http://www.smartcompany.com.au/growth/48650-canva-raises-us15-million-melanie-perkins-reveals-the-next-product-and-what-s-important-in-growing-a-business.html

In the article it mentions free use of the service for non profits - I'm not aware of any discussion of free use of otherwise fee bearing images. Perhaps they just get to use the free images?

It also says that the user base has doubled in four months (now 5 million users) and that there are 35K Canva for Work teams signed up.

TechCrunch also had an article

http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/06/design-platform-canva-scores-15-million-series-a-valued-at-165-million/

Not sure how long 123rf has had these prices, but I hadn't seen them before.

I don't know how much contributors will make on these new items, but the cost to the buyer, assuming they use all their allowance, is 52.6 cents an image with the 5 a day for one month and 35.89 cents for the 780 a month for one month.

I make 32.4 cents for each subscription - although I've seen some at 40.1 cents recently. Today I have two "subscriptions" that show $4.401 royalty (each) for me.

If we make the standard royalty on these new subscriptions, 123rf stands to make out like bandits if the new plans take off - higher prices with the same low royalties.

I looked at the royalty page and nothing has changed there:

http://www.123rf.com/contrib_structure.php

Why is telling contributors what you're doing something the agencies cannot or will not do? Complete lack of respect on their part.

Just received e-mail this morning from 123rf saying that starting July 1 2015 they will withhold tax on US based downloads based on country of residence.

I just went to the site and found the tax center (I didn't click on the link in the e-mail just in case it was phishing) and submitted my online W9 (I'm a US resident) and it seemed to go as expected.

Just posting here so that if someone didn't (for whatever reason) get the e-mail they can log in over the next couple of weeks and take care of the paperwork

In the "For Contributors" section at the bottom of website pages there's a new Tax Center link

http://www.123rf.com/tax/index.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/technology/personaltech/photoshop-at-25-a-thriving-chameleon-adapts-to-an-instagram-world.html

The New York Times is behind a paywall, but you do get some number of freebies (I think 10) each month, so I hope most people can read this.

Other than an interesting recap of the company's history, I found this quote from the exec in charge of software curious:

"Adobe also has grander plans to break up Photoshop into a number of apps, some of which it will make itself, with others made by third-party developers who will have access to Adobe�s image-processing systems online. In some cases, those apps will even be free.

�The goal is to go from tens of millions of people benefiting from the technology within Photoshop to hundreds of millions of people over the years,� Mr. Wadhwani said"

I'm not a big Instagram user, but have mucked about a bit; I find it hard to fathom how Photoshop can go there, and even if it did, why would their quick fix filters be any more appealing to people who really don't want to spend a lot of time on their photos than all those already out there.

But if they've set their sights on expanding their market from creative professionals to everyone with a smartphone camera, I can't see that being good for those of us who value the complex/high end/tools. Two different audiences with two different sets of needs, workflows and equipment.

Edited to summarize what we now know about Download Packs:

Bulk credit-like packs but a buyer gets any image (up to XXL) or EPS (no EVO, audio or video) for max $1.39 and minimum 82.2 cents (USD prices) - i.e. massively cheaper than buying credits.

The contributor gets one royalty credit (instead of 6 or 10 for XXL or EPS; think of what that will do for your future royalty level) and their percentage of the above price. There is a one month pack or one year - so expiration is the same as credits (12 months).

After much prodding, 123rf finally provided the details in this post:

http://www.microstockgroup.com/123royaltyfree-com/royalties-on-'download-pack'-aren't-at-your-level/msg387443/#msg387443

This is my original post:

123rf has a Download Pack option - not sure when it first started, but it currently says "limited time offer"

http://www.123rf.com/islogin_globalv10.2.php

And here's the image in case it isn't the same everywhere or goes away



I noticed this because I had contacted support about a subscription download that wasn't showing the right amount. I get 45% royalties, so my subs downloads should be 32.4 cents. I check at the beginning of the month because in the past they have paid out at the wrong rate for a while. This sub was at 26.7 cents - not the base rate of 21.6 cent I've seen before.

A day or so later the amount went up to 40.1 cents so I replied to support that the number had changed but it still wasn't correct - now it was too high. I received a reply this morning that it was correct because the "subscription" was from a download pack and that was the rate.

I'm not sure what to think of this. At $1.39 per image (if they buy for a month and get 100 images), my 40.1 cents is 28.7%, quite a bit shy of my 45% royalty. As this is a non-subscription subscription (the numbers roll over if you renew in 30 days) that seems very much like the scams we've seen with DP and Fotolia's Dollar Photo Club.

