On Wednesday 7th Jan istockphoto will launch their new price structure for 2009 (which means a pay rise for istock contributors). Details of the new pricing can be found at istockphoto 2009 prices.

Also in the pipeline for 2009 are from what I can work out, plans to get istock some way back at the original concept of microstock, the 'micro payment'. While still increasing rates for most of the photos on the site the dollar bin will go and in will come a new 'bargain' pricing structure (yet to be officially named). An additional 195,000 images will be moved to this new structure in addition to those already in the Dollar bin. Images will no longer be removed from the dollar bin after 30 days. This change is planned for early Spring 2009.

Also planned for May is the launch of a new premium section. As of this month inspectors will start tagging images to go in this new collection (200,000 will be selected). These premium images will cost about 8-9 times more than standard istock images.

istock now tell us they pay more than 1millon dollars in royalties to their photographers each month.

More on this announcement on the istock forums
Read more about istockphoto in our istockphoto review

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