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Photographers historically relied on the assumption that local storage is cheap enough to keep all RAW files, but the post shows a dramatic price increase (a 16TB disk rising from €288.99 to €684.99). This turns "keep everything" into an ongoing cost problem and forces tradeoffs (RAW+JPEG, selective copying) that risk losing future editing flexibility or create manual workflows for archiving.
RAW Storage Budgeter
A desktop + NAS companion app that tracks real photo ingest growth (RAW/JPEG/video), forecasts when storage will run out, and enforces configurable retention rules (e.g., keep RAW for 12 months unless flagged, keep JPEG forever, mirror only selects to NAS/cloud). It produces a monthly storage budget report, suggests the cheapest storage strategy per workload, and automates archiving actions with verifiable logs and restore testing.
Serious hobbyist and semi-pro photographers using Lightroom/Capture One with a NAS or external drives who shoot 10k–100k images/year and are now feeling storage cost pressure.
Users need to control storage costs without accidentally deleting valuable RAWs or spending hours manually triaging and copying files. This product converts an informal, error-prone workflow (RAW+JPEG and ad-hoc backups) into a measurable budget, automated retention, and auditable backups so users can reduce TB growth while preserving recoverability.
Free storage growth calculator + Lightroom/C1 export script that reports RAW/JPEG/video usage by month
One-time $29 'Storage Audit Pack' that scans drives/NAS and outputs a cleanup + archive plan PDF
Subscription $12–$25/month per workstation for automated policies, forecasting, and backup verification
Add-on $8/month for multi-device monitoring (desktop + laptop) and scheduled restore drills with email alerts
$499/year 'Studio Vault' plan for small studios: multi-user policies, shared NAS monitoring, and priority support
MVP is feasible for a 2-person team by focusing on file system scanning, simple rule-based moves, and integrations via Lightroom/C1 watched folders + sidecar/metadata parsing (no AI required). Key risks are cross-platform file permission edge cases and user trust (must be extremely safe with dry-run, reversible moves, and strong logging).
SAM estimate: 2–6M serious hobbyist/semi-pro photographers globally who shoot RAW and manage local storage; with a $120/year ARPU, a $240M–$720M annual opportunity if 10% adopt. Initial niche wedge: NAS-owning photographers (Synology/QNAP) likely 1–2M globally.
Storage-centric, not photography workflow-centric; limited forecasting and no RAW/JPEG policy automation based on edits/flags.
Retention rules tied to Lightroom/C1 metadata; budget forecasting; restore drill automation.
Photographers who want to keep editing flexibility while reducing TB growth without manual curation.
Backs up everything rather than optimizing what should be kept; limited guidance on controlling growth; restore confidence is not workflow-integrated.
Policy-driven archiving/migration; per-shoot analytics; proactive alerts for storage runout.
Users with NAS/external drive workflows who need selective retention rather than blanket backup.
Incentivizes paying for more storage instead of reducing growth; doesn't help with NAS/local multi-tier storage strategy.
Local/NAS capacity forecasting; automated tiering to cold storage; integrity verification for local archives.
NAS-first photographers and cost-sensitive pros who want predictable storage budgets.
Be the 'storage finance + policy engine' for photo archives: Lightroom/C1-aware rules, measurable budget forecasting, and verifiable recoverability—positioned as a safety-first automation layer on top of existing disks/NAS/cloud rather than another place to store photos.
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