Why thread

Hey guys i've recently joined and i have a few whys I've uploaded 3 tracks, they were approved on the 17th and they still have 0 views, why? Where are the categories? Why my tracks don't appear anywhere on the site? Am I leaving 85% of my future earnings so that istock will give me 0 views? In that case, why should I upload more of my music, i mean why?

Or am I being too impatient?

Hello and welcome First of all, yes, pantient deserved to be considered
Please note, that after You get your files approved, they appear in search after 24-48 hours.. Time may vary..
Also if You can not find Your tracks in search, please understand that there are already MANY files in the collection and You have few.
But believe me, if Your files deserved to be bought, then they will!
So my advice is to be patient, and create music. If You are good, You'll be rewarded..

Good luck

P.S. By saying good i meant what is good for clients

(Edited on 2012-11-19 15:01:03 by softpiano)

Hi audiostate and welcome aboard!
I must agree with Mr Softpiano, too much impatience
remember few things:

all of the approved files need to be indexed to appear in searches. It is supposed to happen daily on weekdays, but it doesnt happen during weekends. So files approved on Sat or Sun will probably appear on monday. But that's a geek thing, so dont bother too much on it, making music is better!

Views used to be counted in almost real time in the past, but it aint so lately. So if you see "0 Views" it doesnt necessarly mean your file wasn't "seen"...it's just that view numbers aren't shown in real time on our end.

85%...yeah, it seems quite much, but it happened to all of us. Keep the faith, go on producing your best stuff and you'll see that this 85% will decrease and soon will become a distant memory. And remember what iStock is giving to you for this 85%: woorldwide exposure, views, sales! Is it better to get xx% out of iStock sales, or 100% out of our "door-to-door-rocking"??

As softpiano says, good work is always rewarded.
Good luck!

/
/Why dont you go to most popular files section in contributors lounge and take a lok at the most selling files in the last three months and with some easy calculations you can se that you can earn over 13.000$, (more like 15.000) in only three months with just several files )) Isn't that awesome? So with your three files, if they are good enough, you can earn some pretty good money With that percentage, that is... You just need some corporate and commercial music and happy, business-like and victorious chrod progressions and some smart keywording... that's a road to success! Believe me... and believe the charts )) Just go and take a look and learn, study...


Cheers!


edited for wrong numbers

(Edited on 2012-11-20 04:31:19 by Mirkic)

here you go... LINK 


just sort to be audio files... 

(Edited on 2012-11-20 04:25:52 by Mirkic)

Well 3 tracks in the grand scheme of things is not very much. I am new to here istock too but I can already see over time its going to be a great opportunity. I have been an audio contributor here for a month or so, and have roughly 40-45 tracks on here now. In that month I have had 5 tracks downloaded. The key to success with this stuff is good quality x number of tracks x uploading regularly = sales. If your new to iStock you have to look at it like opening up a business it just takes time figure 1 year of uploading good quality tracks, and doing that regularly and the sales will come. Good luck and I wish you tons of success in the future!

Thanks guys. I know this site has a high traffic rank but looking at the view counts is disappointing. I'll see how it turns out when i have a bigger portfolio.

Also, view count is broken... just FYI

yes, views/plays is not accurate right now - also good advice above, I would give it a year of uploading and building your portfolio before analyzing too hard whether it is the right place to sell your audio or not.  it is definitely a long term investment!  but can have great pay-offs and lots of opportunities to also network and chat with other global audio peeps!

Has a track more downloads than views, mostly is something wrong.

FYI view count should no longer be broken. If you know that it is post a link to the file. For example if you can find a file with more downloads than views. 


Thanks

I lied - just confirmed with a collegue that in fact views are broken, but we are closing in on a fix.

Thanks guys the view count might be broken indeed because I had my first sale although view count didn't change. But I got only $2.5 in royalties while the price of the track is $42. Is this normal?

As still non-exclusive contributor you should have about 5$ per dl, this was probably subscription download which is half lower price% per dl than normal but better something than nothing It all counts

Alright, here's what i think about istock and why i'm leaving.


I've been here about 2 months with 3 files. I got 2 sales: one regular license which payed me about $2.5, and one extended license which paid about $6.5 in royalties. Turns out istock doesn't even pay you 15% of the sales. The same files earns literally 10x more on some other marketplaces and those guys don't make you feel intimidated by selling your file at $170 and giving you only $6.5 of that.


So i'm done with istock. Deactivated existing files, hope they will be permanently deleted. Now, can i request a payment of that whopping $8.75 earnings? I'll be surprised if you guys would be willing to pay even that :lol:

(Edited on 2012-12-27 05:32:41 by audiostate)

unfortunately, as far as i know you have to have your account balance > 100$ to payout...


However in this thread there is one thing important to me, that also makes me feel...bitter... Not counting the number of tracks, and quality etc. Saying straight - I Feel that money that we get from selling audio is to low. I don't wont to fight/argument etc, just say what i think....


You may think that this comparison is wrong but...From what i know, for example - Google Play(Place where Programmers/corporations can sell their applications for android OS) gives 70% of application price for the authors. Usually prices there are lower than prices on istock if at all it can be compared - apps for i.e 42$ are very big apps with big budgets. There is no difference if your app has been sold 100000times or 1 time, google will always take 30% from the price for them - more sells, more for google and authors ofcourse. You can say "yes, yes..." different marketplace, bigger money etc. But i mean it in a whole - 70% for a creative work in a market where there is a lot more money than here, and probably google could take a lot more % from the price.


Now, when i'm looking here, where at the start i get 25% of real price of my track (real - what the customer pays) i feel that it is just to low. I understand that istock gives us possibility and chance - and this is the price - oportunity to place you tracks on website where thousands of thousands of people can hear it and buy it. Everything costs - maintance of website, programmers, everything. But isn't it too much(that 75% on start) for possibility? Without tracks, this prospect of selling would be useless, because there would be nothing to sell - obvious...


What more, (I'm not a 'big seller' here,(i try())) i think that reaching the highest royalty rate levels(as exclusive 125,000) is also very hard, and if you already reach it you won't even get a HALF of price of your track...not even half...


 


At the end - i know that istock is a company, and everything has to be economically justified, and probably couple of people sits there and think where to crop and where to loose to earn (i want to say it here: I want istock to earn money, big big big money, cause i also want to earn money), but i don't want istock to push me aside a little from what i think i deserve. I also have feeling that istock is not.. 'heavily oriented' to music, the main things are photos & videos, but maybe there are some fields that could be improved to increase the percentage for authors of the tracks.


Probably there was couple of messages like that in the past, i hope anyone wont take it as silly complaints

(Edited on 2012-12-27 08:27:24 by Tmk_d)


 

(Edited on 2012-12-27 08:41:58 by Tmk_d)