If someone buys the  1200 images for a year I get 34.6% - better, but still shy of 45%

I didn't see any e-mail to contributors about this and honestly I don't see why it's OK to slightly hike the subscription payout on a credit pack instead of paying the agreed upon rate (45% in my case) - 62.6 cents or 52.1 cents, depending on the package.

ETA: Is the unlimited print run new? I hadn't realized they had no limit on print runs....

Did anyone else have to log in today and get some screens with tips and then the above message?

I didn't log out last night, but periodically the server requires a login so that's no biggie. After I typed the captcha and clicked OK a popup window came up with some information about submitting video. There were tabs for images and illustrations.

I clicked on the photos tab and it said something about making sure my images were in focus

I clicked some other tab and got the Congratulations message. The only button to leave this dialog was upload, so I clicked that.

My balance was showing and everything was as expected after that, but I was a bit spooked by being greeted this way. I wondered if some software update had brought this about or my account status had changed in some way... My sales today are paying at the correct rate, so they can call me what they like if they pay me the right amount

I just received e-mail from Shutterstock - I assume targeting contributors given the e-mail address used - advertising ShutterTalk "Turn Your Passion into Cash"

Not clear if it's designed for those considering becoming contributors or existing contributors who could improve with help:



I'm in the Seattle area and Toronto is a little far to go for a 2 hour workshop

They know my address, so I'm not sure why they'd send this out to someone so far from the site. I've never received anything like this from them before - has anyone else?

http://www.shutterstock.com/team/subscribe.mhtml

I saw a new linkk (I think it's new) on the prices and plans page "See Business Solutions" which took me here:

http://www.shutterstock.com/business-solutions.mhtml

They don't post the prices on the enterprise stuff, but I'm guessing that's where the SODs come from. For the Small business teams, they get 35 a day "team" subscriptions for $339, $479 or $554 a month depending on how many users (2, 3 or 4)

Do we see any of the extra cash (for the multi-seat license)? I understand that some part of the extra is for more downloads, which we wouldn't get a higher royalty on, but some part is for the extra seats.

These prices are monthly but based on a one year deal. The 25 a day license on an annual basis is $213.25/month for one user.

For $125.75 more you get 35 a day and 2 users

for $140 more you get the above plus a third user

For $75 more you get a 4th user

They also mention "Increased distribution and indemnification." - what does that mean?

It's great that they're expanding their offerings, but I'd like to know how they're sharing the extra with us

This is a 6 minute interview from Feb 26th from Bloomberg's Market Makers series

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/shutterstock-brings-stock-photography-into-focus-0UVtjzz9RCWOG20D0WDU3w.html

I hadn't seen this before (found a link from Yahoo Finance)

Although the two interviewers kept interrupting Jon Oringer, they did ask some decent follow up questions - such as about what Shutterstock's success had done for photographer income - along with the expected.

The questions about whether Shutterstock had gone to the cloud sounded a bit formulaic - as if they know that's a new thing so they ask everyone what they're doing with the cloud - but after a brief waffle (I think perhaps Oringer wasn't expecting it as it really didn't make a ton of sense as asked) he fielded it with a reasonable answer. I'm guessing today WebDAM would be the answer but that didn't get announced until March 3rd

I forget what started me on some Google searches this morning, but I wanted to compare searches for well known microstockers to others and typed in Sean Locke. What a feast that was Click for full size


I was amused to see that Sean is beaten to the top spot on a search for his own name by a comedian with a different last name!

Then I was wondering what the comedian would think about Sean's picture being in the collection of his likenesses

Perhaps I had something to do with the moustache and the devil horns - can't blame Google for everything...

I guess that I found it interesting that Google conflated the two without even a "did you mean" note at the top. It's also amusing that if you search for the comedian's name it drops Sean's image out of the lineup.

Perhaps Sean could try standup and put this other guy out of business

I upgraded to Lightroom 5 last week (I know, I'm slow!) and put together a blog about some real time savers in using multiple Graduated Filters and/or Radial Filters to develop RAW files. I was really impressed with how much Photoshop time I could save this way

http://www.digitalbristles.com/lightroom-5-developing-magic/

I received e-mail from Alamy this morning titled "Remember us?" and noting that I haven't uploaded for a while. It goes on to say "Come and see what we've been up to and make 2014 the year you start submitting to Alamy again. We've got some exciting things up our sleeves for this year so don't miss out."

The only thing I'm missing of late at Alamy are sales. I stopped uploading when sales just slowed to a trickle. Their uploading process is a pain in the butt and without any reason to expect sales in the future they're at the bottom of my To-Do list.

But what puzzles me is that Alamy is awash in content - why would they care about getting new uploads? Especially from a relatively small contributor like me?