The END of microstock? Because one man leaves?

When you throw too much  big stones in a mountainstream the water will simply search other ways to flow down the mountain. But it will flow.
You forgot one thing: contributors are the OWNERS of the content that stays with the agencies.
When agencies go too far with the ongoing lowering of paying their contributors, photographers  will search other ways to sell their images and when they are able to make a living otherwise,  they  will leave and take their images with them.

There will allways be new  starting contributors, but  how long does it take for them to �stand out from the crowd� and to be able to produce the highest  demanded and high valued images AND enough of them on a regular base? (And when they reach that point they are likely also going Yuri�s way.)

This is not only about Yuri�s decision, it's also about Stocksy, about Symbiostock� No one is able to predict today if  this leads to somewhere and how and where  this leads to �This will also not happen within a short term, but over time the stock industry will probably show  big changes.

Of course it will not be the END of Microstock. There's still a growing demand for images worldwide and even a demand for images that can be easily produced. And when there is demand, there will be supply.
But yes: for the over suplied low-end market it will be harder and harder to make more then �pocket- money�.

The END of the dinosaurs? Perhaps!

ok, maybe it's not the END but it's the beginning of the end.

first it's Yuri, tomorrow some top-20 microstocker, and little by little the so called "factories" will move to greener pastures or close down or move into a more profitable market niche.

i mean .. 0.30$ per subs ? we're in 2013, this is not the '90s.
the point of non return has been reached since a long time in my opinion.

do you know how much is the price of a coffee or a beer in places like London or Paris ?
even cleaning toilets will get you 1500$ per month in UK, that means thousands of downloads on micros.

how do you see you 5 yrs from now ? we can all see the numbers ... there will be tens of millions of new images on micro agencies, but your portfolio will not cope with it, you'll not be anymore in a position to "feed the beast" as in the past.

of course it's not the end for agencies, they're doing great actually !
but it's the beginning of the end for photographers.

we're just a COST for agencies, NOT a resource, either you get it or you dont.
you think we're special ? wait a few weeks, they'll not even write a single line about Yuri leaving the scene, same as they did with Sean.

because, they dont need them, they only need the buyers, and their buyers are bottom feeders, price is everything for them, quality comes later.

they dont shop for a specific famous artist and never will, if they could they would shop at Getty but they're broke and pennyless that's why they buy subs in the first place !

new contributors have picked up the very worst time to join the scene.
they will quickly realize how hard it is to make even beer money with micros, and they will soon go away with a bitter taste in their mouth.

More BS.  You say nobody can survive selling subs on SS, totally ignoring the fact that SS is much more than a subs site.  My RPD there has gone up every year since 2006.  They sell more and more on demand, SOD's and lots more EL's than the other sites.  I haven't uploaded much for the past 2 years but my SS earnings keep increasing.  It's the opposite of how you would like it to be.  I'm sorry that the people that have been predicting the imminent demise of microstock for at least the last 7 years have got it so wrong and that they continue thinking that everything that happens is bad for microstock contributors but it clearly isn't true.

I'd like to see the end of commission cuts and it might be more difficult to make a living from microstock in the future but the same could be said about macro.  Alamy have cut my commissions twice now, lowered prices and competition has drastically increased.  I don't think Getty contributors have had it easy.  We all have the same problems and idiots that still think microstock is the only problem after all these years are deluding themselves.

i've NEVER predicted the end of micro for agencies !
what i predicted from the start was that agencies would have scr-ewed photographers big time, and that's exactly what happened over time, ALL my predictions became reality.

and actually i was a bit optimistic, i could not imagine IS would pay fees as low as 15% as they do now for non exclusives.

neither i predicted Yuri's bombshell.

i instantly smelled sh-it when he launched his agency but i told myself, hmmm maybe it's just a way to diversify, it would be a bombshell if the microstock's hero actually leaves micros to join getty or corbis or whatever !

alamy : yes they cut commissions but i also see a raise in views and sales so it's quite stable.
at least they're doing something, many other agencies are dead now, it's a Getty world.

Xanox I have read every single entry you placed on this forum on the last days (around 357 comments) and yep I am giving up and going to clean toilets somewhere, cheers!

.

