There are 39,740 registered members on Luminous Landscape including those making a living in a variety of genre such as fashion, architecture, wedding, sport, photo journalism, fine art, product, social, editorial...
It would be a stretch to believe that one of these members is "making a living at micro-stock"
Or perhaps you would care to point me to one?
And when he's finished doing that, he can bring in the dog and put out the cat!
I was active during the Golden Era and even I couldn't make a 'decent living' out of stock; at best, it made extra money from stuff already paid for via client work.
I spent a short while with a big Spanish agency too, and got, from them, perhaps the best stock advice ever: spend the
minimum amount of money that you can! Too true! In a year, they sold one image of mine for around twelve quid! When I politely withdrew, they were indignant that I didn't want to spend more 'investment' money and time... the same people but yet another aspect of the two-sided coin. I think mine was the thin edge.
In retrospect, it seems to me that (for me) the only way for stock to work
for the photographer is from the unused extras taken from originally commissioned work, in a rights-managed model and in a buoyant economy.
As for the Arcus model - I suppose that one in several million can raise a critical mass that self-perpetuates and morphs into profit. Have you guys the money to risk trying to build it?
Rob C