Author Topic: PIXTA - Biggest microstock agency in Japan (Read 11916 times)

Artist · « **on:** October 22, 2013, 22:19 »

I have recently got an invitation to join PIXTA.
http://www.pixtastock.com/
They claim to have over 5,000,000 royalty-free stock images and about 120,000 contributors and were launched at year 2005.

I have however never heard of this company but let me know if any one is working with this agency and how are the earnings.

leaf · « **Reply #1 on:** October 24, 2013, 03:12 »

I saw that microstocksubmitter has started supporting it. It would be interesting to hear peoples experience.

Their royalties and photo pricing seem pretty good
http://www.pixtastock.com/channel/?p=759

leaf · « **Reply #2 on:** October 24, 2013, 03:18 »

Here's one other thread that mentions pixta

BlackJack · « **Reply #3 on:** October 24, 2013, 03:31 »

I signed up in July and uploaded 50 footage clips as a first test. Forgot about them until I got first 2 sales messages last week.

14$ comission each for web size video. I will upload some more and see if I get some HD sales. Might be worth it. Prizes are not at the low end.

cthoman · « **Reply #4 on:** October 24, 2013, 10:05 »

I joined recently. I haven't had any sales. I did get an email the other day saying they were changing the vector pricing from $50 to $35. Not a big deal since the $35 is more in line with other pricing. Still, I guess the precedent of lowering prices makes me a little nervous. We'll see how it goes though.

Jetsetter78 · « **Reply #5 on:** October 24, 2013, 10:40 »

I have joined there few mths ago. Sales is OK.

But you would need to fill a Japanese TAX form like W7 or W8 ben form in order to receive yr payment.
The form is much more complicated than the W8 form.
I have submitted 3 times but still get tax at 40%.

I have seek their help in filling out the form correctly, but they couldnt provide any legal advise.
All they ask me to do is to go to the Japanese Tax centre website to look for accurate info.
Unfortunately the website is only available in japanese language.

If anyone here have any knowledge in filling out tha japanese tax form, pls help by providing some info here. I have googled everywhere without results.

sharpshot · « **Reply #6 on:** October 24, 2013, 11:50 »

Thanks for that info. That rules me out until they have a simple tax form in English.

stockastic · « **Reply #7 on:** October 24, 2013, 11:58 »

Quote from: sharpshot on October 24, 2013, 11:50

Thanks for that info. That rules me out until they have a simple tax form in English.

+1

gostwyck · « **Reply #8 on:** October 24, 2013, 13:13 »

Quote from: sharpshot on October 24, 2013, 11:50

Thanks for that info. That rules me out until they have a simple tax form in English.

It certainly does! With the agency's cut and then 40% to the Japanese tax-man there won't be much left for the content creator. I'd still have to pay more tax in my home country too.

cobalt · « **Reply #9 on:** October 24, 2013, 18:27 »

Too bad. It looks like an interesting website with beautiful content. I would like to submit there. But if they cannot provide an online taxform in English that is easy to complete, it won´t make any sense to contribute.

Ron · « **Reply #10 on:** October 24, 2013, 18:40 »

Maybe http://www.nta.go.jp/tetsuzuki/shinsei/annai/joyaku/annai/pdf2/252.pdf

http://japantax.org/?p=993

Freedom · « **Reply #11 on:** October 24, 2013, 18:41 »

If they wish to attract non-Japanese contributors, they should simplify the tax issue. Too complicated for me at this moment.

sgoodwin4813 · « **Reply #12 on:** October 24, 2013, 22:41 »

Just out of curiosity, I signed up so I could check out the tax form. The rate looks to be about 20% if you don't fill out the form and the US has a tax treaty so for me it will be 0% if I fill out the form. The form is a little complicated but doesn't look too bad and it has English translations and instructions - not as bad as getting a visa to go to Russia, for example. But you have to print it out and mail them an original signed copy and it is not clear how long that will take. You also can't do it until you are ready to be paid because you need to fill in the amount - too bad you can't do it ahead of time at your leisure and be done with it. It's also not clear if you would need to do it every time you get a payout or if once is enough. If they have good sales it might be worth the effort - their prices look good (i.e., not too low). Looks like normal stock images, but a big contributor is Yayimages so maybe images from Yay are mirrored there already - I haven't checked to see if they are a partner.

cthoman · « **Reply #13 on:** October 24, 2013, 23:34 »

Quote from: sgoodwin4813 on October 24, 2013, 22:41

Just out of curiosity, I signed up so I could check out the tax form. The rate looks to be about 20% if you don't fill out the form and the US has a tax treaty so for me it will be 0% if I fill out the form. The form is a little complicated but doesn't look too bad and it has English translations and instructions - not as bad as getting a visa to go to Russia, for example. But you have to print it out and mail them an original signed copy and it is not clear how long that will take. You also can't do it until you are ready to be paid because you need to fill in the amount - too bad you can't do it ahead of time at your leisure and be done with it. It's also not clear if you would need to do it every time you get a payout or if once is enough. If they have good sales it might be worth the effort - their prices look good (i.e., not too low). Looks like normal stock images, but a big contributor is Yayimages so maybe images from Yay are mirrored there already - I haven't checked to see if they are a partner.

