Quote from: Mantis on October 22, 2014, 20:42

Quote from: ShadySue on October 22, 2014, 19:50

On June 2rd this year

Quote from: Pickerell on June 03, 2014, 12:55

... Yuri provided some interesting insights on what he feels is the future of Midstock.
�Having just spent 3 days at GI in New York and today in Seattle with the IT exes I believe that very interesting things are in the pipeline for IS. Did I have a say in the upcoming changes... Yes - for sure. That being said. The GI top exe dev guys are highly competent and more flexible and agile towards change that I would have imagined. We are working on a set of core site improvements that will dramatically improve user experience and ultimately sales. Only thing that I can say now: Give IS three months and see the changes for yourself.
�Shutterstock might be in for a bit more competition than they expected, especially if GI has me project managing the develoment team and we utilize the two things GI has that nobody else has: 1. The best images in the world. 2. The best editors in the world. The best images displays that the world has ever seen is just around the corner. Watch this space!�

Gee, thanks for nothing, Yuri.
My sales, and those of most who are reporting, here, there and on the Fb groups I'm in, are even below those of the dismal summer months.

I think Yuri meant HIS sales. He could give rats ass about us. And how is it that midstock and shutterstock are in that same message? Shutterstock is micro not mid. Yuri knows only one thing....what's best for him.

Agree Yuri is only about Yuri, which is fair enough, but I CAN'T believe he is happy with the direction things have gone.  Hard to find anyone who doesn't think istock is a disaster now, and I think Yuri is no exception.

Only thing is that we don't know what his deal is with Getty. He is probably on a quite different commission structure than I.S. exclusives since they are using his "brand". He also may have positioning search favoritism over exclusives.  He is allowed to sell on other micros as an exclusive, too. So I bet he is better off than we might think.

Quote from: Mantis on October 23, 2014, 08:08

Only thing is that we don't know what his deal is with Getty. He is probably on a quite different commission structure than I.S. exclusives since they are using his "brand". He also may have positioning search favoritism over exclusives.  He is allowed to sell on other micros as an exclusive, too. So I bet he is better off than we might think.

Well, it's not doing the sales of his "Yuri" persona on iStock much good even if he is getting special placing. The figures for the last year show an average sales rate of something like one sale every two years for that identity's images.  That doesn't look like a good return on effort.

That may be true but we still don't know what his deal is and how much he is pulling outside of Getty/is. And he has at least two personas on Istock.

Essencial collection is being favored by the Best Match, I don't know how Yuri's pictures will make it

Yuri has almost 10,000 Essential files, under his 'Yuri' entity on iS: http://www.istockphoto.com/portfolio/Yuri#50dc702
7,351 of these are Essential Photos:
http://www.istockphoto.com/portfolio/Yuri#87c5dc9
(But only 3 Essentials in his Yuri_Arcurs persona.)

And, BTW, �The average price for one of my photo shoots is around $4,000,� Arcurs said. �But on a $4,000 shoot, we�re currently looking at about three years to see a return of investment.�
http://digiday.com/sponsored/003-243-istockbcs-in-age-instagram-what-designers-need-from-stock-photography

That's way too long. I seem to remember him talking a couple of years back about microstock becoming unsustainable because it could take several months - maybe six, I'm not sure -  to recoup shooting costs.  If current sales suggest four years to recoup costs, within another couple of years that might have stretched out to eight years, it's an elastic calculation and I don't see how you can run a business with that sort of uncertainty on recouping costs... you've also got to look at the potential interest you lose (or have to pay, if borrowing to pay for shoots) by having your money tied up for that time.

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on October 24, 2014, 18:36

Quote from: ShadySue on October 24, 2014, 18:23

And, BTW, �The average price for one of my photo shoots is around $4,000,� Arcurs said. �But on a $4,000 shoot, we�re currently looking at about three years to see a return of investment.�
http://digiday.com/sponsored/003-243-istockbcs-in-age-instagram-what-designers-need-from-stock-photography

That's way too long. I seem to remember him talking a couple of years back about microstock becoming unsustainable because it could take several months - maybe six, I'm not sure -  to recoup shooting costs.  If current sales suggest four years to recoup costs, within another couple of years that might have stretched out to eight years, it's an elastic calculation and I don't see how you can run a business with that sort of uncertainty on recouping costs... you've also got to look at the potential interest you lose (or have to pay, if borrowing to pay for shoots) by having your money tied up for that time.

It's nothing I'd consider, even briefly, but I'm particularly risk-averse. Maybe Yuri is particularly risk-embracing.

I suspect he is simply stuck. I haven't noticed him doing risky things, on the contrary he goes out of his way to ensure that what he does is a success, but isn't the situation that he either carries on doing what he does and hopes to cover the costs or he stops production and lives on the considerable proceeds of his portfolio? He's already negotiated his faux exclusive deal in response to the problem of falling return per image, what more can he do?
BTW, it was interesting to see the marvellous new look of microstock in that article you posted included simply slapping a cross-processing filter over an image and calling it cool. I wonder if iStock would accept that from ordinary mortals. Maybe I'll send them a few to see what happens.

