Want to start a celebrity blog but don't have the bankroll to hire your own paparazzi? PicApp, the service for free and licensed images, has teamed up with celebrity picture agency Splash News to offer up celeb photos on a revenue share basis.
In exchange, PicApp places advertising under the image, the revenue from which is shared with Splash News. I spoke with Eyal Gura, CEO of PicScout (parent company of PicApp) last week to understand the benefits for a company like Splash News that spends a lot of money upfront to obtain fresh celebrity photos. He says for content owners, the result is "a reduction in piracy, a new revenue source, and the ability to keep track of where all of their images appear."
That's a stark contrast to the wild west of services like Google Images where hundreds of images can be found on any topic, copyright information is sparse, and photos can be copied and re-published anywhere, virtually untraceable. Each PicApp image – even when embedded on a blog – comes with a link directly to the copyright image, and can be traced through PicApp's interface for content owners.
Will free and legal celebrity images for the masses create serious competition for the likes of TMZ and Perez Hilton, and People? Probably not, since those organizations employ their own photography staffs and have vast networks of tipsters in celebrity hot spots like Los Angeles, New York, and Las Vegas. But it does level the playing field for the second-tier bloggers looking to make a living from their celebrity obsession.
One feature that is a must-use if you're hoping to take advantage of the new Splash News content: RSS feeds for keywords, so you can subscribe to "Lindsay Lohan" (example) or "Miley Cyrus" in your RSS reader of choice to be notified as soon as the latest photos are published.
