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Author Topic: Buyers Bailing on Istock  (Read 387851 times)

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lisafx

« on: September 09, 2010, 10:06 »
0
Since most of us appear to agree that changing buyer's behavior is the best response to Istock's unethical money grab, it would be great to read what buyers have to say. 

I know that some buyers have voiced plans to leave, but it's really hard to find their posts, buried as they are in all the justifiable contributor outrage. 

It would be nice to be able to read what buyers have to say here on MSG.  If you are a buyer who is going to leave Istock, or if you have found a post somewhere by a buyer who is leaving, or if any of the buyers you have contacted have responded, could you post it here?  It might have a stronger impact if we can see the buyer comments in one place.


lisafx

« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2010, 10:46 »
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Thanks to Peresanz for posting links to some of the buyers in istock thread who are going to take their business elsewhere. 



Surfing through the enormous thread is a pain. I found three, though:

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=252322&messageid=4613522

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=252322&messageid=4616262

and this one, crying out loud:

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=252322&messageid=4615822

« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2010, 10:57 »
0
Photography is a "hobby" for me and my tiny little port of 250 images at IS will not sway their decision, my REAL job is creative director for fortune 1000 co.
Not only do you have my support in no longer purchasing from IS (have about 50 credits that I'll spend this weekend so that some of you can get your 20% - and I'll buy nothing with a crown : P   ), but I'm pulling my port as well. It's only worth about $500 per year, but I'll feel better about myself. We also have monthly "designer meetings" (people from area design companies get together to suck down scotch and crab cakes) and I will take my 10 minutes of speech time to make sure that they're at least aware of this.

It's unfortunate that Wall-St found its way into MS

added: and even if all of this gets IS to modify or completely drop this plan, I'm done with them.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2010, 11:01 by anonymous »

« Reply #3 on: September 09, 2010, 11:00 »
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MORTON
I'm listening but not hearing much.
Admins, check how much i spend here. And I'm only here because I was referred by a contributor who I'm very fond of. Out of respect for that contributor, and others I am actively looking elsewhere for my images.
I'm sure Getty don't need my money anyway. You have now placed Vetta out of my reach. The agency collection doesn't interest me at all and you are constantly trying to get me to Thinkstock. If I'm looking for a subs package I've found a better deal on another site outside of the Getty empire.
Contributors. It's a big step but you need to get together, take your content and your ethics and reasonable prices and royalties and start up again. Designers will follow. Designers are cool. iStock was cool, Getty isn't.

What a rotten way to treat people.

LIZZIELOU (buyer who has spent more than $10000 over the last five years, documented with a screenshot)
I'll have to go where the images go. I believe this will have to start with the big contributers moving, buyers following then the smaller conrtibutors follow. but in support I will try to shop elsewhere before here especially if the artist is not wearing a crown (which is looking more like a dunce hat)

POLEKSPRESS (member since 2005)
I will never buy credits from Istock again!!!!!!!!!

ABDESIGN
I am the art director for a company who has purchased close to 2500 images here at istock. We will never again purchase images from here. In fact, is there a way to get your current credits refunded. I will be throwing away my crown before the end of the year and moving on. This place disgusts me.

SDbT
In protest ... I just used up the last of my credits and will not purchase further content at iStock until this situation is resolved.

MORTMATCH (corporate master)
I'm a pissed-off buyer. Microstock is cheap to begin with. Giving contributors less of a piece of the pie -- and I pity the non-exclusives taking such a hit as well as the exclusives who bought in to the promise of rewards for selling only to iStock customers -- is beyond greedy and mean-spririted. It's sweatshop labor. Hear that, iStock? S-W-E-A-T-S-H-O-P. I'm disgusted.
A couple of months ago, I had my company open a corporate account for thousands of dollars. And I can change that.
By the way, let me take a crack at running your business. I think I can make those margins sustainable without screwing your artists. I really think I can. How hard can it be to make something profitable when you're raking in 70 percent of the income of a product you don't even make?

anonymous
Photography is a "hobby" for me and my tiny little port of 250 images at IS will not sway their decision, my REAL job is creative director for fortune 1000 co.
Not only do you have my support in no longer purchasing from IS (have about 50 credits that I'll spend this weekend so that some of you can get your 20% - and I'll buy nothing with a crown : P   ), but I'm pulling my port as well. It's only worth about $500 per year, but I'll feel better about myself. We also have monthly "designer meetings" (people from area design companies get together to suck down scotch and crab cakes) and I will take my 10 minutes of speech time to make sure that they're at least aware of this.

