Hat-tip to PaidContent.org, a good site about the media business, which reported on Friday about Jupitermedia (NASDAQ: JUPM) purchasing Flying Hands Music, an online library of royalty-free music. Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler posted on his blog that this "was part of the company's strategy to expand, what it believes, is the world's largest collection of royalty-free music."

JUPM will be combining Flying Hands with its existing site, RoyaltyFreeMusic.com. It appears Jupiter has larger plans to bulk up its music offering. As announced on Meckler's blog, JUPM has plans to launch a new way for organizations to buy royalty-free background music for websites and other purposes in late February.

It's a good thing Jupiter is looking for expansion. Its stock is down 50% for 2007 and its larger competitor, Getty Images (NYSE: GYI) is down over 30%. Both companies have been plagued by what Citibank analyst Matthew Troy called "investor concern about structural shifts in the stock imaging landscape, driven by rapid growth in alternative channels and forms of lower yielding image licensing" in a research piece in November.

In other words, what was once a lucrative business is being eaten away by smaller sites with aggressive pricing and licensing requirements that just aren't what Jupitermedia was accustomed to seeing. To address this issue, JUPM has changed its focus to expand into media with acquisitions like Flying Hands.

What investors who have followed the story for some time are witnessing is that the Jupitermedia investment thesis has changed. Instead of Jupiter spinning off some of these web properties, Jupitermedia is now actually looking to acquire new businesses to amalgamate to their media business.

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Author holds no position in stocks mentioned.

Alan Meckler, who is the CEO of Jupitermedia (NASDAQ: JUPM), is a deal junkie. Over the years, he's racked up quite a few transactions in the Internet space.

For example, one of his recent purchases is the $20 million deal for mediabistro.com, which is a career and community site for creative professionals.

A big help was Meckler's securing of a $115 million senior credit facility (from KeyBanc Capital Markets).

But will the recent turmoil in financial markets be a big challenge for deals? Actually, Meckler doesn't think so and has an intriguing post on the matter (from his always informative blog).

This morning Getty Images (NYSE: GYI) made its SEC Filings for its 2006 annual report, as well as getting in its 10-Q quarterlies for the following quarters: March 31, 2006; June 30, 2006; September 30, 2006 and March 31, 2007. It has been a year since the company had been current because of past option reviews. You can read the SEC filings at the company site now. Often companies that have been delinquent see shares rise on the "getting current" news, but so far today, there has been little such upside in the stock.

Regardless of the stock performance today and the SEC filing delays, this is a company that is under attack. How would you like to sell digital images for 10 and 20 times what photos can be purchased for elsewhere? How would you like your entire business to be wiki'd out by an instant competitor with a massive stock photo library, and for under $20,000?

Sure, the company has made acquisitions for lower-priced photos and is making some foray in videos. It also is not a business that will fail because the sole position the company gets for live and stock sporting events may be enough to support the entire operations. But longer-term it is hard to see how this company will not face margin pressure every day.

Back a few years ago, you had two choices for stock photos if you were media or a web site: Getty Images, or Bill Gates' CORBIS. Jupiter Media (NASDAQ:JUPM) is also a competitor, and Getty Images actually decided to back out of acquiring the company. Sounds like the monetary value of stock photos just isn't what it used to be. Getty has acquired WireImage, a creator of entertainment and event imagery. It has also acquired PunchStock, a provider of royalty-free images. It has acquired Scoopt and owns iStockPhoto.com. This sounds good, but the underlying fact is that Getty cannot just acquire everyone out there and there are just too many fledgling companies that will go to much cheaper photo sites.

Now you have dozens and dozens of choices, for less and less money. Here is just a partial list of companies that directly compete, or could compete overnight with a wiki'ing of the business model: PhotoBucket, Corbis, Shutterfly, Flickr, Adobe Stock Photos, and StockVault, among many, many others.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.