MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => Microstock News => Topic started by: Fastmediamarco on October 30, 2009, 08:01
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Pixmac, the microstock aggregator has added dreamstime to their product line up that allready had fotolia: http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=1733 (http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=1733)
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Are they keeping FT as well? That would be curious, given the very different price structure from each site.
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If I recall well FT has a reseller program that lets their partners set their own prices
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This is good news for me, as I submit to DT and not FT.
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After researching this a little more, I'm not so sure this is good for me.
I looked around on their site and here to see how exactly this works with pixmac. If I have my photos on DT, and pixmac partners with DT, I presume all of my portfolio will be available for purchase on pixmac? So do I get the DT prices for my images or do I get pixmac's prices?
I feel like we are all getting short-sold with this whole partnering program. I certainly don't mind partnerships...just means more exposure for our photos. But when they partner with a site that has the ability to sell our photos for a price that we don't even know about until we get wind on our own that our photos are being sold there...that just doesn't seem right.
If DT uses pixmac as an outlet and I earn exactly the same percentage that I do at DT, that's one thing. By uploading to DT, I read the T & Cs and agreed to them. But will I have a chance to read the terms at pixmac and agree or disagree before they post and start selling my pics for less money (if that is the case)?
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I remember reading threads about strange low earnings in DT that would be explained by partner sales. When shares were 50-50, I believe we would win 50% of what DT received from the partner (that is, partner sale minus his commission). The rule is probably the same now, with a lower commission though.
I think that FT resellers sell at the same prices of FT itself - am I wrong? What about DT?
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Also they require a one-year commitment. I'm not interested in agreeing to that. Will I have a chance to opt out? I think I'll send a sitemail over on the pixmac site and ask these questions.
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Thank you for the questions! I'm the Pixmac's CEO: Vitezslav Valka aka Zager...
1. The prices at Pixmac will exactly respect DT prices. So as said above, it's just more exposure for the pictures you already have.
2. The lincencing is same as on DT. So we'll respect fully the DT and FT licensing rules at Pixmac and also that means you don't have to worry.
As I see the market, there will be several sellers in the future as Pixmac is. Some of them may be based on iSyndica platform and some on the contracts as we're with FT and DT. In the end the Photographer should get what he deserves when selling over the direct site.
In other words, we're trying to be as fair as possible, as you can see here:
http://blog.pixmac.com/2009/08/05/the-way-to-satisfy-photographers-at-pixmac-we-think-we-can/ (http://blog.pixmac.com/2009/08/05/the-way-to-satisfy-photographers-at-pixmac-we-think-we-can/)
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zager,
thanks for your response and answering the questions. I appreciate your assurance, but BEFORE I see my photos on your site, I would like to see in writing your terms and conditions of the use of those Dreamstime photos, as well as the commissions we will receive. I would like to read them over carefully for myself and be certain that this is something I want to enter into.
You did not address my question about the year commitment. At present, when I upload to DT, I commit my photos for six months. To me, that is even a long term commitment for microstock work. I would not want to commit to anything longer than that, that's for sure. Please advise on this point, and also, again, I would need to see all of the above in writing on the terms and conditions BEFORE my photos get ported over to your site.
Thanks for your help. This sounds like a great additional marketing opportunity for us DT contributors.
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I received a response from Lucie Navratilova from pixmac also and here is what she said:
Dear Pixmac user,
your images will get to Pixmac automatically but you won't be a contributor for Pixmac really. Everything will stay same for you. We won't have originals of those images, only their previews so everytime anyone will want to buy your image we will send a request to your DT account. You will get your commissions as any other downloads from Dreamstime. Also if you delete your images from Dreamstime, your images will be deleted from Pixmac immediately.
Best regards,
Lucie
Lucie Navratilova
[email protected]
ICQ: 341506988
www.pixmac.com (http://www.pixmac.com)
So it sounds like we are not directly dealing with pixmac. I believe other sites have formed this type of partnership (like the stockxpert/ photos.com and jupiter thing). If I remember correctly, though, we had an opportunity to opt out of that because we were making different commissions than stockxpert.
If our t of cs remain exactly the same as DT and we only have to commit photos to the same time span as DT, it sounds like this will be good extra exposure.
What do you all think?
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Yes, Lucie was right. You should get the same money as over DT. And you don't have to care about 1 year lock-in at Pixmac. Anyway, the Year long lock-in is a real headache for many photographers, so we're working on it and hopefully we'll solve it soon :-)
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What I don't understand about this arrangement is that there is clearly a huge overlap between the collections at FT & DT __ I'd guess at well over 50%.
Does this mean that some images would appear twice in a search, one via DT and one from FT? If so will their prices also be different reflecting the pricing architectures at each agency? How will the search order differentiate between identical images from different sources?
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Cathy,
I was just browsing the agreement at Pixmac. It's all pretty straightforward ... for members. I was curious too. Why not just upload my images directly to Pixmac?
Wondering ... who else uploads directly?
Zager,
Noticed you are headquarted in Czechoslavakia. It's completely off the subject but wanted to say I am a huge fan of CZ motocross machines and all the great Czech riders who rode them. Zdenek Velky was here in Texas last April. Had a great time photographing the Legends. :-)
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Does this mean that some images would appear twice in a search, one via DT and one from FT? If so will their prices also be different reflecting the pricing architectures at each agency? How will the search order differentiate between identical images from different sources?
No, we have system for checking duplicates ;)
Zager,
Noticed you are headquarted in Czechoslavakia. It's completely off the subject but wanted to say I am a huge fan of CZ motocross machines and all the great Czech riders who rode them. Zdenek Velky was here in Texas last April. Had a great time photographing the Legends. :-)
We are not "Czechoslovakia" about 17 years 8)
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Sorry. My mistake. I'm still a CZ fan. :-[
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Hello Warren, thank you for the note about Czech Republic (or Czechoslovakia). I was in Texas a few months ago (Honeymoon), as seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zager/3759568348/#in/set-72157621844890310/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/zager/3759568348/#in/set-72157621844890310/)
Have fun!