Micro giant Istockphoto is pulling its prices up, starting January 7th. According to the new rates, already published on the community driven website, [1] all sizes are going up one dollar, except for the X small, which remains at the legendary $1. Microshooters are in a frenzy at the prospect of an additional .20 cents per image sold and are already making plans to increase their holiday shopping budget. Competing sites, like Dreamstime and Fotolia, cannot wait to receive the bountiful mass of angry clients that will trickle down to them as they huff and puff at the incredible cost of imagery these days.

Industry news sites and other part time bloggers/economist/experts have all pulled out their slide rulers to calculate the impact of this decision on the photo industry and the world economy. Others will just sit back in their lounge chair and while puffing on an imaginary pipe ( for health reason), say “I told you so”, while crossing their long legs. Some will scout Youtube in the desperate hope that they can hotlink to a video of a singing Bruce Livingstone in pajamas, while industry veterans will write long, painful letters about the good old days of when microstock was really cheap and affordable.

Corbis will pay thousands of specialized analysts to study Istockphoto’s move and millions of work hours will be spend in crowded meeting room figuring out what should be their next move. Some say they plan to move the whole company into a virtual photo agency and move all operations into Second Life, “a first in the industry”, said Gary Shenk’s avatar, adding, “pricing will soon be a thing of the past” before transforming himself into a butterfly.

Alan Meckler, Jupiter’s CEO, will first argue that it was his idea and that Getty stole his idea. He will then purchase another website which has nothing to do with photography and finish his day buying some of his own stock, grumbling that if no one wants them, he will purchase them all.

A21 ( no longer a group for lack of members) will post yet another loss of a few hundred million of dollars and someone we never heard of will say something that will be ignored by everyone. A month later, a press release will be issued explaining that this person has resigned and the stock will drop another 150% to $0.000000002. Again, no one will pay much attention.

The tech/software/portal companies will plan a special celebration in honor of their members and throw yet another expensive party where everyone will be drunk and celebrate the fact that they have nothing much to celebrate. But at least they have each other. and a free T-shirt. If they are lucky.

Photo organizations that speak on behalf of their members will issue a triumphant press release saying that thanks to their increased effort, Getty was forced to raise the price of their microstock offering and that the battle continues. As usual, everyone will smile politely, not sure what that “battle” might be.

Finally, I will check out the weather forecast for today, read the news and enjoy a relaxing week end.