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.