It's unfortunate that Wall-St found its way into MS

added: and even if all of this gets IS to modify or completely drop this plan, I'm done with them.

GBALEX
I have worked in the advertising industry for years and our clients are mainly medium to small local businesses and a few large local corporations. I became a submitter in early 2004 to and thought seriously about quitting my job to develop a port large enough to live on.
I decided against it because I was afraid that it would end this way. I worried about the # of images flooding the market to the extent our work would be devalued. The writing was on the wall as you started seeing photographers who used to make decent money producing stock start offering workshops and frequenting micro forums to scare up customers simply because the money they made teaching others to produce stock is better than the money they made producing stock content themselves.
The end result has been many more submitters with LCV work burying images that we as buyers actually need for our projects.  Those submitters would never have made the cut if they had not been coached and most will never produce the type of work that most agencies and their clients need.
Besides being a buyer of images I know many submitters who have worked long and hard to provide a good living for themselves and I do not take the moves that IS has made lightly!  I think IS has forgotten that a great many buyers are also submitters and that as creative's we have respect and empathy for each other.
Micro does need to make changes, however I will not be supporting IS any longer.  Even before this move I have been buying my images more and more from sites who support photographers, graphic artists, video & audio producers.
With this move I have discussed this with my co workers and we have decided to no longer buy our content from IS.
I don't see things improving any day soon unless sites make moves to reduce LCV work, improve search engines and also raise prices for the end product.  That is hard right now because advertising in general has dropped because of the global recession.
I will encourage other buyers to examine how IS has treated its content providers and I will encourage them to seek other options.  Our company will no longer be buying IS content!

cameronpashak
I have continued to be a loyal customer and will buy an image that might not be the best out of all the ones i also found on other sites but still have bought it just because. If this goes thru, I will look at things for a year or so as a contributor. If I do worse next year under this structure, then i will look at my options as i can't really afford the time to upload to other sites at this moment.

But I can assure you the 60% of my earnings that i spend here buying images will definitely be spent somewhere else from the moment this is confirmed. I know that sounds crazy and not fair to our contributors but this is out of principle. If HF want to milk me of my continued hard work....they aint getting one bit of it back in the form of me buying images and I have the assurance of 3 other designer friends (none of which are contributors) of mine they are going to do the same as they see how hard outside of my regular work contributing images to istock.
Full post

ForwardDesign
While having been a $1000 - $1400 per year "buyer" at Istockphoto, I'm rather surprised by their indifference to their contributors. We seem to live in a day and age where corporate greed is king. At our 10:00am meeting tomorrow, I will bring this up to our design staff and see if they know of an image source that plays more fairly at the schoolyard. After reading the forum posts, I have to agree that there is a serious difference in the mathematical understanding and a rather callus response from Istockphoto staff. It's likely that somebody upstairs desires a larger paycheck and/or they're jockeying to sell.
CNET

leremy
I am a contributor and also a buyer at istock. I still have 26 credit. I have so far only buy images from istock (I had spent about usd500 so far since 1 year ago), and with this recent development that really irritate me, I will definitely not buy anymore credits from istock. Yes, there are plenty other agencies out there that I can buy pictures from. Just a side note, one of them has helped me in making 6x times more money than what I have made here. The more I think of it, the more it make sense for me to buy elsewhere. [...]
Full post

dsteller
[...]I am a contributor and I am a buyer. I am not big in either, but my 2000+ purchases are significant to me. It is sad for me to say but I am going to be purchasing elsewhere from here on out. [...]
Full post

caspixel
[...]As a buyer, I am very excited to see some new fresh content at some other sites. You guys provide great content. The best, really. Time to share.
Full post

anthony_taylor
As the library depletes, so will the custom. As a contibutor I'm being forced out. As a designer and buyer of images for national retail chain here in the UK I'll be taking my company's business elsewhere.
Full post

emrah
[...]I'm definitely not buying any photos and stupid announcements of istock any more
Full post

GeoffBlack
I will no longer buy here.
Full post

Jancouver
[...]BTW. I also bought 440 files from iStock for our projects but I will NOT buy a single file again from iStock!
Full post

ChrisGorgio
Shame on you for treating your long-standing contributors this way. Especially non exclusives who will be dropping to a base rate of 15%. If I'm not mistaken the lowest commission in the industry.
I will no longer be buying here or recommending the site to others.
Unbelievably greedy and ungrateful. Shame
Full post

