Author Topic: Kelly Interview (Read 2865 times)

imageegami · « **on:** December 29, 2011, 12:22 »


Interview with Kelly Thompson, iStockphoto / Getty Images

Kelly gets markedly uncomfortable when asked about royalty cuts (watch his fidgetting and hand movement increase during this segment). Then he answers by saying that "royalties don`t matter as much as the total amount of money we can make for our photographers and I think we`re doing a better job than anyone else with the total amount we pay out in royalties far exceeds our competitors..."

I read this as: iStock can take a larger share of your pie because you suckas can`t get more net dollars elsewhere. So even if iStock promised in writing that commission levels would be grandfathered, we will not honor our promise to you because we think that we can get away with taking more of your hard earned revenue.

I stopped being exclusive because of this and have found that I am getting more net dollars than before.

stratol · « **Reply #1 on:** December 29, 2011, 19:14 »

That's a fancy way of saying since they charge more than other sites for their files the contributor ends up making more money than on other sites with higher royalty rates and a lower file price. Whats scary about that ideology is that the more successful they become they believe they can raise prices and lower the contributors percentage since it won't change the amount of cash we earn at the end of the day. While this doesn't directly cause the contributor to lose money, it does make it extremely difficult for us to grow and make more money as the site does. They seem to be looking at our earnings projection as if our cash amount should be a flat line on their charts.