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Author Topic: iStock Royalty Change  (Read 114115 times)

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« on: October 25, 2016, 12:08 »
+4
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iStock Royalties Changes

Weve got some important and positive news to share with you about changes to your royalties including:

    Redeemed Credits retirement of the current system at the end of 2016.

    Exclusive royalty rates new tiered system based on downloads (including subscription downloads and downloads on GI.com), effective January 1, 2017.

    Non-exclusive royalty rates retirement of tiering in favor of flat rates per file type, scheduled to be effective November 25, 2016.

    Flat subscription download rates replacement with a percentage royalty based on the price per file, scheduled to be effective November 25, 2016.


All of the changes are designed to produce a simpler, more transparent system that accounts for the growth of subscription and sales across Getty Images and rewards Exclusivity.

Redeemed Credits
The Redeemed Credits (RC) system was intended to encourage contributors to submit fresh, high quality content and deliver increasing royalty rates as credit thresholds against the content were met. With the growth of subscription products and the expanded licensing from gettyimages.com, a credit-only system no longer reflects the wider performance of content.

Exclusive iStock Royalty Rates
The Redeemed Credit system will be retired at the end of 2016 and replaced with a Download Target system to reward our Exclusive contributors, as follows:

    Consistent with current rates, exclusive rates will start at 25% with the potential to reach 45%.

    iStock.com rates will be determined based on the total annual downloads for each file type; across all iStock and Getty Images sales channels and products (excluding Thinkstock and API).

    Every Signature+ file downloaded on iStock.com will count twice towards your Download Target.

    We are creating a new Signature+ collection for Illustration files. These files will also count twice towards your Download Target.

    Download Target royalty rates will be applied to all iStock downloads credits and subscriptions.


Timeline for Download Targets

    As in the past, you will begin 2017 at the rate at which you ended 2016.

    Annual Download Targets for upcoming year will be announced in Q4 of each year, with the targets for 2017 being announced before the end of 2016.

    Your earned rate, based on previous year targets, comes into effect on January 1st of each year.

    Earned rate increases for those who reach a new target level within the year will begin at the start of the following month after that level has been attained.

    The download rates for 2017 will be modeled on 2016 tier data, with the intention that the royalty rate tiers are comparable.


These changes will better reward Exclusive contributors for their performance in subscription products, and, in total, will result in iStock paying over a million dollars more in royalties during 2017.

Non-Exclusive iStock Royalty Rates
Scheduled to be effective November 25, 2016, were moving to flat rates for non-Exclusive content; 15% for Photo files and 20% for Video and Illustration. Due to system cutover constraints, we need to migrate to this rate in two stages, moving to the 15% flat rate for subscription downloads from November 25 and then moving to the 15% flat rate for credit downloads on December 1. As a result, youll continue to receive your current percentage for credit downloads up until November 30.

iStock Subscription Download Rates
For both Exclusive and Non-Exclusive artists, iStock.com flat subscription download rates will be replaced. Schedule to be effective November 25, 2016 a subscription price per file (PPF) value will be calculated based on the price the customer paid for the subscription divided by the number of files downloaded against the subscription. Your royalty rate will be applied to the PPF.

For example, if a customer had a Signature 100 image subscription for which they paid $299 per month and they downloaded 50 images, we would divide $299 by 50 to give a $5.98 PPF. This would result in a contributor royalty of $1.50, assuming a 25% rate.

If a customer bought an Essentials 100 image subscription for $149 and they downloaded 50 images, the PPF would be $2.98 per file. Assuming a 15% royalty, you would receive $0.45.

