It all looks deliberately annoyingly confusing. But it looks like if your making less than a certain amount you stand to have to take up to a 5% reduction in royalties.
But like everything else in this new world, big corp take more small man make less. A just so it go :)
I searched iStock for a model shot a few days ago, and the only thing I found that came close was a shot of/by nico_blue (I also found one from Toddhead). I ended up taking a picture of myself for the layout, but thought it was funny.
It all looks deliberately annoyingly confusing. But it looks like if your making less than a certain amount you stand to have to take up to a 5% reduction in royalties.
But like everything else in this new world, big corp take more small man make less. A just so it go :)
If you're making less than a certain amount as a non-exclusive and you take a drop from 20% to 15%, that's actually a pay cut of 25%. And some of the exclusives seem likely to lose a lot more.
I forget the name of the Flickr member, but she recently got to 1,000,000 downloads for images in her portfolio and got there in 7 years. Not too shabby. I've also been following this blog ( //blog.johnlund.com ) and he seems to do alright. (though he puts his images onto several stock sites)
Now obviously that represents a very small slice of the overall membership on iStockphoto but still there is some money to be made. (I need to get going on this)
Was it ever worth it? Anyone thinking they can make a living doing this is dreaming.
Tell that to Yuri Arcurs and Andres rodriguez. If you do it fulltime, like a nine to five job you can make a living. Lots of people do.
Brad Pitt makes millions from his movies but how many Brad Pitts are there? Yes you can make a living, if you do it full time and have a studio with lots of willing models and lots of help. Yuri and Andres are exceptions to the rule. I can see someone making a few hundred dollars a month but not thousands. We're not all Yuris and Andress.
Give me a stock site that shares the profits 50-50 and I'll start submitting. ;)
Was it ever worth it? Anyone thinking they can make a living doing this is dreaming.
Tell that to Yuri Arcurs and Andres rodriguez. If you do it fulltime, like a nine to five job you can make a living. Lots of people do.
Brad Pitt makes millions from his movies but how many Brad Pitts are there? Yes you can make a living, if you do it full time and have a studio with lots of willing models and lots of help. Yuri and Andres are exceptions to the rule. I can see someone making a few hundred dollars a month but not thousands. We're not all Yuris and Andress.
Well, stock photography makes more than 80% of my income and yes, it is a full time job (not nine to five, but half past eight to six, actually) but no, I don't have any help and never used models (yet). Currently I'm ranking #1,179 of all istock contributors and #217 at fotolia. So there must be some hundred people between Yuri, Andres and me that can make a living, too. Plus those, that don't submit to fotolia and IS, those that are lower in ranking there, but higher on other agencies or submitting to more agencies than I do. Truth is, there's no 2,000 Brad Pitts, however.
Was it ever worth it? Anyone thinking they can make a living doing this is dreaming.
Tell that to Yuri Arcurs and Andres rodriguez. If you do it fulltime, like a nine to five job you can make a living. Lots of people do.
Brad Pitt makes millions from his movies but how many Brad Pitts are there? Yes you can make a living, if you do it full time and have a studio with lots of willing models and lots of help. Yuri and Andres are exceptions to the rule. I can see someone making a few hundred dollars a month but not thousands. We're not all Yuris and Andress.
Well, stock photography makes more than 80% of my income and yes, it is a full time job (not nine to five, but half past eight to six, actually) but no, I don't have any help and never used models (yet). Currently I'm ranking #1,179 of all istock contributors and #217 at fotolia. So there must be some hundred people between Yuri, Andres and me that can make a living, too. Plus those, that don't submit to fotolia and IS, those that are lower in ranking there, but higher on other agencies or submitting to more agencies than I do. Truth is, there's no 2,000 Brad Pitts, however.
Stop trying to rain on Jac's wet blanket parade. :P
A "wet blanket" is someone who always manages to find a negative aspect to any situation, thereby taking all the fun out of it. To rain on someone's parade is pretty much to do the same but to someone else's situation, where the doomsayer is not necessarily a direct party to the situation.
So, he's saying you're a wet blanket for starting a thread pointing out how almost no one can make any money in microstock even before this latest development, and here goes h2 undercutting your premise ...
Now, just make sure you don't tell anyone that, sometimes anyway, I understand Art ... ;-)
A "wet blanket" is someone who always manages to find a negative aspect to any situation, thereby taking all the fun out of it. To rain on someone's parade is pretty much to do the same but to someone else's situation, where the doomsayer is not necessarily a direct party to the situation.
So, he's saying you're a wet blanket for starting a thread pointing out how almost no one can make any money in microstock even before this latest development, and here goes h2 undercutting your premise ...
Now, just make sure you don't tell anyone that, sometimes anyway, I understand Art ... ;-)
Thanks GeneralE. I was close. I didn't start this thread btw. :) I wish people would allow themselves to read between the lines sometimes but I have trouble at that myself so I understand that I may seem negative when I don't supply my reasons for saying what I say. I'm just lazy I guess.
I should ignore Art then but he's the one stalking me though. I can't hide!
I alway find it cool when I see a shot in regular life for some advertising and then see it on iStockphoto. Maybe there is some potential for some coin if you work at it?
Unfortunately I can't disagree with the thread title about iStock "going down the drain". About a week ago they made an announcement that the royalty structure is being completely reworked, and from the looks of things my iStock income will drop by roughly 20% after January 1, and also my potential for future increases will be greatly curtailed. I'm one of the unhappy contributors there - most are. The consensus seems to be that the change is a result of the fact that iStock was bought out by Getty a few years ago, who knows.
I'm retiring from my career at the end of this year (I'm 51) and I had planned to resume uploading to iStock on a more or less full time basis, however since all of the changes, I've been seriously considering canceling my Exclusive agreement with them and working through multiple agencies.
(Edit): Removed some personal info and my iStock profile link. BTW, thanks Jac for the kind words.
Thank you nova for this insider info you've given us, much appreciated. Your portfolio contains many quality images and I'm not surprised you're still making money off of them. Again, thanks.
Thanks for the post Lynne. I now understand the vitriol associated with the change a lot better. I hate to admit it but I am one of those who are so hungry for a byline I'd sell my shots for pennies.
Comment 24! just another load of crap from "probably" another angry old pro stock shooter. They should have seen this coming and head it off, the day the digital camera and photoshop was invented. Those macro agencies could and can still create a balance. By turning the microstock agencies into a something like a recruitment center. They only need to keep targeting the good microstock photogs and invite them to sell their images for real money. How many would refuse such an offer? This is something getty did last year. A lot of microstock photogs cleaned out their best images and turned them over to getty for 20% of a much much bigger payout. You cant beat them so why not invite them? Those old pros need to get over the days when they were kings and find a way to share the pie.
