Author Topic: READ THIS if you're fed up with iStock (Read 34528 times)

FightForArtists · « **on:** April 07, 2011, 11:38 »

Let's face it... Strict upload limits? Lengthy review times? vague, generic rejection notices? A site plagued with bugs? 15% commissions? iStockPhoto doesn't respect you. If you're like me, you've known this for a long time. You've perhaps wondered what you can do to make a difference. I am going to tell you.

If you are one of the ones who have pulled their content after the recent pricing restructure, I applaud you. I did not pull my content. I'm a full-time, non-exclusive contributor who made 60K in commissions last year. 25K of that came from iStock, so I think you can understand why I stayed.

But that doesn't mean I'm helpless. For us non-exclusives, it's in our best interest for buyers to shop elsewhere. In fact, it's in our best interest to bring the entire iStock company down so those buyers would shop at the competitors' sites, who will then pay us higher commissions.

A friend of mine who is a contributor and also works at a video production house in Chicago, said that with every client he works with, he always recommends against buying from iStock. I thought, "That's brilliant. Why don't I do that?" So yesterday, I finished doing a custom edit to one of my footage clips for a company that found me on iStock. After the job, I wrote an FYI in the email, just explaining the facts. I told her what iStock pays the artist as opposed to Pond5's 50% commission and Revostock's 45%. I told her how iStock actually reduced my commission rate after I signed up with them and uploaded all my content. I told her how the selection is bigger on the other sites and the prices are generally much lower (of course, this applies to photos as well, not just footage). She wrote back and said that she had forwarded the email to upper management and will see what she can do.

Do you ever work with, or for, companies that require stock media? A simple paragraph at the end of your email explaining the facts can make a big difference. I believe this is how we fight unfair treatment of artists. We don't have unions, folks. It's up to us. If you want to fight, forward this message to anyone you know who is in the same situation.

rimglow · « **Reply #1 on:** April 07, 2011, 12:00 »

You want to bring down a company that paid you $25,000?

herby11 · « **Reply #2 on:** April 07, 2011, 12:03 »

as far as I understand he wants to make 40k out of the 25k he made there, but elsewhere instead...

Perry · « **Reply #3 on:** April 07, 2011, 12:05 »

Quote from: rimglow on April 07, 2011, 12:00

You want to bring down a company that paid you $25,000?

You seem to miss the point. If the customers had shopped the same videos elsewhere, he would have gotten $50,000 (or even more).
I don't think the customers vanish even if iStock does.

I have made about 25k at iStock too. iStock has made about 100k (yes I know it's not all profit, so don't bother to correct me) from my photos. Makes me very sad when I think about it.

For the next 25k the figures are: 25k for me, 142k for iStock.

rimglow · « **Reply #4 on:** April 07, 2011, 12:07 »

Yeah, but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

cthoman · « **Reply #5 on:** April 07, 2011, 12:44 »

There was a big long thread about this. I think it was about removing links though. While I'm not going to take time to un-recommend iStock or any other site, I do advertise my personal stock site to my freelance clients.

FightForArtists · « **Reply #6 on:** April 07, 2011, 12:52 »

Quote from: rimglow on April 07, 2011, 12:00

You want to bring down a company that paid you $25,000?

iStock has paid me a lot of money in 5 years, no doubt. And I have made them five times more. I certainly don't owe them anything. I would rather make my money elsewhere, at a rate that I feel is fair. So yeah, I would love to take down a company that I perceive as evil to get to that position.

loop · « **Reply #7 on:** April 07, 2011, 12:55 »

Once, I was fed up of another stock company where I submitted. I earned money there. I resigned (I would says that's coherent) , and, even having done it, I never bad-mouthed them.

Perry · « **Reply #8 on:** April 07, 2011, 13:03 »

There is a certain difference between bad-mouthing and telling the plain truth.

sharpshot · « **Reply #9 on:** April 07, 2011, 13:11 »

I wouldn't like to see istock collapse, as all the exclusives would then have to use the other sites and there's enough competition already. I would like to see the commission cuts backfire, so they lose money and it puts off other sites following their example. Unfortunately I'm not even sure that will happen, as it seems that people will keep uploading to istock whatever they do. I think we are going to have to hope that more buyers get fed up with the changes they have made and look elsewhere.

