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Messages - Difydave
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551
« on: May 10, 2011, 07:54 »
About 7% down, which can't be good. I'd have to do quite a bit better to go up a notch, although I'd also have to do quite a bit worse to drop back at present RC levels.
If I did drop a level, I'd also drop exclusivity for sure.
I'm still far from certain that the master plan isn't to have the vast majority of exclusives on 20 or 25% before too long.
NONE of this nonsense is in any way beneficial to any of us.
552
« on: May 06, 2011, 04:19 »
Not too bad so far. Better than April,
553
« on: May 05, 2011, 04:33 »
Good luck with your new non-exclusivity JoAnn. I'm teetering, undecided on the edge myself, and if I had your experience of the big bad stock world "out there" I'd probably already have jumped.
554
« on: May 04, 2011, 11:22 »
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt!
No doubt.
Or:
The sound that accompanies the news that Getty have acquired yet another agency!
555
« on: May 04, 2011, 10:08 »
Next thing they'll buy Europe, kick us all out of our homes to make room for their "Agency" tenants, and charge us 80% income tax...
556
« on: May 04, 2011, 04:59 »
Hi Dave!
Its called tunnel-vision! walking around with blinkers, blindfold. this one-track mind is what finally grounded the SAAB motorcar ( thought their product was so good they were untouchable) meanwhile they just borrowed and bought and ultimately bit the dust.
rings a bell, doesnt it?
Hi Chris Exactly. The British motorcycle industry has to be another classic example of this, "They'll buy what we tell them they want" thinking in the 60s and 70s. Henry Ford nearly did the same with the Model T, keeping it in production long after it's looks and technology were outdated because he thought the customers didn't need anything more modern. The world moves on and woe betide any business that thinks they know better! How does the other one go "He who knows no history is doomed to relive it"
557
« on: May 04, 2011, 04:10 »
This is the $64 dollar question. Why are they doing what they are? We can only guess.
Logically it seems running their business this way produces the biggest profit or they would not do it. Obviously this path has medium and long term consequences if they go too far, which its seems to me they have.
Another possibility is the debt they took on last fall is crushing the company and they need to generate any cash flow they can now to stave off bankruptcy regardless of long term consequences.
An alternative is that they are trying to boost cashflow on the balance sheet getting Getty and/or Istock ready for a sale.
There is also the J. Klein cannibalism theory, if somebody is going to cannibalize your business it might as well be you. Say Getty has concluded that the future of low end micro is subscription based not pay per download, so to avoid shutterstock from eating their business they will eat it first. So they set up Thinkstock with a two year plan to migrate most istock content there. At the same time, Istock is elevated in the Getty portfolio to midstock as a brand, but its hollowed out as its only vetta and agency.
Another alternative is good old hubris. Istock has been amazingly successful despite itself. They got some things right early on and rode the wave for many years in spite of failing again and again at communicating effectively with contributors and buyers and rolling out bug filled features. Maybe they think that since they got it right in the past despite their poor execution and many contributor complaints, that this time they are right again because everyone is telling them they are wrong.
Another is they really are just crazy. 
The truth probably lies in a mix of all these ideas. The "biggest profit" and "just crazy" theories seem to be strongest though. :-) One thing that amazes me though is how big companies in general seem to get an idea that "this is the way the market will go" and then blindly follow that idea to the death. It always looks to me as if someone high up has a pet theory, and can't possibly be wrong.
558
« on: May 02, 2011, 13:49 »
Just a horrible month. There were a few good days here and there, but some were so awful that the hole was too deep for the good days to fill.
26% down on March 2011 (which was itself 12% down on March 2010; IOW not a barn burner) in both $$ and dowloads. Compared to April 2010, DLs down 31% and $$ down 22%
I realize that I have a lot of company looking at the stats thread on IS, but I can't figure out from that if overall the site is tanking or if there's a group of silently celebrating contributors who are experiencing great sales.
I had thought I'd wait out 2011 before deciding about dropping the crown; I have been hoping that things would turn around - that IS couldn't be that self destructive.
