Top iStockphoto Earners: June 2009

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