I found this link over on the Alamy Forums, it might be an interesting but lengthy read for others here!

http://unsharpmasked.com/blog/2008/05/2008-stock-photo-market-crash/

David

At first I thought it was going to be another angry conventional photographer telling us why we are dead. Then as I read, I had to admit, this one has it covered. Let me summarize what the four pages of details and facts, with links and documentation is getting at.

The market is becoming saturated.

Oversaturated with upstart microstock sites, more images than the established sites need. They will tighten up standards, and start culling out old photos soon. Professional equipment and software is available to just about anyone who wants to get into the business of stock.

Thx for this excellent link. BTW Yuri Arcurs has posted a gloomy comment below the article mentioned. Is he right?

quote:

"2008 will be the year �it� happened. What �it� is and how intensive it will hit is a very unknown factor. Microstock agencies are having problems just paying for online traffic because the return they get from their sales are so small. Back a year ago, everybody thought that the natural solution to the �low-pricing� would be to put prices up. This was the main reason I ventured into micro full-time. It now looks like another drastic idea has approach: Instead of putting up prices, micro agencies decide to keep competitive and launch low photographer commission subscriptions, that gives a larger cut to the agency but has an estimated photographer�s commission as low as 10-15%. So now that the micro-market is in trouble, ironically because of their low prices, how will pay..? We, the photo"

I'm not worried. Prices have gone up, and buyers keep paying them. SS reported record download numbers last month. Personally, my earnings have gone up by huge margins, as much as 200% from one month to another. I'm sure some people are struggling, but I don't really see it, and I doubt that Yuri is really hurting all that much. Maybe he has seen some decline, but I can't have a whole lot of sympathy for a guy who could walk away tomorrow, shut down his production operation, and just leave his existing images on the stock sites to generate a nice multiple-six-figure income for the next 5 years.

Maybe growth is slowing globally, but I don't see where all the doomsday theories are coming from when overall numbers are up, for both contributors and agencies.