Eh, I'm tired of the latest wave of exclusive/independent yapping.  Get back to me later...

This whole deal will be a non-issue in a couple of years when all content is computer generated. Exclusive? Independent? Irrelevant.

OK, maybe five!! Motion is hard, I know, but for still images... One area that I think will be important is parametric modelling programs. Dial in characteristics with a few sliders and presto. I'm most familiar with the open source version, MakeHuman, but there are commercial apps out there, no doubt more sophisticated. It won't be long before you can dial up a business team, do the office with arch viz, pose the figures, adjust lighting to meet current lighting styles, etc etc. Once the assets are developed they can be reused. Some of the top photographers on microstock have been using the same models for years.

Behind our backs while we are squibbling, there is another and IMO quite serious threat to all of us, may it be RM, RF or Micro.
Agencies are buying up entire Portfolios!  Yes this has been going on for ages, I know that, nothing new but this is something very differant. Corporate, Studio and people photographers are approached and offerd an all out paycheque for a certain amount of shots. The money is good enough to surrender all copyrights and data, leaving the buyer to pretty much do what they like with the shots and ofcourse, future sales are 100% revenue.
To what Jonathan just said, yes large Corporations will always find new ways to improve their own profits and sure, if Getty tomorrow would find a way to keep all revenue thay would ofcourse blow out the suppliers, just like that. Thats business.
Micro? well its had what some 7 or 8 years now, the idea is getting slightly old and worn, so what can we expect? another 2 or perhaps 3 years more and then some other superior idea will come along, as always does, and brush it aside. For the majority of todays micro-shooters there wont be any room in a new strategy.
Im a firm believer there are only two future ways here: either the fleemarket syndrome where thers not enough money for anybody or the reverse: where buyers are paying something in between RF and Micro, perhaps in the region of RR with rights. i.e. back to "quality"
One thing is for sure, the Micro as we know it today, wont last much longer, they will kill off each other and the remaining will fall on their own success.

Loop!

Its not a projection! common sense. Nothing lasts forever, does it?  10 years ago, who had heard of Micro? what do you think? that all business models and blueprints will stay the same for the next 10 years? just so that we can sit tight and rake in Micro money?

Check out this and this and the rest of Marks portfolio. He's istock's 3D guru. Not many people there - yet.

Funny to see the results combined to the Istock result

+ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

- IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

= IIIIIIIIIIIIII

Check out this and this and the rest of Marks portfolio. He's istock's 3D guru. Not many people there - yet.

Plain images done with great understanding of what sells. It is not the 3D medium that makes them popular.

It is big so I jus scimmed for now but I did love what LisaFX wrote. " Some of us can Bitch and Moan and Produce  " I love it. You go girlfriend.

If my photography career ever starts to interfere with my ability to bitch and moan, it's time to hang up the camera

Yep, we are done here folks. Clearly there are differing opinions on what Exclusivity/Non-exclusivity means to a contributor bottom line. For all the perks we provide our Exclusives we appreciate that some would feel we are trying to push out non-exclusives. The reality is we are trying to provide more incentive to the people on the fence.

How does decimating a person's search position and sales help one decide to go exclusive if you are on the fence?

Maybe if IS was the only site you were uploading to, you would go exclusive out of sheer desperation but if you upload to other sites and can compare your progress, you can clearly see the mind games going on there. Personally, I am extremely disappointed in the tactics being used by IS. Waaaaay to extreme to the point where I don't trust them anymore.

Interesting comment from Lobo about this whole issue, before he locked the thread on istock.

Yep, we are done here folks. Clearly there are differing opinions on what Exclusivity/Non-exclusivity means to a contributor bottom line. For all the perks we provide our Exclusives we appreciate that some would feel we are trying to push out non-exclusives. The reality is we are trying to provide more incentive to the people on the fence.

Ironically, this latest best match change does quite the opposite. Why in the world I would think of being exclusive to an agency that accounts for about 10% of my microstock income? On the other hand the better IS does for non-exclusives the more people would consider going exclusive.

Quote from: averil on November 29, 2008, 16:07

Interesting comment from Lobo about this whole issue, before he locked the thread on istock.

Yep, we are done here folks. Clearly there are differing opinions on what Exclusivity/Non-exclusivity means to a contributor bottom line. For all the perks we provide our Exclusives we appreciate that some would feel we are trying to push out non-exclusives. The reality is we are trying to provide more incentive to the people on the fence.

Ironically, this latest best match change does quite the opposite. Why in the world I would think of being exclusive to an agency that accounts for about 10% of my microstock income? On the other hand the better IS does for non-exclusives the more people would consider going exclusive.

Very well said!
BTW: Istock  has dropped to Nr. 3 in the stats to the right for the first time since I am here. Another month like that and they will be Nr.4. I�m not at all happy about that and it might not be the most relevant statistic but perhaps they might want to have a look at it.

Many people are not only contributors but also designers - like me. As a designer I have collegues I recommend sites to and if a site doesn�t treat me well, I won�t recommend it.
Anyway - in the longrun customers AND contributors ("staff") of a company in the civilised world have to be satisfied otherwise it won�t work in the longrun.

Right now on the IS  Forum theres a thread about the November stats!  Well I knew it was bad but not that bad!
In a matter of no time at all, its gone from a "leader" to a very, very depressing site. All threads are just full of nothing really.

I was surprised to see how many exclusives are reporting that their numbers are way down as well. I hang around here so much that I almost expected to see that clear-cut division that is often reported.

My November was slightly up (about 8%) from October, but October was way way up for me (+41%DL/+53%$$). With all the extra non-business days, I'm happy with that. It will be interesting to see how December shapes up.

One thing I do know is that I really hope they do NOT implement their yearly price increase! I think that would be suicide in this financial environment.