I just "sold" a video for $0.02 and my commission was $0.00 ...

I guess this is how the calculate 20.00% of $0.02 is $0.00 ... :|

I not upset just took my business elsewhere, they can sell what I have there.

How is this stealing? You gave them permission to sell your videos, and they have the right to alter their prices or sell them through any iStock affiliated channel.

If you're really pissed off about it, you should delete all your videos from iStock. Easy as that.

Stealing and "stealing" is not the same you know. By adding " " i state that the word is not correctly used.

I just need to get out some frustration about iStock. I uploaded my files their until a couple months ago. They have never payed well for photos, I know that. But video sales has been ok, until last november/december. Suddenly all my 4K material, shot with $25.000 drone equipment starts to sell for $0.40. Ten videos sold for that price. I contacted them and the answer was that they offer a special subscription that allow this, and I cannot opt out of selling in this category. The last four months I have stopped uploading both photos and videos to them. Sales at Adobe Stock, Pond5 etc goes as normal, $25 to $100, depending on resolution. For anyone reading this, I suggest not to upload anything to iStock, you are better off.

Is your goal to maximise income?

Quote from: microlock on April 19, 2018, 04:30

I just need to get out some frustration about iStock. I uploaded my files their until a couple months ago. They have never payed well for photos, I know that. But video sales has been ok, until last november/december. Suddenly all my 4K material, shot with $25.000 drone equipment starts to sell for $0.40. Ten videos sold for that price. I contacted them and the answer was that they offer a special subscription that allow this, and I cannot opt out of selling in this category. The last four months I have stopped uploading both photos and videos to them. Sales at Adobe Stock, Pond5 etc goes as normal, $25 to $100, depending on resolution. For anyone reading this, I suggest not to upload anything to iStock, you are better off.

I can't help feeling that you have overspent on equipment and you might never make a reasonable return on the capital you have committed.

If you read the entire thread you see that I have drones with Alexa Mini, RED and Inspire 2 with X7. My main income is from working with clients who would never use stock footage in their productions. I do therefor travel a lot in car in a spectacular country, making it easy to shoot some stocks with the Inspire 2. I do not understand why a couple of you in this thread try to defend iStock, do you really think $0.40 for high end aerials, shot with the right knowledge about framing, shutterspeed, aperture, ProRes 4444, etc is ok? I think $0.50 for your images is way to low, but I see that people is accepting this more and more, so I won't argue on that. If a guy with a RED shoot som really nice footage I think he should stay away from iStock and let people with a Mavic or Phantom using shutterspeed as aperture sell their stuff for $0.50 on iStock.

Quote from: microlock on April 22, 2018, 04:46

I do not understand why a couple of you in this thread try to defend iStock, do you really think $0.40 for high end aerials, shot with the right knowledge about framing, shutterspeed, aperture, ProRes 4444, etc is ok? I think $0.50 for your images is way to low, but I see that people is accepting this more and more, so I won't argue on that. If a guy with a RED shoot som really nice footage I think he should stay away from iStock and let people with a Mavic or Phantom using shutterspeed as aperture sell their stuff for $0.50 on iStock.

I think your pride is (quite understandably) hurt. But ultimately it's about what the market will pay for your work. Some people are sensitive to price, some people aren't. To maximise income you need to supply both segments of the market. Basic price discrimination.

Not at all, I just think it's unfair what they are doing. The marketing is paying $299 for for about five of my clips every month at Pond5, giving med $149 x 5.  Same at Adobe Stock.  And yes, it was my choice to sign up at iStock, but I do not like it when they suddenly start to "give" away my clips.

 Final customer really does not care if product was made with hogh-end or lower-end equipment. The only criteria is "does this product fit my needs?" and "can i afford it?". It might sound cruel (and at some points - it is), however, that's how it works.
 I myself  bake bread for example. And when i go to store and buy flour, i really do not care if this wheat was grown, cut, and put on the shelf using most sophisticated John Deere agricultural machinery, and Mercedes trucks from fields to stores.
 I only care about quality. I guess i tried all of these, and have few favorites. - which fits my needs in quality-price relation.
 From the other hand, yes, of course, selling clips at less than a dollar for author is nothing but humiliation and heavy exploitation, and underpaying hard work. However, i'm always trying to see bigger picture - so, for example - these customers which buy clip for peanuts - might be the same customer which paid just one your clip at price point enough for buying one piece of equipment etc.. -so, i look at things from that point of view - total downloads/total $ rate - and i might be o.k. with it, or if in total i was not - i would delete account and save myself from frustration.

Final customer really does not care if product was made with hogh-end or lower-end equipment. The only criteria is "does this product fit my needs?" and "can i afford it?". It might sound cruel (and at some points - it is), however, that's how it works.

If the final product is a 500 pixel wide email GIF insert then you're probably right but there is a wide segment of the market where technical quality is every bit as important as aesthetic quality.

So, if I want to buy stock videos and photos the best place is iStock?