Flickr is an image and video hosting service, created in 2004. Since then ownership has been changed several times. Recently, in April 2018, Flickr was taken over by SmugMug.

It has been announced that changes to Flickr free accounts will come into effect next year. Flickr has always offered two types of accounts: Free and Pro. On January 8, 2019 free accounts will be limited to 1000 photos or videos stored, with videos limited to 3 minutes, instead of the previous free allowance of 1 TB of storage with no restrictions. Pro users will now be offered unlimited storage.

From January 8, 2019 members will no longer have access to 1TB of free storage and instead will be offered free storage for 1000 items. Users will then have until February 5, 2019 to remove photos and videos above this amount. On this date, Flickr will automatically delete data over 1000 if users do not subscribe to Pro, with the exception of content that was uploaded with a Creative Commons license before November 1, 2018.

The reason for this change is said to be due to Yahoo providing users 1TB of free storage in 2013 — and this has likely become unsustainable to provide since. Flickr has reported three major points as to why this has had a negative effect, see their press release here.

Flickr have stated a fair logic for choosing 1000 photos or videos to offer free users. Although most products today sell storage in megabytes or gigabytes, calculating how much storage photos or videos consume can be difficult. It is a much easier measurement to count in number of items, similar to their method in 2013 where they offered free users 200 photos. It is definitely a positive to be able to upload high quality pictures without considering space requirements. Lastly, Flickr found that more than 97% of Free members had less than 1000 photos and videos, whilst the majority of Pro users had over 1000 items, and therefore believe they have found a fair benchmark to offer.

Assessing the reasoning, it seems Flickr are keen to show they are a service worth a price to ensure a high quality platform for people interested in photography, although it can be argued there are free users serious about photography who will be disadvantaged by this move.

If you would like to sign up for a Pro account please take advantage of our discount code, which takes 30% off the Pro price, valid until the end of November.
Enter code: FLICKRPRO30