Author Topic: Moving iStock Forward - September 2, 2014. contributor newsletter (Read 41571 times)

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #150 on:** September 03, 2014, 13:43 »

Quote from: tickstock on September 03, 2014, 13:16

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on September 03, 2014, 13:13

You can rake up a theoretical maximum sale price but I can't recall when I last saw that sort of sale come through. My average commission last month was 80c (on a statistically meaningful sample size) giving an average sale price of $4.70. From next month that will rise to $8-$15.
That was the price to buy the minimum amount of images compared between SS and IS. If you just want one on iStock you pay $31 for a max sized image and on SS you have to buy 2 images for $29. I guess you probably would buy 10 credits though for $20 on iStock to get that 8 credit image.

But this isn't about SS, it's about iS and the prices and commissions for customers and suppliers. If the sales don't slip further it will be fine for me because my commission earnings should more than double. Customers looking for bargain prices from inde suppliers are going to get a bit of a shock, though.

At other price points it will be different.

bunhill · « **Reply #151 on:** September 03, 2014, 13:45 »

Quote from: Karen on September 03, 2014, 13:19

Quote from: Freedom on September 03, 2014, 13:07
Has anyone got sales since the announcement?
I haven't seen a single sale since the announcement.

I have got more then average sales on SS since the announcement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

cthoman · « **Reply #152 on:** September 03, 2014, 13:46 »

Quote from: cobalt on September 03, 2014, 12:15

Lobo just clarified the credit prices:

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=362716&messageid=7041654

"
Lobo
Forum Moderator
Posted 6 mins ago
Quote

Okay, everyone. I can officially stop using the phrase 'it will be more than $2 per credit':

Credits will range from $8 to $15 depending on the size of the credit pack the buyer purchases.

So it will be considerably higher than $2. And that is the last time I will have to type anything to do with $2 in this thread.

I appreciate this has been a frustrating aspect of the communication. We are pleased to be able to finally share this information with you."

so for me this would mean I will be getting 1.4 -2.7 dollars for my files. and 28 cents for subscription sales. that is not that different from what I am getting now. Might even be a little more. so as an indie I don´t have to be worried for photos.

Yeah, that makes it a lot less crappy. I was thinking it was going to be $8, but knowing it goes up to $15 helps soften it. I wonder how many tiers of packs there are between the two.

bunhill · « **Reply #153 on:** September 03, 2014, 13:56 »

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on September 03, 2014, 13:02

with five current credits you could buy 2.5 small inde pictures, with 1 new credit you can buy one inde picture. It's a hell of an increase for the small buyer.

At first I was also wondering whether this would be an issue. But thinking about it - the only place I see those small uses these days are on articles - typically editorial uses. And those sorts of clients do not buy one or two images here and there, they have subscriptions.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #154 on:** September 03, 2014, 13:58 »

Beautiful! Reminds me of how people saw a change at IS when the new search was announced, which hadn't gone into effect yet. Or people watching the ebb and flow of sales on other sites and claiming they have a quota or turned off the individual by time zones.

Quote from: bunhill on September 03, 2014, 13:45

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

Shelma1 · « **Reply #155 on:** September 03, 2014, 14:14 »

Quote from: cthoman on September 03, 2014, 13:46

Quote from: cobalt on September 03, 2014, 12:15
Lobo just clarified the credit prices:

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=362716&messageid=7041654

"
Lobo
Forum Moderator
Posted 6 mins ago
Quote

Okay, everyone. I can officially stop using the phrase 'it will be more than $2 per credit':

Credits will range from $8 to $15 depending on the size of the credit pack the buyer purchases.

So it will be considerably higher than $2. And that is the last time I will have to type anything to do with $2 in this thread.

I appreciate this has been a frustrating aspect of the communication. We are pleased to be able to finally share this information with you."

so for me this would mean I will be getting 1.4 -2.7 dollars for my files. and 28 cents for subscription sales. that is not that different from what I am getting now. Might even be a little more. so as an indie I don´t have to be worried for photos.

