It seems the recession is spreading in the art world, too. Yesterday, “worry-free” photo storage provider Digital Railroad sent a notice telling its subscribers they had 24 hours to get their images off the DRR server, or lose them. Then they pulled the plug.
Photographers flooded DRR’s servers as they tried to salvage their archives, but not everyone was able to download their work in time. Even photographers with back-ups in other locations stand to lose big from DRR’s shutting down: Re-archiving images and setting up shop somewhere else takes time. And as we all know, time is money.
Hit just as hard (if not harder) by DRR’s closure are powerhouse photo agencies like VII, Noor and Redux, which lost the interface from which they do business.
If this reliable business for photo agencies and stock photographers can fold, who’s next?
