From 2ten website
Support 2ten That's $2 for smallest file size and $10 for the largest
2ten has been set up by Russell Glenister, CEO of Pocketstock, who has over 25 years experience in the stock content industry, many as a stock photographer.
It is a campaign, which has one aim: stop the inevitable fatal price crash in the war that is stock content pricing. Subscription, which is the biggest perpetrator and cause of this rush to the bottom, has run out of control and needs to be reigned in. Put a stop to the subscription mafia now.
There was a time when the best content never found it's way into subscription, that is no longer and it is rapidly changing the face of the industry and destroying the single image sale. Why spend even as low as $10 on an image when you can buy that very image for less than 30 cents at more than 10 different stock agencies?
2ten plans to do something about this tragedy. To find out how, check out the 3 step plan.
It's time to fight back, don't accept less than $2 for the smallest file size and $10 for the largest.
Glenister about this campaign:
Hello,
I have just arrived in New York City and was in Starbucks. Having parted company with $2.85 for a coffee for a colleague, I was further reminded how expensive coffee is compared with the best images as sold by stock agencies – in particular as part of a subscription plan.
The subscription Mafia 7, in order of power
Shutterstock 33 cents per image
iStock 31 cents per image
Fotolia 33 cents per image
Dreamstime 32 cents per image
123RF 29 cents per image
Depositphotos 24 cents per image
Veer 38 cents per imageI thought to myself, I’ll see if I can get a similar deal from Starbucks. “Look,” I said “someone from our company will be back in here every day for the next month, so, can we do a deal on 15 coffees per day?” “What kind of deal?” they asked. “I thought you might do us a subscription deal?” I replied.
Needless to say they looked at me as if I was completely mad, but did kindly point me in the direction of a Starbucks reward card. To be honest though, I was looking for a deal in the region of 10 cents per cup, not a free refill every now and then. You win some you lose some.
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4 Comments
I’m confused…
Russell Glenister, CEO of Pocketstock, has started the 2ten movement to “Stop the Subscription Mafia” with the cry to photographers: “don’t accept less than $2 for the smallest file size and $10 for the largest”
and yet…
Pocketstock, his agency, is offering a subscription for “150 downloads for 95 dollars” “all file sizes are included”
this means his largest image sizes are being offered, on subscription, for 63 cents each….
Did the Subscription Mafia make Russell Glenister an offer he could not refuse?
Hi metricmadness… your comment is very appreciated. I’m going to ask Russel directly.
Cheers,
Roberto
Here a comment by Russell:
“You are right, we did start 2ten, however, we got so much criticism for our efforts we decided, that it wasn’t worth the effort. Strangely we also got much advice to start our own subscription offer, which we have now done. It seems as though the industry is moving towards this model, we tried in vain to do something about it but have been forced to join everyone else and go down this road. I still feel the future of the single image sale is in serious doubt, but it appears that no one was interested in our position or supporting us. Why would we want to continue with something that received so much adverse criticism?
We put a lot of time and effort getting 2ten off the ground, but with the amount of cynicism and outright abuse we received we felt it was a cause not worth continuing with. What’s the point in fighting a losing cause?
The support for the Shutterstock model was and still is overwhelming, so it made no sense us fighting this lost cause. What choice did we have? That’s not to say I am happy that we have had to take this route, but we had to do it to have any chance of competing with everyone else.”
thanks for the clarification Russell. Now I just have to wonder how Pocketstock’s contributors feel about their full size images being licensed at 63 cents. Do they have the option to opt out of the subscription deal? That would seem only fair considering Russell’s own opinion of subscription.