Well, another one is closing this year. Here is the email I received:

Dear Member:

We regret to inform you that as of 21 March 2010, www.thephotostorage.com will no longer continue operating as a stock photography agency.

On or before 21 March 2010 all files and accounts will be removed from our servers.

We thank you for your support and patient all these months.

ThePhotoStorage Team

They tried I guess, but never really brought in any stock buyers. I wonder who will be next?

It’s very sad to announce that StockXpert is closing this month. Getty Images, who owns StockXpert now after the Jupiterimages purchase, has decided to shut the site down.

Getty is directing StockXpert buyers to iStockPhoto. This is good for Getty, but what about StockXpert’s artists? I am more of a Shutterstock or Dreamstime fan myself.

StockXpert was liked by most contributors for its caring administration and 50% royalty rate to its artists. Now the site’s contributors are being sent to apply at iStock where, unless they go exclusive and only sell through iStock, will only get 20% of the sale. A 20% royalty rate is pretty much rock bottom in the industry.

iStock does sell a lot of images though; and for much higher prices. It makes the 20% easier to swallow.

StockXpert was closed, but Thinkstock is opening. My post about that is here.

Getty Images recently announced a new stock photo site offering images by subscription. Many believe ThinkStockPhotos.com was created to compete with the market leading subscription site Shutterstock.

Although image buyers may like the new subscription site and price range, it seems many contributors are not so happy. With the opening of ThinkStockPhotos.com comes the closing of StockXpert.com. StockXpert was a fairly well performing site for contributors and had a nice following of buyers. StockXpert was acquired by Getty Images in their purchase of Jupiterimages.

ThinkStockPhotos is also cutting the royalty rate to the artists for their image sales. Shutterstock is paying their contributing artists up to 50% more than what has been announced for ThinkStockPhotos. This puts ThinkStockPhotos at the bottom of the industry for subscription royalty rates.

Only time will tell how this all plays out. There is an uproar in the non-exclusive microstock contributor community. It will all be watched closely. You can make your comments below.