By Janet Alexander–
The times have changed, technologies have changed, photography has changed, and so not surprisingly, one of the largest, most trusted photography service websites has changed. This past friday, SmugMug announced it was raising the price of its Pro subscription. The last time SmugMug changed its pricing was in 2005 when band-with and processing speeds were slower and file sizes were smaller. As the professional market of photography has grown, so too has the amount of storage space it uses. The fact is, pros who sell at a markup use far more storage and features than pros who don’t, so SmugMug now distinguishes between the two by offering Portfolio and Business accounts.There is beauty in the breakdown.
Knowing the difference is made easy on SmugMug’s feature comparison page, but put simply, Portfolio offers everything the original Pro account did, except now without commerce features. Figuring that those who run a business accept the cost of doing business isn’t all that crazy, but nonetheless SmuMug co-founder Chris MacAskill anticipated concern, and in his own words, “placed my dSLR on a tripod, and looked it right in the lens imagining it was you,” to directly address the news. SmugMug takes the business of its subscribers as seriously as it takes it own, which is why they encourage you to contact their Heroes with any concerns or questions.
The whole company’s involved in this, reading and answering every single post, email, and tweet. SmugMug is also grandfathering its current pros at discounted prices, and giving them easy options to downgrade, or upgrade based on their needs.
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