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Author Topic: iStock and their selfish thinking  (Read 9786 times)

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« on: August 09, 2015, 00:03 »
+10
My thoughts about iStock! Tell your opinion what you think of these and how you feel? This are my feelings right now, I do not have very good things to say about iStock  >:(, so if you are looking some positivity, DO NOT READ THIS!

I feel like these days iStock is mostly focused on that how much they can get money to themselves. They do not care lot of about the contributors opinions, they are focused on wrong things (interface, etc) and they do not admit any mistakes what they have done and say "we are sorry"!

First about the redeemend credits...iStock decided to introduce redeemend credits because there is lots of contributors who don't have a time or interest to upload photos anymore. Maybe they (contributors) have a lot of downloads but monthly downloads have been drop because they haven't continued uploading. So iStock decided to take off that what they have earned through the downloads (ranking) before, then redeemend credits came and it was just because that way iStock can have more money.
iStock doesn't count G.I, ThinkStock and Image suscribtion sales in total year redeemen credits. Why? Now we have a situation that credit sales has been dropped a lot because of the new 1/3 credit pricing and the image suscribtion plans. Contributors can have less redeemend credits per year and royalty rates will drop.

Image suscription plans to us Exclusives.
iStock still have that essential and signature imagesuscription plans. Essential imagesuscribtion plan blocks away exclusive contributors if the customers choose the essential imagesuscribtion plan. Not good for us (Exclusive). That 1/3 pricing is also unequal! It should be a same price for all photos. Customers do not care why some photos cost 3 credits and some others 1 credit. It is hard understand how much is the 1 or 3 credits if you are new in iStock. This makes it difficult to understand the pricing for the new customers and it is unfair for everyone.

If customers choose the imagesuscribtion monthly plan, iStock will get the entire money per month. The customers do not maybe use they entire downloads per month, so iStock will get the entire money per month but the contributors may not as credit sales.

Then I doesn't understand that G.I / ThinkStock mirroring. Why iStock sell same photos in different (G.I,TS) places at different prices? Why we can't handle ourself which images we want to sell more expensive in getty and what images we want be in thinkstock and iStock. Okey we have that stupid check box "Nominate for Signature+ Collection" is that enough? No!

New payment system! iStock is keeping our money over month to themselves and takes the interest of the money to themselves what they should pay us as when we want them to. Once again, selfish and greedy thinking.

iStock website is realy slow and the new interface do not much help things. iStock is  slower than any other stocksite what I know. iStock doesent have good contributor management page. Everything is here and there at sixes and sevens.

These days iStock accepted all kinds of poor photos in to their library. Where is the good quality check?

All the decisions what iStock has made have done things only worse. iStock is ghost town these days if we compire what was it like 2010. Could iStock start doing things right that things would go better! Sales have just fallen month by month! I'm tired of this bad situation and I am not going to spend my time any more to growth my portfolio. It is waste of time!

We should make a petition that iStock restore to prices back what was it like 2012...restore that small to xxxlarge pricing!!!

http://www.sampletemplates.com/business-templates/petition-template.html


« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2015, 03:40 »
+24
You're preaching to the choir here. All good points. To answer your question, "Why is istock doing this?" - well istock isn't doing anything since it ceased to be a real independent business a while ago. It is now just a shell controlled by Getty Images which in turn is controlled by it's owners the Carlyle Group. Also, Getty Images was previously owned by Hellman & Friedman which gave Getty almost a billion in debt by rewarding itself a dividend before selling the company to the Carlyle group. Basically, the company is in a lot of debt and it's credit of cash is running out. The Carlyle Group needs to see a return on it's investment so it means we the contributors, aren't going to see any increase in earnings, just less. It's like going to a casino and realizing all of the machines are rigged. Exclusivity means nothing. Thanks to subscriptions, they are already drinking your milkshake. It is foolhardy to continue to upload more images to them since you will only earn pennies on the dollar. (I stopped uploading too)

Getty Images business model is this: They earn 80% on the sale from your work and you get 20%. They call it the "industry standard" and they would like nothing better than to earn even more than that if they could. Istock's model was different (under the old canister system) since you could make 45% from each sale. Since that goes against the Getty business model, that had to change. In turn, they lost contributors, customers, and destroyed a perfectly well run business. They do not care about us, nor will they say "sorry" or even comment on these issues since it could pull them into lawsuit territory.

