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Author Topic: Exclusive (istock) vs Non-Exclusive for newbies?  (Read 24317 times)

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« on: May 04, 2016, 10:13 »
0
Hi all,
I'm currently working with istock as an exclusive photographer. I'm starting to shooting videos as well and I became an exclusive videographer with istock however I only have 8 footages uploaded yet. After digging web, I have doubts about working with istock as an exclusive videographer (at least as a newbie) on the other hand I'm happy with istock as an exclusive photographer. I used to work with many agencies in the past but after comparing all of them I decided becoming an exclusive photographer with istock was the best option for me and have no regrets at all. So what are your advices for me? Should I stick with istock as an exclusive videographer or selling on many other as non-exclusive? Honestly I prefer to become exclusive since it is easier manage and upload. But question is which agency? I guess most of you will suggest me to try all of them and find my best option then my question is which agencies worth to upload footages since it takes time? By the way I shot both 1080 and 4K.

One more question is I guess it is legal to work with istock as an exclusive PHOTOGRAPHER and non-exclusive VIDEOGRAPHER at the same time but still if anyone could confirm that would be great. I also plan to ask directly to IS but first I need to decide what to do.


ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2016, 10:22 »
0
One more question is I guess it is legal to work with istock as an exclusive PHOTOGRAPHER and non-exclusive VIDEOGRAPHER at the same time but still if anyone could confirm that would be great.
Yes it is.
In the old days, if you were exclusive in one media, you had to be in exclusive for them all.
However, once they went onto the RC scheme, they split the RCs across the media, and soon afterwards they had to admit that thereby they should split exclusivity also.
Just read your Exclusive ASA - Clause 1:
"Because iStock offers different categories of content, this agreement may differentiate among categories of content that you produce, such as still photography, which includes all raster files (for greater clarity, raster files include, but are not limited to, photographs, 3D renders, photographs of works of art that otherwise meet iStock standards and digital scans) (collectively, Photo Content), illustrations (for greater clarity, illustrations include all vector files) (Illustration Content), or video files, animations (Video Content) and related material produced by Supplier. Exclusivity with respect to one or more categories of Exclusive Content (as defined below) depends on your qualification under each such category, and to the selection of the chosen categories under the Exclusivity portion of the preferences panel in your account profile on the Site." - though they flatly refuse (deliberately IMO) to use Plain English in their agreements and it's a bit obtuse, to say the least. The red portion is your proof.

« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2016, 11:51 »
+7
Don't do istock.  ;)

« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2016, 12:28 »
0
One more question is I guess it is legal to work with istock as an exclusive PHOTOGRAPHER and non-exclusive VIDEOGRAPHER at the same time but still if anyone could confirm that would be great.
Yes it is.
In the old days, if you were exclusive in one media, you had to be in exclusive for them all.
However, once they went onto the RC scheme, they split the RCs across the media, and soon afterwards they had to admit that thereby they should split exclusivity also.
Just read your Exclusive ASA - Clause 1:
"Because iStock offers different categories of content, this agreement may differentiate among categories of content that you produce, such as still photography, which includes all raster files (for greater clarity, raster files include, but are not limited to, photographs, 3D renders, photographs of works of art that otherwise meet iStock standards and digital scans) (collectively, Photo Content), illustrations (for greater clarity, illustrations include all vector files) (Illustration Content), or video files, animations (Video Content) and related material produced by Supplier. Exclusivity with respect to one or more categories of Exclusive Content (as defined below) depends on your qualification under each such category, and to the selection of the chosen categories under the Exclusivity portion of the preferences panel in your account profile on the Site." - though they flatly refuse (deliberately IMO) to use Plain English in their agreements and it's a bit obtuse, to say the least. The red portion is your proof.

Thanks for the info. Do you have any other advices about my "which agencies" question?

« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2016, 12:30 »
0
Don't do istock.  ;)

Honestly I am happy with istock as an exclusive photographer. My doubts are about video and I guess I will cancel my exclusive video contract with istock and go with many other but which ones? I guess pond5, videoblocks and shutterstock are top 3 but still not sure or should upload any others as well?

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2016, 12:32 »
0
One more question is I guess it is legal to work with istock as an exclusive PHOTOGRAPHER and non-exclusive VIDEOGRAPHER at the same time but still if anyone could confirm that would be great.
Yes it is.
In the old days, if you were exclusive in one media, you had to be in exclusive for them all.
However, once they went onto the RC scheme, they split the RCs across the media, and soon afterwards they had to admit that thereby they should split exclusivity also.
Just read your Exclusive ASA - Clause 1:
"Because iStock offers different categories of content, this agreement may differentiate among categories of content that you produce, ..."  The red portion is your proof.

