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Author Topic: iStock Royalty Change  (Read 114113 times)

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« Reply #200 on: October 26, 2016, 16:35 »
+19
Just requested deactivation of my profile. Was done in a seconds without any hassles.
Bye-bye greedy dumb heads.


« Reply #201 on: October 26, 2016, 17:37 »
+2
Best way to delete account on iStock is to become exclusive with same files across all sites! It will take some time until....

Hahahaha... nice  ;D

« Reply #202 on: October 26, 2016, 18:00 »
+7
I deactivated large part of my folio before august 20th. Just 194 files left. Today I checked my IS account and I see 251 active files?! Anyone else have same experience?

P.S. I don't drink or using drugs.

« Reply #203 on: October 26, 2016, 18:08 »
0
Just requested deactivation of my profile. Was done in a seconds without any hassles.
Bye-bye greedy dumb heads.

do they make a payout if the amount is not at 100 USD? I will also close my account, now I`m 30$ away from next payout, it would be perfect to close it after payout + 0.02 cents and give those to getty for free

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #204 on: October 26, 2016, 18:30 »
+2
For clarity, if there's anyone who cares, there's an update about the rollover subs thing over on their forum.

« Reply #205 on: October 26, 2016, 18:47 »
+6
I can't imagine why exclusives would submit new material when mostly it'll sell as subs which will mostly earn us a lot less.
And the indie rate is criminal.
I know you are an exclusive, thank you for the frank and honest view of the situation. You are 100% correct. No positive news for anybody.
I agree.  There are no good news for anyone. With these new changes to royalties, there are many possibilities that exclusives will also make even less than now.

Uploading new material to iStock stopped making sense long ago.  New material mostly sells as subs and volume of downloads is too low. And now, these new changes will make things even worst for everyone.



« Reply #206 on: October 26, 2016, 19:36 »
+5
For clarity, if there's anyone who cares, there's an update about the rollover subs thing over on their forum.

Thanks. I went to see what they said. Bottom line is that there won't be any waiting around for the rollovers to get used up before royalties are calculated and paid.

I understand the approach, but the sheer complexity of calculating both royalties and any refunds means that (a) contributors won't be able to figure out whether or not payments are correct and (b) iStock's long track record of miscalculating royalty amounts better not continue (I gather they've moved to new internals over the last year).

Effectively, the new subscription approach means not only will varying buyer prices vary royalties, but also, the timing of downloads will too, even if a buyer ends up using their entire allowance. A buyer who uses just a small percentage of their allowed downloads for a few months will generate oversize royalties and then when they use up their rollovers at some point, that month will deliver much smaller royalties. To calculate a refund you'll need to be able to backtrack to compute how much because you can't use the current month's rate.

It also means for contributors that you'd much rather get downloads from a given customer on their slack months than on their catch-up months. I guess time will tell if there's any seasonal pattern to the under-over usage.

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #207 on: October 26, 2016, 20:33 »
+1
I'm only on one site where they do video subscriptions, and rollovers, Artbeats Express... but I think the way they do it is pretty standard:

They take the total amount of money they have from subscriptions, dividend by two to get their cut and the cut for the contributors. Then they divide that cut between how many files are downloaded and distribute that to each contributor based on their number of sales. So if there's a lot of rollovers from one month to the next, you just get paid more one month and less the next.

But the most important thing is that they know exactly how much money they are getting through the door every month. And I'm assuming you lose your rollover if you don't carry on your subscription, so that's more money for iStock!

However, it's a fixed subscription there... there's no discounts for buying more credits, so that makes things a bit more complicated. But knowing iStock, you probably get paid out on the amount they'd get from the most discounted subscription tier, so any buyers getting smaller subscriptions that allow them less discount... iStock just pocket the extra.

I could be wrong!

superdooper

  • everything is blurry from my angle
« Reply #208 on: October 26, 2016, 21:13 »
0
aah, another great news from getty

« Reply #209 on: October 26, 2016, 22:56 »
+4
I deactivated large part of my folio before august 20th. Just 194 files left. Today I checked my IS account and I see 251 active files?! Anyone else have same experience?

P.S. I don't drink or using drugs.
Why bother with deactivation of files (i had plenty of them - thousands), just request deletion of profile, they will do it without any regrets without any pity. They await you and just want to earn money before their dismiss.

ps for now i focus my efforts on ss and fotolia
« Last Edit: October 27, 2016, 00:03 by spacedrone808 »

« Reply #210 on: October 27, 2016, 00:09 »
+3
Just requested deactivation of my profile. Was done in a seconds without any hassles.
Bye-bye greedy dumb heads.

do they make a payout if the amount is not at 100 USD? I will also closed my account, now I`m 30$ away from next payout, it would be perfect to close it after payout + 0.02 cents and give those to getty for free

As far as i know official payout quantity is 100$. When i close my account i have more than 100$ so i don't know precisely. But it looks like they can do you a favor:) Considering the fact how lightning fast they suspended my account: simply put, they don't care much. Me either. I am done with this slavery.
« Last Edit: October 27, 2016, 00:12 by spacedrone808 »

« Reply #211 on: October 27, 2016, 01:10 »
+16
I deactivated large part of my folio before august 20th. Just 194 files left. Today I checked my IS account and I see 251 active files?! Anyone else have same experience?