Anja_Kaiser
If these changes should actually take effect, I'm going to delete my entire portfolio on new year's eve. *NOONE* will take up to 85% of what *my* work earns. I was almost about to reach the golden canister level and now it's for the trashbin? Plus a huge pay-cut? Plus a slap in my face? NO. Enough is enough. I'll lose about $400 to 500 a month (still), but my pride's worth something, too. iStock will lose me as a contributor and a buyer as well. The whole thing is blatantly barefaced and respectless.
Full post

JDehoff
I don't upload photos or illustrations of my own, so this does not effect me the same way. However, I have been downloading images to use in design projects from istock for years. The rates for images continue to go up each time I need to buy credits. I thought this would go to overhead and the artists. And now you're giving the artists I depend on a paycut? It seems like you're collecting more from both sides. Has someone gotten greedier?
The allure to istockphoto was that istock was NOT Getty images. I am saddened that istock has chosen to sell out and has opted to grow too large to maintain what made them unique in the first place. Change is only good if you don't lose the core of what made you good to begin with.
I guess I will increase my patronage to other, "smaller" stock image sites in the future in order to support the artists, instead of a corporation. Very disappointing istock.
Full post

ktasos
I deactivated my second file!!! I have nothing to loose as a non-exclusive contributor.I think if the things remain the same i will delete my entire portfolio soon... plus i will never buy not a single $ from this place anymore
Full post

Lazyfish
[...]But as a buyer i'm pissed off. I spend several thousand dollars on here every year through my corporate name, and i did that percisely because you guys were not getty. i liked the iStock model and always felt i was helping the little guy with the money my design agency makes. My business partner and I will have to re-evaluate were we spend our money now. I don't feel right giving it to you.
I feel sorry for people making their living on here. Good luck to you all!
Full post

anonymous
I had dinner tonight with the two people with whom I built the redacted. The artist/co-designer is currently working on an independent film and was shocked when I told him what IS are currently doing - he said that he's spent around $2,000 in the last month at IS on images and videos, and he will no longer buy there.
Full post

acromedia
Although its been said many times already, I just have to add: Wow.
As a partner/creative director at a web design firm, I've used and steered numerous client to istock for years. I just added up our invoices and we've spent over $6000 here in the past few years.
However, once our credits run out, we will no longer purchase from istock or any other getty sites. It is insane how the contributors here are being treated, and I cannot in good conscious support a company that abuses its suppliers in these manners.
I urge you all to remember that you have a choice; creating thousands of posts is a good way to let of some steam, but I'd encourage you to spend that effort moving your content to other sites, of which I hope to see and buy your work.
Change, take action, send a message.
Full post

Crooky0
[...]I am not a contributor...I merely came here to buy stock photos, and have spent a decent amount of money here over the past few years. I have never boycotted a business in my entirely life before now. Congratulations, iSP...you are the first! How's it feel to be #1?
Full post

mericsso
I contribute to iStock for fun. My real job is Art Director at a Canadian Magazine. I'm starting to feel like I'm supporting a big corporation instead of the artists. After I burn up my last batch of credits, I'll be taking my business elsewhere. 85% percent is just too much profit IMO.
Full post

hqimages
Yup, I'm downloading from Stockfresh now.. it's the only good alternative for me anyway.. but it feels good that there is an alternative with similar quality to istock, and better % for uploaders..
Full post

luriete
(I'm a photographer, and a client who buys usually 750 credits a year - we'll switch to someone else on that front and ask other agencies we work with to do the same)
Full post
« Last Edit: September 16, 2010, 08:15 by ThomasAmby »

« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2010, 11:04 »
0
Should've kept the permalinks though :\
For what? The thread on IS will vanish soon. They can't afford that kind of content creeping into Google.

« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2010, 11:05 »
0
Photography is a "hobby" for me and my tiny little port of 250 images at IS will not sway their decision, my REAL job is creative director for fortune 1000 co.
Not only do you have my support in no longer purchasing from IS (have about 50 credits that I'll spend this weekend so that some of you can get your 20% - and I'll buy nothing with a crown : P   ), but I'm pulling my port as well. It's only worth about $500 per year, but I'll feel better about myself. We also have monthly "designer meetings" (people from area design companies get together to suck down scotch and crab cakes) and I will take my 10 minutes of speech time to make sure that they're at least aware of this.

It's unfortunate that Wall-St found its way into MS

added: and even if all of this gets IS to modify or completely drop this plan, I'm done with them.


Thanks anonymous for the support.  If anything can make a difference then this kind of action could.

« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2010, 11:06 »
0
Should've kept the permalinks though :\
For what? The thread on IS will vanish soon. They can't afford that kind of content creeping into Google.

Well, that's very true. Better get them posted in here before it's too late.
IS need to open their eyes. These are their buyers.

KB

« Reply #7 on: September 09, 2010, 11:16 »
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and I'll buy nothing with a crown : P
Why is that? What have exclusive contributors done to earn your wrath? In some ways, we are hurt more by this move than independents. Of course, it's your decision, and your money. I'm just curious why you feel that way.

« Reply #8 on: September 09, 2010, 11:35 »
0
Well, that's very true. Better get them posted in here before it's too late.
IS need to open their eyes. These are their buyers.
You can take screenshots or (better) save the pages offline.

« Reply #9 on: September 09, 2010, 12:13 »
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and I'll buy nothing with a crown : P
Why is that? What have exclusive contributors done to earn your wrath? In some ways, we are hurt more by this move than independents. Of course, it's your decision, and your money. I'm just curious why you feel that way.
Nothing personal, it just always seems to be the "little guy" that gets crapped on the most and it's the independants that get burned the most in this decision.

« Reply #10 on: September 09, 2010, 12:14 »
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and I'll buy nothing with a crown : P
Why is that? What have exclusive contributors done to earn your wrath? In some ways, we are hurt more by this move than independents. Of course, it's your decision, and your money. I'm just curious why you feel that way.
Nothing personal, it just always seems to be the "little guy" that gets crapped on the most and it's the independants that get burned the most in this decision.

As a non-exclusive, I think it's the other way around. Well, we're both getting screwed, but exclusives seem to take a bigger hit

KB

« Reply #11 on: September 09, 2010, 12:29 »
0
and I'll buy nothing with a crown : P
Why is that? What have exclusive contributors done to earn your wrath? In some ways, we are hurt more by this move than independents. Of course, it's your decision, and your money. I'm just curious why you feel that way.
Nothing personal, it just always seems to be the "little guy" that gets crapped on the most and it's the independants that get burned the most in this decision.
As a non-exclusive, I think it's the other way around. Well, we're both getting screwed, but exclusives seem to take a bigger hit
Thanks, I do agree with you as far as total income goes. As an independent, I would've lost about 6-8% of my total income. As an exclusive, it's going to be a 16% drop.  I'm definitely going to feel more pain as an exclusive than I would've before, an an independent.

« Reply #12 on: September 09, 2010, 12:33 »
0
As a non-exclusive, I think it's the other way around. Well, we're both getting screwed, but exclusives seem to take a bigger hit

Depends on how you look at it.  In an absolute dollar sense, you're probably right.  Exclusives make more there, so they have more to lose.  But that's not the only way to see this one.  Exclusives mostly lose potential income growth; everybody at lower canisters will keep the same percentage under the new plan, but will lose the change to ever move up.  By iStock's figures, of them won't see a dime less.  But independents all lose; with maybe one or two exceptions, every single independent will be compensated at a significantly lower rate.  Mine drops by 20%; others go even further.  So in the comparison between those who don't make more and those who make significantly less, I know where my sympathies would lie.  If I were disinterested, which of course I'm not.

« Reply #13 on: September 09, 2010, 12:42 »
0

helix7

« Reply #14 on: September 09, 2010, 12:44 »
0

KB

« Reply #15 on: September 09, 2010, 12:44 »
0
Exclusives mostly lose potential income growth; everybody at lower canisters will keep the same percentage under the new plan, but will lose the change to ever move up.  By iStock's figures, of them won't see a dime less.
Your argument would be valid if the 3/4 figure were accurate. I don't believe it is (and I know in my case, as I have said, I will be losing 16% of my income, all other things being equal).

Interesting argument, eh? Who's getting screwed harder.

« Reply #16 on: September 09, 2010, 12:50 »
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Keep them coming, I'll try to keep my initial post updated

« Reply #17 on: September 09, 2010, 12:57 »
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Another Buyer protesting:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=252322&messageid=4624682


I think Mortmatch deserves to be quoted in full on this page. What an exquisitely terse and to-the-point diatribe;

"I'm a pissed-off buyer. Microstock is cheap to begin with. Giving contributors less of a piece of the pie -- and I pity the non-exclusives taking such a hit as well as the exclusives who bought in to the promise of rewards for selling only to iStock customers -- is beyond greedy and mean-spririted. It's sweatshop labor. Hear that, iStock? S-W-E-A-T-S-H-O-P. I'm disgusted.

