MicrostockGroup

I just received this e-mail from my dear friends at Fotolia:

<<We've been hard at work for the last few months adding features to make the site more convenient for both contributors and artists. With this latest release, we're also revising our subscription plans to align with what's happening in the marketplace. As a result, prices and commissions have been adjusted accordingly. Please see details here. Here are some of the highlights:

- To streamline the product offering for customers, we've merged standard and premium subscriptions into one product.
- Vectors now count as 1 download in subscription plans
- HD videos are no longer available in subscription plans, but web resolution videos are available, and count as 5 downloads.

We encourage you to create and upload HD quality videos to maximize your revenue stream. That's because HD resolution videos will only be available for purchase through the credits system.

Amongst the features you'll find in this latest version of Fotolia are powerful search faceting and filtering, which will allow customers to find the latest and greatest content, faster than ever before.

Fotolia contributors have contributed over 14 million images to date, and we look forward to you continued support in our collective quest to become the #1 stock photo agency in the world.

Sincerely,
Team Fotolia>>

The link to new commissions is here: Click

I haven't found out what the "streamlined" subscriptions are worth...

Edit: Darn, beaten by seconds -   and jm73

Edited again: Okay, now i got it: These are the new subscription prices - wow, lowered the standard prices and removed the "premium subscriptions" altogether. Way to go, Fotolia!

http://www.fotolia.com/Newsletter/4/2011-08-09/42

new prices:
http://www.fotolia.com/Info/V3SubscriptionCommissions

old prices:
http://www.fotolia.com/Info/Contributors

 

Can anyone compare OLD and NEW commissions? In the link it seems I see no difference to the current commissions.

Great! Looking forward to these new exciting changes 

At the bottom tier it would have been .3 or .35 credits now it's .25

It's great especially for vectors artists - 0.29 instead of 1.08 for me.
On the other hand - it's true that other sites don't make difference between photos and vectors in subscription prices as well but that doesn't reduce my shock.

What we don't know is how this will affect the prices they will be charging customers. Are they simply doing away with the 'Premium' subscription and customers will get the benefit of full-size images at the old 'Standard' price?

If so it suggests strongly to me that they are losing ground to the likes of SS and this is their attempt to get customers back.

I've just checked how many premium sub sales I average per 100 total sales and it would appear to be about 29. That means I'll be losing about 1.45 credits per 100 total sales. Not a huge amount but annoying anyway.

I'm sorry for anyone this has a big impact on.

For me, SS is streaking so far ahead of the pack now, and FT has fallen so far back, that this news is a bit like hearing that a distant, previously unknown relative stubbed a toenail in 1973.

It doesn't come as a surprise any more.  I've really had enough of commission cuts.  I'm working much more with alamy RM and some other ideas I have to make money from photography and other things.  This is just another reason for me to work harder at getting away from sites that are becoming too greedy.

I have calculated the loss in commissions. It will be difficult to know now whether it is standard or premium. But these are:



If there are errors, please say so and update

Funny how I now end up with the same disgustingly low subs commission that I have refused to accept with Thinkstock.  I don't think FT would try this if people had refused to use TS.  Now were all paying for it and I think it will be inevitable that SS will go the same way.

Thanks for the chart, I was thinking of making the same but you beat me to it.

The speed was for rage. For White, Bronze and Silver the difference is scandalous