MicrostockGroup
Illustrators Corner - Microstock Illustrators Forum => Illustration - General => Topic started by: Monkeyman on July 01, 2013, 07:14
-
I wonder how much longer this business is going to stay the same... it has to come to a point when vector artists give up and stop uploading because the return per image is just too low (I'm getting closer and closer to that point every day... :( ). What will happen to the microstock sites then? In the long run they're doomed without new images.
Will they raise prices? Start deleting hundreds of thousands of the ugliest low sellers and get rid of all the amateur contributors? Or will we all be ousted by talented illustrators in developing countries who are willing to work 15 hours a day for a few dollars?
As contributors we could of course "protest" by stop selling at the cheapest sites (like Yuri did a while ago), but there will always be too many masochistic contributors who like to give away their work for nothing at sites like Shutterstock and Vectorstock.
-
...good question. I wonder this myself. I am no illustrator but I think every contributor is in the same boat here. I am not sure if many private people who used to buy for their sites and blogs just had been changing their concepts and simply steal now from google images. Maybe these customers may be lost forever to google and their piracy concept.
Another possibility would be some sort of <wishfullthinking>contributor protection</wishfullthinking>. Some people reported about one Vector site with very few contributors which does not allow new illustrators and who is doing extremly well. I think the agencies should rethink their concept of just accepting everything without editing the collections and protecting their suppliers (which results in higher creativity imho).
-
Yeah, you're right. It's the same for everyone.
Whatever happens it's hard to see any bright future in this business... :( There are just to many people creating the same types of photos/illustrations.
-
I have been lucky enough to find a few niches that have not been well represented. Unfortunately, as soon as I have a couple successful files, the copy cats come in.
Even with some themes that are completely saturated I've been able to get a couple files to the top of the popular search. For the most part I attribute that to timing and luck.
Who knows what the future will bring. I doubt you'll see commissions go up anytime soon.
On a somewhat related note... I recommend selling direct by setting up a SymbioStock site.