In September they are planning some "exciting news" about the istock exclusivity. I am guessing they are scrapping it for a straight flat rate royalty. So long as subscriptions are in place, it doesn't matter what they do with it. The website is terrible because all of the good IT people who made it work are long gone and they don't want to spend the money to fix things. I still believe layoffs and a possible office closing in Calgary will be happening too. Not fun times ahead.

Trying to make your voice heard is pointless. It's was done before with Rebecca Rockefeller and she quit when she realized she was talking to a corporate brick wall. I tried to speak with the people of the Carlyle Group and got deaf ears. If they only listened to us, they wouldn't be in the mess they're in now. The only way out of this is to get up and leave the Getty Casino and go out on your own.

Justanotherphotographer

« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2015, 04:38 »
+10
Wish I had more than one plus to give. Getty has been nothing but a vehicle for debt for some time, forget about IS as any kind of independent business run for the long, or even medium, term.

« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2015, 05:15 »
+3

Getty Images business model is this: They earn 80% on the sale from your work and you get 20%. They call it the "industry standard" and they would like nothing better than to earn even more than that if they could.

In September they are planning some "exciting news" about the istock exclusivity. I am guessing they are scrapping it for a straight flat rate royalty. So long as subscriptions are in place, it doesn't matter what they do with it.

The "industry standard" now is whatever Adobe decides because they are a much bigger company and have the biggest resources to promote whatever they want. Even if they still need a few years to catch up with SS and getty, nobody doubts they will reach their levels or overtake them.

Exciting news about istock exclusivity? What would make sense, would be to offer exclusive images, the way fotolia/adobe does. That would be a genuinly positive step forward.


But it could also just mean they want to recruit more people for their ambassador program to help with social network marketing. I got an email for that a few days ago, this could easily be presented as "exciting" news for all artists without having to pay anyone any money.

« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2015, 05:15 »
+2
In September they are planning some "exciting news" about the istock exclusivity.

Where was this (pre) announced? Please :)

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2015, 06:50 »
+1
In September they are planning some "exciting news" about the istock exclusivity.

Where was this (pre) announced? Please :)
A year or two ago, IIRC.

« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2015, 07:36 »
0
In September they are planning some "exciting news" about the istock exclusivity.

Where was this (pre) announced? Please :)
A year or two ago, IIRC.

you mean that a year or two ago they pre-announced changes planned for September 2015? That seems unlikely.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2015, 07:42 »
+3
In September they are planning some "exciting news" about the istock exclusivity.

Where was this (pre) announced? Please :)
A year or two ago, IIRC.

you mean that a year or two ago they pre-announced changes planned for September 2015? That seems unlikely.

No, a year or two ago, Lobo mentioned positive changes for exclusives coming 'soon', which I think may have hinted at Sept of that year. No more was said, and I didn't experience, nor read of anyone else experiencing, 'positive changes'.
I haven't read of any such promises this year (other than the aborted [allegedly 'on hold while they fix the UI', but that's six weeks and counting] 'editorials mirrored at Getty') but if I saw one, I'd probably mentally file it under 'piecrust' anyway.
In any case, maybe mirroring at Getty is just a drop by drop way of getting us all into max 20% share of sale.
« Last Edit: August 09, 2015, 08:37 by ShadySue »

« Reply #8 on: August 09, 2015, 08:05 »
+2
So that seems like perhaps a different conversation and probably not much connected with the thing that ARTPUPPY is referencing. So I am going to post my original question again so that it isn't buried behind the diversion. This question relates to some specific announcement about Sept 2015:

In September they are planning some "exciting news" about the istock exclusivity.

