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Author Topic: Istock to go live with Exclusive + collection next week  (Read 22086 times)

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« on: April 10, 2010, 09:27 »
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Read all about it;

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=197731&page=1

Exclusive + photographs to be priced as follows:

XSmall: 5 credits
Small: 10 credits
Medium: 15 credits
Large: 20 credits
XLarge: 25 credits
XXLarge: 30 credits
XXXLarge: 35 credits

Looking good for exclusive contributors.


lisafx

« Reply #1 on: April 10, 2010, 09:50 »
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Will be interesting to see if more of the price-sensitive customers leave, or if this will be easily absorbed by the buying community.

Matt Hayward's experience of putting all his base prices up to 5 credits on Fotolia would suggest that most customers will keep buying at this price point.

Either that, or it will drive more folks to check out Thinkstock...

« Reply #2 on: April 10, 2010, 11:10 »
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Looking good for exclusive contributors.

It does look good for exclusive contributors.

But I don't share your optimism. Down the road a year or two, when this becomes an "unsustainable" business model for istock/getty and the commissions are lowered substantially and exclusives are now locked in to IS/getty hook, line and sinker, it won't be such a good deal. I'm a "glass-half-empty" kind of person...wish I could change that sometimes!

Hope I'm wrong, for all you exclusives' sake.

« Reply #3 on: April 10, 2010, 11:28 »
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It will be good. My Vetta files are selling at a noticeable better rate  (number of vetta files/number of daily Vetta downloads) than normal ones. I hope the same will be valid for E+, although I don't plan to fulfill my allowed 20% nominations.

If it wasn't for moves like TS or Photos.com, or canister changes, I think IS exclusivity could have easily wiped out rival agencies of solid contributors and get, at the long term, a vast majority of microstock great content.

lisafx

« Reply #4 on: April 10, 2010, 11:29 »
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If it wasn't for moves like TS or Photos.com, or canister changes, I think IS exclusivity could have easily wiped out rival agencies of solid contributors and get, at the long term, a vast majority of microstock great content.

So true Loop!!   Certainly the Thinkstock issue caused me to do a reThink.

« Reply #5 on: April 10, 2010, 11:34 »
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It will be good. My Vetta files are selling at a noticeable better rate  (number of vetta files/number of daily Vetta downloads) than normal ones. I hope the same will be valid for E+, although I don't plan to fulfill my allowed 20% nominations.

If it wasn't for moves like TS or Photos.com, or canister changes, I think IS exclusivity could have easily wiped out rival agencies of solid contributors and get, at the long term, a vast majority of microstock great content.

I think you're right too on both counts.

Must admit I wasn't expecting them to bounce this further price hike on the buyers quite so soon after the big one in January. I suppose independent contributors can hope for more sales now that their images are so much cheaper!

lisafx

« Reply #6 on: April 10, 2010, 11:44 »
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I suppose independent contributors can hope for more sales now that their images are so much cheaper!

Assuming anyone can find them!  

I don't know if it's the search engine or Easter break, but my IS sales have been tanked this month.  

Either that or someone has rolled the clock back to 2007 and I am having average to good sales ;)

« Reply #7 on: April 10, 2010, 12:06 »
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With the Easter week and technical problems, April is down for me as well.

« Reply #8 on: April 10, 2010, 12:09 »
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I don't know if it's the search engine or Easter break, but my IS sales have been tanked this month.  

Either that or someone has rolled the clock back to 2007 and I am having average to good sales ;)

You're not alone. I cash out every Sunday and this week's request is going to be about 45% down compared to the last week of March. Ouch.

« Reply #9 on: April 10, 2010, 12:12 »
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Things are down for me, too - by about 20%.

« Reply #10 on: April 10, 2010, 12:13 »
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Yes, quite down, maybe 20%. But I've noted every year the wicked effects of spring break.

vonkara

« Reply #11 on: April 10, 2010, 12:22 »
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From what my opinion is worth, i'm down also. From an average of 35$-40$ each day to an average of 10$ a day. I have a lot of medals thus why the olympic month was good, but it's still under the normal situation.

« Reply #12 on: April 10, 2010, 13:23 »
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Yes way down here also

as said it would seem good news for Exclusives however creating yet more divisions within the Exclusive contributers ranks and no doubt pushing independents lower priced content yet further back may prove to be counter productive in the long run,  yet another price hike? there has to come a time when the customer base says enough is enough and talk with their feet, and it's not always going to be TS  ;)

Thank heavens for SS and the steady ELs there right now which is more than making up for my downturn at IS 

« Reply #13 on: April 10, 2010, 15:17 »
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Quite relieving to read i'm not the only one having a very bad first half of april there (well...everywhere; but with my tiny port im not representative).
It must be Easter or that bloody Thinkstock... my good sellers are still where they were in the best match, so i dont think anything changed there.

