I also just had 2 .32 custom sales. a new low for me (I think), no tax withholding. it is a worrying trend if it becomes common.

For starters, there was no microstock before digital, Stock before digital was a completely different entity (and I was not part of it).

I am not sure I am an old timer, but I started in 2006 and would say the main difference for me 2006 to about 2012 was that there was a sense that more work, better equipment, and more images meant more income. Also there was a feeling that at least at some level there was some trickle down from the agency's success to the contributors (at least until IS became unsustainable about 2010).

I remember looking forward to the new levels from SS each year and the feeling that buying new equipment would be paid back fairly quickly and the excitement of uploading a batch to SS and seeing sales of those images in a few hours if not within a day or 2. It's a shame I didn't put more work into it at the time.

I would say time is the biggest factor against making a lot of money at microstock. I have no idea of the actual half life of images, but in general with the same port you will make less money every year from a combination of more competition (both from other artists and thieves and now AI) plus the sites taking a bigger cut either by changing the terms, selling their own material, or through backdoor accounting shenanigans or just lower costs - although inflation seems to make everything more expensive, it doesn't seem to be the case for microstock which keeps getting cheaper either in terms of actual cost or better license deals or more subs for the same amount or all you can eat buffets.

So, if you want to make $ at this you are more likely to do that by working now rather than waiting a while when looking back these will be the good old days. It is sort of like planting a tree, the best time to do it is 10 years ago (or for microstock 15 years ago), but the next best time is now.

Quote from: pancaketom on April 06, 2024, 15:25

I got a big for bigstock adjustment Apr 5 also. I opted out as soon as I was able to last year. I checked again and they opted me back in. So much for transparency and all that. I opted back out again. I wonder how long that will last.

Where is the Big Stock opt out anyway? I can�t find it.

it is hiding under "my account" - "edit profile"

https://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/nearly-1-000-fake-accounts-selling-stolen-photos-discovered/

Quote from: Andrej.S. on March 26, 2024, 14:24

Brutal, how is this even possible? 3 to 4 cents comissions?
What the heck?

I wouldn't be surprised if all agencies are ripping off their contributors since they all have become to greedy.

Didn't we also have the thread about Shutterstock, where even sales were not passed on to the contributors?

IStock states that they pay out almost 2 million a week.
Presumably that's a similar number of sales. So mistakes can happen ...
You probably don't even notice smaller ones and they are simply covered up.

Nobody can check the sales system.

3 or 4 cents has been going on for some time at IS. Check their forum, I think some people have been as low as 2� and that's not Connect, that's a iStock or Getty download.

All agencies have their best self interest to pay us what we are due and not cheat. If someone ever found out there were unpaid downloads, that were paid for and licensed, there would be one heck of a lawsuit, which could destroy the business.

Quote

Didn't we also have the thread about Shutterstock, where even sales were not passed on to the contributors?

Alleged, claimed, unsupported, unless you believe everything you read on an Internet Forum, without any proof?

Correct, nobody can check the sales system. We can't anywhere or for many other business in life. There has to be some trust? If anyone works on a commission basis, they have to believe that the company they work for, is going to be honest and report everything. Otherwise, why start?

I noticed that, as usual, the people who claim SS is a bunch of crooks and insulting us with 10�, don't have an answer to why they are not just as insulted or worse for 3� downloads and connect sales, from iStock? But people flocked away from SS in protest, and formed a coalition, tried a boycott, and two years later can't stop writing hate messages... still work for IS? 

As a note: I still work for both. Yes, I'm insulted, but I'll take the money. 

IS drew first blood - and I removed most of my content there, and if everyone had done that I am pretty sure SS would not have done what they did, but they did.
The SS pulled their money grab. So I turned off my port. If everyone had done that, they would be gone or backtrack, but they didn't and they didn't.

Tragedy of the commons. I am glad I am not relying on this for my food or shelter, although it managed to be over 50% of my income for a brief while.

If your monitor is big enough the option is still there to the right. I'm on my little laptop now, so I can't see it or I'd give you the URL for it.

you can also ctrl -  to make the text small enough that it appears or use the url:

https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/portfolio?limit=100&page=1&sort_by=create_desc

Surprise - big customers get to use our files for free for some uses (planning, mock ups, etc. ) with no watermarks so if they accidentally just go live with it nobody really notices.

The question I have for the people that got heaps of refunds, were your earnings for November oddly high (by about the same amount as the refunds)?

Pretty shoddy on the part of Getty all around.

Small consolation that Getty eats 85% of the refunds.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on February 16, 2024, 14:25

Quote from: zeljkok on February 15, 2024, 16:13

$$$$ sale, 2 years ago

Wouldn't you like to find that one in use? Seems like an installation on a business/commercial property or public site.

Thought crossed my mind more than once.  It says in usage field "Indoor, Wall Decor".  But old Canon 6D image was taken with is just 20 Megapixel, can't make very large print out of it.  So it's bit of mystery.   Perhaps it has some sentimental factor because of that "Trail adopted by John Tomlinson" table,  which is not there anymore. 

I fully expected it was a mistake and there would be a refund.  But it cleared within a month.  Interesting enough, photo was simple point and shoot, taken for documentation of my hiking exploits.  At the end I didn't even use it for hiking page

https://autumnsky.zenfolio.com/usa/san-diego/iron-mountain

Used different shot I thought was better (1st in gallery) which was uploaded for stock too,  never got even 10 Shutterstock cents.   So you never really know much in this business

I think I took almost that exact photo when I was there - not as good a sky though. I don't think I even bothered to upload it. This can be a pretty random business.

applies up 13%, exports up 12%, earnings down about 1%

So basically, our art gets used more and more - presumably benefiting Canva in some manner like more income or more market share or something, and we get paid less.

I still don't really know what applies or exports are. If I was getting even the lowly .10 from SS for these uses I would be making a whole lot more.

Fun fact - shooting the things that AI does poorly helps train the AI to do it better. eg hands, bananas, etc.

since the rankings are based on download numbers it makes sense that there will be a lot of people sharing ranks, especially at the middle of the bell curve for download numbers. There probably aren't that many people getting over a few 100 images a week (see previous post for how many), but in there are probably a lot of people getting the exact same number of downloads in the 10-50 range.