Yeah, that makes it a lot less crappy. I was thinking it was going to be $8, but knowing it goes up to $15 helps soften it. I wonder how many tiers of packs there are between the two.

Not less crappy enough. My 22-credit files sell for up to $42 right now. Just sold one yesterday.

ShadySue · « **Reply #156 on:** September 03, 2014, 14:52 »

Quote from: tickstock on September 03, 2014, 13:37

Look at the size listed under where you click for 'marketing package small business' or 'marketing package large business', the file sizes are the same (that's what you get when you license it, I think). My understanding is that the end use size is limited but you get the full sized image to work with, say to crop it, edit it, or whatever before you use it in the final project.

Oh, you could be right; so technically we're both right / neither of us are wrong. The end size counts in price calculation but you get a full-sized image to make your end result. I wasn't thinking about cropping. So in a combination image the buyer would need to calculate the porportion of the end image a particular image would take up. I suppose they use the comps to finalise that.

KB · « **Reply #157 on:** September 03, 2014, 16:05 »

So now that we know all the details, it doesn't take too much work to see how the changes will affect us.

I took the last 2 days worth of sales, and calculated the range of possible earnings based on the actual sales.

Day 1: $12.00 - $22.50, $17.25 average. Actual: $39.40.
Day 2: $16.80 - $31.50, $24.15 average. Actual: $48.93.

So, in total: $28.80 - $54.00, average $41.40, actual $88.33.

In percentage terms, I would be expected to lose 39% - 67%, with the average between those being 53%.

Yeah, this is definitely going to be a positive for me.

KimsCreativeHub · « **Reply #158 on:** September 03, 2014, 17:01 »

If my earnings go even lower than now I will have no choice but to drop my "raster crown" go full on indi

goober · « **Reply #159 on:** September 03, 2014, 18:28 »

New credits will be between $8 - $15 says lobo. I said in a previous post that based on the most expensive credit available now ($2.48) the new 1 credit pack would be worth $12.50
So it looks like the new price of credits is going up if it is going to be $15 at the maximum.

P.S. And I'm so sorry to all you mega photo geniuses out there for using the words high quality when referring to microstock. Shame on me. I'm not sure why you would be slumming through the microstock forums.

goober · « **Reply #160 on:** September 03, 2014, 18:40 »

Essentially: Any image in the middle range will be OK. Anything in the low end like simple vectors will stop selling and the high end images will get a reduced royalty.

stock-will-eat-itself · « **Reply #161 on:** September 03, 2014, 19:32 »

Smart move by iStock, nice and simple pricing, not everything is commodified, mirrored files over at Getty. If they ditch the RC royalties and sort the search out to breath life into new work I might be tempted back to exclusivity.

It's a close call though as Shutterstock is doing pretty well at the moment. The download numbers will tell a better picture over the next few months.

Mantis · « **Reply #162 on:** September 03, 2014, 19:56 »

Quote from: cobalt on September 03, 2014, 12:43

I don´t have a lot of sales on istock, because of a codec bug they have I couldn´t upload in the last few months. If I do have a sale I get a mix of everything, not just hd sales.

15% for video is just too low. It should be 30% like on SS at least.

This is a disgrace. I will be going in and deleting my videos.

EmberMike · « **Reply #163 on:** September 03, 2014, 22:00 »

Quote from: stock-will-eat-itself on September 03, 2014, 19:32

Smart move by iStock, nice and simple pricing...

Is it? For who? If I'm a buyer, this looks confusing still. Credits don't cost $1 (haven't for a while now), so it was never really simple at iStock. But now they cost between $8 and $15. Even though the number of credits required to purchase an image is greatly reduced, this whole system is still based on a dollars-to-credits conversion.

To me, simplified pricing would be to just price things in dollars. Or if they insist on credits, using a basic 1-credit-equals-1-dollar system. This new thing, though, looks like just more of the same complicated pricing from iStock.

