Getty just want a piece of the cake, nothing (or almost nothing) for the artists no matter what. They are not better than the other party.

Generative AI will kill the business of illustrators as we know it in less than 6 months, specially the ones who make their living from stock illustrations. Stock photography will last maybe one more year. Most agencies will go out of business.

Whit this "new look" SS shows us their incompetence at work

Clients won't even need agencies, today they can get a certain number of AI-produced images for free directly from the software creators, I won't say where so as not to give them free publicity. The company I work for is considering not renewing the subscription they get every year from an agency we all know, to generate and download the images they need for free directly from the mentioned website.
The days are counted both for the agencies and for the contributors.

Published today in a pro-Dalle-E online news article
Quote

Bad news for stock photo businesses
If you�re a stock photo business, DALL-E 2 might be your worst enemy. Stock photos already have a reputation as cheesy and inauthentic, but have been a necessary evil for content creators. That changes the moment DALL-E 2 becomes available for commercial use.

What justification would there be to pay for a stock photo license in a world where DALL-E 2 can create any image you want?

Canva adds AI too: https://petapixel.com/2022/11/10/canva-adds-a-free-and-unlimited-ai-text-to-image-generator/

Here�s the harsh reality; if businesses and brands find an effective way to cut out the middle person (the photographer) they will do it. If it�s more cost-effective to use AI for generic stock, food, and product photography, then photographers in those fields are likely going to have to look to other avenues for work. Is it fair? No. but it�s business. As we�ve seen with automated checkouts, factories powered by robots, and, more recently, the driverless car, the upper echelon of this world is constantly looking to replace humans with tech. As much as we want to shout about our disdain of the direction of society, there�s little we can do about it.

What we�re likely to see is AI replace some [photography disciplines] almost completely � stock photography, product photography, food photography are most at risk�

Uploaded a new video on the topic - Is Stock Photography Dead?

There's plenty of opinions on this topic so here's my stab at analyzing the Stock Photography industry.

I'm certain I missed a few points but here are my thoughts on the matter.

Thanks for viewing and hope you subscribe to my Channel.

Thanks

Raul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MVxjZk1bhI&t=56s

Raul you did not mention the roll of photo factories in this game, small companies with overhead expenses fully dedicated to create stock content

Some SS contributors are better paid than others

It will be a time when agencies will keep 95% and still people will be uploading millions of files every year. It is sad but it is true.

What SS has done has logic. For years, SS has been subsidizing IS. The Independent contributors have been producing and uploading to all portals, especially SS, IS, and Adobe. The money to stay in business came from SS sales, the misery IS paid them was the gravy and what they got from Adobe was marginal.
Now that SS has reduced its commissions, there is no point in producing since what is obtained from IS and Adobe is not enough to pay for the very smallest production.
Until June 1, IS could lower its prices in non exclusive materials to levels that SS could not compete, since IS pays 15% to independents, much less of what SS used to pay.
Therefore, in order to stay in the market, SS has had to match its commissions to what IS pays. I am sure that SS will be making some exceptions among its contributors or other ways will soon run out of quality material to sell.
The basic problem of SS is still there because IS can easily lower the commissions of independent materials to 10% to which SS will have to respond by doing the same. Eventually both portals will run out of quality assets from independents. But IS has exclusive portfolios that will contain quality and SS don't. Check mate.
Oringer was wrong about exclusivity in microstock, having a base of exclusive contributors is essential today to continue obtaining quality material for customers.
With this recent move of lowering SS commissions it is clear that SS has lost the war against IS and that it is a matter of time before SS is out of the game.