Where was this (pre) announced? Please :)
« Last Edit: August 09, 2015, 10:40 by bunhill »

madman

    This user is banned.
« Reply #9 on: August 09, 2015, 08:45 »
+9
istock is killig itself slowly, last years completely disaster for contributors, and I dont think it will change in a positive direction. my sales and earning graph in a constanly and unstoppable downward trend for last two years, and so many contributors have the same apparently, we loose money, themselves loose money, also loose overall quality, site functionality and so on and on... I wonder why they do not try to fix it? maybe they really like to lose.
« Last Edit: August 09, 2015, 08:47 by madman »

« Reply #10 on: August 09, 2015, 16:30 »
+5
At some point in the not too far future, I'll be able to leave the sinking iStock ship without any real income loss, since my revenue will have hit rock bottom by then.
Until that time, I'll stick around, grabbing what little money I can. In the meantime, I'm focusing on other agencies that do make some money.

I predict iStock will slowly bleed to death within one or two years, unless some miracle is going to happen or Getty pulls the plug.

« Reply #11 on: August 09, 2015, 17:19 »
+3
So that seems like perhaps a different conversation and probably not much connected with the thing that ARTPUPPY is referencing. So I am going to post my original question again so that it isn't buried behind the diversion. This question relates to some specific announcement about Sept 2015:

In September they are planning some "exciting news" about the istock exclusivity.


Where was this (pre) announced? Please :)

Mentioned in the  "A few thoughts on the launch of Adobe Stock" old forum thread.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=367353&page=3 Lobo:  "We will have something on the state of RC targets and the like closer to September."

« Reply #12 on: August 09, 2015, 17:20 »
+1
Istock = Dead man walking  ;D

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #13 on: August 09, 2015, 17:27 »
0
In September they are planning some "exciting news" about the istock exclusivity.

Where was this (pre) announced? Please :)

Mentioned in the  "A few thoughts on the launch of Adobe Stock" old forum thread.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=367353&page=3 Lobo:  "We will have something on the state of RC targets and the like closer to September."

Huh? How was that "exciting news about iS exclusivity"?
It wasn't even claimed to be such.

Posted By Krakozawr:
"Just want to ask again... I hope this is a proper thread for this kind of questions :)
Whether the RC is a system designed to motivate contributors, or to restrict any possibility to reach a higher royalty levels for them.
Now, the situation looks like a restrictive repressive system. If it is not true, the RC system must be revised and redesigned, but nobody tell about this. Instead we have some kind of RC Amnesty year-by-year, so contributors who was so lucki to reach higher royalty levels in the past fat years can keep it independent of a collected RC, and other contributors are stuck at lower levels even if they collected same quantity of RC. It's just unfair. Please correct me if I'm wrong :)"


Posted by Lobo:
It's definitely not the right thread. We will have something on the state of RC targets and the like closer to September.

All that is is Lobo saying that they'll tell us what's going to happen about RC targets: closer to September.
No suggestion of any exciting news for exclusives.
No hint of whether 'the state of RC targets' will be good, bad, or indifferent for any of us.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #14 on: August 09, 2015, 17:29 »
0
I have to be fair and say that apart from that bit, I would +100 your post (Reply #2) above.
« Last Edit: August 09, 2015, 20:07 by ShadySue »

« Reply #15 on: August 09, 2015, 17:41 »
+3
Sounds like they will just grandfather everyone again, i.e. you dont fall down if your rcs are not on target, but can move higher if you made it.

But the current system really makes no sense. They should scrap it for something simple or at least count all sales,including getty and thinkstock. Just like adobe...

w7lwi

  • Those that don't stand up to evil enable evil.
« Reply #16 on: August 09, 2015, 21:56 »
+4
Istock = Dead man walking  ;D

More like the walking dead.  Be careful not to get too close and get bit.   ;D

« Reply #17 on: April 14, 2017, 10:33 »
0
In September they are planning some "exciting news" about the istock exclusivity.

Well its been an other year since we have discussed it and still no exciting news  :-X

We should start a petition.
https://www.wordlayouts.com/petition-templates/


 

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