With Eyeem you got mainly sales via Getty that did results in a 10% commission.(20% Getty and from that 50% from EyeEm)
Now they claim that they are not sustainable and so the reduce the commission even further.
I actually liked them in the past now they I can clearly say they suck big time!

I received an email today from Eyeem about the new terms and conditions....which mean a cut in payments so that the will pay me less from February.  Sad that they are going the same way that Shutterstock did.

Already sent them an email to close my account and delete my photos from there, same as I did with Shutterstock.  There is a limit to how many cuts that I will accept and things have now gone too far.   Not worth selling when the companies are taking more and more commission from lower prices.   

I would rather NOT sell for a very low price.    So now I have also closed my Eyeem account.



Jerry

I just looked on the site, it still says 50%, could you please quote the new terms as they are in the email?

https://eyeem.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360016650057


Took me only minutes to close my account...

Thanks, interesting reading. At least the levels are for minimum of12 months when you move up.

Also since I didn't know, partners are Getty and Adobe? Like others, the artists get a percentage of the leftover percentage?

It seems like only Getty still select images from eyeEm. On Alamy very very long time no new images from eyeEm, also long time not on Adobe.
Getty select images like they want and WHEN they want: It took me 2 month until Getty took 26 images (from around 50) in only one day. It was an exciting day, because hourly more got selected. Since then they only took 6 more images from my selected images - 107 minus 32 = 75 are still waiting in the selected for partner section - some of them already 7 month.
I got one sale for 2.20 usd - payout (RPD). Not to bad compared with penny sales like others get.

eyeEm was my favourite agency for many reasons. but the email today shocked me totaly. I am also thinking about concentrating on other agencies. eyeEm lost its atmosphere and soul with the new payment level system.

That they are NOW starting to lie to all in a bad way is obviously after I read their reason:
from the email:
#We wanted to let you know that we are updating our Terms of Service for Photographers. From next February, we will be introducing a new payout structure designed to reward our top-selling photographers more and support EyeEm's future. #
We also can read behind the lines : We treat the bad selling photographers now. Go away with your bad selling images, which only cost much money to save.

#Which Level will be applicable to your future sales, is defined on a quarterly basis, based on the total sales of the previous 12 months. By default new users will start in Level 3 for a period of 12 months after registration.
The sale of a license and your Level will be displayed in your user account. You may choose to receive an in-app notification.

Payout Level            Payout Level 4/Payout Level 3 /Payout Level 2 /Payout Level 1
Revenue Threshold    $0 - $299          $300 - $2,999  $3,000 - $6,999     $7,000+
License Revenue Share   25%                  35%                   45%                   55%

@ Jo Ann:

15. Termination and Deletion of Your Account...

Thanks. I've written to them in reply to the new terms letter (the link at the bottom) saying that if I can be paid (not sure what wiggle room they have with the "...within the deletion request process...") please close my account and pay me.

https://www.eyeem.com/terms/photographers-feb2021update

view number 12 in case

EyeEm was very helpful - and prompt. I received my outstanding balance this morning and they will be closing my account. The partner stuff will take a while to be removed from Getty, and I think (but have requested confirmation) that any balance due from that after the 180 days are up will be paid later.

I think for non exclusive content, especially for those that produce peoplestock/lifestyle, it can be an interesting opportunity to forego istock and have their content placed visibly on getty where the high value sales are more often.

You will have your content in Shutterstock, Adobe, Dreamstime etc...and more expensive Getty collections instead of istock.

So you give up istock with 15% and send to eyeem for 45-55% (at least that is what the pros should be able to achieve). Of course you get less from what the customer paid, because you are sharing with eyeem, but this should be compensated by getting more higher sales.

Downside: you have no idea how much of your content will be taken and when it will be moved over to getty.

The direct sales at eyeem seem to be completly dead, I have around 3800 files in their marketplace and since I got kicked out of the Getty collection, my sales have disappeared. Which means these files will automatically drop down to 25% and it doesn�t look like the eyeem marketplace will ever pick up.

There really does not seem to be any advantage to upload to eyeem if your port is not connected to Getty.

For the casual or hobby shooter - well for non exclusive content you expect to get 30% on average in the industry. But the most important is the actual revenue, so it is hard to tell how much you will earn. So for the hobby shooter it is a decent offer at least on paper.