This method means you will always earn your royalty percent against a subscription download regardless of the specific subscription a customer purchased or how many downloads they made. If a customer downloads fewer files from their subscription you will earn more due to the higher PPF, with no maximum payments established. We are also implementing a minimum PPF as a safety net for when customers fully utilize their subscription download caps. Those minimums are as follows:

Category                                    Minimum PPF    Example royalty %    Example royalty payment
Non-Exclusive                               $0.10                  15%                           $0.02
Exclusive: Essentials/Signature    $0.75                   35%                           $0.26
Exclusive: Signature+                   $4.15                   35%                           $1.45


Gettyimages.com Royalty Rates
Royalty rates for all iStock content sold on gettyimages.com (GI Sales and API) will continue to be paid as follows:

                    Exclusive    Non-Exclusive
Photo            20%            15%
Illustration   20%             15%
Video            25%             20%

Summary
Were sharing these changes with you well in advance and also announcing them together so that you can see them in context. As mentioned above, the changes will result in us paying over a million dollars of additional royalties, while reducing complexity, increasing transparency and rewarding those who contribute high-quality exclusive content.

We are working hard to meet all of the scheduled dates mentioned above, but as with any technology project, delays are possible. If anything changes, well let you know as soon as we can.

We will update the Rate Card available on www.istockphoto.com/in/help/sell-stock/rate-schedule effective November 25, 2016 to reflect all of the changes above. To see the Rate Card that will be effective November 25, 2016, please click here.

Many thanks

The iStock team


« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2016, 12:14 »
+15
Too busy at the work now, and also looking forward to some of the smartest on this forum to digest the news and share their prognosis, but a first glance on the example of PPFs given in Getty's email makes me tremble:

Category                                    Minimum PPF    Example royalty %    Example royalty payment
Non-Exclusive                               $0.10                  15%                           $0.02

2 cents? What?...

« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2016, 12:16 »
+12
Probably time to stop uploading there

« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2016, 12:16 »
+19
Too busy at the work now, and also looking forward to some of the smartest on this forum to digest the news and share their prognosis, but a first glance on the example of PPFs given in Getty's email makes me tremble:

Category                                    Minimum PPF    Example royalty %    Example royalty payment
Non-Exclusive                               $0.10                  15%                           $0.02

2 cents? What?...

If this is TRUE I will close my port there immediately! No words any more.

« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2016, 12:16 »
+1
In short. So how much they cut this time? Is there anything for us?

« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2016, 12:17 »
+7
Probably time to stop uploading there

I stopped uploading there 2 months ago.

« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2016, 12:18 »
+26
 Not seeing any incentive for non exclusives to upload new material, especially with the minimum payout set at $0.02 for a subscription download and percentages based on the mystery amounts paid by customers. 15% of some undisclosed purchase price. 

« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2016, 12:18 »
+18
Positive news ... Ah ah ah ... for Getty i suppose ...

« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2016, 12:19 »
+34
I don`t care about istock. Hope they die soon.

« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2016, 12:19 »
+14
Looks like Getty has continued on the path of making themselves less relevant.

KB

« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2016, 12:20 »
+26
Too busy at the work now, and also looking forward to some of the smartest on this forum to digest the news and share their prognosis, but a first glance on the example of PPFs given in Getty's email makes me tremble:

Category                                    Minimum PPF    Example royalty %    Example royalty payment
Non-Exclusive                               $0.10                  15%                           $0.02

2 cents? What?...
2 cents is the MINIMUM, folks. Let's not get all bent out of shape.

The maximum is probably at least double that.  ::)

« Reply #11 on: October 25, 2016, 12:22 »
+26
I got that email as well.

A million dollars worth of cakes to the hungry people (Maria Antoinette) is not much, and 15 % for the artist is still an abusive share.

And as usual istock is very good at making simple things complicated and counterproductive.

Istock dont deserve more than 50%. They are not good, they are not fun, they are irritating, arrogant and abusive and not a good business partner.
My port there consists of a picture of an appropriate dead cockroach. The rest has been deleted, but still earns money, despite deleted, because of their copyright violations.


« Last Edit: October 25, 2016, 12:24 by JPSDK »

Lev

« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2016, 12:25 »
+1
Does anyone know what's current subscription minimal royalty for non-exclusives?

It will be 0.02 USD, but what is it now?

« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2016, 12:30 »
+2
Does anyone know what's current subscription minimal royalty for non-exclusives?

