The Royalties could be better, but 30% is MUCH more than 17% I get at IS

Percentages mean nothing, what you should be looking at is the actual $ amount you receive on a like for like basis, as happy as I am that Shutterstock are offering this, for the same size image download I personally would still get more in commission at iS for the same size image download than I would under this new SS scheme. Obviously it's going to be different on a per contributor basis.

Too many people on this forum fall into the naive "percentages" trap, you're licensing your images on these agencies for a financial return.

According to the email Photolibrary is closing. All content will be moved to either Thinkstock, Photos.com or Jupiterimages. There's no information as to how royalties will be paid or at what percentage. If your on Zoonar you can click "partner managerment" and select Photolibrary to see what the old terms were.

Which email, if you're referring to the one 'Eco' has posted above it's from Zoonar and like I said it mentions that the Zoonar content on Photolibrary will be moved to Thinkstock, where have you got the information that ALL Photolibrary content will be moved to Thinkstock, because it doesn't mention anything of the sort in that email?

Photolibrary contains many different collections at different price points, I haven't seen anything anywhere that suggests all of these will be moved to the Getty Thinkstock collection. And I can guarantee you there'd be a lot of macro photographers up in arms if they found their macro priced photos being sold at micro subscription prices, not to mention a lot of Photolibrary content is RM.

I cant remember the specifics, but a there was an image sold on Alamy for something like $20,000. It was an image of a fish market (if my memory serves me correctly) just a snap shot, it wasn't any production image or a famous photographer. I wish I could find the forum post of this but I cant even remember which forum it was on, I read so many and this was a good four or five years ago but it was legit. There was a lot of hoopla over it at the time.

Yes you're correct, it sold to a large merchant bank in the US, there was also a tin of tuna that sold for a lot (search Alamy for 'tin of tuna' and you'll see that loads of desperados uploaded their own shots after that sale, some people are so dumb!), and last year a terrible photo of Windsor castle with a blown out sky sold for thousands.

"Opt-out e-mails must be time-stamped before 11:59 pm (PST), October 21, 2011."

What?

I can't opt out any more?

Ummm... It's September you still have just under a month to opt out 

At micro sites this image would still be rejected because its "low commercial value"...

On most it would, iStock had loads which is why the client chose to use them. This is however a perfect example of the difference in using reviewers that know the industry and those with no experience that just follow a simple set of rules.

We actually bought a couple from a user on iStock who also has their portfolio on Dreamstime (as a contributor myself I tried to favour the better commission paying site) , surprise surprise the one the client wanted wasn't in their DT portfolio - victim of the naive "too similar" policy I guess.

I'm working on a commercial job at the moment where we've bought a number of stock images like these (not we didn't buy yours) because the company makes a product that's used in commercial buildings and the result of their product is reduced energy and hence is kind to the environment, we needed shots of office buildings with trees in the image and a space to drop their product and some copy, so you see unknowingly you've created what could be (and obviously is) a very commercially viable image.

I'm looking for a job where I don't need to get out of bed until noon and can go home at 3 p.m.
Please don't ask me to do anything when I'm there.

http://www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/about-lords/lords-appointment/

Firstly. Please show a good tone in this thread. I know this is a forum, but don't drag this thread down to the lowest level. You may feel this is a threat or that somebody is getting chances you never got, but again.... How many educational programs for young people offer them three years of photography education, traveling the world and to get paid while doing it...? This is unique and it deserves to be acknowledged.

Yuri with all due respect it's not an 'educational' programme, unless I and others have completely misunderstood it and you're not making a penny from any of this?

Plus to be honest the only unique part is that you're doing it on a grand scale, there are thousands of photographers assistants around the world that get 'educated' in the 'real world' whilst being paid a low wage, and of course the photographer makes money from their services.

I certainly don't feel threatened and I don't think you're giving anybody any chances that others couldn't have got, I admire what you're doing from a business perspective but unless you prove otherwise please don't make out it's anything different or special other than a business venture for which I wish you the best of luck.

Anyone else have experience with them?

Yes, they don't want anything that's on micro sites but will take stuff that's on equivalent non-exclusive macro sites like Alamy, Age etc. Having said that I haven't uploaded there in years, sales are few and very far between as a direct contributor, however I do sell more through a distributor with them.

My advice to the OP - go with a distributor or pick one of the majors to send your work direct.

[....] I'm guessing Yuri is moving into editorial stock, for which the only real skill you need is being able to be somewhere with a camera, [....]

You were joking, right?

No I wasn't joking - His advert mentions they'll be travelling around the world. There's a lot of money to be made from editorial stock, just read the Alamy forums there's one guy who's got 65k images and a look into his portfolio reveals he has no photographic skills whatsoever, seriously he walks down the street somehwhere with the thing on motor drive and submits the lot, and he's not alone, there's loads of folks there who have portfolios full of nothing more than snap shots, if you read their posts you'd think they were some of the worlds best photographers but they've no talent at all, yet each month they post how much they've made. So my guess is that Yuri's seen the potential to send these 'students' off on their travels, then hook them up with some models and you've got 10-15 people shooting model released editorial travel shots with Yuris compositional training (and he's very good at composition) and Seans photographic training, get them to sign away the copyright and he's onto a winner IMO - good for him.

Like I say that's my guess, oh and I wasn't trying to insult editorial photographers as a whole, quality always shines through just as in commercial stock.

I think the reality TV thing is just a spin off, Yuri is a master in the art of selling himself and I expect he's sold the idea to a TV company after he came up with the student thing, not the other way round.

Whatever your personal opinion of Yuri and his work nobody can deny the guy is certainly the worlds most successful 'self promoter' even when he doesn't deliberately self promote, and I admire him for that, I wish I had half the marketing skills he has.

No complaints from me then. 

I'll remind you of this in a few months when the next 'image sleuth' thread appears about a contributor with a portfolio full of other folks images 

The fact that they only host about 6000 of my 65000 images makes them a rather small playing in my financial monthly statement, so as a business partner (offer, etc.) I really have very little to do with them.

Yuri

Have you considered pulling your portfolio from there and encouraging your regular buyers to visit a site where you have all your portfolio, tricky one to gauge but it may make more financial sense, it's certainly something I'd consider if I did the level of self marketing your company does.

I haven't noticed as drastic a drop in sales on iStock that you and others have I'm glad to say, but what I have noticed is the increase in sales at SS which, like you, concerns me because of their low commission rates.

There is no doubt, no matter what everyone's individual circumstances, that iStock is not the company it was, could or should have been.