MicrostockGroup

Dreamstime's royalty structure used to be very easy to understand. Nowdays it's just all confusing with different value of credits etc.  I gave up trying to understand why they are paying me the amounts they do.

As long as the sales rised I didn't care that much (now DT seems to have stuck on the fourth place).

Thanks for the explanation Gostwyck. I'm just amazed how these days the agencies have become so shrewed in trying to lower the commission for the photographer. It's just appalling. Any news from them keeps me wondering if they are going to try and lower the commission in another way. Sad but we have an option, carry on or just abandon them all together. Regards, Ljupco

This is what happens in a technology company as the marketing guys gradually start calling the tune.   That happens after the basic product is complete and the period of develpment and innovation is over.  The low-hanging fruit has been picked, but the owners and investors aren't satisfied - so the focus shifts to new marketing schemes which get progressively more complicated and convoluted. Subscriptions, pricing tiers, introductory offers, targeted discounts, packages, contracts, distribution "partners", "bundling", re-packaging, re-branding.  The list is endless.  

But istock have the lowest commissions and I am sure they are the reason why the other sites have lowered theirs.  DT and FT have seen istock paying just 20% to non-exclusives and decided to move their commissions closer to that level.  And if we all went exclusive, istock could pay us much lower commission.  Istock get away with it because they have more sales but I still don't like 20% and I wouldn't want to go exclusive for less than 50%.

Totally agree, except for the IS part.  Considering that Getty seems intent on cannibalizing Istock by both upselling AND downselling its customers there is no telling where IS is headed.

It's moot anyway, because independents only get 50% on level 5 images now.  How many level 5's to you have?   The rest are between 30-45%.

I'll be honest, I only buy level 1 (and occasionally level 2) images on DT.

i have a 12 mp camera and i can get maximum sizes sold at dt. however, with 12 mp, the largest size i can sell at IS is extra large, which is $15 for indies. that's in theory. in practice, when i downsize and the resultant size is large at IS (at $10), i can still sell it at maximum at DT.

until i get a 24mp camera, this is the best i can do at IS. oh, just pity us poor indies, will ya...or i'm gonna start passing a collection box amongst you exclusives.

Wrong. The DT subscriptions are 35c for level 1 and 2, higher for level 3 and up. That is for everybody. Where did you get those nonsense? Istock pays less for a credit sale and there is no growth path via levels at all. First get your facts right.