Author Topic: iStock raises the bar (Read 40032 times)

AVAVA · « **Reply #25 on:** December 09, 2008, 16:37 »

Hi Lisafx,

Thanks for the kind words but unfortunately no prophecies just been around the block a couple of times.

I do think we can all help each other in steering our boats through changing waters. Lets keep up the chatter and share what we experience in this industry.

Best,
AVAVA

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #26 on:** December 09, 2008, 16:55 »

It's no surprise. Istock has churned up pricing every New Year, and besides, we've all been saying there's nowhere to go but up. Free just doesn't work these days.

RT · « **Reply #27 on:** December 09, 2008, 17:19 »

I still say they should introduce a 'Premier collection' that features exclusive images from both exclusive and non-exclusive contributors, that way they would have a real scoop amongst the microstock world.

The way they've announced this leaves me thinking that some exclusives are going to lose out if they have their images in the top tier, by that I mean that a buyer may select an image from a non-exclusive at a regular price of which the quality of the shot would render it legible for the premier collection if the contributor was exclusive.

If I were an exclusive I would also be wondering, if an image is worthy of the new premier collection why not just put it on Getty anyway.

Although it would appear to be too late, but I would advise anyone to put their 'woooohoooing' on hold until the scheme's been in place a while.

shank_ali · « **Reply #28 on:** December 09, 2008, 17:26 »

The new dollor bin is being developed to attract the buyers from other micro sites.We know shutterstock offers lower prices to buyers.
The library is expanding too fast and the inspectors have lost touch with what is microstock imagery.To many landscapes and holiday snaps have been allowed into the library and albeit technically sound they won't attract sales so end up in the dollor bin.Now we are going to have 200,000 non stock images in the new DUSTY BIN <<< my new name for it .

traveler1116 · « **Reply #29 on:** December 09, 2008, 18:06 »

I wish they would give nonexclusive a way to earn more, like 2% increase per level.

e-person · « **Reply #30 on:** December 09, 2008, 18:36 »

This is great and exciting news. Now I can put my film equipment to work. I have a 4x5" monorail camera that gives about 200MP when scanned at 3200 DPI...

AVAVA · « **Reply #31 on:** December 09, 2008, 19:01 »

Hi All,

Always exciting to see someone come in and kick it up a bit just when everyone was a bit sleepy. New stuff to share info and different perspectives of what the future might hold in Stock. Have some of you noticed since you started Micro that you think more about the future than you did when you started. Kind of interesting how our brains process information.
I can share from info I have on my Mid and Micro stock that you will see less downloads in Mid but the cost is offset and actually more money is being produced at my Midstock images right now of the exact same product or style ( separate shoots ) than from Micro. Same quality images like my regular Micro just higher pricing at Midstock. The data is to early for me to be confident but after two months that is what I have for you.
To early to know what to make of this yet but still fun to try and strategize. One concern I see comes from the Micro competition more than within just IS buyers. This is a tough year to raise prices anywhere. As much as I think Micro is undervalued I feel that images available on competitors that keep their price down and there content strong could benefit from this decision at IS.
The new Istock sales numbers I believe if not affected by the economy, will show promise after a while. I would expect a wave of new photographers wanting to be exclusive after the buzz gets around and the sales improvement spin sets in. If Istock can pull it off and become the Getty of Micro ( hasn't happened yet due to existing competition as a whole ) that those that get in early will do the best. That is always going to be a roll of the dice.
This is such an interesting business. The more time I am in it the more time I spend looking further down the road.
I always like to see changes like this because they produce all kinds of new data and it gets things stirred up a bit. I often ask myself why from the position of the company or person for that matter. What is their motivation. What do you think made them make this change. I can think of a few ideas.
I don't think many saw this coming. Breaking up the collection into pricing tiers through quality of imagery. Can anyone show me where we have been talking about this elsewhere on another post. This is not like every winters price raising this is another animal completely.

Best,
AVAVA

traveler1116 · « **Reply #32 on:** December 09, 2008, 19:07 »

123rf has something like this, I think they call it EVO

Neustock Media · « **Reply #33 on:** December 09, 2008, 19:26 »

Hmm,

This is a real stroke of genius! IS can have their cake and eat it here. Keeping the exclusives happy and undercutting the competition by putting the non-exclusives images (that the compeditors have already) into the "new" dollar bin.

