OK let's try to get 23 more votes for the poll. 200 iStock member votes would help getting a clearer image of what's happening.

Please email this to IS contributors, tweet about it or put it on your Facebook wall or myspace page.

Just 23 more votes!

What has happened:

- We have ALL been lied to into our faces by iStock management.
- We have been given wrong numbers about who would maintain commission levels and who doesn't
- They plan to bring on 3rd party collections - poison to all exclusives (and another slap in the face)
- They "offer" a forth and back discussion without discussing anything.
- Hundreds of families, (even partially) relying on iStock income will suffer financial problems
- Photographers, illustrators, audio artist and videographers are treated differently (why is a photographer's credit worth more than an  illlustrator's credit?)

Feel free to add to the list.

I'm not sure if iStock management is simply so cold blooded or if they have been held a gun to their head from the investment company to "try" to make their financial goals work regardless of any possible consequences about iStock's future.

I wonder who put his/her signature under all this because any sane person would have seen this reaction coming miles away.

Just unbelievable.

...Wow!  Not even Yuri!  Seems like they set goals they never intended anyone to reach. 

I've thought of that days ago if he would make it.

Since he doesn't (despite the fact that there are other top non-exclusive contributors we might not know of...), I was asking myself if the targets of maintaining 20% for non-exclusives and rising to 45% for exclusives is a slap in the face by itself. Why even creating commission brackets that are never achievable?

To me this is an additional insult on top of the other facts that have been published by IS.

Here a quick poll status overview (considering 108 votes). I know that this is not very representative but I have to work with what I got. So far we have poll results from:

80 non exclusive contributors which split into:

32.5%   dropping down to 15%
31.25% dropping down to 16%
27.5%   dropping down to 17%
6.25%   dropping down to 18%
1.25%   dropping down to 19%
1.25%   maintaining 20%

These results mean that 98.75% of the non exclusives will suffer a commission decrease.
The number speaks for itself and I don't think I need to show any other calculations.
Anything below 20% commission is simply "unsustainable".


28 exclusive contributors which split into:

32.1%   dropping down to 25%
14.3%   dropping down to 30%
7.1%     dropping down to 35%
21.4%   maintaining 40%

10.7%   maintaining 25%
14.3%   maintaining 30%
0%   maintaining 35%

This shows that 54% of exclusives are dropping into a lower commission bracket while 46% of exclusives maintain their commission percentage.

Of course this poll does not include any information about exclusives rising into a higher commission bracket with the new system.

I would love to hear from the exclusives who will move into a higher commission bracket to get  more objective results.

Please keep voting. I'm more than happy to keep these numbers updated.

Maybe these are the only 84 people that created a thread on the IS forum over 2600 posts the other day... 

As much as I support boycotting further uploads for a few months we have to consider what the outcome (most likely) will be.

The 100+ inspectors will be out of work after approx. 7-10 days. That means that iStock starts saving money as they won't be paying any inspectors for the period of no images coming in.

Over 3 months I assume they would save around $0.5 million maybe more. That's actually not even bad for them considering that they keep running their business technically as if nothing happened, just without brand new images. I'm sure naive buyers don't care.

I can't see how this would dramatically affect IS.

The only way we, as contributors can take action, is removing our files. This way we make the decision for the buyers and they don't even have an option of buying our images at IS. Just by telling them might not even work as some are probably sitting on credit packages that they need to use anyway.

You think they would forget about tens or hundreds of $$$ just because some photographer they know is not getting paid enough - next year...?

It's like ripping my own heart out when thinking about pulling my port at IS due to the hard work I put in. I will take enough time necessary to think about that one.

You left out one...Exclusive maintaining 25% into the foreseeable future (and beyond!)

Sorry, I just added that. Plase vote again or you can change your vote.

What about exclusive maintaining 25, 30, 35, etc?

Exclusives can vote as well from 25% to 45%.

Was that you Sean?

What do you think will be your commission rate once the new system will affect you?

I just did it for photos, I hope that's ok. Maybe (if this is a big hit) I'll make a footage or illustrator one.  

I'm just curious what the results will show as I'm going to be down, a lot...

Feel free to use this thread to throw dirty but censored words at the fictional iStock wall without the fear of getting banned  

I've also mentioned previously that IS contributors should take turns calling their support hotline either until their system breaks down or until they realize they cannot provide adequate service for their buyers.

That would hurt them in the long run as well.

With today's means like VOIP calling virtually anyone can call for free their support lines both at HQ and the 1-800 numbers.

I don't know how many phone lines IS customer support has but if only 1000 contributors would take turns calling 24/7 it will have an impact on sales or at least customer support performance for existing/future buyers. It hast to hurt so they would start to listen to us.

Making a category for a 45% royalty rate for non-existent contributors is just illusionary - what.

We need some leverage to make IS listen that this is bullcrap.

How dare they treat us like this?

Is there much data available regarding new contributors to microstock? I've wondered if there is  a constant or increasing flow of new shooters actively submitting work. In other words, is the competition increasing, stagnant or becoming less.

I became a contributor at IS about three months ago and found the experience VERY frustrating. As a creative director for 30-years I felt I knew what would sell. Plus, I  was a fairly good photographer ( I thought ) with semi - pro level equipment and had art directed hundreds of photo shoots from table top to all kinds of models. Then came the iStock Inspector Beat Down. I had a 40% acceptance for the first few months. I was ready to quit but sucked it up and kept shooting (now at 65%). My sales are marginal but show signs of optimism... so I persevere.

It made me realize that it is HARD to shoot acceptable stock that sells. One has to invest in a quality camera, lenses, strobes, soft boxes, props, lights, stands, quality laptop (if tethered), and Photoshop. Then you need to learn all the techniques for using your camera and software. And then you need to upload alot and that means spending alot of time shooting, editing, retouching, keywording, submitting... and then you marvel at the 25 cents you earned today. THAT IS if your stuff gets past the inspectors. ARRGG!

So i imagine that only the most determined photo-hobbyist survive and a large number of contributors try it out and give up. I read on a blog that only a small percent of contributors make up about 80% of the uploads.

So do you think the pool of new contributors growing or slowing?

OX
...still trying to figure this stuff out

Welcome to the world of microstock!

The bar is set quite high these days for microstock and I dare to say it will keep getting higher.

The days are a over where we could upload an image of our kittie and make $100 over the course of a few months.
Competition is fierce right now. This is the best training scenario you can get - being in the middle of a real battle.
Master the challenges and stay alive or die trying.

If you learn quick I'm still convinced you can succeed but clinging on to your experience as you mentioned is not going to help much.
You're playing a different ball game now with a new set of rules as you have learned.

I'm also hoping that the number of competitors will decline at some point but we have to face the fact the new children are born every day and new talents will rise, so I won't get my hopes up that the competition will get any easier to tackle.

Some people deal with it and move on and others will withdraw from this game sooner or later.

In any case, images can be used in more ways than just on microstock...