There are some pretty large changes going on with istock… again.  This afternoon istockphoto dropped the bad news of pay cuts to all contributors.  The parent company, Getty, definitely likes to stir the microstock “pot”.  Your canister level won’t mean a thing anymore (other than how many images you can submit each week) and neither do your all time download totals.  Now they are going to pay us according to how many credit sales we have made/sold from the prior year.

The new royalty rates chart:

More info and discussions here:

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=251812&page=1

http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=861

http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/istock-changing-royalty-structure/

So basically, another example of frustration to the world community of microstock photographers.  I can’t see how any microstock contributor, whether exclusive or non-exclusive would be happy over this change.  I’m projecting at least a 4 figure loss in income from my istock earnings for next year.  That’s a loss of 3% commission on every single sale.  Like 20% wasn’t low enough (pretty much the industry low) now I am expecting to fall under the 17% range.  Great.  That top tier of earning 20% is just set up there as a tease, I don’t think any one contributor even earns that many annual redeemed credit sales.

Responses are looking terrible across the board.  What a big surprise!  This is just like a slap in the face to every one of the contributors who helped istock and Getty grow over the years.  I feel bad for exclusive contributors who have all of their eggs in one basket.  This is the exact reason why I will never be able to allow myself to go exclusive with any one given company.

If a lot of exclusives jump ship, there’s definitely going to be an influx of new quality work on the remainder of the big 6 agencies.  I feel bad for them though – a lot more work for probably still, less pay.  It takes a while to build steam in a portfolio.  Images that were indexed and ranked in agency search engines from 3-5 years ago are what has helped us long time microstockers stick around through all of the chaos.  It’s not as easy when you just dump a bunch of images into a collection.  Momentum of uploads is key to success in this business.

Here is what I think and hope actually happens.  Established contributors (both exclusives and non-exclusives) should be grandfathered in to the minimum royalty rate they’re already earning. Let these changes go to the new ones that join, if at all. Other agencies have structured it that way, and it doesn’t cause mass chaos or letdown like this ridiculousness has.

Dear microstock agencies that I love working for,

I need microstock t shirts. Please send me some? I make you guys a decent amount of money. Pretty please? It’s not easy being naked.  I’ve been selling stock photography for 5 years now, and never got a free t-shirt. I get a lot of mosquito bites and sunburn when I go outside.  Sometimes random people pinch my hairy nipples.  Purple nurples hurt. My dog also jumps on me and scratches me.  I promise to wear it a lot and tell people about what the company is all about.  I promise not to resell it on ebay or craigslist. Think of it as free advertising!

Love,
Todd

I hear this a lot from those looking into microstock to earn a full time living.  Questions like this come up frequently on microstock forums, twitter and facebook.  How many images will I need?  What can I make hourly?  Is building up a sizable microstock portfolio even worth the effort? Read the rest of this entry »

I just feel like ranting this fine morning.

Has microstock devalued the industry? Sure it has. What once was a $500 photo sale has now turned into a $5 or even 50 cent photo sale.  But in general, the internet as well as digital photography have devalued the industry.  There are even websites being set up where people are posting links to our images, to download for free. One idiot buys them, and then shares them with the rest of the dishonest people that actually take part in the plundering and looting.  There’s really no stopping it, either.  There are contributors that can live comfortably off of a microstock income in many countries around the world.  Do you think these ones give a crap about devaluing the stock industry? Definitely not; they’re probably making a better living than they ever could before.

Traditional and old school photographers can sit around and whine about how much it sucks, or they can adapt to market trends.  Or, stay out of stock altogether.  Sure there’s still a market for macro stock, mid-stock, and rights managed. I personally dabble in a little of each.  Yes it’s nice when I make a photo sale for $400, but honestly if I relied just on those types of sales I wouldn’t be making enough to pay the bills.  Those sales for myself are few and far in between, compared to microstock sales, which are steady and in general, pretty reliable. Overall, the numbers for the rights managed and macro stocks are on the decline.  Getty was smart to acquire istockphoto (and they even recently bought stockxpert from Jupiter) so obviously they are trying to gain back their market share whatever ways possible.

Stock is only just one tiny corner of this incredible industry.  I started as a graphic designer, and even in that field it’s the same way.  You can focus on all sorts of corners of the creative industry…just pick one you enjoy doing the most, and obviously one you can pay the bills with.  If you can juggle a variety of things without trying to heat 6 pans on 4 burners, then go for it.  There are a lot of ways to make money in this business.  We can’t change how the market is, but we can fortunately pick and choose which areas we want to try and compete in.

It never ceases to amaze me…lately whenever I’m traveling every soccer mom, teenager, and senior citizen is rocking a DSLR of some sort.  If not a DSLR, then a state of the art point and shoot.  The technology is here, and it’s getting cheaper.  It’s so available, there is going to be a lot of competition in the future.  Thankfully for us there is a heck of a lot more to know in this business than just buying a camera and pressing the shutter.  BUT then comes the internet and google…where you can learn anything you want in a matter of minutes.  Maybe we’re all screwed

How long do you personally feel this microstock wave will last? A lot changes have happened in this business.  Agencies have come and gone, and there have been some buyouts and mergers.  I’ve been selling microstock for just 4 years now, and there have been changes galore.  The question is…how long will this microstock wave last? Will it continue the way it is for years to come, or will it eventually get to the point where it’s not even worth the time?  What do you guys think?  If anyone is reading this – I’d love to hear your predictions.