At this rate will be on par for dls with my first months at iStock in 2007 when I had less than 10 files uploaded. This despite a good effort at uploading in 2013. My return per Dl. is at it's highest ever, with some of my files selling at $196 for a Vetta Xl. Actually I haven't sold a Vetta XL this year. I am in quite a quandry. I will hang in there this year and see if my royalty rate gets grandfathered next year. Also A lot depends on if some of my 2013 files ever get moved to S+. So far nothing has since May 2013 despite good sales on some including one that compares very well to my existing Vetta images. I will be talking to some boutique niche image sites this year and seeing if they will let me join. If I can get them on a site at mid or macro prices I can move the rest into micro sites. In the meantime I am concentrating on fine art photography and marketing of those images. The new uploads don't bother me as much as the lack of buyers for exclusive images.

Quote from: cobalt on January 21, 2014, 19:44
I think a ton of people will be dropping the crown in the coming months.

Maybe that's what iS wants / expects ? I think that lots of people will also just go off and do something else for the moment whist remaining exclusive (if the option still exists) and wait and see what happens. It depends what other things they have on. Either way it seems obvious that things are building up to something. ETA - what I mean is that I do not think it likely that these are unintended consequences.

Exclusivity join / leave page is currently broken btw.

Quote from: bunhill on January 23, 2014, 11:53

Exclusivity join / leave page is currently broken btw.

Really? So people cannot go exclusive even if they wanted to? And those that want to leave have to write to support?

To me it looks like they want to turn istock into a stock version of flickr. They have a lot of experience with flickr and have a large team of editors that do nothing else but sift through mass of files to find what they need for the getty collections. The artists then consider their amazing "luck" to have their files discovered and moved "upstream" to getty.

And obviously if they find an artist or more often a production house that they want to keep they will offer them "special" exclusive contracts via Getty.

The RC system makes no sense in a system with this kind of flooding. Nobody can shoot their way out of this swamp. The artists that can deliver top quality will all need to go after a getty contract that also handles their royalty rates on istock,the way yuri and the "professionals" do it.

For the indies it does´t matter that much, because istock is just one income stream out of many. what istock loses in clients and good will, will be picked up by the other agencies.

It is the traditional istock exclusives that are being punished.

One person reported an issue (a member here who might choose to chime in) which Kelvin hasn't been able to replicate, so has referred them to CR.

QuoteMaybe that's what iS wants / expects ? I think that lots of people will also just go off and do something else for the moment whist remaining exclusive (if the option still exists) and wait and see what happens. It depends what other things they have on. Either way it seems obvious that things are building up to something. ETA - what I mean is that I do not think it likely that these are unintended consequences.

Exclusivity join / leave page is currently broken btw.

I started a post on the forum about this ... Interesting it's not just me.


My Very Best
KimsCreativeHub.com

Trouble is, it's impossible to check how universal the problem is unless you actually want to start/stop exclusivity. I assumed Bunhill was citing you, Kim, but maybe not.
Anyway, hope CR get it sorted for you.

Strange thing..... I was watching that thread and didn't see that response to contact CR


My Very Best
KimsCreativeHub.com

For now I am going to keep things the same... It was going to be regarding video Whitchurch for me is animation Whitchurch is one of my 2014 goals to do more of. 


My Very Best
KimsCreativeHub.com

Mind the spell check madness


My Very Best
KimsCreativeHub.com

Quote from: jjneff on January 22, 2014, 01:37
Sales are strong for me on the video so far this year, Thankfully!!!!

Are you shooting techno, professionally created stuff or more basic out of the camera vid? Just curious because it seems that the best sellers are the high end videos where people have special effect skills.

Quote from: Mantis on January 23, 2014, 13:48

Quote from: jjneff on January 22, 2014, 01:37
Sales are strong for me on the video so far this year, Thankfully!!!!

Are you shooting techno, professionally created stuff or more basic out of the camera vid? Just curious because it seems that the best sellers are the high end videos where people have special effect skills.

Are you banned from iStock search?

Quote from: ShadySue on January 23, 2014, 13:37
I assumed Bunhill was citing you, Kim, but maybe not.

not ! Page is broken for me.

I assumed it was broken for everyone.

