iStockphoto Reveals Contributor Earnings

Posted on 4/2/2008 by Julia Dudnik Stern | Printable Version | Comments (1)



After Getty Images disclosed iStockphoto revenues in a recent SEC filing, the founder of the leading microstock business offered additional information in a recent corporate blog post. "There is one number that makes us most proud, and it's not the $71.9 million in revenue we generated last year (although that is really, really exciting). The amazing thing is that we paid out $20.9 million to contributors last year," wrote Bruce Livingstone. This translates to a 30% average photographer commission, which is a higher cut than offered by many traditional agencies.





Copyright © 2008 Julia Dudnik Stern. The above article may not be copied, reproduced, excerpted or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author. All requests should be submitted to Selling Stock at 10319 Westlake Drive, Suite 162, Bethesda, MD 20817, phone 301-461-7627, e-mail: wvz@fpcubgbf.pbz

Comments

  • Tim Mcguire Posted Apr 3, 2008
    If my math is correct and the 1.4 images per second quoted on the istock site is correct and we are talking istock selling 24/7, year round, the average amount going to a photographer / contributor per transaction is $1.07.

    If we are talking selling during business hours (8 hrs/day, 5 days /wk, 52 weeks/yr) then the average amount to a photographer / contributor per transaction is $3.91.

    It's a great business model for iStock and Getty but hardly a professional endeavor for contributors unless maybe you are a contributor who can sell an image every 4 or so minutes 24 hours a day 7 days a week for years on end (around $100,000/yr). If you want a career you'd have to do this for 20-30 years. Given the revenue iStock is generating, around 200 contributor / photographers could possibly do this. Not sure how many aspiring pros are on iStock now but probably more than 200, and many of them have images competing for the limited revenue so it's doubtful that 200 photogs could make a decent living by US standards.

    Seems a pretty tall order, though I understand there are other ways to make money in photography and for most, microstock is just a sideline. However, I'm just not sure it is a good sideline that supports the idea of the professional photographer in the long term. I think it is hard to write a reasonable business plan based on microstock licensing of ones images. It's a great business plan for the distributor but not the independent photographer.

    Some food for thought anyway...

    Tim McGuire

Post Comment

Please log in or create an account to post comments.

Stay Connected

Sign up to receive email notification when new stories are posted.

Follow Us

Free Stuff

Stock Photo Pricing: The Future
In the last two years I have written a lot about stock photo pricing and its downward slide. If you have time over the holidays you may want to review some of these stories as you plan your strategy ...
Read More
Future Of Stock Photography
If you’re a photographer that counts on the licensing of stock images to provide a portion of your annual income the following are a few stories you should read. In the past decade stock photography ...
Read More
Blockchain Stories
The opening session at this year’s CEPIC Congress in Berlin on May 30, 2018 is entitled “Can Blockchain be applied to the Photo Industry?” For those who would like to know more about the existing blo...
Read More
2017 Stories Worth Reviewing
The following are links to some 2017 and early 2018 stories that might be worth reviewing as we move into the new year.
Read More
Stories Related To Stock Photo Pricing
The following are links to stories that deal with stock photo pricing trends. Probably the biggest problem the industry has faced in recent years has been the steady decline in prices for the use of ...
Read More
Stock Photo Prices: The Future
This story is FREE. Feel free to pass it along to anyone interested in licensing their work as stock photography. On October 23rd at the DMLA 2017 Conference in New York there will be a panel discuss...
Read More
Important Stock Photo Industry Issues
Here are links to recent stories that deal with three major issues for the stock photo industry – Revenue Growth Potential, Setting Bottom Line On Pricing and Future Production Sources.
Read More
Recent Stories – Summer 2016
If you’ve been shooting all summer and haven’t had time to keep up with your reading here are links to a few stories you might want to check out as we move into the fall. To begin, be sure to complet...
Read More
Corbis Acquisition by VCG/Getty Images
This story provides links to several stories that relate to the Visual China Group (VCG) acquisition of Corbis and the role Getty Images has been assigned in the transfer of Corbis assets to the Gett...
Read More
Finding The Right Image
Many think search will be solved with better Metadata. While metadata is important, there are limits to how far it can take the customer toward finding the right piece of content. This story provides...
Read More

More from Free Stuff