So it’s easy to imagine that in 2013, years after having sold iStockphoto to Getty Images for $50 million, Livingstone is a bit disappointed with what iStockphoto has become. Getty discontinued the system that allowed photographers to earn a better royalty rate by selling photos over several years (Getty defended the decision by saying the model wasn’t sustainable). Meanwhile, a flood of contributors have made selling photos a more competitive venture, and shifting formats and licensing deals have made some photographers feel cheated. Getty recently, for instance, made an unpopular licensing deal with Google that paid photographers a small one-time fee for photos that Google Drive users can now insert in their own work within the product however they wish.





“It’s hard for me to criticize their corporation,” Livingstone says. “They’re responsible to their shareholders. They have to keep making profits and keep having growth. I totally get it. I don’t fault them for that.” But within his photographer network, it seemed like what started as a friendly business had grown up to become a monster. “One of the most depressing ones for me,” Livingstone says, “[were] people who I had helped change their lives–real estate agents or veterans or policemen who had quit their jobs and had focused on making stock photography and were earning a living–suddenly saying, I’m going to have to go back to my old job.”

Stories like these inspired Livingstone to take another stab at building a stock photo site. His new site, called Stocksy, focuses on paying photographers as much as possible.

iStockphoto pays photographers 15% of photo sales for their first contributions and up to 45% of sales (depending on how much they sell in a year) if they’re exclusive. Shutterstock pays 20% to 30% royalties. Stocksy, which launches Monday, pays all photographers 50% royalties for all photos. The site is also a co-op. At the end of the year, it divides 90% of its profits equally among contributors and other shareholders.

These terms have attracted top photographers such as Sean Locke, who contributed more than 12,000 photos and almost one million license sales to iStockphoto before Getty terminated his relationship with the site in February (he says in retaliation for criticizing the Google Drive deal). But focusing on fair pay for photographers means that some photos will be more expensive than similar photos on other stock photo sites. “We know that,” Livingstone says. “If you want a picture of an apple on a white background, we probably don’t have the shot you’re looking for, and I would say go ahead and buy it from someone else. That’s not the market we’re after.”





Livingstone describes Stocksy’s asthetic as “photos that capture reality.” Each will be screened before it is posted on the site. “Our goal is for photographers to sell really special photographs through us,” he says, “and we’re going to pay them as much as possible because they’ve entrusted us with those pictures.”