Wow, these price increases are HUGE.

Small size up 50%.  Medium up 50%.  Large up 55%.

10 credits for Large...Whoou. Hope I sell one shortly when it will be working. I think it's about the best of the two world like they said. Buyers can buy a little more and we receive a lot more!!!

Don't count your chickens before they hatch. I was around for the last big price increase a couple of years ago and on a portfolio many times smaller than I have now, I was getting more downloads a day than I do now (but making more money now). Meanwhile, Shutterstock has kept prices in line (for now) and I bet you see a bump in downloads at those places where prices don't increase. IS becomes less and less the dominant player in my agencies...

Of course they could also "raise" prices by adding more sizes, like extra-extra small and extra-extra-extra small (1x1 pixel?) 

This increase was way too much, and they've been increasing prices too often. I have a hunch they will see total revenue fall when these new prices take effect.

I would have liked to have seen an increase in the XS price from 1 credit to 2 credits - I get cheesed off whenever I see those 24c commissions.

I am happy to see IS take the lead on pricing.  Hopefully, the other agencies will follow suit within the next few months.

As a contributor, I can't complain. 

Quote from: Kngkyle on December 07, 2007, 20:41
As a contributor, I can't complain. 

You will if the price increase is too much, and your revenue goes down.

Quote from: yingyang0 on December 07, 2007, 20:44

Quote from: Kngkyle on December 07, 2007, 20:41
As a contributor, I can't complain. 

You will if the price increase is too much, and your revenue goes down.

It will go up at other sites I submit to then.

Bigstock too have raised the prices recently and they are not going out of business. IStock is there to stay as amazon.com , like it or not.
vphoto

great news! As we know IS is the industry leader right now I hope others will follow them.instead of trying to compete them with prices. we all (or most of us) agree that there is still room for price increase in microstock royalties. I don't think it would hurt a buyer to pay  5 dollars instead of 1.
and yes BS's increase is also noticeable.happy with that too.

I haven't seen much improvement in earnings after the last raise they had.  My overall earnings have gone up a lot this year but istock has been disappointing.

As a marker leader IS won't loose market share because of the increase. I actually think the others are just waiting on the sidelines hoping for IS to increase price so that they can do the same and increase their profits.

I dont have long expirience of microstock...but this feels good...
/lena

size now future

XS 1 1

S 2 3

M 4 5

L 6 10

XL 10 15

XXL 15 20

Credits will range from 0.97 to 1.30, same as today, although packages will change.

Regards,
Adelaide

Build it and they will come. 

This is one instance where I hope the other stock sites step in line to follow! All aboard!

Competition is one thing, but charging a fair price for our efforts and equipment is a fabulous move.

Good for them !!!

Time will tell. I'm sure IS has done a huge amount of market research around this and wouldn't raise prices unless they thought they could maintain the downloads. There will always be the people that shop by price and those that go for quality. IS has always had the highest quality with DT right behind and Shutterstock way behind. We'll see in about 3-4 months what happens...

As I pointed out over on the Getty Share Price thread, Getty had to do something to fulfil its promise to shareholders of generating an extra $50 million in revenue next year.  But I didn't expect 50% price rises straight away.

This isn't a move in isolation.  With Getty having to reduce its own RF prices, this move brings the two organisations nearer.  With the share price down 70% and profits under pressure, Getty has to take drastic action.  It's completely inefficient to be running TWO RF businesses in competition with each other, when that means two sets of employees, two marketing and IT budgets etc.

Within a year or two Getty will integrate its RF businesses into one and then be able to lay off half the employees, IT professionals and save considerable costs.

The price increases allow Getty to switch RF corporate customers to iStock.  There are millions of corporate accounts worldwide with big spending budgets - iStock doesn't need the once in a while or ordinary Joe customer.

The big question is what will happen in terms of expectations for contributors.  With these latest increases many existing Getty photographers might finally make the switch, and indeed be encouraged to do so.  We might find approval standards getting even tougher.

There is now such a huge price difference between iStock and Fotolia it's unreal........

Quote from: kosmikkreeper on December 07, 2007, 23:36
As a marker leader IS won't loose market share because of the increase.

Your statement assumes that there are barriers to entry into the market. Basic economics. As the first-in company raises prices it is confronted by newcomers, expanding competitors, or both. A load of new capacity starts to come on line. As the level of customer demand hasn't changed much, there is now more competition for the same business. Either prices fall or, each producer sells fewer units. In both cases, profits decline, and market value drops with them.

The only competitive advantage (barrier to entry) that I can see on the side of IS is its exclusive contributors. I personally don't think that is enough (and I'm exclusive). As for Getty stock, I shorted it in the being of April and it turned out to be a great investment. It's near its 5 year low and I still can't bring myself to buy it because it is still a little over priced.

I think thats good news. I doubt that iS will loose a lot of customers. And I do not think the last price increase has hurt iS growth at all. My guess is we will continue to see price increases throughout the microstock industry for the next years.

Quote from: hatman12 on December 08, 2007, 01:02
...The price increases allow Getty to switch RF corporate customers to iStock.  There are millions of corporate accounts worldwide with big spending budgets - iStock doesn't need the once in a while or ordinary Joe customer.

Wouldn't that be a disaster for Getty?  Their RF customers are paying huge fees compared to istock.  The lowest price $49 is just for blog size, the larger sizes can go for thousands of dollars.

I have a feeling they would prefer istock customers to switch to Getty.

Quote from: Freezingpictures on December 08, 2007, 07:08
I think thats good news. I doubt that iS will loose a lot of customers. And I do not think the last price increase has hurt iS growth at all. My guess is we will continue to see price increases throughout the microstock industry for the next years.

I agree on that , but the problem is that there will always be sites that will always try to have lowest prices and compete with big ones that way.

I thing that the best thing for photographers  that could happen in the future  is that   contributors form some sort of union , and a strong one. Its never possible to include all contributors , but if  most of the big non exclusive ones were part of souch project , that would start a new era of microstock.