Btw, very good points loop. If it weren't for those exact reasons i would have been exclusive in january, now it's just a 'no way'!
« Last Edit: April 10, 2010, 15:19 by Artemis »

vonkara

« Reply #14 on: April 10, 2010, 15:25 »
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I really wonder if this could harm the sales after all. The images are locked in Exclusive + for 6 months after you made your choice. If those higher prices harm the sales even a little, that can kill a file in the best match...

Though, I already had to buy images at Dreamstime that were level 2 and more. I needed those particular files and the higher prices didn't stopped me from paying more

« Reply #15 on: April 10, 2010, 15:34 »
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I really wonder if this could harm the sales after all. The images are locked in Exclusive + for 6 months after you made your choice. If those higher prices harm the sales even a little, that can kill a file in the best match...

Though, I already had to buy images at Dreamstime that were level 2 and more. I needed those particular files and the higher prices didn't stopped me from paying more

I really don't see any evidence whatsoever that a significant number of buyers are noticably price-sensitive at these levels. Not at IS, not at FT and not at DT who all have some images at radically different price points to others. If any conclusions can be drawn it suggests to me that we are still mostly under-selling our work.

« Reply #16 on: April 10, 2010, 15:46 »
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sales for last two weeks are now about only 55% of average, looking like creepersmas time again :( (FT has about the same drop though)

I played with pricing on 8 exclusive image on Fotolia last 2 months. Doubled the pricing and the income ended up less overall for those images (one stopped selling altogether). They are all pretty generic with a lot of competition, so I think for those images people just grabbed the next one in line.

+1 thinkstock, wonder when the ppd is coming....
« Last Edit: April 10, 2010, 15:53 by Phil »

« Reply #17 on: April 10, 2010, 15:51 »
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creepersmas ???

vonkara

« Reply #18 on: April 10, 2010, 15:58 »
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I really wonder if this could harm the sales after all. The images are locked in Exclusive + for 6 months after you made your choice. If those higher prices harm the sales even a little, that can kill a file in the best match...

Though, I already had to buy images at Dreamstime that were level 2 and more. I needed those particular files and the higher prices didn't stopped me from paying more

I really don't see any evidence whatsoever that a significant number of buyers are noticably price-sensitive at these levels. Not at IS, not at FT and not at DT who all have some images at radically different price points to others. If any conclusions can be drawn it suggests to me that we are still mostly under-selling our work.
Good news then. I'll probably opt in all my best selling files, but I'm still not sure right now.

« Reply #19 on: April 10, 2010, 16:57 »
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Anecdotal evidence seems to be that Vetta is a success. Perhaps the same approach to E+ is the way to go - not best-selling, generic images but ones with more niche appeal and/or higher production values. istock is populating E+ initially with Vetta rejects.

Another issue is that the increase is proportionally the greatest for the smaller file sizes, and with the general trend to the web and away from print it gives a more realistic return on small sizes.
« Last Edit: April 10, 2010, 17:00 by averil »

« Reply #20 on: April 10, 2010, 18:30 »
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I don't know if it's the search engine or Easter break, but my IS sales have been tanked this month.  

Either that or someone has rolled the clock back to 2007 and I am having average to good sales ;)

You're not alone. I cash out every Sunday and this week's request is going to be about 45% down compared to the last week of March. Ouch.

Same here.

« Reply #21 on: April 10, 2010, 18:45 »
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Easter was bad but the last three days things have bounced back quite a bit.  My port is small though so could be just natural variation.

« Reply #22 on: April 10, 2010, 19:36 »
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Hi everyone,
 
I don't understand some of you. Yesterday, we were complaining about low commissions and about how agencies are cutting our commissions, but now that IS raised commissions, you are skeptical.  Cheer up guys, at least somebody is doing something good for the contributors. I am not an IS exclusive, but I welcome any raise in commission.
Loop is right, everything has its price. So, please stop complaining and being skeptical about the future.
Personally, I don't think there is a single buyer that can't afford to buy an image on IS. If they can't afford it, they should not be in that business. Period
Everyone makes more money than we do off of our images. So maybe it is about time something changed.

Kone

« Reply #23 on: April 10, 2010, 19:49 »
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To be fair, not everyone is in "business".  People who might have purchased this or that for a dollar or two for a birthday party invite, or a family cookbook, are likely to be priced out at this point. 

Of course, they aren't the consistent buyers, so if they leave en masse, will we miss them?  Dunno.

« Reply #24 on: April 10, 2010, 20:17 »
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I think people mostly complain about the commission percent and its steady creep downwards (except at IS where it was already at the bottom).

Had IS introduced per image exclusivity back in the day, they would be the sole market for all of the images that ever hit the big time there, and probably have almost no competition. If they did the same for Vetta and exclusive+, that would further their control of top selling hard to re-create images. Instead they went with the unsustainable goalposts and thinkstock mess.

I am all for premium content at premium prices. I'd like to see all of the sites move that way.

--=Tom


 

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