Hi - Simon here from Pixmac!  "Band of gypsies?" LOL! Are you going to insult my mom as well?  This initiative is designed to be something to help address some of the concerns of the marketplace, but things don't happen overnight. Just so you know - to develop a microstock site it costs well over 7 figures in US$, with investors and years of investment and hard graft. Not many gypies can do that. Unless you mean "band of gypsies" as in the Gypsy Kings? In that case I play the classical guitar 

simon again !  here is pixie - the real leader of Pixmac. (just to prove we have an office dog !)
He's actually probably the smartest of all of us !!
He's a ratter - he eats about 3 Ikea stuffed toy rats a week (that's his pay)

Quote from: rubyroo on August 12, 2010, 07:59
Certainly there are contributors that can produce more material for less, but if the only contributors left are the ones at the top, the reduction in choice, variety and overall volume will be palpable.  We already see complaints from buyers about the 'samey' quality of much in microstock.  I read in this forum yesterday that macrostock has taken a turn upwards for the first time in years, and my guess is that it's because buyers are getting tired of the 'samey-ness'  and are prepared to pay a bit more for something different.  (Poor results in agency search engines is another major issue for buyers).  In micro, the reviewers' guidelines largely won't allow us to stray too far from a strict criteria (with the exception of iStock, who seem to have a greater appreciation for creativity).

I am glad to hear that you don't think prices will go any lower.  It'll be interesting to hear what Simon thinks on that point also.  Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to questions.  It's always good to get direct answers from the people at the helm, and is much appreciated.  

Hi - Simon here again, I also don't think prices will go any lower (but who can really predict?). I've spent most of my career in mainstream stock photography - I'm new in the microstock arena, but really love it already - but it seems really really tough for all photographers.  I love graphic design, I love New Media, I love digital photography.  I always hope that prices for good content will go up regardless of whether the content is in RM, RF or microstock or macrostock. Good photography is good photography at the end of the day.

I wonder what will happen in a few years time when you can buy a 40mpix, 50mpix or even 60mpix camera for a few hundred dollars or less? I think Canon and Nikon are coming out soon with a 32mpix camera? or something like that ?  Also, technological advancements in 'the cloud'/browser based applications will play a part I am sure. 

A friend of mine just finished filming a whole documentary for the Discovery Channel in Africa on a Canon EOS 7D 18pmix stills camera with its high-def video camera !  I asked him 'where's your camera?' - he said 'that's it!'.  He used to carry one of those big camera's like they have in news crews !!   He told me he paid $3800 for it inc. a lens!

I also hope that new markets will open up for all stock photography - someone told me today that print magazines are making a resurgence because online is opening new opportunities (I dont know if that is true though) Maybe new magazines for things like the ipad will open up demand, or mobile content etc.

Anyways - have a great weekend, and thanks for taking the trouble of giving us feedback.

(someone made a comment about my 'obsessed by Macs and drinking bucketloads of Starbucks' - it made me think ! I've been totally
sucked in by big brands and branding over the years. I've spent too much time in the Advertising agency world !! LOL!!!


best
Simon

Maybe 'cheap as chips' was the wrong phrase.... all I meant was that its now possible to get great images for a few dollars (compared to when I started in stock photography in the 90's). I wasn't belittling the content or the photographers or content contributors. I am sorry if it seemed that way. 

I just meant for example that as a freelance designer on a very small budget its possible to create amazing looking websites and print with great imagery for not that much (compared to years ago anyways). 

Like many of us, when I started it was just RM imagery - sometimes costing $$$$'s - then came RF - costing $$$'s then after technology opened up the market both in photography hardware, and on-line technology advancements - moving the market to  Microstock - costing $'s - which was a great thing for designers, but really really tough on professional photographers.

Simon

Hello everybody,

Let's sort everything out. We're certainly not thieves, and we're not enemy of all contributors nor we're sharing your files for free on Twitter (was that serious?).

1. We have strong duplicate detection. It's not perfect but it does a pretty good job. So my guess it that 95% of the files are recognized as dupes and the rest is either new or somehow more compressed than it is on the other site.

2. Violators:  We take everything pretty seriously and even though it may seem like we don't know the buyer's size of shoes, we do know buyers e-mail address and more importantly payment details via PayPal or Credit Card, so it's pretty secure. Does anyone of you think that other sites are any more secure where you can basically fill in any made up personal info and hotmail address if you so choose to do so?

3. The content we're getting from FT and DT is treated very seriously. We don't publish anything without watermarks and we don't even release hi-res files until it's sold. Also, no FT or DT image is sold via subscription on Pixmac everything is pay as you go.

4. Guys, you should be able to choose on FT and DT to opt-out third party distributors. That's what we've been told.

Finally. Yes we're here to make money – we're a business, but obviously not without you on our side. Is there really someone who thinks that by stealing and violating rights we will grow and make significant sales without being spotted? Honestly? Also, there is no need to be offensive – we are also people not "them".  We welcome any feedback and advice on reasonable ideas that we can implement (as we already did many times)

Thank you.

And thanks to everyone  who sees Pixmac as a serious business and have supported us so far.


Vitezslav Valka, CEO & Simon Raybould, Director of Sales & Marketing – North America.


Note from Simon – Cheesy?  I take offence to that.....hold on, let me just change my ipod over from Michael Bolton to Celine Dion.

The world keeps turning (and I keep getting dizzy)

One last serious note – www.pixmac.com is a pretty good site (we hope) for users. We
genuinly believe it's a worthwhile tool in a designers toolbox.