Eireann · « **Reply #10 on:** April 07, 2011, 13:21 »

I stopped uploading as soon as the announcement was made.
I pulled my port before the changes took place.

And I am absolutely going to take all the time needed to let all my customers (friends, family and everyone I know included), know that IStock should be avoided like the plague.
Like the plague.
Compared to the other sites IStock prices are too high, their images are in now way special or unique anymore, the multitude of collections, crowns, canisters, exclusive, only somewhat exclusive, part exclusive, independent, partners and so on, are bewildering to say the least, their search engine never works and their customer services are slow and unhelpful.
They also happen to pay the lowest commission in the industry.
And have the crappiest upload system.
Of course, but of course I'm going to bad mouth them.
I have been doing it for months and until they come to their senses, I'll never stop.
No designer should buy at IStock anymore. There is no practical reason for them to do so.

To the OP - can you not at least delete some of your clips? Or stop uploading? Are you really in danger of starvation if you do so?

rimglow · « **Reply #11 on:** April 07, 2011, 13:30 »

It does seem kind of hypocritical to bad mouth a company, that you actually promote, by allowing them to sell your photos. If you work for an "evil" company, are you not evil also?

nopow · « **Reply #12 on:** April 07, 2011, 13:32 »

I'd say "anger" is justified. We signed up with the promise of a certain commission rate, we put up with their lousy site, and we were rewarded with a 25% paycut.

aeonf · « **Reply #13 on:** April 07, 2011, 13:44 »

Quote from: nopow on April 07, 2011, 13:32

I'd say "anger" is justified. We signed up with the promise of a certain commission rate, we put up with their lousy site, and we were rewarded with a 25% paycut.

At least get your math right, if you make 25K a year at IS then your pay cut is 5%-10% .
If % is what bothers you, go exclusive and make 40% .

StockNRoll · « **Reply #14 on:** April 07, 2011, 13:47 »

Haha, thank you for this thread! I have been a lurker for a while now, content to read and be silent, and it took a topic like this to get me involved!

I am in the same boat. When my income was cut by 30%, it really hurt.... especially knowing that the money I used to get paid was now going towards padding istocks bottom line even further. I'm sorry, but no company has THAT much overhead that they need to take 85% of every dollar that comes in! Think of it like this folks... in any other industry in which an agent represents talent, the talent gets 85% and the agent gets 15. Fellow contributors, we are the talent! Without us, istock doesn't make a dime. We are being taken advantage of... especially when other sites in this industry pay over 3x the % that istock does.

Istock has forgotten the people that made them great. We are the reason that they are where they are today. We spent countless hours dealing with their difficult upload system. We waited patiently while they took months to review our footage only to tell us that one little thing didn't meet their "high quality standards" but we were welcome to fix it and resubmit with the hope that they'd get around to looking at it in another 3 months... For all of our patience and understanding, they have rewarded us with a simple slap in the face.

I'm with you OP!

nruboc · « **Reply #15 on:** April 07, 2011, 13:47 »

Quote from: FightForArtists on April 07, 2011, 11:38

Let's face it... Strict upload limits? Lengthy review times? vague, generic rejection notices? A site plagued with bugs? 15% commissions? iStockPhoto doesn't respect you. If you're like me, you've known this for a long time. You've perhaps wondered what you can do to make a difference. I am going to tell you.

If you are one of the ones who have pulled their content after the recent pricing restructure, I applaud you. I did not pull my content. I'm a full-time, non-exclusive contributor who made 60K in commissions last year. 25K of that came from iStock, so I think you can understand why I stayed.

But that doesn't mean I'm helpless. For us non-exclusives, it's in our best interest for buyers to shop elsewhere. In fact, it's in our best interest to bring the entire iStock company down so those buyers would shop at the competitors' sites, who will then pay us higher commissions.

A friend of mine who is a contributor and also works at a video production house in Chicago, said that with every client he works with, he always recommends against buying from iStock. I thought, "That's brilliant. Why don't I do that?" So yesterday, I finished doing a custom edit to one of my footage clips for a company that found me on iStock. After the job, I wrote an FYI in the email, just explaining the facts. I told her what iStock pays the artist as opposed to Pond5's 50% commission and Revostock's 45%. I told her how iStock actually reduced my commission rate after I signed up with them and uploaded all my content. I told her how the selection is bigger on the other sites and the prices are generally much lower (of course, this applies to photos as well, not just footage). She wrote back and said that she had forwarded the email to upper management and will see what she can do.

