I was not an iStock star - I used to refer to myself as part of the iStock middle class. Your sales numbers represent - not criticizing you or your images - a total collapse of what iStock was once able to achieve. I'm aware that without having seen the prior earnings potential, you think people talking about a collapse are just whiners, but you just don't have the basis of comparison that others do.

I agree with Jo Ann.... Istock was once a money printing machine. I arrived very late in the game but after 2 years I was already able to pull a 6 figure yearly income as many diamond contributors at that time. I understand that times have changed and the low prices of competition and some crazy prices increases in a very short time that Istock implemented drove many clients away. Oversuply might be the biggest reason of the drops but somehow the worst pill to swallow is the push to downgrade contributor royalties move after move.

If Istock drops prices to recover market share fine we are all in the puddle but why do exclusives get only a 20% at Getty if their work cannot be sold anywhere else. Why does the new monthly subscriptions sales also trend to this 20%. It I take into account who looses more with this new 1 month subscription the numbers are really disheartening of how well Istock cares for exclusives. 10 images at 2.5$ or 3 $/image lets take 2.80 as middle ground that makes 28$ for those 10 images. My average credit sale brings me 10$ so I go from 100 to 28. That is a 72% drop. Istock goes from 200$ to 99$ (converting from Euros as I cannot see prices in $), that's a 50% drop. And this if the buyer really uses his 10 images because if he doen't (and I bet a good number does not) the drop for the contributor is even more dramatic.

For me it is no longer viable to invest in any productions that costs more than a few hundreds as the time to recoup investment is just to far away. I still upload low budget shootings and some travel images, till how long....? Not much if there is no incentive to do so.

Quote from: Stockmaan on November 27, 2015, 00:58

Nov best month this year for me.

Another newbie?

Not newbie. 2000+ images

Quote from: Digital66 on November 27, 2015, 11:05

Quote from: Stockmaan on November 27, 2015, 00:58

Nov best month this year for me.

Another newbie?

Not newbie. 2000+ images

Well, clearly one month will be the BMY, the question is how does it compare with previous years, esp e.g. 2011 - 13, one of which many people report as their best year on iS.

Credit Sales are not dead, but subs are clearly growing while credits have been decreasing. When it will level off is anyone's guess. Personally my sales are on an upswing now despite being down overall from 2014. Q3 and Q4 are both up from last year.

Here's some rough stats for me as an independent.

October 2015 roughly 300 purchase downloads with about 7000 images online.
October 2011 roughly 500 purchase downloads with 2000 images online

2015 0.04 dls per image as opposed to 0.25 dls per image 2011. i.e. a more than five fold decrease in sales per image.

I've long since quit iStock and had my meager portfolio removed but am wondering how much having to purchase something called a "credit", which everyone knows can be valued at a hundred different conversion rates, has contributed to the demise of same said credit sales.

Credit sales are not dead, Credit sales are murdered. Murdered because GI wants to squeeze the lemon even further in detriment of contributors pockets. Greed murdered credit sales in IS.

Corporations exist to make money for shareholders not suppliers or workers - murder implies they're interested / care but it's more like collateral damage...