Top iStockphoto Earners: June 2009

Posted on 7/28/2009 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version | Comments (0)

The numbers below show the number of downloads for each of 124 of iStockphoto’s 150 top earners in the months of March, April, and May of 2009, based on total download statistics supplied daily by iStockphoto and compiled by istockcharts.

For three months I tracked sales of the top 150 producers. Of the 150, twenty-six have asked istockcharts to remain anonymous, so it was only possible to see specific figures for 124 contributors. The combined gross units licensed in March by this group was 431,708. That dropped to 380,934 in April and was 387,500 in May.

Our figures were compiled on February 27, April 1, April 30 and June 1, 2009. Total March downloads for all those listed in istockcharts was 2,388,752; for April 1,897,322 and for May 2,084,063.



The figures in the last two columns are based on estimates of photographer earnings per download. As best I can determine photographers who are non-exclusive with iStock and receive 20% of the gross sale fee are earning on average about $1.40 per download. Those who are exclusive and earn 40% receive about $2.80. Most of the top photographers are exclusive. Those who are not tend to have the same images with many other microstock agencies as well as iStock and in most cases they earn more from the combined total of the other agencies than they do from iStock. Thus, the figures are probably a reasonable ball park for what these contributors earn from licensing their work as microstock.

In should also be noted that iStockphoto has in excess of 60,000 contributors and all the rest are earning less than these 124.



It should be noted that the istockcharts figures represent only about 90% of the total images on the iStock site. Kelly Thompson, chief executive officer of iStock, says iStockcharts’ figures “are not right and sometimes are not even close.” Nevertheless, the figures reported on istockcharts for each individual photographer are exactly the same as the numbers reported on any given day on the photographer’s portfolio page of iStockphoto. Thus, we believe that while the overall numbers may not be totally accurate the individual numbers are of a large enough sample to be representative and to allow us to draw some reasonable conclusions about trends at iStock and possibly the entire microstock industry.

  March April May   Total   At $2.80 Possible
  Units Units Units   3 Months   per DL Annual Inc.
Yuri Areurs 28170 24651 24981   77802   $217,846 $871,382
DNY59 19616 17880 18495   55991   $156,775 $627,099
Lise Gagne 16354 14696 13146   44196   $123,749 $494,995
sjlocke 14969 12626 12618   40213   $112,596 $450,386
jhorrocks 12109 9866 9467   31442   $88,038 $352,150
hidesy 10560 8761 9036   28357   $79,400 $317,598
alexs1 7677 7524 8013   23214   $64,999 $259,997
Nikada 7657 6456 6844   20957   $58,680 $234,718
webphotographeer 7192 6399 6589   20180   $56,504 $226,016
enjoynz 5966 5552 6055   17573   $49,204 $196,818
skodonnell 6003 5230 5227   16460   $46,088 $184,352
Andresr 5687 5107 5589   16383   $45,872 $183,490
jgroup 5817 5123 5183   16123   $45,144 $180,578
peepo 5046 4675 5382   15103   $42,288 $169,154
aldomurillo 5091 4832 5000   14923   $41,784 $167,138
blackred 5432 4696 4649   14777   $41,376 $165,502
digitalskillet 5037 4749 4599   14385   $40,278 $161,112
AndrewJohnson 4856 4600 4689   14145   $39,606 $158,424
bubaone 4817 4240 4634   13691   $38,335 $153,339
narvikk 5039 4280 4130   13449   $37,657 $150,629
duncan1890 5005 3922 4174   13101   $36,683 $146,731
shironosov 4256 3974 4730   12960   $36,288 $145,152
GlobalP 4495 3812 4361   12668   $35,470 $141,882
YinYang 4112 3770 3971   11853   $33,188 $132,754
nico blue 4443 3618 3627   11688   $32,726 $130,906
filo 4268 3631 3473   11372   $31,842 $127,366
  4119 3507 3412   11038   $30,906 $123,626
enot-poloskun 4123 3517 3384   11024   $30,867 $123,469
bluestocking 4350 3437 3215   11002   $30,806 $123,222
mstay 3644 3434 3865   10943   $30,640 $122,562
geopaul 3599 3403 3906   10908   $30,542 $122,170
  4009 3337 3530   10876   $30,453 $121,811
Maliketh 4244 3411 3100   10755   $30,114 $120,456
LUGO 3447 3310 3680   10437   $29,224 $116,894
sodafish 4014 3127 3008   10149   $28,417 $113,669
LeggNet 3589 3048 3191   9828   $27,518 $110,074
Cimmerian 3826 3058 2887   9771   $27,359 $109,435
Kativ 4012 3166 2524   9702   $27,166 $108,662
fpm 3817 3115 2596   9528   $26,678 $106,714
jacomstephens 3592 3041 2715   9348   $26,174 $104,698
ooyoo 3460 3094 2777   9331   $26,127 $104,507
Palto 3179 2765 3153   9097   $25,472 $101,886
Juanmonino 3005 2834 3229   9068   $25,390 $101,562
  3187 2901 2891   8979   $25,141 $100,565
RapidEye 3089 2817 3068   8974   $25,127 $100,509
sdominick 3105 2705 3107   8917   $24,968 $99,870
A-Digit 2666 2921 3283   8870   $24,836 $99,344
nyul 3225 2749 2840   8814   $24,679 $98,717
billnoll 3172 2743 2696   8611   $24,111 $96,443
kcline 3152 2527 2512   8191   $22,935 $91,739
mammamaart 2972 2428 2602   8002   $22,406 $89,622
4x6 2507 2504 2960   7971   $22,319 $89,275
kycstudio 2907 2409 2655   7971   $22,319 $89,275
mbbirdy 2840 2447 2635   7922   $22,182 $88,726
dlewis33 2896 2448 2431   7775   $21,770 $87,080
AVTG 2973 2530 2200   7703   $21,568 $86,274
ImagineGolf 2851 2414 2341   7606   $21,297 $85,187
THEPALMER 2630 2395 2475   7500   $21,000 $84,000
ULTRA GENERIC 2438 2360 2682   7480   $20,944 $83,776
Mlenny 2252 2199 2811   7262   $20,334 $81,334
aleksandarvelasevic 2972 2273 1997   7242   $20,278 $81,110
appleuzr 2630 2305 2201   7136   $19,981 $79,923
Grafissimo 2715 2206 2135   7056   $19,757 $79,027
konradlew 2595 2220 2208   7023   $19,664 $78,658
snapphoto 2575 2206 2232   7013   $19,636 $78,546
Viorika 2770 2150 2073   6993   $19,580 $78,322
buzbuzzer 2550 2151 2155   6856   $19,197 $76,787
Sportstock 2503 2135 2209   6847   $19,172 $76,686
browndogstudios 2594 2189 2037   6820   $19,096 $76,384
russelltatedotcom 2293 2147 2251   6691   $18,735 $74,939
TriggerPhoto 2340 2008 2270   6618   $18,530 $74,122
jsmith 2444 2117 1894   6455   $18,074 $72,296
solarseven 2274 1965 2138   6377   $17,856 $71,422
Veni 2191 2135 1969   6295   $17,626 $70,504
andipantz 1975 3469 830   6274   $17,567 $70,269
RBFried 2284 1999 1953   6236   $17,461 $69,843
  2254 2388 1556   6198   $17,354 $69,418
joshblake 2152 1873 2113   6138   $17,186 $68,746
johnwoodcock 1913 1861 2157   5931   $16,607 $66,427
duckycards 2379 2086 1424   5889   $16,489 $65,957
Vasko 2276 1724 1813   5813   $16,276 $65,106
leezsnow 2068 1889 1840   5797   $16,232 $64,926
eyeidea 1967 1785 1998   5750   $16,100 $64,400
tacojim 1898 1904 1938   5740   $16,072 $64,288
kirstypargeter 1673 1587 2211   5471   $15,319 $61,275
Graffizone 2057 1653 1761   5471   $15,319 $61,275
Leontura 1976 1624 1851   5451   $15,263 $61,051
aldra 1899 1736 1682   5317   $14,888 $59,550
  1941 1727 1627   5295   $14,826 $59,304
ftwitty 1851 1587 1627   5065   $14,182 $56,728
rzdeb 1918 1607 1513   5038   $14,106 $56,426
NickS 1846 1535 1561   4942   $13,838 $55,350
Illustrious 1841 1485 1571   4897   $13,712 $54,846
jangeltun 1631 1480 1667   4778   $13,378 $53,514
molotovcoketail 1720 1441 1334   4495   $12,586 $50,344
PIKSEL 1462 1438 1571   4471   $12,519 $50,075
kemie 1716 1370 1334   4420   $12,376 $49,504
M-I-S-H-A 1375 1324 1695   4394   $12,303 $49,213
barsik 1508 1356 1440   4304   $12,051 $48,205
gmnicholas 1574 1331 1332   4237   $11,864 $47,454
redmal 1475 1379 1369   4223   $11,824 $47,298
aabejon 1428 1259 1419   4106   $11,497 $45,987
nano 1443 1261 1386   4090   $11,452 $45,808
lucato 1468 1223 1307   3998   $11,194 $44,778
phildate 1274 1160 1534   3968   $11,110 $44,442
LPETTET 1424 1114 1262   3800   $10,640 $42,560
abzee 1242 1160 1298   3700   $10,360 $41,440
tomazl 1236 1101 1076   3413   $9,556 $38,226
PhotoEuphoria 1118 1015 1247   3380   $9,464 $37,856
belterz 1084 1065 1231   3380   $9,464 $37,856
penfold 1223 1074 1054   3351   $9,383 $37,531
kickstand 1046 1064 1217   3327   $9,316 $37,262
davidf 1068 972 1141   3181   $8,907 $35,627
sx70 1003 977 1156   3136   $8,781 $35,123
simonox 840 1023 1137   3000   $8,400 $33,600
  950 919 1058   2927   $8,196 $32,782
lovleah 889 786 946   2621   $7,339 $29,355
Art-Y 865 767 803   2435   $6,818 $27,272
sandoclr 795 746 724   2265   $6,342 $25,368
ggodby 628 590 691   1909   $5,345 $21,381
Luso 611 632 659   1902   $5,326 $21,302
danielle71 589 506 557   1652   $4,626 $18,502
webking 506 516 517   1539   $4,309 $17,237
Natural Warp 338 388 520   1246   $3,489 $13,955
                 
  431708 380934 387500 1200142   $3,360,398 $13,441,590
                 


Copyright © 2009 Jim Pickerell. 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

Jim Pickerell is founder of www.selling-stock.com, an online newsletter that publishes daily. He is also available for personal telephone consultations on pricing and other matters related to stock photography. He occasionally acts as an expert witness on matters related to stock photography. For his current curriculum vitae go to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/Curriculum-Vitae.aspx.  

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