Do you ever work with, or for, companies that require stock media? A simple paragraph at the end of your email explaining the facts can make a big difference. I believe this is how we fight unfair treatment of artists. We don't have unions, folks. It's up to us. If you want to fight, forward this message to anyone you know who is in the same situation.

Agree, keep up the good work, I let as many folks know about the alternatives as well, spread the word wide and far

nopow · « **Reply #16 on:** April 07, 2011, 13:50 »

Quote from: aeonf on April 07, 2011, 13:44

Quote from: nopow on April 07, 2011, 13:32
I'd say "anger" is justified. We signed up with the promise of a certain commission rate, we put up with their lousy site, and we were rewarded with a 25% paycut.

At least get your math right, if you make 25K a year at IS then your pay cut is 5%-10% .
If % is what bothers you, go exclusive and make 40% .

Are you serious? Going from the former rate of 20% to the new rate of 15% is a 25% paycut. This is what the majority of contributors experienced.

aeonf · « **Reply #17 on:** April 07, 2011, 14:12 »

^^^ Nobody serius into stock makes 15% at IS.
The OP makes 25K that means he hit the RC for 19% easily !!
That is a 10% drop, not 25% .

stockastic · « **Reply #18 on:** April 07, 2011, 14:13 »

I agree with the OP 100%. It's all about the future of this business - in fact, whether there will be any future. Any chance I get, I'll advise people not to use IS.

IS has a lot in common with Ebay. Over the last few years, Ebay has steadily squeezed their 'storefront' sellers with increased fees and restrictions, ignoring their loud complaints, confident that they had no other place to go. Slowly but steadily, alternatives have opened up and many sellers have left Ebay - and are now selling through Amazon, for example.

Viable alternatives to IS, and in fact to all the big microstocks, will appear in time and we should all do what we can to make that happen.

bunhill · « **Reply #19 on:** April 07, 2011, 14:16 »

Quote from: rimglow on April 07, 2011, 12:07

a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

I thought it was the other way around ?

nopow · « **Reply #20 on:** April 07, 2011, 14:20 »

Quote from: aeonf on April 07, 2011, 14:12

^^^ Nobody serius into stock makes 15% at IS.
The OP makes 25K that means he hit the RC for 19% easily !!
That is a 10% drop, not 25% .

Not if his income is split up between multiple media formats, like illustrations, audio, photos, and video - which is common for the big players.

borg · « **Reply #21 on:** April 07, 2011, 16:11 »

We were talking about this before...

I suggested that we stay at Istock, but also we need to offer customers same products at agencies with better deal...

cathyslife · « **Reply #22 on:** April 07, 2011, 17:16 »

In reply to the OP...
I stopped uploading last Sept. when the paycuts were announced, and pulled all but 5 of my images from IS in Jan-Feb. I vent a lot here at this forum, every chance I get, about IS. And if I run across someone who needs photos, I recommend one of the other sites, stating that IS prices are too high and the search is broken. And every time my teacher at school recommends buying from IS, I take the student aside and mention other sites for better prices.

I am (and have been for a few months now) fed up with istock.

I don't really think I need to do much else, because I think that istock is doing a grand job of killing themselves off.

stockastic · « **Reply #23 on:** April 07, 2011, 17:47 »

Why shouldn't we be venting our anger with IS? They're killing our business. Sure, you can say that systematically destroying your suppliers is itself "just business" but that doesn't mean we have to like it, or should just passively accept it. Telling other microstockers (especially new ones) what we think is wrong about IS, and trying to promote alternatives - and doing this frequently - is also quite legal and is in fact "just business".

leaf · « **Reply #24 on:** April 07, 2011, 18:09 »

admin edit: I just removed about 10 posts from this thread (and one other 'spring off' thread) ... which were a sour exchange of comments

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Author Topic: READ THIS if you're fed up with iStock (Read 34528 times)

FightForArtists

rimglow

herby11

Perry

rimglow

cthoman

FightForArtists

loop

Perry

sharpshot

Eireann

rimglow

nopow

aeonf

StockNRoll

nruboc

nopow

aeonf

stockastic

bunhill

nopow

borg

cathyslife

stockastic

leaf

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