YAY Newsletter: Information About New Product

[cascoly]

i'd be more concerned if Yay actually produced any sales -- their performance over the last year has ranged between dismal & pathetic.  I stopped uploading awhile ago, whe their reviewing became tottally random and rejections uninformative.  i'm closing my account here and on other non-performers like big, gl,dp  I used to leave these nonperformers open, but with symbiostock i'd rather get google results directly

steve

[Monty-m-gue]

Yay seem to have a policy of lowering prices again and again in the vague hope of attracting 'new' buyers. Is there any evidence that this strategy has been successful? Or are existing buyers simply migrating to take advantage of below market prices?

[Monty-m-gue]

I'd echo Cascoly's point too. Sales on Yay are so exceptionally rare it's simply not worth uploading there. I'll let others take the Yay experiment - I'm out.

[Linda - YayMicro]

Hi there yay

This kind of creative thinking is what made istock a household name along with an amazing advertising campaign, creating a completely new segment of buyers!



And "inviting not forcing" contributors with opt outs is a really good thing.

I don�t know. Maybe I read it wrong, but it seems like you would make an average of about 4 or 5 cents every time someone uses a product through the new service? Am I wrong? Did I completely misread that? I am just looking at what they will be charging per month and what they say the average amount a customer downloads per month.

The payment will vary, from low for the streaming - and potential high for subs. We'll know more details when we get our own numbers on how users will use the product.

As for lowering prices - we're releasing a new product towards a new segment. Hopefully we'll succeed in reaching our target segment with this price. Compared to not paying at all, we're raising prices   If you think it's too low you're always free to opt out.


Cheers,

Linda

[Beppe Grillo]

My sales on YAY are 0,5 a month (yes, 4 sales in 8 months!), from 0,15 to 0,5
If they change price what it will change for me?
Nothing!
So it is a good thing, no?

[dirkr]

Linda,

some comments.

The streaming thing sounds terrible. It will do nothing else but take current buyers away. Those who don't pay today won't pay tomorrow. Current prices are low enough for everybody. And the expectation of 4 or 5 cents per download may be far too optimistic. As I understand it it is unlimited images for $9,90 per month. So the real result will be fractions of cents per download.

The "regular" subs don't sound too bad, but that is just an existing market where you don't seem to offer anything new - at least not that I could see that from the newsletter. If you believe in the stated average royalty of around $0.49 then please set that as the minimum payout.

And please do consider separate opt-outs for the two different plans.

All in all you're going in the completely wrong direction with this plans. You should look for ways to increase prices, not decrease them. We have enough cheap sites out there. You don't have the volume. I'd like to continue to support you, but you're easy to drop...

[Linda - YayMicro]

Linda,

some comments.

The streaming thing sounds terrible. It will do nothing else but take current buyers away. Those who don't pay today won't pay tomorrow. Current prices are low enough for everybody. And the expectation of 4 or 5 cents per download may be far too optimistic. As I understand it it is unlimited images for $9,90 per month. So the real result will be fractions of cents per download.

The "regular" subs don't sound too bad, but that is just an existing market where you don't seem to offer anything new - at least not that I could see that from the newsletter. If you believe in the stated average royalty of around $0.49 then please set that as the minimum payout.

And please do consider separate opt-outs for the two different plans.

All in all you're going in the completely wrong direction with this plans. You should look for ways to increase prices, not decrease them. We have enough cheap sites out there. You don't have the volume. I'd like to continue to support you, but you're easy to drop...

Hi dirkr,

We understand your concern. There's no way to be 100% sure that a new product is the right one. But, our experience and market research indicates that this might be an unserved market.

Thanks,

Linda

[dirkr]

Your answer tells me you understand my concern but you're doing nothing to address it.
Not good.

[Linda - YayMicro]

Your answer tells me you understand my concern but you're doing nothing to address it.
Not good.

What we do to address your concerns is to give you the option of opt-out.

