Dropping the price by size is a change in business model. istock is not SS, the customers who buy there do it for a reason.

The customer will have choices abruptly removed from them with 2 weeks notice.

Maybe the customers don�t care. But I know I would care. After all you buy the credits with a certain volume of files in mind.

And the small sizes are the most useful. When would I need more than an s or medium in most of my work...flyers, online web use, power point presentations, print ads in newspapers?

How many times did I as a contributor sell XL or more sizes??? Hardly ever...and I am not seeing an increase in sales in that file size over the years.

And I am indie, my files are dirtcheap.

So looking at my sales profile and over 60 000 downloads, it looks like sizes up to M are the most useful.

This usage is typical for the small to medium sized business. Only for trade shows would you need superlarge files to make posters or trade show banners. Or maybe if you want to decorate your building or print something on your truck.

This is just a huge price increase sugar coated with marketing talk about all sizes being available for the same price.

Again, for me personally it is not a problem.

istock had a great advantage over SS, but they never really expanded on what they are good at. Now they seem to copy the SS price model without having the real advantages of SS - a supersmart search engine, a beautiful and fast website and just amazing workflow experience for both customers and artists.

But who knows, maybe they will seee a huge increase in money and the artists will all go exclusive again with istock.

However, if I was a normal customer I would prefer to work with a company that gives me a reliable buying experience.Unpredictable changes are poison in business.

For Fotolia, dreamstime, deposit,pond5 and everyone else that offers size based buying this is a great opportunity to pick up disappointed istock customers. For SS it will probably be neutral, I doubt many people will give up their SS plan for what istock offers now. SS is tested and reliable, why change?

They could have easily given the customers 3 months to prepare for the changes or "upgrade" them to the new system when they buy new credits.

That is what computers are for. You can do more than just show different currencies.

After the changes you will no longer be able to convert earnings to credits. So fill them up while you can:

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=362716&messageid=7041944

It�s not his fault, but was it really so difficult to give people real numbers??

However it also means my videos will be sold between 7.2 - 13.5 dollars.

That is crazy low. Really no incentive to send them work. What a pity, i would have liked to try the new upload system. Hm. Maybe I can try with some older files or things that don�t sell elsewhere. Or the testshots.

That one looks good and is incredibly cheap. If they are on photokina I will check them out.

My slider company will not be happy,  this seems to be the same product, just much cheaper.

fotolia and deposit also have the option of being fully artist exclusive, I think dreamstime too. But they also offer a middle path of exclusive images.

For me personally full artist exclusivity is something I won't do again, but exclusive images is a very good idea.

Having good quality exclusive content was always important for istock, it really made it stand out.

The content will now of course still be there, unless people hand in their crown, but it has become dramatically cheaper.

So the high end exclusive contributors will lose twice this autumn: loss of income because more and more buyers switch to subs plans and now the loss of income from drastically lower credit sales. 

And the customers who like to buy small sizes with credits get punished too, instead of 5 small web sizes, they can just get one file in XXXXL...

I suppose this is intended to make them switch to a subscription plan.

istock is not offering the customer a reliable buying experience. I think this more than anything else, is the advantage of many other agencies.

In the end it is the bad experience we have had with all the previous exciting announcements that makes me sceptical that this time will be different.

"The September of pain and drama" is unfortunately a well known istock ritual. There have been so many "exciting" announcements over the years that didn�t work and wrecked the site because the software wasn�t tested/ready/capable in the most important buying season. All the exciting announcements just bring frustration for customers and contributors who then take their business to a more calmly managed place. That doesn�t have to be SS, there are many other stock sites that run their business quietly and without abrupt changes.

I think part of the problem is that over the years dissenting voices have been kicked out or encouraged to leave. If you just surround yourself with people who agree with everything you say, you can lose touch with the outside world.

But Yuri is certainly very excited about the coming changes and here is an open letter from Brad Ralph who believes in what is coming. He must be part of the team, together with Yuri, for developing the strategy if you look at his position.

http://press.gettyimages.com/the-evolution-of-istock-continues-an-open-letter-from-brad-ralph-co-founder-of-istock/

I wish I could see what they see.

I�ll be happy to experience growth and positive results at istock, but the history of the last years is simply not very encouraging.

Here is Michael�s summary, pointing out all the brilliance in the new plan!! I am sure SS managers are getting desperate...not..

http://www.michaeljayfoto.com/agency-news/six-steps-to-turn-a-failing-business-into-a-successful-model/

It was not announced on a Friday and admins seem to be around to answer questions. I guess this is a step forward...

I really wonder what the high end video people will do. SS and pond5 are so much ahead of istock in video already...and now this...

*icy wind can be heard in the background* cue deep voice: "September is coming..." 

LOL! Oh, so true, so true, the September disasters of istock...so glad I will only be partially effected and can focus elsewhere while they sort out their "exciting new improvements"

I will see them at Photokina next month. I�ll ask them if they have a US distributor.

With the freedom that pond5 offers for the contributors it would be great if they made into the top level. But I think with photos, they still have a long way to go. At least for me, the income is over 90% from video.

RC�s levels should be going down every year to compensate for file dilution with millions of new uploads. Keeping them at the same level or even raising them makes it impossible for contributors to stay at their level. You cannot outshoot the upload volume.

RC�s also require optimal marketing and growth from an agency, because if the agency is losing market share, it is not the fault of the contributor, they have no influence on that.

They should just abolish the system and go back to the old canister levels.