Full time istocker

These last weeks I was thinking seriously to become a full time contributor here in istockaudio. As a motivation, I want to ask who of you have managed to make this job his only income. I know it's not easy and it requires a LOT of work, but I guess it is not impossible. As all of you, I really love to compose, so the hard job is not a problem. So I would like to know if some of you can live only from the istock salary.


I really like this way of selling our art. I'm really proud to be a member of this little audio family.


 

Hi WoodenStudio I'm full time iStock'er for ~ almost 3 years already.. And i'm very happy to live out of it.. It's the best job i could ever imagine.. BUT.. It's also very dangerous.. You never know when best match will throw You out of the search.. And then You'll have problems.. Personally this time is becomming for me quite hard.. My sales are dropping.. And i'm really nervous about the stability.. You know.. one day You sell a lot.. another day you don't.. So i can not encourage You to just go and work for iStock full time.. I just can say that this is really awesome.. But You must have in mind that it is dangerous as well..
Good luck on Your decision

/
/Very ineresting post ! I'd like to join to WoodenStudio question - i'm also very interested how it is to live only from istock / stock music. And maybe i will throw one question from myself:


Did You noticed a point  - in number of your tracks - (or 'about' number), when income started to be some kind of regular and sufficient to live - i mean in minimal way?


 


@softpiano - yeah, in my opinion this work is very vulnerable for unexpected behaviours of customers and also searches, and whats popular. Thats why i have very many doubts about 'stocking' for living...But.. maybe it is everywhere like that, in all kind of jobs...?(kind of rhetorical question...)

(Edited on 2013-03-09 14:30:45 by Tmk_d)

Thanks for sharing your experience Softpiano, the instabilty it's a good point to consider.


I agree with you Tmk, I guess there is no "safe" work in these times we are living, there's always the chance you get fired from any job.

Another good question would be: Is there an average life for a good seller track ? I mean, after some months or years, does a track stop having downloads and falls into oblivion ?

I belive it 's a dreams for many contributor here on IS. I agree with Softpiano: it could be very hard and the instability is the reason that i'm not jet a full time contributor. Good luck!

Hi woodenstudio, as for me I started working full time on iStock production 5 months ago. I just kept my work as keyboard player two/three nights a week. Like softpiano said it's not so easy to mantain a stable income on the site: competition is increasing every minute, the market seems fluctuating, and it's quite impossible to count on an endless success of your best sellers, so you always have to provide for new content. However this is one of the best job one could dream about for many reasons, above all beacause it allows you 100% creativity. My advice is - once you have found your ground solid enough - to try to dedicate yourself to it full-time at least for a short period as a test.

I would suggest to wait till the incomes will be bigger than You need.. Just in case it drops.. Because the incomes on iStock rises very slowly.. But drops very fast At least for me.. So You need to have a reserve

Thank you guys! your advices are wise..


The point is that now I had a lot of changes in my life and I have to take some desicions... As you said, I also would like to wait until I have good incomes here, but If I only work in music a couple of hours a day, that's gonna take me forever.. Don't know what I'm going to do but what I'm sure is that I need more time to work at the studio, that's what I enjoy more to do in life, so maybe taking some risk is worthy..

By the way, what about that question:



 


What's you experience about it? Can you still sell a song after some years?

Well personally my very best bestseller stopped selling well It has ~1500 downloads per both loopable and not versions.. So i guess there audio files have life Just i guess there's no avarage life time.. But i believe the file which was sold 5000 times should not live anymore

(Edited on 2013-03-11 12:55:46 by softpiano)

It is more than worthy 1500 downloads for a track if you count the time you spent on producing it Anyway I guess we also have to do the average with the files that have no downloads...  Thanks again for the info!

Everything dipends from your position in BM. 


In this lightbox you can see the contrubutor positions:


http://www.istockphoto.com/search/lightbox/13487235#c58e881