P.S. I don't drink or using drugs.

Me either,  but this sh*t has me ready to start. .02 for an image sale?!!  I haven't  uploaded to IS in about 2 years, but I am not gonna accept such low rates.  I make 20% of what I used to there now.  That's my floor.  They may not miss me, but they will have one less Diamond with over 200k sales real soon when this hits the fan.  I'm not going to waste time deleting many thousands of files.  Just pull up stakes, and move on to protect my income at the better sites.
« Last Edit: October 27, 2016, 01:14 by PixelBytes »

« Reply #212 on: October 27, 2016, 01:44 »
+2
so it wasn't even a typo for 20c which would be bad enough....
:(((((

« Reply #213 on: October 27, 2016, 02:02 »
+12
$ 0.02 is nothing but giving us a s**t, I will never support such companies, deactivating my files now.

« Reply #214 on: October 27, 2016, 02:21 »
+3
so it wasn't even a typo for 20c which would be bad enough....
:(((((

Not a typo, but a big mistake by Istock. Theoretically, the lowest possible minimum is $0.03 according to the tables I've seen.  Setting a safety cap at $0.02 tells us to expect heavy discounting of at least 33% for a long hard twelve months. Seems they want their market share back, but they can only do that with your help and your asserts and they are confident that $0.02 will keep you on board.
« Last Edit: October 27, 2016, 14:56 by obj owl »

« Reply #215 on: October 27, 2016, 02:21 »
+6
I never dreamt about being accepted one day to Stocksy as bad as now ;D

« Reply #216 on: October 27, 2016, 03:13 »
+12
Istock is my second earner so its difficult to me to make a radical decision, but its enough, i will not upload new content there anymore. In the next months ill concentrate my effords in Ft and Ss (which sadly seems to be dying). As soon as i earn from them what i am earning now from istock i will close my account. Anyway, if any time soon, i see my work sold for 0,02 ill close my account and will not look back.
« Last Edit: October 27, 2016, 04:25 by Fers »

« Reply #217 on: October 27, 2016, 03:22 »
+2
i'm in the same position. Istock sadly is still my main source of income (in microstock of coarse) ...my pictures there are selling good, i will see in the next months this philosophy what will lead to ... is just a little bit crazy to opt out....anyway septeber was one of the worst month ever for both Istock and Ss i should start to consider more "real" works

« Reply #218 on: October 27, 2016, 03:32 »
+1
$0.02 does not even cover the usage of a shutter actuation (based on cost of shutter repair when one has to repair a broken shutter which inevitably happens after lots of shutter actuations).

Nice math.....
 an average/good camera should resist 250.000 actuations and it costs around 1000$:
it means 0,004$ per actuation. You need to make one photo (that sells at least once) every five actuations just to pay for the camera

« Reply #219 on: October 27, 2016, 03:56 »
+4
Istock is my second earner so its difficul to me to make a radical decision, but its enough, i will not upload new content there anymore. In the next months ill concentrate my effords in Ft and Ss (which sadly seems to be dying). As soon as i earn from them what i am earning now from istock i will close my account. Anyway, if any time soon, i see my work sold for 0,02 ill close my account and will not look back.

I was in the same situation. But trust me, if they set new low, they lower it again, it is a matter of time, I predict that it will be in a year or two. Things speed up these days. Changes rushing all around us, I am talking about every aspect of life, not just the plain stocks. I don't regret about what I've done.

« Reply #220 on: October 27, 2016, 04:17 »
+5
$0.02 does not even cover the usage of a shutter actuation (based on cost of shutter repair when one has to repair a broken shutter which inevitably happens after lots of shutter actuations).

Nice math.....
 an average/good camera should resist 250.000 actuations and it costs around 1000$:
it means 0,004$ per actuation. You need to make one photo (that sells at least once) every five actuations just to pay for the camera

Yes, but recharging your battery will blow your budget ;-)

dpimborough

« Reply #221 on: October 27, 2016, 04:17 »
+4
Of course the elephant in the room is that Getty with their free hand to discount and effectively pocket the cash will try and steam roller the competition.

The worst thing that could happen is they suck sales from other better paying agencies and contributors will end up with poor revenues across all sites.

It also doesn't help that Getty's #1 competitor SS is currently making a real mess of things for contributors and has done since May.

Justanotherphotographer

« Reply #222 on: October 27, 2016, 04:32 »
+1
Of course the elephant in the room is that Getty with their free hand to discount and effectively pocket the cash will try and steam roller the competition.

The worst thing that could happen is they suck sales from other better paying agencies and contributors will end up with poor revenues across all sites.

