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Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: Elenathewise on April 24, 2013, 11:36

Title: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: Elenathewise on April 24, 2013, 11:36
I just read John Lund's newest blog post here: http://blog.johnlund.com/2013/04/choosing-stock-photo-agency.html (http://blog.johnlund.com/2013/04/choosing-stock-photo-agency.html)
Apart from other things, he is saying:
"With Blend my images not only get a wider audience with both RF and RM content on Getty, Corbis, Masterfile, Superstock and God knows how many other distributors, but I also get my images up on Microstock sites at macro prices. How cool is that? The eyeballs appear to be migrating to places like Shutterstock, Fotolia and others. With Blend Images, without any additional work, I get representation on Shutterstock, Fotolia, iStockphoto and others."

I didn't know Blend was selling through micros - anybody knows how to find their files on Shutter or Fotolia? I would presume they would be in some kind of "special" collections?
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: Xanox on April 24, 2013, 12:37
maybe his images go straight into Vetta and other collections ?

and i wonder who's still buying at Masterfile and Superstock by the way, suprised they're still in business.
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: tickstock on April 24, 2013, 12:41
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Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: majszter on April 24, 2013, 13:08
They are in standard collection at SS: http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-627505p1.html (http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-627505p1.html)
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: Elenathewise on April 24, 2013, 13:36
They are in standard collection at SS: [url]http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-627505p1.html[/url] ([url]http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-627505p1.html[/url])


Thanks for the link! Then it's not really "macro" prices if it's standard collection - they would be getting the same sub rotalties as everyone else.
Vetta is more expensive, yes, but all Getty's stuff is available on Thinkstock at Thinkstock prices. So it looks like they are joining the micro and micro prices really.
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: Elenathewise on April 24, 2013, 13:39
and i wonder who's still buying at Masterfile and Superstock by the way, suprised they're still in business.
Me too! I have some images with both and, if one to judge by the royalties, they are barely surviving.
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: tickstock on April 24, 2013, 13:41
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Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: cthoman on April 24, 2013, 13:53
Thanks for the link! Then it's not really "macro" prices if it's standard collection - they would be getting the same sub rotalties as everyone else.
Vetta is more expensive, yes, but all Getty's stuff is available on Thinkstock at Thinkstock prices. So it looks like they are joining the micro and micro prices really.

And here you were getting my hopes up that we could negotiate special deals. Dashed again.  ;)
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: ShadySue on April 24, 2013, 15:03
Blend_Images go to the Agency collection on Istock.
So, more non-exclusive 'exclusives'?
Or are they 'image-exclusive' for iStock's Agency?
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: tickstock on April 24, 2013, 15:08
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Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: Elenathewise on April 24, 2013, 16:03
Blend_Images go to the Agency collection on Istock.
So, more non-exclusive 'exclusives'?
Or are they 'image-exclusive' for iStock's Agency?
I don't know what deal they got but I think they are at least image exclusive within Getty, you would have to dig a bit deeper to see exactly what that means.

Nope, they are just exclusive for Blend Images. They sell the same images on Getty, Corbis, and others (see original post), including Istock Agency collection. If you submit directly to Getty, you have to be exclusive to Getty. If you submit to Blend or other "collections" like that, you don't have to be exclusive to Getty. There are rules, and then there are some other rules:)
I think the reason Getty allows them to do that is that they can track RM and rights sales across their distributor chain. And of course if you sell through them you get only a percentage from your Getty (or any other) sales.
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: tickstock on April 24, 2013, 16:14
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Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: ShadySue on April 24, 2013, 16:26
Well, whatever, he hasn 't got the best deal with iStock.
I know they do lifestyle images, so I racked up the price slider and searched on Young Woman.
Best Match, after the top two images, the next 180 or so are all 0 dl images, firstly by Mint_Images, then by TongRo.
Interesting, because my latest (non agency) uploads have all sunk below position 100 for a main search term in their much smaller search result.
Clearly there are deals being struck up. It's certainly not a level playing field.
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: Elenathewise on April 24, 2013, 17:00

I think you are wrong.  I think he's saying that some of his images go to different places not that every image goes to every place.

I am not wrong - I do know how this collections work, I have some of my images with one of them. It's always been like that. What's new here is that they are submitting their content to microstock now, and it looks like, at least in case of SS, at micro prices.
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: tickstock on April 24, 2013, 17:13
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Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: Elenathewise on April 24, 2013, 17:34

I think you are wrong.  I think he's saying that some of his images go to different places not that every image goes to every place.


I am not wrong - I do know how this collections work, I have some of my images with one of them. It's always been like that. What's new here is that they are submitting their content to microstock now, and it looks like, at least in case of SS, at micro prices.

I guess I'm misunderstanding you then, you are saying Blend has the exact same images on Shutterstock and Istock and Getty RF and Getty RM?  I've done a few searches of Blend on Istock and Shutterstock and haven't found the same image on both sites before.


http://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/photo/young-woman-sitting-in-a-giant-flower-royalty-free-image/57532180 (http://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/photo/young-woman-sitting-in-a-giant-flower-royalty-free-image/57532180)

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=99981500 (http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=99981500)

Of course they don't sell RM on SS. Not yet:)
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: tickstock on April 24, 2013, 17:37
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Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: OM on April 24, 2013, 18:35
Methinks as a buyer, I might be a tad teed off at having paid a few hundred bucks for an image I could have got on SS on a subscription.
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: ShadySue on April 24, 2013, 18:41
Methinks as a buyer, I might be a tad teed off at having paid a few hundred bucks for an image I could have got on SS on a subscription.
Or even bought from iS at agency prices when it's also on TS.
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: tickstock on April 24, 2013, 18:46
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Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: ShadySue on April 24, 2013, 19:11
Methinks as a buyer, I might be a tad teed off at having paid a few hundred bucks for an image I could have got on SS on a subscription.
Or even bought from iS at agency prices when it's also on TS.
I don't think there are any Agency images from Blend on Thinkstock.  There are different Blend images on Thinkstock though.
OK, I misinterpreted what you wrote above and thought that all of Blend images were in Agency. However, I see you wrote "They are in the Agency collection ....  They have around 5000 images on Istock and less than 200 on Thinkstock as far as I can tell." I assumed that the 200 was a subset of the 5000.
Title: Re: Blend images selling on micros?
Post by: cardmaverick on April 25, 2013, 16:28
These independent image collections are just another middle man... I can't imagine what their subscription royalties look like after both the agency and collection take a cut... $0.15 a shot? It's possible, unless they have a special deal to get a higher payout....