Even given the bank holiday in the UK today, today's sales have been like a bad weekend day and I am once again seriously thinking about whether it makes any sense to wait longer for IS to pull out of its nose dive.
Sounds much like the month I had. The trouble is that even if and when things pick up, we can probably make a fair guess at what the future holds. Decreasing royalties (nobody thinks that the late release of next years RC levels is good news surely), and ever increasing pressure for sales from "preferred" content. It's one thing them wanting to maximise their profits, and another when they are doing it at the expense of people who are already signed up, and believed all the stuff in the past about them valuing their exclusive members.
559
« on: May 02, 2011, 04:37 »
iStock exclusive
Compared to March, (which looking at it now actually wasn't too bad).
Downloads down a massive 40%
$$ "Only" down around 25%
Holidays obviously factor into this, as (in the UK at least) we had Easter, the Royal Wedding, and Spring BH all around the end of the month.
It looks to me as if the new best match with the heavy bias towards V&A files has had a bad effect on pretty well anyone with a large PF. As usual most of the people reporting increases are relatively new, and / or have smaller PFs.
At least the "V&A effect" seems to be lessening, which is good news. Lets hope they come up with the option to exclude those files from the search soon.
560
« on: April 26, 2011, 08:44 »
Interesting effect. I don't think I've shot rain at that speed. If I've shot it I've been trying for the "stair rod" effect with much lower speeds. 1/800 certainly stopped 'em dead. I assume the "bubbles" are the nearest drops OOF. I like the effect though!
561
« on: April 25, 2011, 11:40 »
You can strip it, but I wouldn't. Apart from anything else it's useful for future reference. Read the stuff on the Exiftool page, and then just use it to change the time. disorderly is right in that it doesn't normally matter that much, but iStock (which is the only one I know much about) did recently query an editorial upload where the time was obviously wrong in that it was a daytime shot with a night time time or vice-versa.
562
« on: April 25, 2011, 11:05 »
563
« on: April 24, 2011, 06:57 »
I don't look that often, but if I remember right from the last time I looked then I'm moving up. After my last week or so that's surprising.
564
« on: April 23, 2011, 04:42 »
I'dhazard a guess that if regular buyers were leaving in large numbers then something would be done about it. Who can really tell what is happening there these days though?
I like the comment about your canister turning "iron pyrites" ShadySue" Congratulations on that. Mine should be turning "paste" some time soon. I too was wondering whether or not I'd get to keep my present "aluminium foil" level of royalties if things kept going the way they have been.
565
« on: April 20, 2011, 11:31 »
Two for me so far today.  Haven't been having a particularly brilliant time anyway lately, but this is getting ridiculous. It's actually worse than last Sunday! It certainly makes you feel as if something is happening to turn the DLs on and off. Doesn't look like it's just non-exclusives wired up to the switch though!
566
« on: April 20, 2011, 07:48 »
Yesterday was better than Monday, but still not great. Down to about 50% of a decent week at the moment.
The search results are still looking much the same there. Many, many files from very few contributors coming up in a lot of searches, which doesn't give a the customers a wide selection of material or various price points.
Has to be very bad in the long term.
I'm hoping that the run up to the holidays are having at least some effect on sales at the moment.
Hi Dave!
This morning is quite OK, almost like in the old days. Hope that goes for all.
best Chris
Hi Chris That's good to know! I can live with the old Ebb and Flo, it's sudden and irreversible PF death that worries me! All the best Dave
567
« on: April 20, 2011, 06:04 »
Yesterday was better than Monday, but still not great. Down to about 50% of a decent week at the moment.
The search results are still looking much the same there. Many, many files from very few contributors coming up in a lot of searches, which doesn't give a the customers a wide selection of material or various price points.
Has to be very bad in the long term.
I'm hoping that the run up to the holidays are having at least some effect on sales at the moment.
568
« on: April 19, 2011, 04:02 »
Nothing much after I posted yesterday. About a third of what is "normal".
DLs wise the same as Sunday.
Bwah!
569
« on: April 18, 2011, 12:34 »
Thursday and Friday last week were certainly nothing to write home about. That's the way it's been going for me for a while though.
