MicrostockGroup

Interesting reading on their forum (message from a buyer):

/QUOTE

Hi - as a buyer, I've bought monthly subscriptions on and off here for years... the last time in Dec 2010, it was $199/month:

Type of subscription : 1 month
Date : 11-27-2010 03:59:38 am
Duration in days : 30
Expiration date: 12-27-2010 03:59:38 am
Number of download per day : 25 images / day
Type of license : Royalty free
Size : L
Price : $ 199.00

Now it looks like Fotolia just Raised the Subscription rate by 25%, to $249??  Is that right?  At least I hope they're paying you authors more if that's the case.. (?) if they're raising subscribtion rates then they should raise the author payout rate too to be fair, I'd think.

But as a buyer, in this economy, raising rates obviously I will not be subscribing here anymore -- if anything, you should be LOWERING subscription rates.  When I got an email today saying "new subscription plans" I thought it would be for a Better deal.  Instead it was a way to disguise a 25% Rate HIKE with two features I'll never need (rollover unused into subsequent month and XXL which I never download).

And are VIDEO still included or not?  On the new subscriber plan page it doesn't say anything about videos anymore.

Fotolia please reconsider this 25% Rate hike, or I will not be subscribing much anymore...  or did I get something wrong?   It looks like a "whopping 25% rate hike for subscribers", unless I'm missing something?

thanks..
/QUOTE

This follow the recent announcement in the newsletter. They are going absolutely on the IS route... unbelievable. I am continuing to delete my files that are unduly set back to 1 credit as I don't allow FT to license my images for less than other agencies (1 credit for XS image results in 0.37 royalties net, even at SS, as subscription, I got more! I don't compare subs to subs as is still a worse comparison... for FT of course).
Wish them a slow agony.

Definitely not the kind of buyer you want around anyways, lol.

Or maybe eliminating subscriptions? 

I think that the subscription price hike is recent, after the site was re-designed. It's almost as if FT has exchanged USD as its standard currency on which everything was based, for the euro. A one-month sub in € is now €199 but I don't know if that's changed...........anyone know?

I was missing news from top agencies, glad they are still alive and kicking, can´t wait to see more 

They are so smart.
Lowering the royalty of subscription to contributors to stay competitive and increasing the price to buyers to be the cheapest subscription ever, they sure are doing a lot of money with this idea and they will be able to sustain the growth in profits for at least one more term.

Instead of Subscriptions they should call it the Free Section.
A buyer will have no problem marking up those downloads to get back the 199 dollars and could easily make much more.

Had a night to think it over and the increased price of FT subs must have taken place at the same time as the contributors got their double whammy.
Before the new site layout, there were 2 subs types: Standard sub for 750 downloads/month @ up to 'L' size for $199 and a Premium sub for 750 downloads/month @ 'XL' size and above for $249. On August 16th, FT informed contributors and subscribers that the 2 subs packages were to be merged into one and that subs commissions would be standardised at a lower rate than even the standard subscription rate prior to the change. Thus allowing subscribers to download even the most massive files for buttons!

Re. question on vectors: