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Author Topic: iStock Royalty Change  (Read 114144 times)

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« Reply #150 on: October 26, 2016, 06:33 »
+11
With a roll over subscription package, calculation of your cut will have to wait until the subs have been used up or expired, so you could be waiting a while before payout, is that the case?  Or would a cut off point at the end of each month be used.  In which case if only 50% is used one month you are on a winner, but if 150% was use in the second month you lose?  Nice to have a simpler, more transparent system.


ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #151 on: October 26, 2016, 06:39 »
+7
With a roll over subscription package, calculation of your cut will have to wait until the subs have been used up or expired, so you could be waiting a while before payout, is that the case?  Or would a cut off point at the end of each month be used.  In which case if only 50% is used one month you are on a winner, but if 150% was use in the second month you lose?  Nice to have a simpler, more transparent system.

Hahahaha, you have raised a very good point"
You could ask over on their forum, but they have a nasty habit of totally ignoring awkward questions.

« Reply #152 on: October 26, 2016, 07:34 »
+7
With a roll over subscription package, calculation of your cut will have to wait until the subs have been used up or expired, so you could be waiting a while before payout, is that the case?  Or would a cut off point at the end of each month be used.  In which case if only 50% is used one month you are on a winner, but if 150% was use in the second month you lose?  Nice to have a simpler, more transparent system.

Hahahaha, you have raised a very good point"
You could ask over on their forum, but they have a nasty habit of totally ignoring awkward questions.

Let's be serious. Nobody is paying 133,25 Euro for downloading 750 images / month and actually get only 200. Those who buy such a big pack of images are big agencies or Chinese / Russians who re-sale our work. And they will never download less images.
And even somebody that needs let's say 3 images and pays for 10. He always think what he will be needing in the future and take all 10 images. Let's don't try to fool ourselves :)

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #153 on: October 26, 2016, 07:37 »
+7
With a roll over subscription package, calculation of your cut will have to wait until the subs have been used up or expired, so you could be waiting a while before payout, is that the case?  Or would a cut off point at the end of each month be used.  In which case if only 50% is used one month you are on a winner, but if 150% was use in the second month you lose?  Nice to have a simpler, more transparent system.

Hahahaha, you have raised a very good point"
You could ask over on their forum, but they have a nasty habit of totally ignoring awkward questions.

Let's be serious. Nobody is paying 133,25 Euro for downloading 750 images / month and actually get only 200. Those who buy such a big pack of images are big agencies or Chinese / Russians who re-sale our work. And they will never download less images.
And even somebody that needs let's say 3 images and pays for 10. He always think what he will be needing in the future and take all 10 images. Let's don't try to fool ourselves :)
It's not an issue anyway as subs roll over.
The point obj-owl was making is that it will take much longer now for us to get our payments, as no doubt iS will wait until all the subs are used up before paying us our minimum. That could be months.

Shelma1

  • stockcoalition.org
« Reply #154 on: October 26, 2016, 07:39 »
+10
Or maybe they'll suddenly start issuing a series of small refunds because they paid us too much the month before.  ;)

« Reply #155 on: October 26, 2016, 07:47 »
0
With a roll over subscription package, calculation of your cut will have to wait until the subs have been used up or expired, so you could be waiting a while before payout, is that the case?  Or would a cut off point at the end of each month be used.  In which case if only 50% is used one month you are on a winner, but if 150% was use in the second month you lose?  Nice to have a simpler, more transparent system.

Hahahaha, you have raised a very good point"
You could ask over on their forum, but they have a nasty habit of totally ignoring awkward questions.

Let's be serious. Nobody is paying 133,25 Euro for downloading 750 images / month and actually get only 200. Those who buy such a big pack of images are big agencies or Chinese / Russians who re-sale our work. And they will never download less images.
And even somebody that needs let's say 3 images and pays for 10. He always think what he will be needing in the future and take all 10 images. Let's don't try to fool ourselves :)
It's not an issue anyway as subs roll over.
The point obj-owl was making is that it will take much longer now for us to get our payments, as no doubt iS will wait until all the subs are used up before paying us our minimum. That could be months.

That is true, but my question is: will they have what to pay to you? Probably will be at the end of every month. As I can see, no matter what kind of subscription plan do you take, you have to download a number of images during a month - depending on what pack you choose.
Sorry If I do not express myself clearly. I'm not native, as you can assume :)

Justanotherphotographer

« Reply #156 on: October 26, 2016, 08:00 »
+6
With a roll over subscription package, calculation of your cut will have to wait until the subs have been used up or expired, so you could be waiting a while before payout, is that the case?  Or would a cut off point at the end of each month be used.  In which case if only 50% is used one month you are on a winner, but if 150% was use in the second month you lose?  Nice to have a simpler, more transparent system.

