I am going back and forth in my decision to leave Istock as an exclusive image distributor. I am already video non exclusive since two years ago so now the decision is about images. With around 20k images at Istock I know that leaving exclusivity opens a lot of questions that with the vision and experience of some of you, specially if you have taken the same step could be of important value into which direction I should go.

I have to say that I left briefly exclusivity 4 or 5 years ago and I was not convinced at that time of the benefits of non exclusivity but I was trying only for 3 months before going back to the crown. Panorama has massively changed in the stock industry , for the worse although at Getty/Istock specially as the earning ratings reflect on the polls. At one time the exclusive value was close to 500, now only 72. All agencies have gone down but not so quickly and by that large amount.

When I left exclusivity I think the only agencies worth of my time were Shutter Adobe (At that time Fotolia), 123RF and Envato. Dreamstime I never supplied because the 6 month clause if I ever wanted back to exclusivity I could not afford this clause. Deposit I did supply them but sales where not so good and the reputation was and is still also not very good. Bigstock Canstock and other minor agencies one I wanted to try were just a huge waste of my time.

In 2012 my rpi per image was 3-4$/month (36-48$ year/image). In 2020 it is 0.20-0.30$ / month . I know rpi has fallen very hard across all the industry but I wonder what the monthly rpi per image as a non exclusive photographer (no video taken into consideration).

If the rpi would be the same the decision to leave the crown is not that easy. Yes you have your eggs in multiple baskets but again it is more work to supply and follow more agencies. You are more exposed to image abuse. I mean piracy , with many model released images misuse of one of those is more difficult to track down as if you supply one agency, etc, etc. But also being in many apart from spreading risk you can upload things that are not accepted at Getty the list has gone bigger and bigger. No retouched models, no graffitis even if they are 2 pixels in the final image etc.

So on average what is your monthly rpi as a non exclusive?. I am specially interested if you do this full time like me and if you have model shoots in your portfolio. I understand that having more a food,travel, nature, animals portfolio will provide you with a much lower rpi.

Thank you in advance if any of you want to share this rpi. It might help me and others that think it is time to leave Gettys love behind........

Even with "average" images, you'd certainly earn considerably more than 30cents/month/image by being non-exclusive. At least double and perhaps even triple that depending on a number of technical/commercial factors

Thank you very much. That is really encouraging.........

Jonbull

You are right that uploading now has many problems, the most important is that with so many images ingested every day new images no matter how good have a much slimmer chance to stand out than in times when the uploads were much fewer. I have 5000 images in shutterstock not for sale so at the switch of a button I will have those online the next day that exclusivity runs out. But being so many years not for sale but online although not visible who knows how the search rank consideres them. With no sales they might be a 0 rank and be totally invisible to buyers.........

But somehow I know that the sliding slope of Istock is unstoppable now and I really think they will be out of business sooner or later, too much debt, to many stock contributors not uploading any material to them anymore. When you see what gets uploaded it is vastly inferior to other sites now. Adobe and Shutterstock will be the two survivors of this war with some specialized agencies that can carve a niche.  P5 in video will also be alive, but I bet all the others will disappear in the next years or be totally irrelevant............

Are you remembering that your existing images will be sold at 3 credits? Which is good as you'll get more per sale, though you will miss sales from more budget-conscious buyers (which you're mssing ATM anyway). Then any more images you might choose to upload will be sold at one credit and you'll get your percentage of that.
At least, that's how it stands at the moment. 

Yes i am aware of that. But if I take the step I will not upload anymore new images to Istock as for the 15% I prefer that Adobe and Shutterstock come ahead with their 30% instead of those paying 15%. Since I started to upload footage I have distributed more than 3000 clips to Adobe P5 Shutter and Envato. Not a single clip has been uploaded to Istock/Getty. Yes i loosed some sales but I do not care. I just contribute that those best paying sites get stronger and stronger by the day. 30% is the minimum I accept ......everything below that is not acceptable to me. So Once I recover from the hit if I leave it is very probable that I might delete all my portfolio at Istock in the future.

Quote from: ShadySue on February 28, 2020, 14:30

Are you remembering that your existing images will be sold at 3 credits? Which is good as you'll get more per sale, though you will miss sales from more budget-conscious buyers (which you're mssing ATM anyway). Then any more images you might choose to upload will be sold at one credit and you'll get your percentage of that.
At least, that's how it stands at the moment. 

Yes i am aware of that. But if I take the step I will not upload anymore new images to Istock as for the 15% I prefer that Adobe and Shutterstock come ahead with their 30% instead of those paying 15%. Since I started to upload footage I have distributed more than 3000 clips to Adobe P5 Shutter and Envato. Not a single clip has been uploaded to Istock/Getty. Yes i loosed some sales but I do not care. I just contribute that those best paying sites get stronger and stronger by the day. 30% is the minimum I accept ......everything below that is not acceptable to me. So Once I recover from the hit if I leave it is very probable that I might delete all my portfolio at Istock in the future.

Envato???!!!sub plan?? This is way worse than istock...

Quote from: everest on February 28, 2020, 16:25

Quote from: ShadySue on February 28, 2020, 14:30

Are you remembering that your existing images will be sold at 3 credits? Which is good as you'll get more per sale, though you will miss sales from more budget-conscious buyers (which you're mssing ATM anyway). Then any more images you might choose to upload will be sold at one credit and you'll get your percentage of that.
At least, that's how it stands at the moment. 

Yes i am aware of that. But if I take the step I will not upload anymore new images to Istock as for the 15% I prefer that Adobe and Shutterstock come ahead with their 30% instead of those paying 15%. Since I started to upload footage I have distributed more than 3000 clips to Adobe P5 Shutter and Envato. Not a single clip has been uploaded to Istock/Getty. Yes i loosed some sales but I do not care. I just contribute that those best paying sites get stronger and stronger by the day. 30% is the minimum I accept ......everything below that is not acceptable to me. So Once I recover from the hit if I leave it is very probable that I might delete all my portfolio at Istock in the future.

Envato???!!!sub plan?? This is way worse than istock...

No Envato Elements I have been offered this twice and rejected with video. I am with Videohive and Photos I was with Envato Market Photodune.