EmberMike · « **Reply #164 on:** September 03, 2014, 22:05 »

Am I oversimplifying this is I say that it looks like iStock is just shifting the dollars-to-credits conversion rate, raising the value of a credit while reducing the credit cost of an image?

I know there are other factors, but in basic terms, from what my attempts to catch up on in this topic, essentially their system remains the same, just with a change in the balance between what credits cost and what they can be used for has changed.

And most of us will earn less because of this. But basically it's still just a shift in credit/currency conversion..?

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #165 on:** September 04, 2014, 01:43 »

Quote from: EmberMike on September 03, 2014, 22:05

Am I oversimplifying this is I say that it looks like iStock is just shifting the dollars-to-credits conversion rate, raising the value of a credit while reducing the credit cost of an image?

I know there are other factors, but in basic terms, from what my attempts to catch up on in this topic, essentially their system remains the same, just with a change in the balance between what credits cost and what they can be used for has changed.

And most of us will earn less because of this. But basically it's still just a shift in credit/currency conversion..?

They are scrapping Vetta and I think Signature+, too, as well as scrapping pricing according to the size of the download, and changing the price for files, too, so it's a bit more complicated than you describe.

cobalt · « **Reply #166 on:** September 04, 2014, 03:59 »

After the changes you will no longer be able to convert earnings to credits. So fill them up while you can:

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=362716&messageid=7041944

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #167 on:** September 04, 2014, 06:13 »

Some buyers are adding comments to the Big News post on Istock's Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/istock

Shelma1 · « **Reply #168 on:** September 04, 2014, 06:32 »

Poorly received by suppliers AND buyers. Awesome. $:-\$

klsbear · « **Reply #169 on:** September 04, 2014, 07:00 »

I can't help but wonder if some buyers who purchased expensive Vetta or other high priced files in the last several weeks will be asking for a refund then repurchase the file at the new lower credit price. Can we expect to see a lot of posts about higher than normal refunds next month?

BoBoBolinski · « **Reply #170 on:** September 04, 2014, 07:19 »

Quote from: Shelma1 on September 04, 2014, 06:32

Poorly received by suppliers AND buyers. Awesome. $:-\$

Well, let's be fair. 13 people of unknown provenance like it, 6 buyers don't. Hardly the sky falling in.

cobalt · « **Reply #171 on:** September 04, 2014, 07:26 »

What a surprise...customers can use a calculator and realise their buying power for single files will drop by 80% in 10 days. The real reaction will come when the new credits appear in everyones account.

I don´t think any agency has ever reduced a customers options so drastically so abruptly in the last 10 years I have been here.

bunhill · « **Reply #172 on:** September 04, 2014, 07:54 »

Quote from: cobalt on September 04, 2014, 07:26

What a surprise...customers can use a calculator and realise their buying power for single files will drop by 80% in 10 days.

The majority of the collection at most sizes is clearly going to cost considerably less.

Some specific content is going to be costing more - specifically web sized images. But the only place I ever see those image sizes today are in editorial style articles - and these users typically want regular content - they are not typically going to be paying for their use via the existing 10 credit packs.

cobalt · « **Reply #173 on:** September 04, 2014, 08:05 »

They could have easily given the customers 3 months to prepare for the changes or "upgrade" them to the new system when they buy new credits.

That is what computers are for. You can do more than just show different currencies.

KimsCreativeHub · « **Reply #174 on:** September 04, 2014, 08:19 »

Wow I just realized the web size price goes up considerably, after reading the Facebook comments.

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Author Topic: Moving iStock Forward - September 2, 2014. contributor newsletter (Read 41571 times)

BaldricksTrousers

bunhill

cthoman

bunhill

Uncle Pete

Shelma1

ShadySue

KB

KimsCreativeHub

goober

goober

stock-will-eat-itself

Mantis

EmberMike

EmberMike

BaldricksTrousers

cobalt

PaulieWalnuts

Shelma1

klsbear

BoBoBolinski

cobalt

bunhill

cobalt

KimsCreativeHub

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