Looking at IS, his latest work includes looks of images of arrows on white and about 500 similar and near duplicate mages of a pretty blonde model topless and in a towel and in active wear on white.  I'm not sure how hard to reproduce that is.

It looks as if he has responded to the difficulty of recouping shooting costs by switching to simple vectors and isolated-on-white, which makes sense. It's what microstock should be, really.

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on October 25, 2014, 07:34

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on October 25, 2014, 06:13

Looking at IS, his latest work includes looks of images of arrows on white and about 500 similar and near duplicate mages of a pretty blonde model topless and in a towel and in active wear on white.  I'm not sure how hard to reproduce that is.

It looks as if he has responded to the difficulty of recouping shooting costs by switching to simple vectors and isolated-on-white, which makes sense. It's what microstock should be, really.

Yuri thinks buyers will move back to IS just because he went there

Yes.  His move sure has hurt SS just as he predicted.   

One good point

It looks as if he has responded to the difficulty of recouping shooting costs by switching to simple vectors and isolated-on-white, which makes sense. It's what microstock should be, really.

And another.

"In the Age of Instagram, how does stock photography compete with cheap and free?"

I'm not sure what the point of the article is.  Instagram isn't licensing cheap and free images with model releases and legal guarantees.

But here's my answer. Yuri might be spending more than he makes in production and loses money on every shoot, but in the true Microstock tradition, he makes it up on volume.    {sarcasm alert, this is Humor}

If I need to explain, I will...

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on October 24, 2014, 18:36

Quote from: ShadySue on October 24, 2014, 18:23

And, BTW, �The average price for one of my photo shoots is around $4,000,� Arcurs said. �But on a $4,000 shoot, we�re currently looking at about three years to see a return of investment.�
http://digiday.com/sponsored/003-243-istockbcs-in-age-instagram-what-designers-need-from-stock-photography [nofollow]

That's way too long. I seem to remember him talking a couple of years back about microstock becoming unsustainable because it could take several months - maybe six, I'm not sure -  to recoup shooting costs.  If current sales suggest four years to recoup costs, within another couple of years that might have stretched out to eight years, it's an elastic calculation and I don't see how you can run a business with that sort of uncertainty on recouping costs... you've also got to look at the potential interest you lose (or have to pay, if borrowing to pay for shoots) by having your money tied up for that time.

3 or 4 years to see profit is tough in microstock.  That's about when my images start to decline in sales and sink in searches.   I am tempted to think his claims are exaggerated as a marketing ploy.  In fact, I take most everything Yuri says publicly as a marketing strategy.  No disrespect.  If I had half his marketing ability I would probably make twice what I do.

Fact: Istock is continuing to slow as each week passes, possibly as existing credits are used up.

It would be far more constructive, to band together and seriously address the issues that the sites have created for us, in lieu of bashing contributors who are attempting to find ways to survive in this business.

To be fair Yuri tried the above and failed. If we want things to change, we need to step up to the plate in mass.

To be fair, we really don't know what avenues he has explored and whether they have failed.  If "stepping up to the plate" is code for a sort of unionised action, it isn't going to work. Even an outrage like the DPC only saw about a quarter of files pulled - probably the best quarter, but not enough to close down the site.

Quote from: gbalex on October 26, 2014, 14:24

It would be far more constructive, to band together and seriously address the issues that the sites have created for us, in lieu of bashing contributors who are attempting to find ways to survive in this business.

To be fair Yuri tried the above and failed. If we want things to change, we need to step up to the plate in mass.

To be fair, we really don't know what avenues he has explored and whether they have failed.  If "stepping up to the plate" is code for a sort of unionised action, it isn't going to work. Even an outrage like the DPC only saw about a quarter of files pulled - probably the best quarter, but not enough to close down the site.

If you think you will fail and convince other contributors to believe the same fallacy you will certainly fail. It is a fact that there is a long line of other industries who have stepped up to the plate to protect their interests with positive results.

I have posted this information from Yuri before and he posted it here himself, you must have missed it

Snip

I would estimate that for the last three years I tried very hard to convince myself that microstock was in fact the right place for the professional photographer. After all, my photography carrier was born here. Perhaps exactly because of that, I tried so hard to disregard a growing mismatch between microstock and myself, in product refinement, sophistication and budget. As we grew in skills, as our company grew, our distribution partners in microstock did not. Some agencies where ok, but in total, as a mass and as a workplace, the picture was not nice.

Sometimes it felt like having a michelin restaurant inside a burger joint and at the same time having to match the prices. At some point the professional gets tired of selling 12 course testing menues at 0300AM at burger prices.

I tried everything I could for three years to inspire our microstock partners to close the gab. I submitted plans, did projection forecasts, showcased examples that worked, presented solutions and had literally hundreds of meetings.

I tried every kind of approach I could think of to get the micro agencies to raise prices just a bit and leave place for the kind of photographer both photographers and customers love. I spent literally months in airplanes. No Luck.

http://tinyurl.com/phnjox6