It will be 0.02 USD, but what is it now?

I think 25c for the lowest band?  I stand to be corrected

« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2016, 12:31 »
+2
Does anyone know what's current subscription minimal royalty for non-exclusives?

It will be 0.02 USD, but what is it now?
I think I saw a 6c sale there once.

Curiously, my 'credit subscription' sales data stops abruptly two years ago.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2016, 12:38 by BaldricksTrousers »

« Reply #15 on: October 25, 2016, 12:34 »
+13
I feel sick to my stomach.

The simple fact that a client can pay so little (10c) for an image through subscriptions sickens me. 

Surely buyers can, and they will make use of the 'whole' allocation.

I need to process this. Cannot compute

Justanotherphotographer

« Reply #16 on: October 25, 2016, 12:36 »
+5
Anyone that thinks we wont be seeing most sub downloads at or around the minimum hasn't been keeping an eye on how Getty operates.

Tror

« Reply #17 on: October 25, 2016, 12:37 »
+3
Does anyone know what's current subscription minimal royalty for non-exclusives?

It will be 0.02 USD, but what is it now?

Yes. $ 0.02. Filth economy.

« Reply #18 on: October 25, 2016, 12:38 »
0
I feel sick to my stomach.

The simple fact that a client can pay so little (10c) for an image through subscriptions sickens me. 

Surely buyers can, and they will make use of the 'whole' allocation.

I need to process this. Cannot compute

Seems they charge less than that as that price is a safety net minimum.

« Reply #19 on: October 25, 2016, 12:41 »
+34
I wish they would stop annoying me by always claiming it's "positive news" when what they mean is that they are positively going to cut the commission rate and the earnings even further. Sure it's positive for them, but not for the people who supply the product that they market.

« Reply #20 on: October 25, 2016, 12:43 »
+7
The simple fact that a client can pay so little (10c) for an image through subscriptions sickens me. 

I think that's the flipside of having to wade through so much content in order to find stuff to use. I'm not singling out iStock. The stock sites are bogged down with content. (My own legacy stuff included).

It's really hard to find good content which has been properly keyworded and properly curated. And the more images there are, the less they are worth.

gyllens

« Reply #21 on: October 25, 2016, 12:46 »
+3
Unbelievable! its just getting worse and worse. Its obvious Getty wants to shut them down. Its been a thorn in the side from the word go. I think that moronic Lobo guy who was with IS now is with Getty as well. He has pissed off so many that many known old stock photographers are leaving.

How can they possibly expect independent photographers to keep uploading after this news. They can jolly well sit there with a few dizzy exclusives who probably earns nothing but pennies anyway.

« Reply #22 on: October 25, 2016, 12:49 »
+3
Wait a bit and Shutterstock will set a new LOW)))) Greedy bustards)))

« Reply #23 on: October 25, 2016, 12:49 »
+9
"Yearly targets" is the biggest nonsense ever. Since the image library continues to grow and I can never outshoot the flood, this means that ever year my visibility in the collecton becomes smaller and I have less and less chances of reaching my "target".

Only lifetime earnings based on all file types and mediums makes sense.

They had the chance to reboot their system in a sensible way. But as usual they make it as complicated as never before.

The only interesting part is the share of the full subscription money. I have only heard mostphotos do that, so this might be a little light in a dark tunnel.

But overall it is not a reliable system and my income will always be unpredictable.

This is not the way to attract quality content, but it looks like they dont really expect that from us.

And yearly targets is no incentive to go exclusive. I think they will see a new exodus of longtime exclusives with high quality content.

Also no option for exclusive images, only full artist exclusivity, that getty itself doesnt have.

« Last Edit: October 25, 2016, 12:52 by cobalt »

« Reply #24 on: October 25, 2016, 12:52 »
+3
Just got the email..

Same old 'exciting news' about royalties.
Same old but it will increase sales and you will all be better off.
Same old it wont happen
Same old pay cut

but $ 0.02 an image is an all new level of taking the P!$$


 

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