The question is will the big non exclusive ex macro players be tempted to go exclusive? I can see IS sweetening the pill by removing upload restrictions for this expanding collection in the next 6 months so whole thousand+ collections can be put into it by a select group of premium content providers.

They are maturing the MS market in the same way RF did in the early years of the 21st century.

Or maybe not.... like AVAVA says who knows what's coming down the road!

Cheers

NS

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #34 on:** December 09, 2008, 19:35 »

"Can anyone show me where we have been talking about this elsewhere on another post."

No, no one here guessed this tiered setup specifically. No one. However, raising pricing to reflect quality is a common topic.

leaf · « **Reply #35 on:** December 09, 2008, 19:37 »

well lots of sites do have a 'premium' area, EVO for 123RF, Fotolia's infinite collection (+ emerald and above photographs raising their prices), Lucky Oliver (one of the first sites to have this) had the sideshow (with price it yourself pricing), Other sites like snapvillage, cutcaster and feature pics, who let your price your own work also create a sort of tiered system of image ranking, and lastly dreamstime raises prices on popular images quite a lot from the first to the top tier - so essentially it is not really a new idea at all - they are in a way one of the last companies to finally get on board, but they are going about it in perhaps a different way.

bittersweet · « **Reply #36 on:** December 09, 2008, 19:41 »

Quote from: leaf on December 09, 2008, 19:37

well lots of sites do have a 'premium' area, EVO for 123RF, Fotolia's infinite collection (+ emerald and above photographs raising their prices), Lucky Oliver (one of the first sites to have this) had the sideshow (with price it yourself pricing), Other sites like snapvillage, cutcaster and feature pics, who let your price your own work also create a sort of tiered system of image ranking, and lastly dreamstime raises prices on popular images quite a lot from the first to the top tier - so essentially it is not really a new idea at all - they are in a way one of the last companies to finally get on board, but they are going about it in perhaps a different way.

I'm not familiar with the EVO and Infinite collections, but I thought someone mentioned in another post that they were basically outdated images that didn't sell at macro prices? Maybe I'm confusing it with something else though. There is a LOT of information flying around right now.

AVAVA · « **Reply #37 on:** December 09, 2008, 19:46 »

Hi SJ,

Back from vacation yet. Remember to drop me a line when you get back.

Best,
AVAVA

Pixel-Pizzazz · « **Reply #38 on:** December 09, 2008, 19:57 »

Sounds alot like "Istock Pro", of the past, just being billed on the same site soon. It will be interesting to see if it does any better this time around.

The pre(mature)-announcement appears to be intended to give the opportunity to Idependants considering exclusivity almost the roughly 6mths that they might need to be in the clear for exclusivity for when the new pricing takes affect.

The pre-announcement also could be great for those who plan to remain Independant and for the rival sites.

The next 6 months would be a good time for the rival sites to be doing some data queries in regard to upload trends of their contributors and increasing the upload limit for the contributors who continue to upload January through May 2009 - in an effort to head off any potential dip in their file count over the next half year and any potential mass exodus of files come mid 2009 so as not to be toppled 'overnight' by Getty.

hoi ha · « **Reply #39 on:** December 09, 2008, 20:09 »

This only works if IS is the only microsite carrying images that buyers perceive they must have - today that is not the case - most of the top micro photographers are not exclusive to IS and hence IS cannot control the price market anymore .... there is too much choice for buyers among the different sites - why would a buyer spend $25 (for example) on a "top tier" level image when they can buy it for $5 at another site?

IS must be well aware of this fact .... despite some strange strategic decisions I still believe they are savvy and not idiots -
so the only way this new pricing structure makes sense at all is if IS changes their exclusivity program and introduces image exclusivity .... then this works - but only then .... and I for one believe they are about to do this as their present exclusivity system has come back to bit them in the b-tt ...

loop · « **Reply #40 on:** December 09, 2008, 20:20 »

That depends on how you define "top micro shooters". I certainly don't agree at all. I mean, with the "most" part.

And saying that IS can't control the price market when it uses to stablish the trend (in the past, other micros have always raised prices after IS has done it) and when IS is generating more than one million weekly on photographer's payouts, is, in my view, a little daring.

AVAVA · « **Reply #41 on:** December 09, 2008, 20:43 »

Hi Hoi Ha,

I guarantee these guys are anything but idiots. Smart guys for sure.