Quote from: ShadySue on January 23, 2014, 13:37
Trouble is, it's impossible to check how universal the problem is unless you actually want to start/stop exclusivity.

no you just click on the exclusivity link in your profile. It does not commit you to a change. Where you would also go to read the contract etc

Quote from: bunhill on January 23, 2014, 14:03

Quote from: ShadySue on January 23, 2014, 13:37
Trouble is, it's impossible to check how universal the problem is unless you actually want to start/stop exclusivity.

no you just click on the exclusivity link in your profile. It does not commit you to a change. Where you would also go to read the contract etc

I can click on a link which takes me to a page titled Exclusivity Cancellation Application then "Upon cancellation, your exclusivity status will be deactivated in 30 days. There is 90 days waiting period before we can approve your exclusivity status again if you choose to reapply." then two boxes, one asking for your cancellation reason (I thought people here had reported that they didn't ask for that info) and one asking for your password as identify confirmation.
I didn't go any further.

@sue - it's the "You Are an Exclusive Contributor" page which fails for me. I went to that thread you were talking about and posted a screenshot there + the bugs thread. You are obviously seeing something different.

Like I said, I assumed that everyone was seeing the same bug.

Quote from: bunhill on January 23, 2014, 15:25
@sue - it's the "You Are an Exclusive Contributor" page which fails for me. I went to that thread you were talking about and posted a screenshot there + the bugs thread. You are obviously seeing something different.

Like I said, I assumed that everyone was seeing the same bug.

Oh, and I'd assumed it was unique to Kim, but I see Lobo says there are more incidences.
I went on to the You are an Exclusive Contributor and followed the link from there Win7 FF26.0:

OTOH, dls seem to be turned off for me. 

Great.  It's not working for me.  I can apply for video and photo exclusivity but NOT cancel.  Tomorrow was going to be the day I was going to drop (my birthday, fresh start, etc. etc. etc.).  Hope it gets back up by then.

I'm going exclusive to the very end! Clinging to my piece of driftwood in the freezing ocean. Wiping saltwater from my eyes as the Captain and a few third world contributors float away into the darkness on a tiny lifeboat.

Quote from: blamb on January 23, 2014, 21:27
Great.  It's not working for me.  I can apply for video and photo exclusivity but NOT cancel.  Tomorrow was going to be the day I was going to drop (my birthday, fresh start, etc. etc. etc.).  Hope it gets back up by then.

Or contact CR.

"I'm going exclusive to the very end! Clinging to my piece of drift wood in the freezing ocean. Wiping salt water from my eyes as the Captain and a few third world contributors float away into the darkness on a tiny lifeboat."

This sounds like your on the titanic and we all know how that ended...

Quote from: Goofy on January 24, 2014, 02:53
This sounds like your on the titanic and we all know how that ended...

Yes. I'm a big bloated Leo, floating in the icy Atlantic.

And the good news is that my grandfather, the royalty rate of 2013, has turned up and is making a welcomed improvement to the stats, although I'm still way down on last year.

This is the worst month for me in years. I just reactivated my SS portfolio and it's doing much better than IS this month. Probably the worst month for me in like 8 years...

Quote from: goober on January 24, 2014, 05:40
And the good news is that my grandfather, the royalty rate of 2013, has turned up and is making a welcomed improvement to the stats, although I'm still way down on last year.

Oh, thanks for posting.  Just checked and mine's back up too.  Wonder if/when we can expect to be reimbursed for the back money we're owed as a result of this bug. 

Quote from: lisafx on January 26, 2014, 22:28

Quote from: goober on January 24, 2014, 05:40
And the good news is that my grandfather, the royalty rate of 2013, has turned up and is making a welcomed improvement to the stats, although I'm still way down on last year.

Oh, thanks for posting.  Just checked and mine's back up too.  Wonder if/when we can expect to be reimbursed for the back money we're owed as a result of this bug.

When they get a Round Tuit:
"We will now begin working on the calculation of the missing royalties contributors would have received due to this bug. This process is going to take some time to complete. As soon as we have a timeline for resolution we will update this thread." (Lobo)
... they have a few things to sort out ATM.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=358648&messageid=6978946
(I guess they have pixies working it out on abaci; maybe calculators and computers have escaped their notice.)