LightRocket Launched - New Online Websites and Sales Platform for Photographers

Singapore, Singapore, August 30, 2013 --(PR.com)-- A brand new service for serious amateur and professional photographers and media creatives has been launched.

The service, called LightRocket.com, offers customisable websites, expandable cloud storage, archive management tools, easy and secure distribution, privacy filters and an online sales platform that is promoted to 1000s of picture buyers around the globe.

“Anyone can sign up for a 30 day free trial without having to hand over credit card details or make any commitment,” said co-founder Yvan Cohen. “We want people to see the value for themselves and feel comfortable that LightRocket is the right choice for them.”

Members can choose between a standard or premium membership and all plans come with a free 20GB storage allowance. The site charges an additional US$ 2.99/month for additional 20GB blocks of storage. Other users, who only wish to browse or download from LightRocket, can register for unlimited membership free of charge.

To celebrate its launch LightRocket is offering major discounts on its yearly membership fees. A standard annual plan is just US$ 39 (down from US$ 65) while a premium annual plan is US$ 49 (down from US$ 95).

Premium members can publish galleries and portfolios to the main LightRocket platform and are included in LightRocket’s contributor directory which serves as a talent pool for assigning editors around the world. Premium members can use their own domain name to personalise their websites.

“The site is aimed at professionals and serious amateurs,” said LightRocket co-founder Peter Charlesworth. “LightRocket is intended to be a resource for professional picture buyers too. We’ll be actively curating the best material to the front of the site and marketing the LightRocket archive to thousands of our clients. If a member makes a sale, the value of that sale is entirely theirs we take no commission and charge no fees. So while LightRocket charges a modest fee for membership, we believe the value we’re delivering in terms of functionality and opportunities for additional revenue make it very worthwhile.”

The service is the brainchild of photographers Peter Charlesworth and Yvan Cohen who ran the OnAsia photo agency for a decade before launching LightRocket. Both have a passion for photography and have sought to deliver a product that responds to its members’ needs while reflecting the realities of today’s media industry.

“Although our emphasis is photography, LightRocket is truly a multimedia platform. We recognise that many people are working in a number of media, so we wanted to cater for that diversity,” said Charlesworth, “and we feel the price for our standard accounts would make a subscription interesting for somebody who just wanted a website for their photos and videos and the ability to store and share high res files with their families and friends – and you never know they might even make a sale or two!”