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Author Topic: Buyers Bailing on Istock  (Read 387861 times)

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TheSmilingAssassin

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« Reply #100 on: September 11, 2010, 06:23 »
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pseudonymous, great post, thank you for your input and welcome. Denis

Thanks Denis.


« Reply #101 on: September 11, 2010, 06:36 »
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Buyer's bailing on iStock? That is the real question. The new royalty structure will hurt some contributors, but not all. What will hurt all contributors though, and iStock themselves, is if buyers do start bailing.

These messages that keep coming out from Kelly which are getting worse sounding, and more insulting to the contributors each time, could be the real start of the downfall of iStock.

I assume these messages are a collective thought process of all the admins at iStock, but obviously they are all a bit clueless on what to put out there at this point considering the backlash from contributors increases with each new post from KK.

This is the more worrysome part. People laugh at the inept sounding replies, but they are really no joke. They could hurt the company and in turn hurt the contributors even more than the new royalty scheme changes.

At this point I think the best thing everyone can hope for is that iStock decides to hire a proper PR firm to try and clean up the PR disaster started by Kelly.

Knowing that Kelly probably doesn't have a strong enough corporate management background to properly deal with the spiraling situation he started means that he should take a back seat at this point and let someone who is more capable handle the situation.

Getty, who are a bunch of serious corporate players, have to be scratching their heads at this point wondering if they have the right team in place at iStock to handle this sort of corporate disaster.

I am sure iStock admins are giving Getty assurances they have it under control, that this is just the usual ranting and raving that goes on from contributors when they make changes, and that it will all comfortably blow over very soon.

I am afraid it might not be the case though time time and iStock might have opened up a can of whoop-ass on themselves this time around that they are not capable of handling.

Lets hope they get things back under control very soon for the greater good of everyone.

It isn't the greater good of everyone, it would be for the greater good of the exclusives who will be losing money. I don't really care if IS hires a PR firm to handle their disaster or not. If you think Kelly's speeches were a bunch of crap, wait until you hear what spin a PR firm would put on things. Sorry, I disagree with you.

« Reply #102 on: September 11, 2010, 06:54 »
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There was a recent post on iS from a contributor/designer saying he sourced images for a major UK company's national ad campaigns and would be going elsewhere. I can't find the link - it's either gone or buried too deep.

« Reply #103 on: September 11, 2010, 08:38 »
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9 more added.

« Reply #104 on: September 11, 2010, 08:48 »
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9 more added.

Where are the nine more? I thought they were going into this thread.

« Reply #105 on: September 11, 2010, 08:55 »
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9 more added.

Where are the nine more? I thought they were going into this thread.

Sorry for not explaining
They are in my first post on page 1 of this thread. Just in order to have them in one place

...More to come

« Reply #106 on: September 11, 2010, 08:55 »
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9 more added.

Where are the nine more? I thought they were going into this thread.

You are correct. They are added on the first page, in the fourth message.

« Reply #107 on: September 11, 2010, 09:11 »
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I am an exclusive contributor to istock. I will go from 40% to 35% most likely (at least if sales keep up). But I for one would like this to really hurt for istock. They have stabbed me in the back. I put my trust in them, and this is what they do! Unfortunately Im too dependent on the money since its my main income, otherwise I would leave immediately. Now it has to be a more long term goal, but I will work towards it.

There are few things I hate more than greed, and I feel this is motivated by nothing but pure, ugly greed. H&F want some more money on top of the pile they already got. I hope buyers leave by the thousands. That's the only thing that will really hurt them. And I hope all non exclusive contributors that are not dependant on the money will leave as well. 15% is an insult! Don't let the remaining 85% go to Getty/H&F.

Unfortunately I don't think the other microstock companies that I have checked out seem like such great ones either. I hate subscriptions, and it seems on most of them you cant opt out of that. We should get paid reasonably for our work. If I were to start a site there would be no subscriptions. The contributors would get a fair royalty and a good percentage of the profit would be given back as bonus to the contributors at the end of the year. I really wish there was a site that was focused on representing the contributors/artists in a successful and sustainable (real world sustainable, not H&F/Getty greed sustainable) way rather than focused on making the most possible profit.

lagereek

« Reply #108 on: September 11, 2010, 09:25 »
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I personally know of a London based photographer who is a pretty heavy contributor but he is also a big partner in an Advertising/designer agency, who for ages obviously have bought all their stock from IS.
Im pretty darned sure, when he gets hold of this news though,  his agency will probably go elsewhere.
see, the trouble is, sooner or later you pick on the wrong crowd,  dont you.