Thanks for the info. Do you have any other advices about my "which agencies" question?
I don't do video at all; I hear and read that iS is a poor agency for video unless you can make good sales at Getty.

« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2016, 15:55 »
0
If you're just starting out in video, I would be trying out all the companies to see how it goes. It's a lot easier to try a bunch of companies now and go exclusive later if you think that's best rather than start as exclusive and try to switch to non-exclusive after you have a ton of videos.

Rose Tinted Glasses

« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2016, 16:20 »
0
Don't do istock.  ;)

Honestly I am happy with istock as an exclusive photographer. My doubts are about video and I guess I will cancel my exclusive video contract with istock and go with many other but which ones? I guess pond5, videoblocks and shutterstock are top 3 but still not sure or should upload any others as well?

Everyone will have different results.

I am exclusive in both photos and video. For the most part I am happy with both results.

Exclusive video on Istock means you get better royalties and you upload once to Istock and it also sells on Getty. Half the work, twice the exposure. That said, I would not upload video at all if I was non-exclusive as they sell your work for a low price and pay the worst royalty rates going. < Food for thought.

I'd give it a go as an exclusive and build on that, then after a while decide whether to drop exclusivity or not.




« Reply #8 on: May 04, 2016, 16:32 »
+2
I've just dropped exclusivity on istock after many years being exclusive and I must say uploading 1000's of clips to multiple sites is not an easy task. Also re-keywording and adding descriptions for all the files and saving them as a .csv file is the most boring thing I've ever done (and as summer jobs I've packed cheese in boxes coming off a conveyor belt's in 12 hour shifts).

I went non-exclusive as sales on istock were getting worse each month. My Getty sales were and have always been great but my istock sales have just been rubbish (to what I would expect).

I know signs are early but the selling power shutterstock has is just mind blowing. Royalties are a little lower but wow they sure sell in abundance!

To sum it up - I'm really going to miss Getty but the sites like Shutterstock and Pond5 - adobe(Fotolia) too although a little slower, have made a huge impact on my wellbeing as getting multiple daily downloads sure makes me feel better than a tiny triple from istock.

« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2016, 05:23 »
+2
I've just dropped exclusivity on istock after many years being exclusive and I must say uploading 1000's of clips to multiple sites is not an easy task. Also re-keywording and adding descriptions for all the files and saving them as a .csv file is the most boring thing I've ever done (and as summer jobs I've packed cheese in boxes coming off a conveyor belt's in 12 hour shifts).

I went non-exclusive as sales on istock were getting worse each month. My Getty sales were and have always been great but my istock sales have just been rubbish (to what I would expect).

I know signs are early but the selling power shutterstock has is just mind blowing. Royalties are a little lower but wow they sure sell in abundance!

To sum it up - I'm really going to miss Getty but the sites like Shutterstock and Pond5 - adobe(Fotolia) too although a little slower, have made a huge impact on my wellbeing as getting multiple daily downloads sure makes me feel better than a tiny triple from istock.

Copy your whole list of footage files from deep meta and paste it into excel. You get names of your files, keywords, description and categories. After that it's easy :)))

« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2016, 11:37 »
+2
OMG Mirkic I wish I knew this a couple of months ago. Thanks so much for the tip though, I've still got over a 1000 to do!

« Reply #11 on: May 05, 2016, 11:52 »
+1
But be sure to tick only footage, active and others so it will list for you rejected, pending and online files. And also be sure to select all clips. It won't work on one clip only. And when you are pasting into excel or libre office use "import wizard" or something like that, I forgot how it's called. And then play with the columns and settings. It should be delimited with comma and text should be with " ". And next thing you wanna do is submit to pond5. When you do that, pond5 give you the ability to download your list of files in CSV with original filename and new one (the one you gave it). I had this problem where 99% of my clips had some moronic names like Nat01 (clip of windy trees etc). So I had to go and rename all of the files :))) Also, there is a freeware program called Advanced Renamer or something like that... You can rename whole list of files in batches, you can give numbers, you can do a lot of things in that one. It helped me a lot with my audio port. The only downer for DM and IS is that it wont give you "original filename". So if you are organised as I was, you are in a week of bloody renaming and sorting things out :)

Anyways, make your master csv file and keep it updated. Afterwards, with a little or no tweaking at all, you can use it for Shutterstock, Canstock, Videoblocks, Motionelements, Dissolve, Depositphotos etc... Spreadsheets rules :))

« Reply #12 on: May 06, 2016, 14:30 »
0
After reading all and making more research, I decided to start with pond5, videoblocks, shutterstock and istock. (actually I dont want to sell videos for few pennies but I already have my main portfolio in IS for photos so why not to upload vids to see ho do they sell) on the other hand, I'm confused about Fotolia. Is it worth to upload videos to fotolia? Looking for advices. Thank you all  :)


 

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