow death I predict, Smug Mug won't be able to carry it for long. The storage costs must be big. There are billions of photos on Flickr

 

[cayenne]

Just curious about the seemingly negative reactions to anything SmugMug....

Can someone give me some insight to potential negative things about SmugMug?

I've been considering setting up a commercial site through them to see if I can sell some images/wall art.

I'd not heard anything negative about them before, and while researching between SmugMug and Zenfolio, I'd just about decided on SmugMug for features, etc.

Anyway, I'd be interested in why many of you pros seem to be feeling a bit negative towards SmugMug. Is it service? Price? Policies?

Thanks in advance,

cayenne

 

[ethanz]

Just curious about the seemingly negative reactions to anything SmugMug....

Can someone give me some insight to potential negative things about SmugMug?

I've been considering setting up a commercial site through them to see if I can sell some images/wall art.

I'd not heard anything negative about them before, and while researching between SmugMug and Zenfolio, I'd just about decided on SmugMug for features, etc.

Anyway, I'd be interested in why many of you pros seem to be feeling a bit negative towards SmugMug. Is it service? Price? Policies?

Thanks in advance,

cayenne

I'm curious about the same thing. I've had a great experience with Smugmug. Their features are great.

 

[Besisika]

Not sure how they will resurrect Flickr.
I'm a long time user with a Pro account but it's been a dying site for years.
It was a handy internet storage spot for me.
It's interesting the new owner doesn't know what he going to do with it and is going to listen to its customers.
As a customer I can tell him that I haven't a clue what he should do with it.
The user community on it is more or less dead.
The whole Explore thing became sort of random whether your picture got on it or not.
It was the only fun bit of it as you got to get some feedback on photos or thousands of view suddenly.
The groups got swamped with stupid groups and stupid copy and paste awards.
It almost needed an independent human input into showcasing the best of Flickr but its all so subjective its hard to do.
A slow death I predict, Smug Mug won't be able to carry it for long. The storage costs must be big. There are billions of photos on Flickr

I think you nailed it.
My problem with Flickr is that it doesn't have identity any longer. Is it for technically correct photos, is it for story tellers, is it about creativity, is it about effort, is it about popularity, or something else?
"In explore" should be the tool that defines the goal, then let interested people compete for it. Keeping it a secret that nobody understands discourages efforts.
When I go to Facebook; I know I will gossip. When I open Youtube, I search for video. What do I get when I go to Flickr today? I used to go there to look at great photos from great photographers in "in explore", so that I can get inspired. Many of them don't post there any longer. It is depressing to see many cats and dogs looking at window every morning in "in explore". These should be in Facebook.

I agree, I predict slow death as well. Photography, as in "technically correct" is dying slowly. Many focus on story and how quickly to get it to the mass. Nowadays, our eyes are used to see overexposed background, lack of focus and high ISO images; that they become "natural" to us.

 

[YuengLinger]

Not sure how they will resurrect Flickr.
I'm a long time user with a Pro account but it's been a dying site for years.
It was a handy internet storage spot for me.
It's interesting the new owner doesn't know what he going to do with it and is going to listen to its customers.
As a customer I can tell him that I haven't a clue what he should do with it.
The user community on it is more or less dead.
The whole Explore thing became sort of random whether your picture got on it or not.
It was the only fun bit of it as you got to get some feedback on photos or thousands of view suddenly.
The groups got swamped with stupid groups and stupid copy and paste awards.
It almost needed an independent human input into showcasing the best of Flickr but its all so subjective its hard to do.
A slow death I predict, Smug Mug won't be able to carry it for long. The storage costs must be big. There are billions of photos on Flickr

I think you nailed it.
My problem with Flickr is that it doesn't have identity any longer. Is it for technically correct photos, is it for story tellers, is it about creativity, is it about effort, is it about popularity, or something else?
"In explore" should be the tool that defines the goal, then let interested people compete for it. Keeping it a secret that nobody understands discourages efforts.
When I go to Facebook; I know I will gossip. When I open Youtube, I search for video. What do I get when I go to Flickr today? I used to go there to look at great photos from great photographers in "in explore", so that I can get inspired. Many of them don't post there any longer. It is depressing to see many cats and dogs looking at window every morning in "in explore". These should be in Facebook.

