iStock Royalty Rate Card Change
From July 1, 2022, we will be increasing the minimum customer price per file for Exclusive Signature and Signature+ video to $10.00 USD, up from the current levels of $0.75 and $4.15 USD respectively. This will apply to subscriptions on iStock.com.

Why Are We Making This Change?
As customer demand for video continues to grow and outpace other file types, we want to reward our talented Exclusive videographers and encourage them to shoot even more high‑quality 4k video because we understand the increased investment that video content requires.

For Exclusive video contributors, it increases the value of high‑quality video in our Premium + Video subscription product, bringing it more in line with the relative value we assign to high‑quality video licensed using credits.

This change will help put more royalties into the pockets of contributors who create the great, Exclusive video content our customers need. (If you�re not already Exclusive and have a strong portfolio, find out more about applying for Exclusivity.)

What are the details?
For files licensed using a subscription on iStock.com, the royalty rate is applied to the price per file. Subscription licenses have a minimum customer price per file applied, so you will always get your royalty rate on every subscription download at or above the minimums.

On July 1 we will update the iStock Rate Card minimum customer price per file table as highlighted below, increasing the minimum customer price per file for Exclusive Signature and Signature+ video to $10.00 USD.
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iStock Rate Card English   
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When will I see these changes reflected on my royalty statement?
iStock.com subscription downloads dated July 1 and after will have the new minimum customer price per file for Exclusive video Signature and Signature+ files. (The royalty statement for July, available August 20, will likely have a lot of June downloads on it, for subscriptions which calculated prior to this July 1 effective date.)

If you want to benefit from rising customer demand, take the opportunity to add high quality video to your portfolio today!
 
Not sure what to shoot? Discover what content customers are searching for in our current video briefs.

Best wishes,
Contributor Relations

https://app.engage.gettyimages.com/e/es?s=1591793372&e=9341401&elqTrackId=178baed6532740e59ffea78497faafe5&elq=c82d120d6f724bdcb13dce39ada17642&elqaid=49458&elqat=1&elqcst=272&elqcsid=25098

iStock has finally discovered a point where low sales prices produce low royalties that discourage the contributors. Now they need to find the point where higher prices damage volume sales (to near zero sales) enough that contributors are again discouraged. Somewhere in the middle is a price where royalty rates times sales volume is the best income for contributors (and likely iStock also). However, even at that point, we still don't know if the contributor income is enough to sustain his business.

Remember this is only for Video in the Exclusive Signature and Signature+ collections. I suspect there are not many of us fitting these categories - hence the incentive to get on board.

Wonder if they are doing this because they are losing exclusive video contributors? Seems radical on the surface that an exclusive clip gets 100x the royalty amount vs. a non-exclusive clip...or am I missing something?

It also seems radical that even at 100x it's only $10. Perhaps the problem is $0.10.

In a nutshell, all these "exciting update" emails we get from agencies all boils down to this:

"We've come to the conclusion that artists are earning too much from us, so we're going to re-write the game to address this problem, but we'll spin the wording in the announcement email in such a way to make it sound like we're making exciting updates for the better of the community as a whole and make it more difficult for individual contributors to see what's really going on."

Can anyone translate all that please? Are we not having anymore of those cent sales or not?

This $10 thing is just a red herring, pure deception. What I have noticed with IS is that exclusive or not the royalties are pure garbage. The only difference between the two is the actual selling price $13 or $36 for photos and $66 or $188 for video. Combine the ever changing game of meeting targets and the subscription royalty and premium access you always get a small amount of royalty.

Being exclusive with any agency these days is the kiss of death. I used to be pro exclusive but that is no longer my view. I would not recommend anyone to be exclusive to any agency.

The only thing that email did was convince me to stop uploading videos to iStock. I am not going exclusive and 10 cents is ridiculous.

Kinda suicidal to go exclusive in 2022, they will chase all non exclusive contributors away. The cost to produce video is just too expensive to be paid cents.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I went exclusive on Pond 5 and I made less. Exclusive just doesn't work.

Quote from: merrillie on May 27, 2022, 20:08

The only thing that email did was convince me to stop uploading videos to iStock. I am not going exclusive and 10 cents is ridiculous.

Kinda suicidal to go exclusive in 2022, they will chase all non exclusive contributors away. The cost to produce video is just too expensive to be paid cents.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Its not 10c, its $10.00, and its their MINIMUM selling price. Contributors will receive between 25% to 45% commission depending on how many they sell. And its not for just any videos. You have to be eligible for their video Signature collection, which are top quality, highly sought -after footage. And of course, are willing to go exclusive.

10c is the minimum for contributors who do not take up this offer.

I am not saying that its a good deal, nor that the price is fair for top videos, or going exclusive is a good thing - I just want to clarify the pricing. But it looks like they are aiming at the P5 exclusives market who may now be worried about SS's acquisition. And especially now that SS often pays extremely low for some top quality 4k footage.

And I tend to agree with Cobalt above, because at the very least, they are acknowledging that they need to pay more to attract good footage.

As an indicator of what happens when you literally get $0 for a download, look at the free sites....from what I saw, they are seriously (if not totally) lacking in well produced content....especially shots with people. That's the future for these agencies at some point if they keep pushing royalties down and down and down.

I agree.

I do want to add though, that P5 (non-exclusive) is still going relatively ok for me. So far this month I have had 7 clip sales plus 2 photo sales on P5, with an RPD of $30.50. So I am sitting tight and just waiting to see what happens long term with the SS acquisition.

(I decided to share my screen print because there are some interesting licenses there (including the 2 photo sales, marked L and XL) - and perhaps compare that later to see what happens if SS makes any changes to their structure. )

What I learned from this is that istock actually pays 10c for non exclusive video! To anyone providing for them at those prices, how can you look at yourself in a mirror?

Yes I realise it is not 10 cents if you go exclusive but as I won't be going exclusive I will no longer upload any videos to them because I am not willing to accept 10 cents for video sales.

Quote from: rushay on May 28, 2022, 01:05

Quote from: merrillie on May 27, 2022, 20:08

The only thing that email did was convince me to stop uploading videos to iStock. I am not going exclusive and 10 cents is ridiculous.

Kinda suicidal to go exclusive in 2022, they will chase all non exclusive contributors away. The cost to produce video is just too expensive to be paid cents.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Its not 10c, its $10.00, and its their MINIMUM selling price. Contributors will receive between 25% to 45% commission depending on how many they sell. And its not for just any videos. You have to be eligible for their video Signature collection, which are top quality, highly sought -after footage. And of course, are willing to go exclusive.

10c is the minimum for contributors who do not take up this offer.

I am not saying that its a good deal, nor that the price is fair for top videos, or going exclusive is a good thing - I just want to clarify the pricing. But it looks like they are aiming at the P5 exclusives market who may now be worried about SS's acquisition. And especially now that SS often pays extremely low for some top quality 4k footage.

And I tend to agree with Cobalt above, because at the very least, they are acknowledging that they need to pay more to attract good footage.