He has already proven to be a smart guy who makes right moves,so it looks  good for him.
as for us? well, dunno, I have lost my motivation long ago,subs,so little commissions,constant best match shifts  makes it impossible for me to foresee what will happen next. all i know, at least for me- good  old days  are  over. perhaps it is more to do with over supply in the market, not what Yuri is doing. also  almost all micro sites getting so much control over our images. shooting for . 38cents??? well?

...
indeed microstock is here to stay but look at their target .. they're mostly bottom feeders and they've even the guts to complain about pricing.

...

I don't know about bottom feeders only buying microstock.   I work for a very large Fortune 500 company that uses microstock images all the time.   Now, sure, they don't use them for their major ad campaigns (they actually have in-house photogs for those - and frankly wouldn't use stock imagery those anyways), but there are sure hundreds of the microstock images all over the internal websites as well as employee training materials, etc.   (I actually have fun trying to figure out how many of the images I recognize in our training slides).   These things are updated constantly, so I am always seeing new images on the internal pages I have to visit regularly.   

So even with the big players there is a market for micro.   And, really, isn't that what micro is for?   The company can keep fresh interesting images in our "employee engagement" brochures without spending a ton of money. 

I don't know about bottom feeders only buying microstock.   I work for a very large Fortune 500 company that uses microstock images all the time.   Now, sure, they don't use them for their major ad campaigns (they actually have in-house photogs for those - and frankly wouldn't use stock imagery those anyways), but there are sure hundreds of the microstock images all over the internal websites as well as employee training materials, etc.   (I actually have fun trying to figure out how many of the images I recognize in our training slides).   These things are updated constantly, so I am always seeing new images on the internal pages I have to visit regularly.   

So even with the big players there is a market for micro.   And, really, isn't that what micro is for?   The company can keep fresh interesting images in our "employee engagement" brochures without spending a ton of money.

it only means this sort of images (business, business concepts, etc) have become almost worthless, they're so cheap they can be used for silly corporate brochures for internal use.

it's the same fate suffered from still life images and other "low hanging fruit" stuff that was paying fairly well years ago.

now that even this market niche has been F-cked, what's left exactly ?

i mean really, we can all see how this market is bad and is going down worse and worse.

as you said, we see fortune-500 compaines buying tons of images for the price of a coffee, people with GBs of mp3 in their iPhones bought for barely the price of a pair or jeans.

and then you have piracy as well, yes even for 0.30$ subs ...

maybe the issue is as you said that you only know microstock.
try going at Photokina or other shows .. you will see the real value of photography.

it's a shame they wiped out the old Alamy forum with all my pearls of wisdom.

anyway, good night and good luck !

Quote from: rubyroo on May 19, 2013, 14:14

What exactly are you trying to achieve with your words of wisdom?  What is the purpose of all this?

Maybe you should write a book of prophecies rather than hang out in MSG.  Then later generations can squabble over whether you were right or wrong.  Right now you're chest-thumping celebration of your own genius is somewhat premature.

You can say that again. Every time Xanox posts I find my finger hovering over the 'Move Topic to Garbage Bin' button. It's entirely understandable why he's been banned from every other forum other than this one.

Totally agree.  EVERY "ALTERNATIVE" opinion is crushed by his power of invention.

Well said Cobalt, Mantis and Sharpshot... and Gostwyck, you have far greater patience than I.

Quote from: sharpshot on May 19, 2013, 14:34

It seems inevitable that Xanox will get banned here one day, I just hope it's tomorrow   I don't mind people having different opinions but when they attack others and keep posting the same uninformed drivel, I don't see why we have to put up with them for so long here?

some of what Xanox posts here is pure drivel, albeit I do think the overall theme he is trying to convey is more accurate than many of you understand. The stock industry is in decline overall from a contributors point of view, and I sadly agree with Xanox that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Xanox obviously comes from an era when stock photography had value, way before the days of microstock and photographers jumping up and down with joy by selling a photo hundreds of times for 0.25c a crack and I totally agree with many of his posts, not all of them, but many of them.

Yes, but you can't force the genie back in the bottle.
We are now in a new reality, and trying to get things back to what they were isn't going to get us anywhere. The macros brought their calamity on themselves by being so ridiculously elitist, and once micro had started, undercutting was the obvious move.
The only question is, with our new reality, how do we survive within it, if indeed we want to.