After yesterday unveiling thinkstockphotos (announced late last year as the 'new Getty subscription site') Getty have announced that Stockxpert will close with almost immediate effect.

 

Stockxpert Buyers

Credits are no longer being sold on stockxpert, nor can new buyers register. Those with existing credits on SXP can transfer them on a 1:1 basis for credits on istockphoto.

 

1/5 of Images Transferred

Contributors that had opted into reselling images by subscription at SXP have had many of their images transferred to thinkstock. 365 of the 409 Images I had on SXP have been transferred, perhaps I should rephrase that as "are now available via" thinkstock. For the immediate future contributors still log into SXP to access their earnings, stats and control their images. It looks like not all my 409 images are available purely because I have some identical photos on istockphoto also available via thinkstock and these duplicates have been filtered out.

syndication options at stockxpert

On thinkstock content sourced from stockxpert is now part of the "Hemera" collection, and while I'm not sure that this is exclusively the images from SXP a comparison on search results from this collection and identical terms on SXP gave me the figure of just over 20% as stated above. Possible this figure will climb as those who have not opted into the subscription sales on SXP change their mind; but noted that there was some strong resistance to the price point that Getty was offering contributors of just US $0.25 per download.

 

It was coming for a long time

There had been lots of rumours and comments following the acquisition of Jupiterimages by Getty that Stockxpert was doomed. Then following the August news that all advertising on stockxperts parent site stockxchng was to be redirected to istockphoto the outlook did not look good. The ending of photos.com sales (again replaced by istock) and a few other issues like broken links on the site meant that the signs were all there. My inbox at stockxpert marks out the time-line.

 sxp countdown

All that said, I for one was not expecting this news, but we could all tell something big was happening. With rumours that stockxpert were implementing Gettys controlled vocabulary I was, perhaps naively, in the camp that thought a big transformation about to happen. Indeed it has, but closure was not the transformation I was quite expecting. The future of the collection currently housed at SXP is a little hazy to me. With no way to upload new images it looks like we are just 'cashing in' on this collection before it ages.

 

What's wrong with just having photos.com?

well I guess it's branding, that's just another sign microstock is now completely mainstream:

photos.com (plus) is a website that offers subscription stock images at $249.95 a month
vs.
thinkstock is a brand that offers subscription stock images at $249.00 a month

 


Luis Santos's picture

Hi! How are you? Just a quick

Luis Santos (not verified) on Wed, 2010-02-03 02:29
Hi! How are you? Just a quick question! I opted in at IS, got files at Think from IS, but I wanna have also from XP once I got there a lot more pictures! Do you know when they are going to be transferred? At that option 7 I am also in! thanks, Luis
Steve Gibson's picture

Opted In

Steve Gibson on Wed, 2010-02-03 04:32

How long have you been opted in? If it was just today then I don't know (but I'd guess it won't be instant)

Did you receive a message on SXP "As an SXP contributor who is opted-in to subscriptions, some of your content has been migrated to Thinkstock.com"?

They did say some not all. I'd guess that some images that are perhaps too small or something like that might be left behind. You probably already know that you can search on thinkstock for 'your name' in single quotes, not your login name but your real name as resisted on the site - just check what you search for is the exact name that SXP have on record.

There is a thread on sxp http://www.stockxpert.com/forum/show_messages/27471 (which I should probably have mentioned in the post - you need to be logged in to access it)... I did just read in that thread "The only way to get your images on Thinkstock now is to upload to iStock. I do not know what their selection process was but I think it's safe to assume that if your SXP images are not on Thinkstock, they will never be." That might be in the context of uploding new images im not sure - i'll leave it to you to work it out.

Luis Santos's picture

I have just read at XP forum,

Luis Santos (not verified) on Wed, 2010-02-03 13:36
I have just read at XP forum, and there will be a 2nd and 3rd transferring session from XP services, waiting for it :) cheers!
photoXpress.com's picture

Most Affordable Subscriptions

photoXpress.com (not verified) on Tue, 2010-03-30 01:48
Hi all. PhotoXpress.com offers a free image bank with a paid subscription model for premium images. And we just re-launched our site with the most affordable subscriptions in the industry. 25 times more images than before with 20 times less the cost of other image sites. We invite you to check us out. Cheers!
Steve Gibson's picture

price differece

Steve Gibson on Tue, 2010-03-30 08:44

I don't quite see how photoxpress is 20 times cheaper? A quick comparison between them and fotolia standard subscription reveals its the same price $199 for a month of 25 images.

The $9.99 a month 'lite' subscription that allows extra downloads of the foltolia rejects that are otherwise free in limited numbers, could hardly be compared to the collection on the other microstock agencies?

http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/photoxpress-aren...


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