Agency Based Discussion > CanStockPhoto.com

Another exciting news email

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Mantis:
From CANSTOCK

We have some exciting updates we wanted to let you know about.

Exclusive License Purchases

We’ve launched the ability for you to sell exclusive rights to your content, with the ability to set prices in advance or allow customers to inquire about a price. The entire process takes place directly through our site, with us collecting the payment up-front in escrow and crediting your account once the agreement is signed.

The next time you log in, you’ll be asked if you’d like to offer exclusive license purchases. Click “yes” and all your images will have the ability for customers to request a price to purchase the exclusive rights from you. Optionally, you can also pre-set the selling price for the exclusive rights for each of your images.

Hire an Expert

A common question we get from customers is how they can hire an artist for custom work or for altering existing images. There is a considerable demand for hiring artists for custom work, and until now we didn’t have a good way to facilitate these requests. That all changes today!

We’re now launching a new interface that allows you to work directly with customers to provide alterations to your existing content, and create new custom content on request. The entire process takes place directly through the site, with us collecting the payment up-front from the customer and holding it in escrow until the work is completed. You control what you charge, what services you provide, and have the ability to opt-out or decline requests.

The next time you log in, you’ll be asked if you’d like to offer alteration requests. Click “yes” and all your images will give customers the ability to request a quote for custom alterations.  You’ll also be invited to create packaged services that you provide (e.g. business cards, custom characters, product photos, etc.), which will be specially featured for customers looking for those types of services.

Notifications by Text/SMS

For both exclusive license requests and custom work requests, you’ll want to be notified as soon as a customer contacts you. To help enable this, you can now get text/SMS notifications as soon as you receive a message. To add your number, go to “My Account” -> “Contributor Preferences”.

Video Purchase Options

Over the coming months we will be launching additional options for customers to purchase footage files. By offering more options for videos to be purchased, we expect to increase video sales volume and ultimately increase commissions paid to videographers. To facilitate this, as of August 1st we will be switching from the existing rigid fixed dollar commission to a percentage of what the customer paid. This will allow us to test different pricing options to maximize your earnings. See below for details.

Payout Schedule Changes

For exclusive licenses and custom work, the commission is unchanged from our present “Custom Licenses (e.g. exclusive rights, logos, etc.)” category of 50%. But for clarity, the commission category will be renamed to “Exclusive Licenses, Custom Licenses, and Custom Work”. Also, we are removing the previous upsampled TIFF download size and replacing it with an equivalent dimension XXL JPG.

Jo Ann Snover:
I didn't see anything on their web site with details about the process by which money is released to the contributor as part of the "hire an expert" option.

If everything always went smoothly with client accepting the work/creative getting paid, you wouldn't need an agent to hold the money while the work is done (and lose a large chunk of the earnings in the process).

If there are squabbles with the client (who gets the finished work but says it isn't what they wanted and doesn't want to pay, for example), how can the contributor avoid getting scammed (work is done and false complaints hold up payment)?

If I were still with CanStock (I'm not), I'd want to get lots of detail about how this setup would work before putting in hours up front with no deposit in hand.

changingsky:
It is just another exciting news, nothing else, so usual already. Many of us have already an "exciting news blindness", the same effect like "banner blind".

Microstockphoto:
people do love to moan dont they, i think for once it is a bit of good news

Justanotherphotographer:

Sounds promising, but no info regarding how pricing works. Do we get 100% of price we quote with CS adding their fee on top or do they take a percentage out of our end?

123RF and SS for example ask how much you want then add whatever they like when you sell the rights (you don’t ever get to know what the customer paid).

DT takes a percentage of the price you set.

Of course I would need the details before agreeing.

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