It's interesting what comes up when you Google Carlyle Group Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

Pardon me for my ignorance, where do you people see those 19 cents or 9 cents?

From my ESP, I could only see the total, and not the individual sales.

Thanks for enlightening me!

Interesting what you guys keep digging up.

A friend of mine with a 9k portfolio is giving up exclusivity this week.

Looks like there is a new wave of exclusives leaving the sinking ship and this means lots of good content coming to the other sites.

I don�t think Getty itself will die, it will eventually be sold again for a very low price, so that the owners can get at least some money back. They might have to file for bankrupcy first, but the vultures will be ready.

Adobe and SS might split Getty between themselves, Adobe does not have an editorial division, but they already have macrostock. SS has editorial, but only a small macro collection with offset.

They are the two biggest companies with money, I really don�t see anyone else getting in.

They have fooled too many people too many times, so I doubt they can find an outside investor again.

But you never know, maybe the reality distortion field of Klein will work one last time.

Quote from: Mantis on March 28, 2017, 19:12

Quote from: cobalt on March 28, 2017, 16:25

Interesting what you guys keep digging up.

A friend of mine with a 9k portfolio is giving up exclusivity this week.

Looks like there is a new wave of exclusives leaving the sinking ship and this means lots of good content coming to the other sites.

I don�t think Getty itself will die, it will eventually be sold again for a very low price, so that the owners can get at least some money back. They might have to file for bankrupcy first, but the vultures will be ready.

Adobe and SS might split Getty between themselves, Adobe does not have an editorial division, but they already have macrostock. SS has editorial, but only a small macro collection with offset.

They are the two biggest companies with money, I really don�t see anyone else getting in.

They have fooled too many people too many times, so I doubt they can find an outside investor again.

But you never know, maybe the reality distortion field of Klein will work one last time.

Wasn't there a hypothesis that Getty/Istock wanted to eliminate exclusivity? Push out exclusives to the point where they could kill the exclusivity program? Because there is no way Getty will keep paying them more than 15%? Something along those lines.

Yeah, I remember that idea being floated awhile back.  Makes sense.  If that's their plan, it's another short sighted one IMO.  Once their exclusive little birds have been out of the cages and seen how well they can do elsewhere,  they may just fly the coop altogether.

Quote from: tickstock on March 28, 2017, 19:23

That idea was never floated as far as I know.  It has however been said on this forum for years.  As far back as I can remember no one that left exclusivity (high level) has come back here and said they are making more as an independent, can you think of anyone?

Conversely, has any former high-level exclusive come back here and said they're earning less, in the medium-long term?

Quote from: tickstock on March 28, 2017, 19:51

Quote from: ShadySue on March 28, 2017, 19:48

Quote from: tickstock on March 28, 2017, 19:23

That idea was never floated as far as I know.  It has however been said on this forum for years.  As far back as I can remember no one that left exclusivity (high level) has come back here and said they are making more as an independent, can you think of anyone?

Conversely, has any former high-level exclusive come back here and said they're earning less, in the medium-long term?

Yes.

Which was who? or just link to their post. As they posted here, it's not revealng a confidence.

Cobalt, here is the table with iStock indie included:



Now, no more tables until some months ahead. :0) I need to go back and upload and categorize images. kkkk. Just kidding.

Quote from: ShadySue on March 28, 2017, 19:54

Quote from: tickstock on March 28, 2017, 19:51

Quote from: ShadySue on March 28, 2017, 19:48

Quote from: tickstock on March 28, 2017, 19:23

That idea was never floated as far as I know.  It has however been said on this forum for years.  As far back as I can remember no one that left exclusivity (high level) has come back here and said they are making more as an independent, can you think of anyone?

Conversely, has any former high-level exclusive come back here and said they're earning less, in the medium-long term?

Yes.

Which was who? or just link to their post. As they posted here, it's not revealng a confidence.

Quote from: lucato on March 18, 2013, 09:48

Cobalt, here is the table with iStock indie included:



Now, no more tables until some months ahead. :0) I need to go back and upload and categorize images. kkkk. Just kidding.

After 10 months he was at 51% of income for one month, on average it would have been down about 66% for those 10 months.  I can't think of anyone else who came back and gave numbers though.

Quote from: Mantis on March 28, 2017, 20:19

Not a full benchmark.  Lucato at that time had thousands of files still needing to be uploaded to the other micros.  You cannot upload one fraction of your port to other micros then make the claim that indy sales aren't cutting it.  A proper comparison would be to have all 7K ish files on the main micros he has listed and let it ride for at least one year.  That snapshot was five years ago. A lot has changed at IStock since then...and other micros as well.  Would love to see his snapshot today and hear his feedback.

Yep it's not a full benchmark but I would guess he put his best work up first.  Do you have a better set of data to look at?

I left exclusivity two years ago.  I was diamond with 110,000 downloads.  My portfolio isn't huge - just 4,000 images.

I have spent the last two years rekeywording, reprocessing, and gradually uploading to agencies on a seasonal basis.  Doing the rekeywording has been exceptionally time consuming, but necessary.

In my second full year (just finished) I earned about 15% LESS than I used to earn in my final few months as an istock exclusive.  I have never had a month as an independent where I earned more than I used to earn as an exclusive.

Nearly all the independent agencies have met my expectations.  The one exception is Shutterstock which has been a big disappointment.  It's been very hard indeed building momentum there, and I am earning about $1,000 a month LESS from Shutterstock than I expected at this point.  Had Shutterstock met my expectations I would now be earning a little more each month compared to when I was exclusive (and probably quite a bit more than I would now be making at istock had I remained exclusive).  Anyone deciding to leave the exclusive ranks now needs to be aware that Shutterstock is probably NOT going to meet expectations.

Having said all of this, I'll bet that had I stayed at istock my earnings would have continued to decline (as others are experiencing), and I suspect that my independent earnings are now slightly higher than I would now be making as an exclusive.

So the grass is not greener, but I can tell everyone that it is a HUGE relief not to have the stress and worry of being tied to an agency that is clearly in long term decline.

Thanks for that.  You said after 2 years you earned 85% of what you used to, what happened during the 2 years?  FWIW these first couple months of the year have been very encouraging, I'm more optimistic now than I've been in probably 4 or 5 years but I'll have to see how it plays out in the next few months.

I left exclusivity two years ago.  I was diamond with 110,000 downloads.  My portfolio isn't huge - just 4,000 images.

I have spent the last two years rekeywording, reprocessing, and gradually uploading to agencies on a seasonal basis.  Doing the rekeywording has been exceptionally time consuming, but necessary.

In my second full year (just finished) I earned about 15% LESS than I used to earn in my final few months as an istock exclusive.  I have never had a month as an independent where I earned more than I used to earn as an exclusive.

Nearly all the independent agencies have met my expectations.  The one exception is Shutterstock which has been a big disappointment.  It's been very hard indeed building momentum there, and I am earning about $1,000 a month LESS from Shutterstock than I expected at this point.  Had Shutterstock met my expectations I would now be earning a little more each month compared to when I was exclusive (and probably quite a bit more than I would now be making at istock had I remained exclusive).  Anyone deciding to leave the exclusive ranks now needs to be aware that Shutterstock is probably NOT going to meet expectations.

Having said all of this, I'll bet that had I stayed at istock my earnings would have continued to decline (as others are experiencing), and I suspect that my independent earnings are now slightly higher than I would now be making as an exclusive.

So the grass is not greener, but I can tell everyone that it is a HUGE relief not to have the stress and worry of being tied to an agency that is clearly in long term decline.