« Reply #109 on: September 11, 2010, 09:29 »
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I personally know of a London based photographer who is a pretty heavy contributor but he is also a big partner in an Advertising/designer agency, who for ages obviously have bought all their stock from IS.
Im pretty darned sure, when he gets hold of this news though,  his agency will probably go elsewhere.
see, the trouble is, sooner or later you pick on the wrong crowd,  dont you.

I think the bean counter missed this. Many part time contributers work in the design and advertising industri, and often spent more money on IS buying pics, than they do earn i royalties from their portfolios. So they are going to migrate, take their pics with them, and taking their business somewhere else. I think thins goes for at lot part timers, especially those non exclusive.

It has to hurt IS renevue badly

« Reply #110 on: September 11, 2010, 09:56 »
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9 more added.

Where are the nine more? I thought they were going into this thread.

Sorry for not explaining
They are in my first post on page 1 of this thread. Just in order to have them in one place

...More to come

Perfect, that works best. Will go check the first page.

« Reply #111 on: September 11, 2010, 13:21 »
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Could explain why my sales have tanked these last three days, Okay Saturday is to be expected! but Thursday and Friday?

lisafx

« Reply #112 on: September 11, 2010, 13:23 »
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Thanks a lot Thomas, for keeping the list updated.  And thanks again to the additional buyers who are showing support for the artists and looking elsewhere for images!

KB

« Reply #113 on: September 11, 2010, 13:44 »
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Could explain why my sales have tanked these last three days, Okay Saturday is to be expected! but Thursday and Friday?
There appears to have been a HUGE best match shift -- at least in the one series of mine that I checked. That might also explain it.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #114 on: September 11, 2010, 14:50 »
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Could explain why my sales have tanked these last three days, Okay Saturday is to be expected! but Thursday and Friday?
There appears to have been a HUGE best match shift -- at least in the one series of mine that I checked. That might also explain it.
Absolutely: I've had a few sales from longstanding low sellers.

« Reply #115 on: September 11, 2010, 15:47 »
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« Last Edit: September 11, 2010, 16:12 by massman »

KB

« Reply #116 on: September 11, 2010, 15:48 »
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Could explain why my sales have tanked these last three days, Okay Saturday is to be expected! but Thursday and Friday?
There appears to have been a HUGE best match shift -- at least in the one series of mine that I checked. That might also explain it.
Absolutely: I've had a few sales from longstanding low sellers.
The strange thing is, I've now checked some other series, and they don't show any surprising shift at all. It was only that one series. Weird!

lisafx

« Reply #117 on: September 11, 2010, 16:27 »
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Another
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=253522&messageid=4675472

Edited to fix link


Good catch Massman!  I hope David won't mind my quoting it here:

I had dinner tonight with the two people with whom I built the redacted. The artist/co-designer is currently working on an independent film and was shocked when I told him what IS are currently doing - he said that he's spent around $2,000 in the last month at IS on images and videos, and he will no longer buy there.

« Reply #118 on: September 11, 2010, 17:55 »
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I know that Scott Kelby buys from Istock, wonder if he knows what the agency is doing and if it would change a thing... .

« Reply #119 on: September 11, 2010, 18:45 »
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I know that Scott Kelby buys from Istock, wonder if he knows what the agency is doing and if it would change a thing... .

Probably not as long as they buy advertising space from him.

TheSmilingAssassin

    This user is banned.
« Reply #120 on: September 11, 2010, 22:07 »
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I've just had a lot of sales elsewhere, particularly at 123, DT and FT which is unusual for this time of the week.  Is this a coincidence or have buyers already switched to another side?  Anyone else notice an increase in sales at other agencies?

« Reply #121 on: September 11, 2010, 23:02 »
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Good catch Massman!  I hope David won't mind my quoting it here:

Not at all, but for clarity, that was something I posted for a friend anonymously, not a personal experience. One of the other contributors got flustered with me over there about it.

Microbius

« Reply #122 on: September 12, 2010, 04:09 »
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I know that Scott Kelby buys from Istock, wonder if he knows what the agency is doing and if it would change a thing... .
Has anyone contacted him, he describes his personal philosophy as "You never go wrong by doing the right thing". Someone should at least sound him out.

acv

« Reply #123 on: September 12, 2010, 09:21 »
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Good idea if you can get some big names on board? What are Lise and Yuri saying? If you can get some heavy weights to support us it would be great. However they are so rich they probably don't care about the poor man and woman who has to scrap money together to put food on the table.

rubyroo

« Reply #124 on: September 12, 2010, 09:24 »
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Ha!  For a moment there I thought you said Lisa - and was about to jump in and defend her.   :D


 

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