Will Microstock Or Macrostock Be The Winner?

Posted on 12/19/2013 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version | Comments (3)

Recently, a German subscriber asked, “Who will be the winner, Microstock or Macrostock?” To answer that question we must define winning. Is licensing the most pictures winning? Is the distributor with the most revenue the winner? Is making it possible for more photographers to earn some money from the pictures they take winning? Is it winning to make it possible for more photographers to earn a living producing and licensing rights to stock pictures? Is it providing customers with better service?

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Copyright © 2013 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.

Comments

Paul Melcher Posted Dec 19, 2013
Jim, do you have any sources for these allegations ? like subscription sales volume vs individual or istock revenues ?

Yan Kit Liu Posted Dec 19, 2013
Yes it would be cool to see how the volume data is derived from and what the trend has been for past 2-3 years

Jim Pickerell Posted Dec 20, 2013
See "Shutterstock Q3 Revenue" (http://www.selling-stock.com/Article/shutterstock-q3-revenue-596-million) and "iStock Download Trends" (http://www.selling-stock.com/Article/istockphoto-download-trends). The iStock report will be updated in the next couple of weeks.

Based on reports from photographers with both Shutterstock and Thinkstock I believe Thinkstock will have something in the range of 20 million downloads this year.

Fotolia will do slightly about $87 million this year. (http://www.selling-stock.com/Article/fotolia-seeking-300-million-to-refinance-debt). I think Dreamstime revenue and downloads will be less. And then we have to add in all the other Microstock sellers.

The RM and RF numbers are based on a lot of my historical analysis; examining sales reports of a number of major producers and conversations with a lot of traditional suppliers.

Granted, there is a lot of extrapolation, but I feel very comfortable with the general percentages.

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