Spiderpic, microstock, and the end of the world.

There’s a bit of a discussion over on the EPUK mailing list about the end game of microstock. Btw, if you’re an editorial snapper you need to sign up to the EPUK list.
The catalyst for the discussion this time is the emergence of spiderpic, a stock image library price comparison site. Alamy are not happy, and you can see why, but such a site as spiderpic was surely inevitable. Anyway, the reason I posted this is to be able to copy what the inimitable Tony Sleep has to say on the matter. Reproduced with permission, thanks Tony.

“Photographers dumb enough to have chased microstock into the abyss will
pay for all of it. Eventually any with an ounce of sense will stop
bothering to contribute with no prospect of return. Quality and choice
will decline even further, since the only ones left will be the naive and
stupid who can’t count their own fingers. Agencies will go bust, clutching
photographer revenues and client subs. Everybody will be hurt and pissed
off. And it serves them all right, they did it to themselves.”

Thanks Tony, right on the money, as usual.