I agree, I predict slow death as well. Photography, as in "technically correct" is dying slowly. Many focus on story and how quickly to get it to the mass. Nowadays, our eyes are used to see overexposed background, lack of focus and high ISO images; that they become "natural" to us.

From what I see with my eyes, in print and online, photography is better and more creative than ever. I don't spend time on facebook or flickr or Instagram, so the junk there doesn't discourage me.

Wedding photography is much more compelling than 20 years ago, as one example. Yes, video is being used more, but families still love albums and framed prints. (And most friends of the blissful couple would much rather flip through an album than be subjected to an overlong video of a ceremony!) Senior photography is stronger and more interesting than ever, with arguably a higher level of "technically correct" craftsmanship.

In fact, flickr being bought by SmugMug has nothing to say about photography as art or craft, not anymore than the demise of AOL, Napster, Yahoo, Netscape, and on and on with failed Internet companies. The Internet has been busting dreams for years now. Just look at the failing New York Times.

Finally, in what way does SmugMug fail or disappoint professional photographers? They may not have longterm plans for flickr, or they may plan to use it to funnel more paying customers their way. Nobody has yet figured out how flickr can even break even, so why be angry? Maybe the UN should run it and offer free photo galleries to the world!

 

[Frodo]

Just curious about the seemingly negative reactions to anything SmugMug....

Can someone give me some insight to potential negative things about SmugMug?

I've been considering setting up a commercial site through them to see if I can sell some images/wall art.

I'd not heard anything negative about them before, and while researching between SmugMug and Zenfolio, I'd just about decided on SmugMug for features, etc.

Anyway, I'd be interested in why many of you pros seem to be feeling a bit negative towards SmugMug. Is it service? Price? Policies?

Thanks in advance,

cayenne

I'm curious about the same thing. I've had a great experience with Smugmug. Their features are great.

When considering a business website, I first had a play with WordPress, but quickly found this limiting. Then I did a review of most of the paid sites, including Zenfolio, SmugMug and Squarespace. I did not try any of these sites hands-on as this is a lot of work, but read quite a number of reviews. One thing about SmugMug is the name. "Mug" in New Zealand at least is slang for "face", so I did not want potential clients to associate me with a website for smug people.

In the end I went with Squarespace, which seems to provide everything I need (online sales were not a requirement) and it appears that I can post albums (galleries) of personal photos and also for clients (password protected). I would value thoughts of thos who have used Squarespace for the latter function.

 

[gordonbb]

I’ve had a SmugMug site for years. I went with SmugMug because they allow me to retain copyright over the material I post and make it easy or hard for people to lift photos depending on how I set the permissions.

I went with them after hosting my own site for years and dealing with awkward APIs. Specifically I was doing event photography for Youth organizations and though the children all had signed waivers I was not comfortable putting pictures of other people’s kids on the Internet. Smugmug made it easy to password protect some Galleries but enable parents to share images with family members.

Yes, they do have shopping cart links so you can let people buy prints or send prints through their recommended service providers but these can be disabled site-wide or by gallery.

It is a site designed by photographers for photographers, professional, amateur or snap shooters and has no adds and is customizable in many ways. For about $5 US a month for one of the higher-end packages is quite reasonable.

 

[ethanz]

I’ve had a SmugMug site for years. I went with SmugMug because they allow me to retain copyright over the material I post and make it easy or hard for people to lift photos depending on how I set the permissions.

I went with them after hosting my own site for years and dealing with awkward APIs. Specifically I was doing event photography for Youth organizations and though the children all had signed waivers I was not comfortable putting pictures of other people’s kids on the Internet. Smugmug made it easy to password protect some Galleries but enable parents to share images with family members.

Yes, they do have shopping cart links so you can let people buy prints or send prints through their recommended service providers but these can be disabled site-wide or by gallery.

It is a site designed by photographers for photographers, professional, amateur or snap shooters and has no adds and is customizable in many ways. For about $5 US a month for one of the higher-end packages is quite reasonable.

Yours is much the same journey I've been on. Smugmug really made it easy to do it all. Selling photos is super easy as well.