Microstock Group - A meeting place for microstock photographers

Who can blame them ?

Their choice is about either screwing new contributors getting 80% of their sales or
screwing their exclusives getting 60% of their sales but also selling their high res files
at 0.25$ via ThinkStock.

However we turn the cards on the table it's a win-win scenario...  for Getty.

Depending on whether it's a normal sale or an Infinite Collection Sale, my commission is $21.60 or $50 respectively as an exclusive at Fotolia. 

-Mat

Yep, save your breath. 

Any exclusives out there who can report the effects of the raised prices on exlusive files? Do you sell as much as you did before the raise or has the number of sales gone down?

Sales down, income up.

Ive sent dozens and dozens of buyers to IS over the years ofcourse with a selfish interest but also IS has gained a lot and its a great place. However, the site is now getting messy, its too much of special this and special that with all differant pricing, etc.

Some 95% of buyers just want an ordinary pic, they dont want to get involved in all this structuring, one guy said to me: I dont even know how to buy there anymore.

If Gettys ambition is to slowly turn IS into Macro, etc then they should just go ahead and do it!  all this creeping around the bush is just confusing buyers and contributors for that matter. Besides,  they cant survive on a 18% exclusivity out of total contributors?  so why doesnt Getty just turn the whole site into a giant RF agency, its going towards that anyway.

best.

True!  but youre talking about a meager 5% of buyers ( according to all stats)  how are 20 micros going to cash in on that? in this Micro world, its the little ordinary guy thats need looking after, hes the one putting food on your table.

I think Kurhan is an exception. Yuri Arcurs, Belleimages, Iofoto, Phildate, Redbaron, Monkeybusiness and many other stopped uploading to Dreamstime.
I'm from few weeks exclusive at IS and my last weekends' numbers are better than entirely months at DT. Some do better on one site, some on other. Microstock has strange rules.

Excuse my ignorance but what stats are you referring to? I'm exclusive at istock so i cant say much for the other agencies and their buyers habits. I feel that a good chunk of the macro market has gone into the micro market (at least in istock) so they are used to seeing much higher prices and dont mind these higher prices especially with the E+ prices.  With this price hike, i believe Getty is trying to herd the mom and pop shoppers to thinkstock which is troublesome.

I am going to say no. But it depends on your definition of a mom and pop shopper. I consider myself a mom and pop shopper. I freelance work or work full-time as a graphic designer. I have to buy stock photos for projects. I am not like an ad agency, where I buy tons of images a year and charge outrageous prices for my work. The businesses I work for are small to medium-sized.

I would not invest in a subscription because I just don't buy/use that kind of volume. I want to be able to get exactly the photo I need and I will shop at any of the sites to get it. If a couple of sites have the same image, I buy it from the lowest-cost on-demand site. For the majority of my projects, I can't use the "artsy" stuff. I buy more "real people, real life, everyday" type of photos, that depict the same. Now and again I get a juicy job and get to run free with it and might look for some "out of the norm" type of image, but not typically.

I think that I am fairly typical amongst the "mom and pop shopper" category.

Yes indeed, that is troublesome thoughts!  Getty isnt exactly doing anything from the godness of their heart. Ive been in their RM since 1993 ( came from Stones and Image-Bank), theyve done some great, great things but the way theyre enforcing things, structures on IS, lately. are very questionable and I cant help wondering where its all gonna end?

well mate that was very-------enlighting, Im gonna sleep well at nights knowing you finally got in 15 years later and blooming hell youre a stock photographer.