We've gotten more positive than negative feedback from photographers on this. Most are happy that we're trying something new, and hope it can make a change. We also have a lot of data and different professionals backing our conclusion. We'll of course adjust our offering if we later get numbers and facts suggesting that our initial data is off.

Thanks,

Linda

[dirkr]

Linda,

maybe I was not specific enough:

What I would like to see:

1) Please separate the opt-outs of the streaming thing from the regular subs. It is quite likely that contributors will have different opinions on the two.

2) Please set a minimum payout for the regular subs, that we don't end up with very small commissions if your assumption of subs usage does not turn out to be right.

Those are small changes that should be easy to accomplish.

I fully agree that the opt out in general is the right way to go - it let's contributors decide to what extent they want to take part in new offerings. That's good.

Thanks for listening,

Dirk

[Linda - YayMicro]

Linda,

maybe I was not specific enough:

What I would like to see:

1) Please separate the opt-outs of the streaming thing from the regular subs. It is quite likely that contributors will have different opinions on the two.

2) Please set a minimum payout for the regular subs, that we don't end up with very small commissions if your assumption of subs usage does not turn out to be right.

Those are small changes that should be easy to accomplish.

I fully agree that the opt out in general is the right way to go - it let's contributors decide to what extent they want to take part in new offerings. That's good.

Thanks for listening,

Dirk

Thanks for clarifying!

We don't have a solution to let people opt out from parts of the image base, and we also want to avoid this as it can cause confusion for our customers. As for commission, we'll monitor all numbers, and adjust it accordingly. If you don't feel certain what we're doing is right you can either join in know and opt out later when we get our first set of numbers - or wait to join until we present numbers that you find satisfying.

Thanks,

Linda

[roede-orm]

The next step would be actually: We pay you once and then sell your images as often as we want!

[sharpshot]

...We've gotten more positive than negative feedback from photographers on this...

I find that hard to believe.  It might be because the majority don't use your site?  The obvious problem is that other sites have tried to convert people that don't pay for their images without much success.  Whenever a site offers subscriptions we usually see some buyers switch and we always seem to earn less.

I'm sure the streaming service is going to attract some current buyers, the question is, how much will we lose out on that?  The comparison with Spotify is so alarming.  Haven't you seen all the complaints from musicians about the tiny amounts of money they make from that?

I might be interested in opting in images that don't make me much money.  The thought of all my best images being available for a tiny fee that is highly unlikely to make me much is almost certainly going to make me opt out and I'm sure the vast majority of people with a portfolio that makes a reasonable amount will do the same.

The question is, should I bother with a site at all that wants to do something like this?

[Linda - YayMicro]

I find that hard to believe.  It might be because the majority don't use your site?  The obvious problem is that other sites have tried to convert people that don't pay for their images without much success.  Whenever a site offers subscriptions we usually see some buyers switch and we always seem to earn less.

I'm sure the streaming service is going to attract some current buyers, the question is, how much will we lose out on that?  The comparison with Spotify is so alarming.  Haven't you seen all the complaints from musicians about the tiny amounts of money they make from that?

I might be interested in opting in images that don't make me much money.  The thought of all my best images being available for a tiny fee that is highly unlikely to make me much is almost certainly going to make me opt out and I'm sure the vast majority of people with a portfolio that makes a reasonable amount will do the same.

The question is, should I bother with a site at all that wants to do something like this?

I understand your concern SharpShot, and you have several good objections. Some customers might switch from a current service. What we hope to achieve is to get the price online users pay for images to go from $0 to $9,90. The price is low, but keep in mind that this is for online use only, small images - and that the exposure of the images are substantially less than for pro users.

If you want to try it out or not is entirely up to you. We would love to have all of you with us!

Cheers,

Linda

[Monty-m-gue]

Linda, I fear that you simply leading the pack in the race to the bottom with this initiative. I hope I'm wrong - but at this moment, I doubt it. I'll close my account with you as soon as I reach 30 Euro payout....which, at the current rate of sales will be in late 2016.

