Contributors leaving iStockphoto/Getty Images is for the best of stock industry

We are not exactly very old stock video production (starting in 2011), that is why we never had any benefits of iStockphoto. While many that were first starting with iStockPhoto/Getty Images, are probably still near their flow of income. Why would they whine, if they still earn money. Many of us joining iStockphoto which was later bought by Getty Images company, were earning just a micro part of that income. It got only worse when they lowered the contributor part of income. So, why would you invest time in an agency, that doesn’t even respect the contributors work.

But that isn’t all, it is about their attitude too. And it’s the worst amongst all agencies. They complicated with model/property releases, which only theirs was allowed (on the other hand every other agency accepts whatever release you have). Only one video format is allowed. They complicated with model releases if there was any slightest error. They rejected files that didn’t suit one currator, but another judged it just fine. Many times they rejected files with argument that it is not a “stock-suited” video. Such files sold very well elsewhere. The last thing that nailed their coffin was the rejection because we didn’t have any “release” for aerial flight (in our country this was not needed). And we know that property release is needed when shooting recognizable property. Not in our case.

Stock footage of Playtoys In Sand

iStockphoto/Getty is one of the worst agencies for user experience. For very long time you had to put in metadata via very old system. There was no .csv metadata import, so it took ages to import bigger number of files. They added 4K files support in 2015. And we always downscaled 4K files even after added support because they were worthless because of their dumping pricing tier.

The good news is that many contributors are leaving iStockPhoto/Getty Images. Many non-exclusives just don’t get as much funds as they put in to files. You earn much more on other sites, have much less problems and receive better attitude.

Other users leaving iStockPhoto/Getty Images are reporting many other conflicts. Changing User Agreements that suits only iStockPhoto/Getty Images, not getting payed, removing functions, removing files delete option, un-transparent sales on their partnership sites and probably many more reasons we are not aware (yet). We even read about sales that were not seen in contributors statistics.

It wont be long till only exclusive members will stay on this sinking ship. We did expect many leaving it many years ago and like we expected, nothing changed on their side. Even if we warned them about their attitude against us, we got banned from their forums because of that. Their official e-mails are even less effective.

Their message is clear; if you don’t like our attitude, you get banned. And with their Nazi agreements we all signed they might even sue you. They are great in suing anything.

Be aware and be smart when choosing stock agencies.