Thanks for taking a look at it. It didn't look as bad as others described when I looked at it, but I only looked at it briefly.

sharpshot · « **Reply #14 on:** October 25, 2013, 03:05 »

They are in the Yaymicro 3rd party scheme. I think I'll leave them to handle the tax forms for now. I can't remember when they started the partnership with them. Not had any sales through them yet. I'll only get 50% of the commission but it's a good way to see if they sell anything without having to upload my portfolio. Seems like a good excuse to leave my Yaymicro referral link. I've made nothing from my 3 referrals so far but I live in hope

http://yaymicro.com/search.action?search.photographer=sharpshot

Tabimura · « **Reply #15 on:** October 25, 2013, 03:22 »

I was with them for about an year and a half (2011 - 2012) - they invited me. The tax stuff is not that difficult, you'll get it via regular mail, complete it and sent it back. I uploaded several thousands of my 13k portfolio and some sales started to pour in. You get payed when you reach 10.000 yen (about 100 USD) and you will get the money 2 months after the one when you passed 10000. They "can do nothing about that, its company policy". Sales were ok-ish for a while, I was getting payout every 2 months. But then they went catastrophically down. I asked for some explanation, none given. I waited to get the last payout (for half an year I think - or close to that) and then I closed my account. I'm still getting emails from them, as if I'm still contributing. The last one said that they introduced levels (something like 123RF but simpler) and you'll get lower commission in the beginning and then if the sales go up you'll be payed more, the usual blah-blah.
I'll never get back to them and would not recommend them.

EmberMike · « **Reply #16 on:** October 28, 2013, 08:04 »

Even if the tax form isn't too difficult, it still sounds like the tax policies and procedures are a bit unclear and sales don't seem to really be there. Think I'll have to take a "wait and see" approach with this one...

Jetsetter78 · « **Reply #17 on:** October 28, 2013, 10:56 »

The form look deceptively simple at first sight. I was thinking it was a piece of cake until i get it somewhere wrong.
The biggest problem is the staff at Pixta refused to comment which part of the form was wrongly filled and this is where that get made struck. They keep refering to japan tax centre website for solution and not them.

Easy to get in, not easy to cash out.

Jeen Hung · « **Reply #18 on:** November 22, 2013, 03:36 »

I used Google Trends searching "pixta".
It's Popularity and Bigstock almost.

But it was limited to Japanese popular areas.
I also joined recently.

stocked · « **Reply #19 on:** March 01, 2014, 05:25 »

they are up to the same tricks and recently cut commissions, prices are okay but sales are very low I stopped submitting to them and wouldn't join them again. But to be fair they don't seem so bad as Deposit. So better join them than Deposit.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #20 on:** March 01, 2014, 20:43 »

Quote from: stocked on March 01, 2014, 05:25

they are up to the same tricks and recently cut commissions, prices are okay but sales are very low I stopped submitting to them and wouldn't join them again. But to be fair they don't seem so bad as Deposit. So better join them than Deposit.

very little experience at pixta but they are miles away (better) comparing to DP transparency, royalties, pricing, etc etc

Goofy · « **Reply #21 on:** March 01, 2014, 23:06 »

Quote from: gostwyck on October 24, 2013, 13:13

Quote from: sharpshot on October 24, 2013, 11:50
Thanks for that info. That rules me out until they have a simple tax form in English.

It certainly does! With the agency's cut and then 40% to the Japanese tax-man there won't be much left for the content creator. I'd still have to pay more tax in my home country too.

Sounds like the iStock payment plan... $:-\$

Desintegrator · « **Reply #22 on:** May 23, 2014, 10:04 »

I've just read this tax thing here... it makes me think if it's worth to upload to them..

Also, they are planning a commission from July!
Commissions will start from 22% and you will need 1500 downloads in a year, to get to 33% which is the current basic level.

Fairplay · « **Reply #23 on:** May 23, 2014, 11:41 »

Waste of time and energy

Maximilian · « **Reply #24 on:** May 23, 2014, 12:22 »

pff 22%..

-1

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Author Topic: PIXTA - Biggest microstock agency in Japan (Read 11916 times)

Artist

leaf

leaf

BlackJack

cthoman

Jetsetter78

sharpshot

stockastic

gostwyck

cobalt

Ron

Freedom

sgoodwin4813

cthoman

sharpshot

Tabimura

EmberMike

Jetsetter78

Jeen Hung

stocked

luissantos84

Goofy

Desintegrator

Fairplay

Maximilian

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