Author Topic: Fast Company article about Pixels.com (Read 7983 times)

Shelma1 · « **on:** June 09, 2014, 14:00 »

Sounds great, but What do you all think of its chances? I don't have any work on FAA so am unfamiliar with it.

http://www.fastcocreate.com/3029149/pixelscom-licensing-service-promises-artists-control-over-their-own-financial-destiny

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #1 on:** June 09, 2014, 15:58 »

I do have work on FAA and have set up licensing for most of the work I have there (not the editorial stuff; you can create your own licenses, but I don't want to spend the time doing that unless this marketplace takes off).

I've priced things so the buyer pays just about the same price I charge on my own (Symbiostock) site - I would just pay FAA a bit more than I pay PayPal for each transaction. I say would because there have been no license sales thus far. I'm not sure there ever will be because I don't think Sean knows anything about licensing images. There was quite a bit of discussion at the time he launched this and he's a bit messianic about himself and figures any comments that aren't positive are a personal attack.

I'll certainly post here if any sales materialize, but I'm not going to do any marketing on this and I don't expect he (Sean/FAA) is either.

ShadySue · « **Reply #2 on:** June 09, 2014, 16:08 »

I've marked some of my non-iS work as RM there, but like JoAnn, not with much hope.

DF_Studios · « **Reply #3 on:** June 09, 2014, 19:22 »

Slim. No staff, no knowledge of the business, no marketing. What is the 30% commission to FAA for? Rent of online storage space? Stock agencies take a cut because they cultivate buyers. If one is to do all of their own marketing, you'd be better off with Symbiostock and keep all the profit.

Shelma1 · « **Reply #4 on:** June 09, 2014, 19:31 »

Ah, too bad. $:-\$

Thanks for your opinions.

Ariene · « **Reply #5 on:** June 10, 2014, 02:18 »

delete.

ShadySue · « **Reply #6 on:** June 11, 2014, 18:00 »

When is the image licensing supposed to go live?

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #7 on:** June 11, 2014, 18:37 »

Quote from: ShadySue on June 11, 2014, 18:00

When is the image licensing supposed to go live?

It's been alive (undead?

for a while now. No sales yet for me (although I don't know how they'll get reported; I get e-mail when I sell a print)

ShadySue · « **Reply #8 on:** June 11, 2014, 18:52 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on June 11, 2014, 18:37

Quote from: ShadySue on June 11, 2014, 18:00
When is the image licensing supposed to go live?

It's been alive (undead? for a while now. No sales yet for me (although I don't know how they'll get reported; I get e-mail when I sell a print)

Hmm.
I found my port on pixels.com and was worried to see all my images there. However, checking the ones which aren't marked and priced for RM, I see that they are not available for licensing.
However, looking at some which are marked and priced, although going into edit mode shows that I have priced them and marked them for RM, I can't see how someone could license one, even if they wanted to.
I can't find out how to do it from the Start Shopping page either, and can't see any reference to licensing, just a list of all the physical products.
http://pixels.com/artdirectory.html

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #9 on:** June 11, 2014, 21:13 »

http://licensing.pixels.com/featured/sun-dips-below-horizon-on-grace-bay-beach-jo-ann-snover.html?licensetype=0

You have to start from pixels.com and then at the top of the home page, on the right, you can click Licensing. Then do a search from that screen (and you'll see many fewer products available as not everyone has opted for doing this)

Shelma1 · « **Reply #10 on:** June 11, 2014, 21:14 »

I just chose a random image under "digital art," and here's how they say to buy it:

Direct From the Artist Price$69.99 Dimensions12.000 x 12.000 x 0.500 inches
This original digital art is currently for sale. At the present time, originals are not offered for sale through the Pixels.com secure checkout system. Please contact the artist directly to inquire about purchasing this original.
Click here to contact the artist.

So I guess the buyer gets in touch with you and you sell it directly.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #11 on:** June 11, 2014, 22:07 »

Digital art isn't the same thing as licensing. That's purchasing (one time) the original

ShadySue · « **Reply #12 on:** June 12, 2014, 05:36 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on June 11, 2014, 21:13

http://licensing.pixels.com/featured/sun-dips-below-horizon-on-grace-bay-beach-jo-ann-snover.html?licensetype=0

You have to start from pixels.com and then at the top of the home page, on the right, you can click Licensing. Then do a search from that screen (and you'll see many fewer products available as not everyone has opted for doing this)

Thanks, Jo-Ann.
I guess there's extremely little chance of any licence sales, then (even less than I thought!) How would someone arriving on pixels.com easily guess that licensing is available?
Still being dim, I went into my own profile on pixels.com, wanting to double check I hadn't assigned anything RM which is editorial, and can't see from within my profile how to see my licensable files. Can you direct me to that, please?

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #13 on:** June 12, 2014, 09:37 »

I did a search for one of my images from the licensing part of the site (RF in my case) and then clicked on the link for my portfolio (my name) from that page. That displayed my RF licensable portfolio (versus my full portfolio as you'd see it on FAA).

I looked at some of the prices people have assigned and it's all over the map. I see work from stock artists that is available on Shutterstock and elsewhere and an RF license on pixels.com is set for $260 for the original size. I can't see the logic in that. And I'm talking about images of fruit and such.

