Getty Lee: Distant Early Warning

Here in Seattle we have lately been seeing more evidence of the rising power of content in the new media industry. The networks and platforms are all well and good, but the true value lies in the information itself. The data. The content.

Local Seattle powerhouse Getty Images seems to understand this and has been gobbling up various companies lately. Two examples are Pump Audio and Scoopt.

Pump Audio licenses music for advertising, helping independent artists connect with buyers. Chris Ballew of the Seattle band Presidents of the United States of America is one of the more famous artists who sells music thru the service.

Scoopt is a site for citizen photo journalism. Members sell their videos, photos and blogs to the press thru the service.

Watch for more acquisitions from Getty in the coming months. They will provide an early warning of where the big companies are finding value in content.