However, since they said they mostly want lifestyle, professionally produced �authentic� people stock, which is actually quite difficult to produce, the majority of uploaders will not see their content move on to getty and thus have little chances of getting sales. Just like me they will mostly be stuck in the lower royalty range.

Since we have all been told, some of us in very painful ways, that istock moves ALL content to gettyimages and not just the istock exclusive content, it sounds like it would be better to send content to istock. Because it will also give you sales from istock that is a real agency and has lots of direct sales.

The other problem is the upload experience. Eyeem does not have a professional upload interface. Even very small agencies do a much better job and eyeem has been around forever.

They also don�t have professional sorting tools, so you cannot even make your portfolio attractive for buyers and also for buyers the experience is not professional.

This has been mentioned many times, but I am not seeing any real changes.

Eyeem is a photo community with an agency added on as an afterthought. Selling stock is not their main business MO.

Now, the producers of more high quality macrostock content, they usually already have a contract directly with Gettyimages or a contract with a professional macrostock distributor, sometimes with over 100 partners.

And for high quality exclusive content, especially peoplestock, they expect 50%. So the eyeem offer with shifting percentages is lower than the usual market rate for high quality content. And eyeem is not offering a wide ranging active distribution agreements, it looks like transfers to Adobe or Alamy etc...have stopped or are very rare.

Mostly I am discouraged about all this talk of promoting getty, or having the content �fast tracked� to getty, if you send them your best work.

I left Gettyimages long ago and started uploading to eyeem because I was hoping they would build an alternative fair trade marketplace for creatives.

If the only possibility for sales is via Getty, then why not send it to istock instead, especially now that we have been told that all non exclusive content goes there? And immediately, without having to wait?

In general, for non exclusive content, the rate card or levels is fine. The high volume peoplestock producers can now earn more and enjoy having their files on getty in addition to Adobe or Shutterstock.

But for those of us who produce more slowly or have only a small percentage of suitable content it looks like putting that exclusively with a specialized macrostock distributor who always shares 50% is a better option.

But what is missing most of all is a vision how they want to increase direct sales???

Are they going to invest aggressively in the buyer experience, strongly expand their sales team?

Will they improve the upload interface to at least match professional standards of a normal agency?

Get themselves connected to stockperformer??

They are taking in a lot more money - will that be used to invest in the business, or will it just go to the owners?

I do not want to mix to threads, but what Jo Ann and cobalt wrote:

You have to have in your mind that Getty and iStock (and shitterstock) photos and footage are available on Promo.com for free!!!

So for what Getty via eyeEm anymore? My partner images:  32 partner from 107 selected total (including 32 partner) and yes, from series Getty chosen only a part and there are selected images waiting to choose from Getty since 7 month.

50% from that what eyeEm gets from Getty - that will change in February to 25% also from that images sold via Getty, isn�t it?
Example: 499* on Getty: 20% for eyeEm = 99,80, 25% from eyeEm for the artist = 24,80
small size: 50** on Getty: 20% for eyeEm = 10, 25% from eyeEm for the artist = 2,50

*499 on Getty compared with 99 (merch) on eyeEm: 25% for the Artist = 24,50

Interesting, isn�t it?
Even IF somebody buys on Getty for full prize of 499 and the Artist at the end gets 24,80. On eyeEm market with merch sale the artist gets 24,50!!!!! only 0,30 difference! For what selling on Getty via eyeEm anymore?

Alamy: 255 merch Aritist 40% = 102

Who sells more often?
Well, might be Alamy sells nowadays also only web/private licenses for 9,99/sub 8: Artist gets 2,50 or 2

Even zoonar with its express: 8 Artist 50% = 4

Adobe, because beloved from most here:
Range from 0,33 to maximum 35% from 79,99 = 26,40 (compare with 24,80 Getty and 24,50 eyeEm!)

Who sells more XXL and merch license?
**50 small size on Getty: Artist 2,50
Adobe 0,33 for the Artist. So we have to sell 7 or 8 times more on Adobe
That�s much easier than 1 time on Getty, isn�t it?
 