A couple of months ago, I had my company open a corporate account for thousands of dollars. And I can change that.

By the way, let me take a crack at running your business. I think I can make those margins sustainable without screwing your artists. I really think I can. How hard can it be to make something profitable when you're raking in 70 percent of the income of a product you don't even make?"


ETA: That's interesting __ if you click on Mortmatche's name now he has disappeared! Along with his Corporate Master shield.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2010, 13:02 by gostwyck »

PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #18 on: September 09, 2010, 13:03 »
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Yeah, that's pretty to the point.

But if you click on Mortmatch's link it goes to the homepage. Wonder what happened.

ETA: You ETA'd while I was posting.

« Reply #19 on: September 09, 2010, 13:14 »
0
Exclusives mostly lose potential income growth; everybody at lower canisters will keep the same percentage under the new plan, but will lose the change to ever move up.  By iStock's figures, of them won't see a dime less.
Your argument would be valid if the 3/4 figure were accurate. I don't believe it is (and I know in my case, as I have said, I will be losing 16% of my income, all other things being equal).

Interesting argument, eh? Who's getting screwed harder.

I don't think the focus should be on who is getting screwed the most, non-exclusives or exclusives. I think we all agree we ALL are getting screwed one way or another. Let's just leave it at that and stay united. If a buyer has more sympathy towards independents, that his/her right. Let's not make them justify their choices. Stay focused.

« Reply #20 on: September 09, 2010, 13:16 »
0
I don't think the focus should be on who is getting screwed the most, non-exclusives or exclusives. I think we all agree we ALL are getting screwed one way or another. Let's just leave it at that and stay united. If a buyer has more sympathy towards independents, that his/her right. Let's not make them justify their choices. Stay focused.

Well said indeed Cathy!

« Reply #21 on: September 09, 2010, 13:29 »
0
I have worked in the advertising industry for years and our clients are mainly medium to small local businesses and a few large local corporations. I became a submitter in early 2004 and thought seriously about quitting my job to develop a port large enough to live on.

I decided against it because I was afraid that it would end this way. I worried about the # of images flooding the market to the extent our work would be devalued. The writing was on the wall as you started seeing photographers who used to make decent money producing stock start offering workshops and frequenting micro forums to scare up customers simply because the money they made teaching others to produce stock is better than the money they made producing stock content themselves.

The end result has been many more submitters with LCV work burying images that we as buyers actually need for our projects.  Those submitters would never have made the cut if they had not been coached and most will never produce the type of work that most agencies and their clients need.

Besides being a buyer of images I know many submitters who have worked long and hard to provide a good living for themselves and I do not take the moves that IS has made lightly!  I think IS has forgotten that a great many buyers are also submitters and that as creative's we have respect and empathy for each other.

Micro does need to make changes, however I will not be supporting IS any longer.  Even before this move we have been buying content more and more from sites who support photographers, graphic artists, video & audio producers.

With this move I have discussed this with my co workers and we have decided to no longer buy our content from IS.

I don't see things improving any day soon unless sites make moves to reduce LCV work, improve search engines and also raise prices for the end product.  That is hard right now because advertising in general has dropped because of the global recession.

I will encourage other buyers to examine how IS has treated its content providers and I will encourage them to seek other options.  Our company will no longer be buying IS content!
« Last Edit: September 09, 2010, 13:37 by gbalex »

« Reply #22 on: September 09, 2010, 13:30 »
0
That's interesting __ if you click on Mortmatche's name now he has disappeared! Along with his Corporate Master shield.

Wise move to delete - ban buyers.

ap

« Reply #23 on: September 09, 2010, 13:58 »
0

Interesting argument, eh? Who's getting screwed harder.


don't know who's getting screwed harder, or whether it matters, but this poll http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/poll-what's-your-future-commission-rate-photos!/25/ shows that 99% of indies will be dropping their commission rate, whilst 42% of all exclusives will be maintaining their current commission rate.

« Reply #24 on: September 09, 2010, 14:03 »
0
and I'll buy nothing with a crown : P
Why is that? What have exclusive contributors done to earn your wrath? In some ways, we are hurt more by this move than independents. Of course, it's your decision, and your money. I'm just curious why you feel that way.

Well - when some one pissis on me I for one Piss back.

Beisides - you should thank us, while on your knees whining. Hurting IS on the wallet, is the only thing that can bring the silly management at IS to the negosiationg table. The independents leaving, and taking their businnes and clients with them, is "money talks".

Remeber - there are 80%+ non ex. on IS.


 

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