Every day many requests are sent from Dollar Photo Club members wanting to purchase an Extended License.  In response they are directed to Fotolia to make the purchase.  I�ve just been notified that Dollar Photo Club will soon be adding an Extended License. The commission paid to photographers will be an even $30 (US).  The cost for the member for this license will be $50 resulting in a 60% commission rate for contributors.

If you have any questions, please email directly:  [email protected]

Will it be an "even $U.S.30" regardless of contributor canister level on the parent site Fotolia or wether the contributor has raised their EL prices on Fotolia from default when uploading?   I might be wrong, but doesn't a default EL on Fotolia pay around $6?

Just imagine how proud they will be in 2 years when the whole marked is selling photos for $1 and they are forced to lower theirs to 50 cents.

Forced? I think they would be eager to do it.

Every day many requests are sent from Dollar Photo Club members wanting to purchase an Extended License.  In response they are directed to Fotolia to make the purchase.  I�ve just been notified that Dollar Photo Club will soon be adding an Extended License. The commission paid to photographers will be an even $30 (US).  The cost for the member for this license will be $50 resulting in a 60% commission rate for contributors.

I see the next thing fotolia is going to say to promote their disruptive initiative... you can make UP to 60% on a sale and up to $30 on Photos.com.

If 60% is sustainable on Extended Licenses, why not do it on all sales? That would be a real sign that they are working to increase contributor's revenue.

The tech crunch article quotes Fotolia's owner saying that he's trying to use the pricing to take market share away from Shutterstock and iStock. Almost all of us would lose badly if that were to succeed, $30 EL royalties or no.

In a nutshell.   

Who needs EL with such "Standard" license on DPC?!

Good question!

You destroy our market and yours too

Fotolia is not such a small agency, but i think you re right when you say they want to be the first with this step. So i tell you something more:

If they are the first, there will be a second and a third.

And the bill will be paid from the contributors. What we want to do if Shutterstock make such like this? We re out.

Lets keep this about FT. Your soapbox is here http://www.microstockgroup.com/shutterstock-com/

I had a look at the site and offer. For a customer it is indeed a very interesting offer, reminds me of the early days of istock, the designers dirty little secret.

The one thing that is good is that the artists are indeed paid the full share of whatever the customer pays. All the money is translated into downloads, nothing is lost. This is indeed different to all regular subs packages where a large amount of the available downloads are never ever used and the money lands with the agency only. I have no idea how much on average is actually downloaded from a subs package.

One problem like many have pointed out is the unlimited license. If they are taking steps to change that, it is a step in the right direction. The next is extended licenses. Ok, Fotolia has very few extended licenses, but the 30 dollar offer /60% is a decent looking carrot.

The real problem is how many single image downloads will we loose, especially for full size images. And how will it change the balance in the overall market.

Although I am supplying several subs site, my real money doesn�t come from subs. It comes from extended licenses, single image sales etc...

Very difficult decision. I am glad that Mat is coming here, but it is also obvious that without the looming boycott threat there wouldn�t have been anyone reaching out to the community. Artists have been complaining about DPC for several months and were ignored.

So only now that real action is being threatened, they react.

I will suspend uploads for the time being and watch how the offer changes. If I don�t like what comes, I will remove my files from DPC. I do appreciate that there is now an opt out. My portfolio is just 680 images right now.

If anything, this again should remind all agencies to take contributors concerns seriously at early stages and not ignore us or belittle the problem by hoping the silent majority approves of everything.

I only have 587 files accepted on FT but I opted out of DPC yesterday. The reason I am not deleting my port from FT is that I have fought for every image to get accepted and I have too much time and frustration invested in my portfolio there. I will see how it pans out in the future and if things turn more sour, I will delete my portfolio, albeit with pain in my heart, knowing the work that was involved to get them there.