Best,
AVAVA

PeterChigmaroff · « **Reply #42 on:** December 09, 2008, 20:52 »

Quote from: hoi ha on December 09, 2008, 20:09

- why would a buyer spend $25 (for example) on a "top tier" level image when they can buy it for $5 at another site?

This happens all the time. $25 is nothing for so many image uses. It would take someone longer to find it elsewhere then sign on and buy some credits etc etc. It's easier just to buy the thing. Do you think people who put their micro images up on Alamy make zero sales? I agree on one thing and that is its time for micro image prices to go, a lot. There is a lot of room for price increase.

Peter

crazychristina · « **Reply #43 on:** December 09, 2008, 20:53 »

They won't be able to buy it (the same image) at another site. The higher prices apply to the Exclusive only collection. However they could buy an equivalent image. I guess it depends on how much better istock exclusives are than anyone else. And whether buyers want more exclusive content.

bittersweet · « **Reply #44 on:** December 09, 2008, 20:54 »

Quote from: loop on December 09, 2008, 20:20

That depends on how you define "top micro shooters". I certainly don't agree at all. I mean, with the "most" part.

And saying that IS can't control the price market when it uses to stablish the trend (in the past, other micros have always raised prices after IS has done it) and when IS is generating more than one million weekly on photographer's payouts, is, in my view, a little daring.

Not very daring in such heavily biased company. I'm sure plenty here would agree. I don't happen to be one of them, but I'm sure that's not important.

Overall I think the price increase is modest. I was kinda hoping there wouldn't be one, but at least it is not extreme. The Premiere collection will be a relatively small percentage of the collection, and I get the impression it will not be containing a lot of images which can be found elsewhere in similar incarnations. The "1234567" collection also gives them much more to offer the bargain shopper. Not everything in the dollar bin is complete crap.

(I would prefer however, that when sorted by best match, it didn't look like iPenthouse.)

hoi ha · « **Reply #45 on:** December 09, 2008, 20:56 »

Hi Jonathan - I agree with you they are not idiots - I also say we are witnessing the birth of "mid-stock" here as well .... do I think it will work? I am not so sure - have the buyers become too dependent on bargain basement images? Or are there enough buyers from the trads that see mid-stock as a bargain especially given the huge jump in quality these last 2 years...? Will there be room for that middle level? I really don't know .... fun to watch it play out though no?

Perrush · « **Reply #46 on:** December 09, 2008, 21:18 »

I'm not pro IS, but this move could work for all of us. In the past we had micro and macrostock, meaning low priced and higher priced images. The gap between the two was/is to large. So agencies start to close this gap with multiple price schedules.

In the future we will have base prices starting from $1, just like now. Up till XX $, just like in macrostock and everything in between. There will be images for every buyer.

Of course images of Yuri will be more expensive, but some buyers will not / can not pay the price and will pick an image of someone else at a lower price.

So I'm not sad about the move. We'll see how it works out.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #47 on:** December 09, 2008, 22:04 »

Quote from: Perrush on December 09, 2008, 21:18

Of course images of Yuri will be more expensive, but some buyers will not / can not pay the price and will pick an image of someone else at a lower price.

You mean like the price of $250 for 750 images?

hoi ha · « **Reply #48 on:** December 09, 2008, 22:25 »

Quote from: sjlocke on December 09, 2008, 22:04

Quote from: Perrush on December 09, 2008, 21:18
Of course images of Yuri will be more expensive, but some buyers will not / can not pay the price and will pick an image of someone else at a lower price.

You mean like the price of $250 for 750 images?

Exactly SJ - which is why this will not work if Yuri's image XY costs $25 in the istock "collection" and $5 or even less elsewhere - if only excluslive photographers get their images into the "collection" then it's same old same old .... just IS's ordinary (and probably ill advised at this point in the economy) twice yearly price increase .... with nothing new being brought to the table ...

crazychristina · « **Reply #49 on:** December 09, 2008, 22:30 »

An istock admin has confirmed that the Premier Collection is for istock exclusive contributors only.

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Author Topic: iStock raises the bar (Read 40032 times)

AVAVA

Sean Locke Photography

RT

shank_ali

traveler1116

e-person

AVAVA

traveler1116

Neustock Media

Sean Locke Photography

leaf

bittersweet

AVAVA

Pixel-Pizzazz

hoi ha

loop

AVAVA

PeterChigmaroff

crazychristina

bittersweet

hoi ha

Perrush

Sean Locke Photography

hoi ha

crazychristina

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