[Linda - YayMicro]

Linda, I fear that you simply leading the pack in the race to the bottom with this initiative. I hope I'm wrong - but at this moment, I doubt it. I'll close my account with you as soon as I reach 30 Euro payout....which, at the current rate of sales will be in late 2016.

We hope you're wrong as well We'll try to give you good numbers when we launch, and hopefully this will help with your decision.

Cheers,

Linda

[Christos Georghiou]

How do I opt out of "YAY Streaming"? do I just have to untick "YAY Subs" on the API list or is there a separate tickbox somewhere?

[Linda - YayMicro]

How do I opt out of "YAY Streaming"? do I just have to untick "YAY Subs" on the API list or is there a separate tickbox somewhere?

It's YAY Subs, sorry for the confusion. We'll update the name!

Linda

[Snufkin]

Hello Linda,

I didn't have the time to read the details yet, but I don't think I will be interested in any streaming schemes even if I have to delete my portfolio. The difference between streaming peanuts and nothing is negligable.

I just saw the mention of Spotify, so I'll just comment on that.
I am a happy Spotify user and a customer. As a customer I think it is an awesome service. As for the business side, I think it is one of the dumbest ideas in recent years.

Top musicians make some peanuts there while Spotify just generates losses for the owners.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/31/4575506/spotify-doubled-revenue-in-2012-but-losses-grow

To cut a long story short, since I have Spotify I don't remember the last time when I bought a CD or MP3.
Cheers

[cthoman]

I just saw the mention of Spotify, so I'll just comment on that.
I am a happy Spotify user and a customer. As a customer I think it is an awesome service. As for the business side, I think it is one of the dumbest ideas in recent years.

Top musicians make some peanuts there while Spotify just generates losses for the owners.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/31/4575506/spotify-doubled-revenue-in-2012-but-losses-grow

To cut a long story short, since I have Spotify I don't remember the last time when I bought a CD or MP3.
Cheers

I might be the Spotify exception where I listen to albums I already own, so I guess those artists are making money on me twice. I suppose I've been buying less new albums though.

As far as Yay, I put in my request to close my account. Those .15 Euro sales were the last straw for me. I don't even want to see how this new thing materializes.

[Monty-m-gue]

Linda, I'd like to close my account now rather than waiting until 2016. Would you be so kind as to pay me the few Euros I've managed to earn with Yay this last year or so..? Or if I close my account do I lose that money?

[sharpshot]

I opted out of streaming.  Will stay with Yaymicro for now but this is a real problem for me.  I don't think I'm going to want to support a site that is offering this.  Hopefully it will be a failure, as I think it's more likely to attract current buyers than people that have never paid for images before.

Some sites can sell my microstock images for hundreds of dollars, I'm really not interested in nanostock.  If it was only for images that don't sell elsewhere, I might of given it a try.

[Linda - YayMicro]

Linda, I'd like to close my account now rather than waiting until 2016. Would you be so kind as to pay me the few Euros I've managed to earn with Yay this last year or so..? Or if I close my account do I lose that money?

You should send a request to [email protected] if you want to close your account. The payout limit is �30, so if you're close to it I would recommend waiting until you 've reached it.

Thanks,

Linda

[Ron]

Linda, I'd like to close my account now rather than waiting until 2016. Would you be so kind as to pay me the few Euros I've managed to earn with Yay this last year or so..? Or if I close my account do I lose that money?

You should send a request to [email protected] if you want to close your account. The payout limit is �30, so if you're close to it I would recommend waiting until you 've reached it.

Thanks,

Linda

What is it with agencies keeping money thats not yours when someone wants to close their account? It can take years to reach payout, you've made your profit on the image sales.  Just pay the money you are due !!! GREED

[Linda - YayMicro]

What is it with agencies keeping money thats not yours when someone wants to close their account? It can take years to reach payout, you've made your profit on the image sales.  Just pay the money you are due !!! GREED

When microstock started the cost of payouts where pretty high, and it also takes time to manage. I do think we should look for a better option, as the payment industry finally supports micropayment. I'll take it up in our next meeting.

Thanks,

Linda