Hahahaha, you have raised a very good point"
You could ask over on their forum, but they have a nasty habit of totally ignoring awkward questions.

Let's be serious. Nobody is paying 133,25 Euro for downloading 750 images / month and actually get only 200. Those who buy such a big pack of images are big agencies or Chinese / Russians who re-sale our work. And they will never download less images.
And even somebody that needs let's say 3 images and pays for 10. He always think what he will be needing in the future and take all 10 images. Let's don't try to fool ourselves :)
It's not an issue anyway as subs roll over.
The point obj-owl was making is that it will take much longer now for us to get our payments, as no doubt iS will wait until all the subs are used up before paying us our minimum. That could be months.
Or never? is there a limit to how many times they can roll over images?

I guess now we know the thinking behind the rollover, even though we know through SS that the download limit is enough for most people's usage.

If someone's subscription is ongoing and unused downloads are rolling over from month to month how do they calculate what percentage of a customer's downloads have been used for the purposes of calculating our cut? There seems to be a lot of leeway and opportunity for making sure we get either the minimum possible return or endlessly have to wait to be paid.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #157 on: October 26, 2016, 08:00 »
+5
@Luka: no problems with your language. I couldn't write in any other language.
The point is that as subs at iStock roll over indefinitely, they will have to wait until all the subs are used up before they pay us, which would obviously be the minimum possible.
"Your subscription gives you access to a set number of downloads each month. You can rollover up to 250 unused downloads month to month if youve got an annual subscription or a subscription with auto-renew enabled. If auto-renew is disabled when your subscription term ends, you will lose all rollover downloads that youve accrued."

Justanotherphotographer

« Reply #158 on: October 26, 2016, 08:08 »
+3
They need to clarify this right away. If they were any other company one would assume they calculate it on the same day every month based on how many dls were used in preceding one month period, anything else would be unscrupulous in the extreme.

« Reply #159 on: October 26, 2016, 08:08 »
+27
I think we must pay Istock $100 every time they sold our images for $0.x etc. Even that plan could not save them from bankrupt since their CEO no idea what she is doing.

By the way,  it is funny we discuss their new pricing plan for pages. They simply telling us "go another place" we want to close down Istock and continue only with Getty.

I am sure that in 2018 they will pay $0.001 etc. at most (0.001 because I don't think their talented IT department can handle smaller floating points).

They love free money, they get the huge percentage, and they can't even report the sales correctly (forget about real-time statistics, which is very easy for any programmer team* these days) or build a solid app for contributors, they just don't care.

*Supposing they are using their hand for writing code


« Reply #160 on: October 26, 2016, 08:18 »
+4
I think we must pay Istock $100 every time they sold our images for $0.x etc. Even that plan could not save them from bankrupt since their CEO no idea what she is doing.

By the way,  it is funny we discuss their new pricing plan for pages. They simply telling us "go another place" we want to close down Istock and continue only with Getty.

I am sure that in 2018 they will pay $0.001 etc. at most (0.001 because I don't think their talented IT department can handle smaller floating points).

They love free money, they get the huge percentage, and they can't even report the sales correctly (forget about real-time statistics, which is very easy for any programmer team* these days) or build a solid app for contributors, they just don't care.

*Supposing they are using their hand for writing code




They have our money like Bank. They have  all our money more than one month every month.

Btw excellent picture, it's time to step down from this old cracked plank!

angelawaye

  • Eat, Sleep, Keyword. Repeat

« Reply #161 on: October 26, 2016, 08:20 »
+2
If the exclusives will leave istock, there will be another flood of new, awesome images coming into SS ...

So, so many images ....

« Reply #162 on: October 26, 2016, 08:20 »
+3
someone at istock forum made this chart:

http://www.ilbusca.com/temp/Subs_NE.jpg

one problem is because this is for current prices, if they go down we get even lower, and sure, there is that rollover.

« Last Edit: October 26, 2016, 08:27 by panicAttack »

« Reply #163 on: October 26, 2016, 08:24 »
+6
Or maybe they'll suddenly start issuing a series of small refunds because they paid us too much the month before.  ;)

I woke up to see more refunds. I have now over 18 refunds. Never have had that since 2007 with these clowns.

« Reply #164 on: October 26, 2016, 08:42 »
0
It's just me, or for everyone trying to disable their files  isn't working anymore? I get Error 505 (Sorry, but we're having trouble processing your request.) ?

