R.I.P. stockxpert.com
Good lord, news travels slow in my world. I just learned that one of my favorite royalty-free microstock websites (stockxpert.com) has been shut down. Damn! The worst part? They have been absorbed by Getty Images, who seem to be wasting no time in gobbling up all of the quality stock photo sites out there. This isn't good, considering that competition is what makes the world go 'round. What happens when they end up controlling everything? As a designer who buys many stock photos for my projects, that's something I'd rather not think about.
The biggest thing I'm concerned about is rising prices for royalty-free stock photos and illustrations. The second most troubling thing is the fact that while they continue to raise prices, they are paying the contributors less and less. How messed up is that? The site they replaced stockxpert with is a little disaster called Thinkstock. It's basically the same content that stockxpert had, but they (Getty) are paying the contributors significantly less.
Anyway, I'm not sure where I am going now when I need stock photos. I tend to do a lot of conceptual design, so I like Norebbo.com a lot. Dreamstime is also good, as I hear from my photographer friends that they treat their contributors fairly. But no matter where I end up do hanging my hat for a while, I will always have a place in my heart for stockxpert and the simple (and friendly) operation they had. Sigh...