Seems like Adobe wins! Because Adobe also sells much more often than Alamy, which is still the best payout agency for merch license. Oh no! Zoonar with 588 merch for Artist 50% = 294

Bottom line:
Adobe 0,33
Alamy 2 - 2,50
Getty 2,50
eyeEm 25% from 29 or sub 23 = 7,25 or sub 5,75
Zoonar 4

Okay, doubletrouble and little bit chaotic - cannot sleep again, sorry

A couple of years ago you could get three-figure sales, but this is just a sample of what I was getting before I got kicked out of Getty due to the duplication of photos with Istock:

Yes, indeed, Eyeem direct sales are great, but the problem is that nobody knows when they are distributed, one month everyone is happy because it is time to distribute, but after that, until 2, 3 or maybe 4 months later, you never know, they are not distributed again. This is not serious.

Usually you expect 50% or more for exclusive content, 30% for non exclusive, at least in the photo world.

Selling content online is very hard work and extremely expensive. i think a lot of artists totally underestimate how much work it is.

After all there are agencies that only take 10%, but you never have any sales...

So in principle the rate card looks reasonable, because this is gross sales value, not the part the artist gets. It is not like the old lifetime earning rate card of Shutterstock.

Of course you don't know how the royalties will develop, but for professional stockers staying around 45% should be possible.

It is the uncertainty of where eyeem is going that together with the unprofessional upload system, lack of direct sales,, double inspection process and "surprises" for retro active exclusivity for non exclusive content that makes the whole package look very complicated.

Also...in the middle of a pandemic...why cut the royalties just days before Christmas???

Was making the announcement end of January and then to be implemented first of April really such a hard sacrifice?? 2020 is just horrible, why add to it??

What would be interesting to read would be a professional introduction of the new CEO to the producer community. Does he have a blog somewhere where he shares his vision for growing the business?

Or at least an interview directed at the customers how he plans to grow and expand eyeem?

Because there is a high risk that it just becomes another 500px. A low earning Gettyportal whith mostly micro and nanostock sales and a slow transfer process.

Retail markup on average is 50%.  When retail stores do sales, it's a cut on their profit.  They don't get money back from wholesalers. 

No it's not 50%. Yes they do get incentives and discounts to run sales. You need to get your facts straight and make some logical arguments, not just making up imaginary numbers which make no sense and make your arguments look silly and uninformed.

Amazon has had a net margin of 2% or under for years. Retailers tend to have profit margins that are lower than in other sectors, which can run between 0.5% and 3.5%. Web-only retailers generally have the lowest profit margins, while building supply and distribution retailers have the best margins⁠�reaching as high as 5%.

We should all demand 50% commission from all stock sites.  Art galleries pay artists 50-60% typically.  #5050FairPayForArtists 

Demand what you want, the objective should be actually getting a fair percentage.

Have you gone to and joined the stock coalition ? Please do.  At least with a group effort you can do more than your never ending rants, here and on SS forum.

https://stockcoalition.org/

Yes, indeed, Eyeem direct sales are great, but the problem is that nobody knows when they are distributed, one month everyone is happy because it is time to distribute, but after that, until 2, 3 or maybe 4 months later, you never know, they are not distributed again. This is not serious.

Sounds like a serious management and consistency issue, I wouldn't submit anything to someplace that can't make and keep some responsible schedule.

I hate to add this, but does anyone have any idea how many partner sites Getty or iStock actually have. Not just incoming suppliers, but API partners for their images? We don't know who's got our work. That goes for the rest too, just pointing out that Getty seems the largest with thousands of unknown partner who sell our work.

# Yes, indeed, Eyeem direct sales are great, but the problem is that nobody knows when they are distributed, one month everyone is happy because it is time to distribute, but after that, until 2, 3 or maybe 4 months later, you never know, they are not distributed again. This is not serious. #

Can you please explain it? I did not get it yet.

Do you mean: 1 month / First month is good for selling or for customers could find out work. But than later our images will get lost somewhere? Might be little bit similar with Adobes first month  important for ranking?

No, nothing to do with the rankings in Adobe. I will try to explain it better. You never know when there will be a distribution of sales at the Eyeem Market. With the sales through Getty Partner the distribution is during the last days of the month, sometimes more and sometimes less, but the direct sales at the Eyeem Market are distributed in the middle of the month, but not every month, just a few months along the year, it is not a question of rankings or a bad month for a specific contributor, this is for everybody, I�ve talk about it with others contributors, it is quite strange. For example one year they pay on June, July and November, but the next year is different.