« Reply #165 on: October 26, 2016, 08:51 »
0
It's just me, or for everyone trying to disable their files  isn't working anymore? I get Error 505 (Sorry, but we're having trouble processing your request.) ?

Would you mind posting the deactivation link?

« Reply #166 on: October 26, 2016, 08:51 »
+2
If the exclusives will leave istock, there will be another flood of new, awesome images coming into SS ...

I doubt it. On the contributor side, I am fairly certain that I was a more or less typical gold 'exclusive'. But after a while I just gave up. I no longer felt any incentive and there is no point running to stand still when money is involved. RF Microstock is never going to be relatively lucrative again like it was roughly 2006 - 2011. There certainly wouldn't be much point me uploading my old content to SS - and I suspect it would be the same for most other people.

I would still potentially use microstock as a customer - but I don't think it has adapted to current trends and I find it very difficult to find the sort of content I would want to use at either iS or SS. People with iPhones are often making much more natural looking images today.

« Reply #167 on: October 26, 2016, 08:54 »
+1
It's just me, or for everyone trying to disable their files  isn't working anymore? I get Error 505 (Sorry, but we're having trouble processing your request.) ?

Would you mind posting the deactivation link?

It's ok. It started again. Thanks anyway. ;)

« Reply #168 on: October 26, 2016, 08:58 »
+3
It's just me, or for everyone trying to disable their files  isn't working anymore? I get Error 505 (Sorry, but we're having trouble processing your request.) ?

Would you mind posting the deactivation link?

From your 'My Uploads' Page click on an image - not edit.
Got to 'Maintenance'
Click 'Deactivate File'
New page opens to deactivate.
« Last Edit: October 26, 2016, 09:03 by PhotoBomb »

« Reply #169 on: October 26, 2016, 09:09 »
0
It's just me, or for everyone trying to disable their files  isn't working anymore? I get Error 505 (Sorry, but we're having trouble processing your request.) ?

Would you mind posting the deactivation link?

From your 'My Uploads' Page click on an image - not edit.
Got to 'Maintenance'
Click 'Deactivate File'
New page opens to deactivate.

Thanks. This is what I was doing. Somehow didn't want to work anymore. Now it is working again, but I have already a few hours since I'm doing this and I think I will take a brake.

« Reply #170 on: October 26, 2016, 09:22 »
+6
someone at istock forum made this chart:

http://www.ilbusca.com/temp/Subs_NE.jpg

one problem is because this is for current prices, if they go down we get even lower, and sure, there is that rollover.


Heavy discounting will also bring those numbers tumbling down (remember they have no asserts of their own, discounting costs them nothing) if they go chasing market share.  That is were the $0.02 safety net comes in.  Such a strategy could well effect sales elsewhere, so leaving content for sale at Istock to scrape every cent, or two, out of the business could well be counterproductive.

Justanotherphotographer

« Reply #171 on: October 26, 2016, 09:38 »
+4
someone at istock forum made this chart:

http://www.ilbusca.com/temp/Subs_NE.jpg

one problem is because this is for current prices, if they go down we get even lower, and sure, there is that rollover.


Heavy discounting will also bring those numbers tumbling down (remember they have no asserts of their own, discounting costs them nothing) if they go chasing market share.  That is were the $0.02 safety net comes in.  Such a strategy could well effect sales elsewhere, so leaving content for sale at Istock to scrape every cent, or two, out of the business could well be counterproductive.

I think this is main reason they have changed the payment schedule. You can bet they will be heavily discounting their sub packages now. I expect this to have the biggest impact on our income, directly by bringing in lots of those 2c downloads driving RPD through the floor and indirectly by taking sales away from the better paying agencies.

ETA of course this means the tables of royalties being put together are potentially wildly optimistic.

« Reply #172 on: October 26, 2016, 09:45 »
+2
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?...

Jumped right off the page, didn't that.

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

Doesn't take the smartest to see what this means for non-exclusive.

« Reply #173 on: October 26, 2016, 09:51 »
0
It's just me, or for everyone trying to disable their files  isn't working anymore? I get Error 505 (Sorry, but we're having trouble processing your request.) ?

Would you mind posting the deactivation link?

From your 'My Uploads' Page click on an image - not edit.
Got to 'Maintenance'
Click 'Deactivate File'
New page opens to deactivate.

Thank you.

« Reply #174 on: October 26, 2016, 09:51 »
+5
I can't imagine why exclusives would submit new material when mostly it'll sell as subs which will mostly earn us a lot less.
And the indie rate is criminal.

I know you are an exclusive, thank you for the frank and honest view of the situation. You are 100% correct. No positive news for anybody.


 

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