There's one artist who has a lovely oil on canvas of a male torso and the full size (about 5K x 9K pixels) is set for $1,560 for an RF license.

As a buyer, you can't see the prices from search results, or sort by price, so I can't see this being a very appealing site for general use. If for some reason you need to license a particular image and it's only available there, it might generate a sale.

ShadySue · « **Reply #14 on:** June 12, 2014, 11:41 »

It all seems extremely haphazard then. Prices ridiculously higher than you have on SS (or anywhere) is insane. I priced mine around the full iS Signature - Sig+ price (for images not on iS, though some are on Alamy RM). All sorts of buying (products, licenses, artwork) on one site, and not really clear to buyers how to license. Weird.

ShadySue · « **Reply #15 on:** June 13, 2014, 09:51 »

OK, next stupid question.
Are they doing away with FAA altogether?
When I try to get into Fine Art America, I always end up on pixels.com (without trying anything fancy to get into FAA).
Is that because I'm furth of the US, or is that happening to everyone?
Grrr, I spent several rainy hours over last weekend setting up 'sponsor' pages to FAA.

DF_Studios · « **Reply #16 on:** June 13, 2014, 10:31 »

What buyer would want prices all over the place? The stock agencies offer staffing, customer support, consistent prices, screened and cleaned images and a level of protection from potential copyright infringement problems.

FAA offers none of that. They do have unique artwork that is probably not available anywhere else, but a potential licensor could contact and deal with any artist directly without the need for a middleman. All FAA has done is muck up their core business with this distraction when they should be focused on developing new markets for the fine art.

Also what is the point of offering work at microstock prices when there is no volume of purchases? The chances of a sale are so slim one should only attempt RM sales IMO.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #17 on:** June 13, 2014, 13:13 »

Quote from: ShadySue on June 13, 2014, 09:51

When I try to get into Fine Art America, I always end up on pixels.com (without trying anything fancy to get into FAA).

I'm not seeing what you're seeing. I via Google (versus my bookmark) I get to fineartamerica.com as expected.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #18 on:** June 13, 2014, 13:37 »

Unless there's an MSG member with a sense of humor who made this purchase, I've sold my first RF license for an image via pixels.com!

http://licensingpixels.com/saleannouncement.html?id=9ad28f5cfd5a2b3a6ce2b300cd9e1b92

$16 to me for the full size image.

Shelma1 · « **Reply #19 on:** June 13, 2014, 13:52 »

Congrats! That's great. Now my interest is renewed. Hmmm...

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #20 on:** June 13, 2014, 13:57 »

Quote from: Shelma1 on June 13, 2014, 13:52

Congrats! That's great. Now my interest is renewed. Hmmm...

What's that old expression about one swallow not making it Spring?

I only posted because I'd said I doubted it would generate sales - i.e. I was wrong, and it was the first sale. I still don't see how it can really take off - but as CanStock has had a dismal June for me - and is a very low earner anyway - that one sale on pixels.com beat my CanStock total so far in June by $2

ShadySue · « **Reply #21 on:** June 13, 2014, 17:45 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on June 13, 2014, 13:37

Unless there's an MSG member with a sense of humor who made this purchase, I've sold my first RF license for an image via pixels.com!

http://licensingpixels.com/saleannouncement.html?id=9ad28f5cfd5a2b3a6ce2b300cd9e1b92

$16 to me for the full size image.

Congratulations!

Mantis · « **Reply #22 on:** June 13, 2014, 18:55 »

Quote from: Shelma1 on June 09, 2014, 14:00

Sounds great, but What do you all think of its chances? I don't have any work on FAA so am unfamiliar with it.

http://www.fastcocreate.com/3029149/pixelscom-licensing-service-promises-artists-control-over-their-own-financial-destiny

I don't trust him. He isn't putting any effort into FAA so why would we believe he will do the same with pixels.com? It might get to the point where cash flow is good.......for him....then he'll abandon any future investments that continues give artists a fair shot, makes searches easy and accurate for buyers and site reduce functionality from being buggy. Just my 2 cents.

ShadySue · « **Reply #23 on:** June 13, 2014, 19:43 »

When searching, if you make even a simple typo you get no results - not even an attempt at suggesting what you might have wanted. That's very unusual. As is not being able to set case correctly, nor being able to incorporate non-alphanumeric characters (like apostrophes) in titles, which can give a really bad first impression.

ShadySue · « **Reply #24 on:** June 17, 2014, 10:06 »

I just noticed that the first page showing in RF has considerable overlap with those showing as RM. I clicked on one at random, and it's marked RF AND RM, with no obvious reason why anyone would choose to buy RM at a higher price than they're charging for full size RF, with no exclusivity.

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Author Topic: Fast Company article about Pixels.com (Read 7983 times)

Shelma1

Jo Ann Snover

ShadySue

DF_Studios

Shelma1

Ariene

ShadySue

Jo Ann Snover

ShadySue

Jo Ann Snover

Shelma1

Jo Ann Snover

ShadySue

Jo Ann Snover

ShadySue

ShadySue

DF_Studios

Jo Ann Snover

Jo Ann Snover

Shelma1

Jo Ann Snover

ShadySue

Mantis

ShadySue

ShadySue

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