Today is like a Sunday so far. R e a l l y slow.
570
« on: April 15, 2011, 10:36 »
It may not stay this way, but as this week has progressed, sales have been returning to the land of the living at IS (for me). Nothing really great (i.e. no big spike over prior good days) but massively better than the prior week (which was grim). Obviously I hope this means that their "tweaks" are moving in the right direction
More or less the opposite for me. Wednesday was the best day Dls wise I've had for a while. Yesterday went dead after about 6pm here (UK). Today is like a Sunday! The funny thing is that on the previous Monday after the first big change I had a reasonable day. To be honest, I can't see any rhyme or reason in it any longer. All I do know is that overall I'm looking well down this week, but even so only "really bad" not "totally disasterous"
571
« on: April 13, 2011, 13:09 »
snip.... The "ship's boats" are in short supply and already pretty full, and the order of the day would seem to be "Newbies and non-exclusives first"
....snip
do you really think that newbies and non-exclusives are being favored here? The non-exclusives have an advantage if IS continues imploding in that they are already elsewhere, but they sure aren't getting any favors from IS. The Newbies that are exclusive are getting screwed in all directions from IS unless they are producing large volumes of sellers.
IS needs to put price into the sort mix, but I can't see them doing that. It goes against what they have been trying to do.
Good analysis Mr Trousers, it looks like you hit how this search works. Too bad it isn't a very good way to run a search.
Me and my metaphors! I can't see any favours for anybody much at the moment in this lot. What I meant was that Newbies haven't got to the exclusive stage yet, and so can more easily join other agencies, and independents already have work at other agencies. The other agencies was all I meant by "lifeboats".
572
« on: April 13, 2011, 08:23 »
Sure! in the good old IS days, perhaps it was at least some benefits but nowdays, with everything going on? I dont know. Dangerous game actually.
Should the ship finally sink? theres no rescue and building up new ports with new agencies? Oh boy, takes ages and with 1K % more competition.
best.
You're right of course Chris. We all made our own choices based on the info we had at the time, took any benefits there were (or at least we thought there were) and we have always had to live with the consequences of those choices both good and bad. It looks to me though as if there could be some painful new decisions to be made soon though, as well as a lot of hard work, in an attempt at long term damage limitation. Certainly the idea of the ship completely sinking is very worrying. The "ship's boats" are in short supply and already pretty full, and the order of the day would seem to be "Newbies and non-exclusives first" Having said that it's early days for this new sort yet, and with Easter looming on the horizon things might not actually be as bad as they look. There seem to be more icebergs about than usual though since September!
573
« on: April 13, 2011, 05:24 »
If it stays how it is, then I see the whole thing as being unsustainable. (A bit overused that term but true in this case)
Exclusivity only works / worked when there is / was some concern by the company for it's exclusives.
Once the company starts putting it's own profits in front of everything else, I don't see how exclusivity can work except for perhaps a few right at the top.
As already said by lots of people this could of course be the plan.
Looking at the best match as it is at the moment, I wonder when they will start to seriously lose buyers. Some of the "mainstream" searches may give some usable results, but some of the niche searches look dire. High price combined with a need to sort through tons of unwanted results may bring on a crisis.
What will they do then. Put up prices again?
574
« on: April 08, 2011, 11:24 »
I'm down about 20% on this month last year so far. I dropped a royalty level in the changes, so that explains some of it. The ups and downs of the site explains the rest. Generally April is my best month and if things don't pick up soon then I will be well down over the next couple of weeks. I'm not at the stage of giving up the crown yet though, generally for me things take a week or so to pick back up after a big change. This uncertainty though, and the fact that you know that they can and will change things so drastically at any time is to say the least unsettling. It also strikes me that the forums are a lot less uninhibited than they used to be in the old days.
No change on the sort order or the slider yet today. It's taken all week to get nowhere as far as I can see. No sign of the V&A files getting much less prominent either.
575
« on: April 06, 2011, 14:58 »
Another vote for "consistancy and predictability" here.
We could do with it.
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