Thats a non argument, they signed a deal years ago when all they got was $0.25 cents. Now they get on average $2.35 and all of a sudden they are insulted and undersold. LOL. The problem is that they keep shooting the same old oversupplied people shots and their overhead is too much.

How can you employ 100 people and keep shooting handshakes sustainable? Its their business model thats killing them, not Shutterstock.

Maybe you should go back an read a few of their early posts.  They had low end equipment, were not yet shooting HCV images and had virtually 0 overhead.  They did not employ one person let alone 100 and Andres still runs a very lean operation. Based on your insults you have a very limited understanding of their business.

What insults are you talking about? If anyone has turned to insults lately its you.

Nice side stepping though...

What insults are you talking about? If anyone has turned to insults lately its you.

Nice side stepping though...

Jack..... Daniel's!

have you opened both links? one does have over 7k other 1k like you said

No, I didn't.  I just clicked the top one, thinking it was all one link.  Makes sense.  Thanks for clearing that up. 

Still confusing though - how can he be exclusive and also non-exclusive?  This would seem to suggest they are gradually going in the direction of image exclusivity instead of artist exclusivity.

Regarding various posts in the last couple of pages, how can we need to wait and see whether he has a special deal when he simultaneously has an exclusive portfolio at iS and another portfolio at SS? Clearly, iS has broken the rules to let him do that, which is a special deal.
How could it be SS's failings, pushing him to become exclusive? SS doesn't dictate how iS applies (or doesn't apply) its rules.
Being able to collect exclusive-only benefits while operating as an independent is obviously a huge financial incentive, especially if they don't even insist on him leaving SS. Why would there need to be any hidden millions up front?  If you offer people more money for doing nothing then you don't generally have to throw in a golden hello.
They transferred Yuri's stuff into new accounts (while keeping its sales history from the old accounts, oddly enough, presumably for search ranking purposes) but he's not on image exclusivity.

That is a very good point and close to what I said. They have nothing to worry about in these kind of deals. IS is selling out, and they have a little more sustainability. If being professional means screwing over your own contributor base, then IS is very very professional.

It appears to me that Andres stopped uploading to SS, DT and FT around the beginning of October and all his new stuff is going to his new 'exclusive' portfolio at IS.

Similar deal to Yuri's in that respect. One of Yuri's portfolios ends on 21st May, when he seems to have stopped uploading elsewhere, and the other starts on 21st May.

Andres' portfolio is still up on Shutterstock

http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-1294p1.html

If he got the deal that Yuri did, doesn't that mean the SS portfolio will have to go?

Wasn't Yuri on SS for a while after his announced 'exclusivity' at iS? They just let his portfolio sit out its notice at SS afterwards, which they historically didn't allow.

Quote from: gostwyck on November 08, 2013, 17:56

Actually I'd say that the people 'jumping ship' are actually Istock themselves. It would seem that they've thrown out their own rule-book in a truly desperate attempt to turn things around. When a business takes such panic actions it is always bad news ... for them.

That seems a rather OTT analysis. From a neutral and dispassionate perspective I think that many people would quietly agree that it would be stupid for any business to be arbitrarily or artificially constrained by a set of one-size-fits-all conditions put in place around a decade ago in a very different market.

Sure, but where in their TOS/Contract does it offer the new terms then? Its a VIP treatment, no where stated in the IS contract. Sean brokered a deal with DP as well though. HCV talks. 

Quote from: Ron on November 09, 2013, 09:24

HCV talks. 

Yes. It's valuable work and the arrangements are nobody else's business.

Of course it is. If you have been slaving away for years and see your income drop, and then all of a sudden  a few people get special deals, you have all the right in the world to revolt and ask questions. Sure IS can do what they want, doesnt make it right. Just shows how unethical they are and dont give a rats ass about the people that made them big.

Quote from: ShadySue on November 09, 2013, 06:51

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on November 08, 2013, 17:15

Andres' portfolio is still up on Shutterstock

http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-1294p1.html

If he got the deal that Yuri did, doesn't that mean the SS portfolio will have to go?

Wasn't Yuri on SS for a while after his announced 'exclusivity' at iS? They just let his portfolio sit out its notice at SS afterwards, which they historically didn't allow.

it was the 1st one to go, guess we don't have data to say if it was straight ahead or after a while, AndresR still have portfolio at SS (stopped around October 10th) so something is different, he is exclusive for over 1 month (1st file October 7th)

When they are making ad hoc deals outside the normal terms there is no reason to expect there will be a standard set of conditions. Everything will be negotiable.

Quote from: gbalex on November 08, 2013, 18:55

Quote from: Ron on November 08, 2013, 18:34

Thats a non argument, they signed a deal years ago when all they got was $0.25 cents. Now they get on average $2.35 and all of a sudden they are insulted and undersold. LOL. The problem is that they keep shooting the same old oversupplied people shots and their overhead is too much.

How can you employ 100 people and keep shooting handshakes sustainable? Its their business model thats killing them, not Shutterstock.

Maybe you should go back an read a few of their early posts.  They had low end equipment, were not yet shooting HCV images and had virtually 0 overhead.  They did not employ one person let alone 100 and Andres still runs a very lean operation. Based on your insults you have a very limited understanding of their business.

By the way, isnt that what I said, their business model is no longer sustainable, who is to blame for that? SS? LOL. Should SS accommodate two contribuors because they let their business spiral out of control? Yuri himself said that his overhead couldnt be covered by the earnings from his portfolio. Thats because of his mismanagement, not the other way around.

Its all assumption anyways, because we dont know why Andresr made his move.

Check out Yuris post if you want to understand his perspective a bit. I have not asked Andres directly why he made these choices, to be fair it is none of my business, he busted his butt for years and deserves every penny he can secure during negotiations.

Since when are micros fair to contributors?

� Reply #638 on: August 12, 2013, 12:42 halfway down the page

http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/yuri-arcurs-first-public-statement/640/

There is no explanation from Yuri, just a comment from you and he said nicely said. It confirms what I said though. He let his cost spiral out of control, blamed SS for not raising their pricing and then went with IS. Nothing wrong about that, but dont blame SS for his problems. They didnt force him to leave. He should have kept the cost down while producing images for his beloved mircostock. Why are you submitting to SS if their pricing is so evil? They have always been a subscription site. Its like buying shoes at Wallmart and then blame them for selling you cheap shoes.

You are warping my perspective and putting words in my mouth to promote your own agenda.

I have never said that Andres or Yuri let their cost's spiral out of control, that is your own perspective. I have said that SS has kept prices very low for years to gain market share.  Our cost's have risen via inflation, contributor quality has gone through the roof and image quality is light years better than it was in 2004.  SS has benefited from the competitive advantages its contributor base has given them and those gains have been fully funded by SS contributors.

To top it off senior SS management put BS bridge in place, implemented sub plans and undercut SS pricing to gain market share via BS, so that they can pay contributors less. If a few beers and some happy banter will blind you to reality, happy shooting, work your ass off and one day you will wake up and smell the coffee.

If you want a short cut to reality, ask yourself why BS financials are no longer transparent in the SEC filings.