MicrostockGroup

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

(Sorry, I just had to...)

"Fotolia continues to pay artists one of the highest royalty rates in the industry", yeah, right.

I hope they will sell a lot of my XL and XXL files...

Yes, but you need 100,000 downloads to be sapphire, that is A LOT.

Their diamond is 1,000,000 downloads (and note that subscription sale means 0.25 (i.e you need 4,000,000 sales to get there)).
Even the real top tier would need years to get there.

Another thing that makes iStock exclusivity look better.

istock launches a plan that greatly increases the benefits of exclusivity, and this is what Fotolia comes up with? Are they trying to push people away?

I guess this makes it a trend - cut royalty percentages and  (a) keep those at the very top happy with a raise or status quo, plus (b) increase prices to try and disguise the long term loss of lower share for everyone else.

Hard not to view this as something that IS's recent announcement gave FT (and others) cover to do.

It's interesting that Emeralds aren't viewed as important enough to placate - I'd have thought they'd have to include them in the group to "protect" from the cuts.

Wow I'm so happy to had left this failboat, before I leave because I got owned by this announcement. Now I won...

It seem like you will do nothing at Fotolia if you are new. I joined FT in 2007 and does good for 6 month. Then for watever reason plus subscriptions, I started to hear crickets. Getting like 36 cents by credit purchase and such... just lololol

The commission rate cut really stinks, but isn't it possible that it will be balanced out by the increased price the customer is paying?  And if we take Fotolia at its word that it will continue to aggressively market itself to buyers, it's possible that sales will increase.  It's not outside the realm of possibility we'll see increased downloads X increased prices X a reduced rate = a net gain for contributors.  I know I'll get flamed by all the FT haters here, but I want to give them the benefit of the doubt as they've been a solid performer for me for my 13 months in microstock.  I won't be leaving FT anytime soon.

I will post the email I received from Fotolia:

Dear Fotolia Contributor,

2009 has been an amazing year for all of us - through aggressive marketing and promotion efforts, we were able to more than double photographer payouts! We're planning on repeating that trend in 2010 - and effective January 1, 2010, we're implementing some changes to help us towards that goal.

File Prices:

While XS downloads will remain at 1 credit, other downloads will increase between 1 and 2 credits per file. In addition, we'll be simplifying the file structure and combining the XXL and XXXL categories. For more information on file pricing, click here.


Commission Structure:

To accomplish our marketing and promotional goals, we've adjusted our artist commission structures. While some levels have increased and others have decreased in terms of percentages, a majority of contributing artists will continue to see increases in the total dollar amounts earned as we are raising prices. In comparison, Fotolia continues to pay artists one of the highest royalty rates in the industry, and we've been cited by many top photographers as one of the fastest growing and most important stock photography sites on the internet! For more information, click here.


Marketing and Promotions:

Fotolia has been aggressively marketing and promoting your images, vectors and videos, both online at various designer sites, and offline in the world's most influential design magazines and tradeshows. Typically, we offer customers a combination of free credits and discount on credits. Rest assured that these discounted and free credits earn you the exact same royalty as regularly priced credits - Fotolia bears the entire cost of the promotion. In 2010, we expect to be even more aggressive in our marketing activities for the entire community's benefit.

Also on their side bar graphics in the email:

"Performance since 2008
+48% New Buyers
+53% Credit Purchases
+54% Contributor Earnings
+57% Contributor Payouts
+203% API Calls
+15 Trade Shows"

END QUOTE



-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com

My earnings did go up a bit the last time they did this but I still get annoyed when my slice of the money is reduced and theirs is increased.  With FT, DT and istock all trying to grab more money, I am going to spend more time looking at other ways to sell my images.

It seems that I actually will be making more money if the download distribution doesn't change in the new year. I don't like the percentage cuts thou, it only benefits fotolia in the long run.

What about subscription pricing. Didn't see anything mentioned - no change?

Are you sure your calculations are correct? E.g. for M and bronze level I find a CURRENT commision of 1.28 credits, and this will rise to 1.40.