Apple to compensate 'Shot on iPhone Challenge' winners for use of photos
Apple caused a bit of a stir in the artistic community this week when it announced a "Shot on iPhone Challenge" that select works from ten iPhone photographers to plaster on marketing materials like billboards, all presumably without pay. The company has since updated terms of the contest to note winning artists will indeed be compensated for their work.
A forest scene by Mariko Klug, shot on iPhone
The original "Shot on iPhone Challenge" announcement, posted to Apple's dedicated news website was updated on Thursday to reflect the change. Appended to the fine print anchoring the story, Apple says winners will receive licensing fees when their photos are used for marketing purposes.
As noted in the contest's terms and conditions, photographers retain rights to their work, but by submitting it to Apple grant the company "a royalty-free, world-wide, irrevocable, non-exclusive license for one year to use, modify, publish, display, distribute, create derivative works from and reproduce the photo on Apple Newsroom, apple.com, Apple Twitter accounts, Apple Instagram (@Apple), in Apple retail stores, Apple Weibo, Apple WeChat, on billboards and any Apple internal exhibitions."
That mouthful of pseudo-legalese was appended by the caveat above today.
Apple's Shot on iPhone ad campaign, which reproduces photos captured by amateurs using current generation iPhone devices, has become a mainstay for the company since its inception with iPhone 6 in 2015. Along with a warm reception from the public, critics heaped praise on the advertising effort dreamed up by Apple PR and longtime collaborator TBWA\Media Arts Lab. For example, the campaign won multiple awards including a Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival for Creativity.
The problem for some, however, is the change in format Apple adopted for 2019. Instead of reaching out to photographers privately, the company is hosting a formal contest that -- previously -- asked artists to submit their work without compensation. It appears Apple has become aware of its apparent lapse in judgment.
AppleInsider pointed out the seemingly exploitative nature of Apple's contest in an editorial this week.
A forest scene by Mariko Klug, shot on iPhone
The original "Shot on iPhone Challenge" announcement, posted to Apple's dedicated news website was updated on Thursday to reflect the change. Appended to the fine print anchoring the story, Apple says winners will receive licensing fees when their photos are used for marketing purposes.
Apple announced what it referred to as a celebration of " the most stunning photographs captured on iPhone" on Tuesday, and asked photographers to submit samples that will subsequently be judged by a panel of ten experts. The company promised winners nothing but exposure, listing exhibition on the Apple Newsroom webpage, billboards, Apple retail stores and the company's various social media accounts as a "prize."Apple believes strongly that artists should be compensated for their work. Photographers who shoot the final 10 winning photos will receive a licensing fee for use of such photos on billboards and other Apple marketing channels.
As noted in the contest's terms and conditions, photographers retain rights to their work, but by submitting it to Apple grant the company "a royalty-free, world-wide, irrevocable, non-exclusive license for one year to use, modify, publish, display, distribute, create derivative works from and reproduce the photo on Apple Newsroom, apple.com, Apple Twitter accounts, Apple Instagram (@Apple), in Apple retail stores, Apple Weibo, Apple WeChat, on billboards and any Apple internal exhibitions."
That mouthful of pseudo-legalese was appended by the caveat above today.
Apple's Shot on iPhone ad campaign, which reproduces photos captured by amateurs using current generation iPhone devices, has become a mainstay for the company since its inception with iPhone 6 in 2015. Along with a warm reception from the public, critics heaped praise on the advertising effort dreamed up by Apple PR and longtime collaborator TBWA\Media Arts Lab. For example, the campaign won multiple awards including a Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival for Creativity.
The problem for some, however, is the change in format Apple adopted for 2019. Instead of reaching out to photographers privately, the company is hosting a formal contest that -- previously -- asked artists to submit their work without compensation. It appears Apple has become aware of its apparent lapse in judgment.
AppleInsider pointed out the seemingly exploitative nature of Apple's contest in an editorial this week.
Comments
“Artistic community”. That’s right, the average iPhone user wasn’t whining about this, professional photographers were. But this contest shouldn’t be for/about them. Also this isn’t the first time Apple has run a shot on iPhone campaign. Why all the complaining about not being paid this time?
The reason professionals are up in arms is, when you devalue the work of an amateur, you devalue the work of the professional. How many times are professionals asked to do something for exposure? All the time. How fast will their rates drop when you can just get an amateur to do it for free? Blindingly fast. Which means, less people able to make work professionally, which has bad results for the amount of people able to produce the things we enjoy in the world. You think I'm kidding, but there is an impact: if you don't pay people, people go into other fields. On a longer timeline, this is how you lose beauty, art, and eventually culture. There are no patrons: either people get paid, or it goes away.
Don't worry. Apple isn't going to take anything away from you because it will pay the photographer it chooses to feature in an advertising campaign.
Those virtue signalling Californian hippies that run Apple didn’t realise they were being beaten at their own game.
Edit: next time hardly anyone will enter. The perception has been created the competition is for professionals, true or not. something simple has been kilt.innocence lost.
I don't think that there will be any rollback in participants, nor is there any innocence lost. YMMV, of course.
That is crap. People do things for reasons other than compensation all the time. Maybe the photographer wants exposure he or she wouldn’t otherwise get. Maybe it is fun to have your work judged by professionals. Most importantly Apple was clear there was no prize other than to be acknowledged and people aren’t forced to provide pictures. Don’t get me wrong if Apple wanted to offer a monetary prize that is great, but there was no controversy here other than a manufactured one. Exposure by Apple has to be valuable to an amateur if you are looking to have your photo acknowledged. If it wasn’t, don’t provide your photos.
Companies like Pinterest and Facebook make tons of money off users uploading various media and they aren’t being compensated. No difference, and nobody is complaining.
Last I checked in America you are free to have a no cash award contest and people are free to participate or not. Perhaps forcing a cash prize will mean fewer opportunities for valuable exposure in the future.
People post here voluntatily and the compensation is the continuation of a forum that is valuable. In the same fashion, Apple could’ve merely given a credit in exchange for a free non-exclusive worldwide license to the image.