It also doesn't help that Getty's #1 competitor SS is currently making a real mess of things for contributors and has done since May.
That and the competition could see what IStock is getting away with and cut our rates too. I mean Shutterstock is paying 1900% more than IStock will be for subscription downloads (38c vs 2c). Again anyone who thinks we wont mostly be seeing 2c only needs to look at the history of these people.

If you said this on their forum a moderator would come on to say it is all pointless speculation and we are being crazy. Then six months down the line that or worse will happen. Just like what happened when they said we wouldn't be able to delete files, and look at what that was for. How much worse is this than even the most paranoid of us would have predicted?!

« Reply #223 on: October 27, 2016, 04:34 »
+23
Twas the calm before the storm, approximately 3.5 months ago, on July 14th, we all received that disturbing (but not so unexpected) email from Getty which violated our first amendment rights with the following words:

"You will no longer be able to edit your keywords via iStock.com or other third-party applications once submitted. Please ensure that your files are properly prepared and edited prior to uploading them to iStock.com and note that the option to edit keywords after submission will be removed from third-party applications shortly, prior to August 20th. (The functionality for editing keywords may still appear on the file edit page, but it no longer supports updates to iStock.com. In fact, you may have already noticed that keyword updates are not being reflected on the ADP and/or do not surface in search results.)

Starting August 20th (or shortly thereafter), and after Unification, you will need to submit a request to deactivate a file. Please note that we will only consider deactivating files for legal or similar justifiable reasons as it provides a negative experience for customers when files are suddenly unavailable for license."


We all took a deep breath and let it wash over us, something we often do after new changes are announced by Getty that we know, no matter how well Getty window dresses things, will ultimately result in decreasing our incomes exponentially even further.

Then, a couple days later, after the latest news sinks in, we often think about what we are going to do. At that time, the first thing many of us did prior to August 20th was to deactivate a number of key files before it was too late. Then we wrote pages and pages on this forum about our further speculations of what next self destruct bomb Getty will be dropping upon us come September 1st.

We waited, we watched, and it almost looked like Getty was going to resist hesitation to cut all our royalties to a flat 15% as the entire first month of the high selling season for stock imagery (September) passed by without as much as a peep from the Grim Getty Reaper. I was even expecting to see a thread appear entitled "It Looks Like We Finally Made It" through 1 full year without Getty completely ransacking our incomes again.

But then, here we are now. It was all too good to be true. The bomb did drop and the news is even worse than we ever could have imagined. How could we be so naive to even think for a second that nothing would happen? And, in true Getty form, it has sparked a thread on this site in a matter of just 2 days that already has over 200 posts and continues. In many ways, just simply and exactly what we expected but had hoped wasn't going to happen, just for once.

The worst part in it all is that there is no longer any room for humor, optimism, or any talk of the "glass still being half full" in any way. The bottom line is we will all now end up earning less than the price of a single square of toilet paper on image downloads. 

It even seemed unimaginable (from my already jaded perspective) that it would ever reach a point of capitulation like this. Especially after it appeared that Getty was, for once, standing up for our rights as creators with their email on September 27th entitled "Googles Actions Threaten Creative Livelihoods - Take Action: We Need Your Voice".

But now I sit here, like many of you who have hung in with iStock this far, through all the pay cuts and other changes over the last 6 years designed to reduce our incomes, exploit our intellectual property rights, and basically destroy our enthusiasms, almost not believing what has just happened.

Many of us were able to even continue these last few years to quietly produce and upload content that was low cost to create, in denial thinking maybe we could even defy gravity a bit in some way, against our better judgment of course, until finally reaching the point we are now where Getty simply has adamantly decided "We are going to pay you nothing anymore for your work".

This finally is and will be the straw that broke the camel's back only because none of us here are in need of just "new lens cap money" and are going to be able to shoulder this latest convoluted tear down. So it is no longer a matter of feeling slighted or taken advantage of, it is simply game over.

The business model no longer works anymore for creators. It is finally time to leave and accept that there is nothing else we can do to try and swim upstream by simply living with the latest changes in one form or another and following the old tried and proven "shoot, upload, repeat" mantra.

It's been nice knowing you iStock, but bon voyage Getty and, despite all my pessimism and cynicism over the years about the way they do things, I must admit this time they have completely outdone themselves and even my own darkest imagination.

I would have never thunked, despite their greed and unethical practices over the years, that they would have ever tried pulling something as devious as this. But then again, most megalomaniac dictators were never able to foresee or envision the downfalls of their own regimes and empires until they themselves were finally swinging from a noose, taking in their last breaths, and realizing "yes it's really over", just before the screen goes black.   
« Last Edit: October 27, 2016, 05:00 by iStop »

Justanotherphotographer

« Reply #224 on: October 27, 2016, 04:41 »
+16
Great post.

Notice that no one is trying to organise a "deactivation day" or similar over this one.

People are just looking at what's happened and thinking by themselves "of course, that's the end of IStock" and deleting their work.

The writing on the wall has gotten so big you don't need anyone to point it out anymore.


 

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