@snow:

This was a distribution partner sale from the year 2012. They reported it at the end of the year, and we had to fight for a long time to get this invoice paid by them. They are no distribution partners anymore, but we run after the money that is owed to you and us. Even if you have terminated your membership with us, this money belongs to you and of course we notify you about this. Please contact our accounting team at [email protected] to settle the payment method (paypal or bank transfer) and we transfer the money immediately.

Please let me clarify that we do not deliver or sell images after you have deleted images!

Best regards,

Robert

@Goofy,

please go to our contributor portal-> policy management at the bottom of the page. Here you can adjust all standard settings that are then taken as the standard configuration for the uploads.

Another hint to save you time: If you click on an image to edit the metadata, hide the (otpional) extended search filters. That leaves only "1. rights, 2. where to publish, 3. model release, 4. property release and 5. keywords (import via IPTC)" to edit, which can also be done in batch processing. Just tick more than one image and fill out this information. This is then saved to all checked images. That is enough for our system to process and enough for customer to find them.

Good luck.

Robert

@dirkr:

Thanks for the brief history of our (unpopular) changes we have introduced (while not agreeing to the commissions mentioned below). To cut a long story short, we had to introduce some changes to our service (credits/subscription/exclusivity) to stay competitive against the larger guys with their investors. At the end of the day, it is the customer who decides where to buy. Markets change and the players need to adjust to the market developments, competition and customer needs. Having said that, it was the big agencies (that most of the photographers contribute to) that first launched the products like credits and subscriptions, adjusted the pricing or cut commissions. Accusing the smaller ones for their behavior and demanding a commission-raise again is counterproductive. Imagine all the smaller ones go out of business and there are only 5 agencies left? Oligopolies are neither good for the customer nor the supplier. Would an increase in royalties be realistic then if the market is dominated solely by 5 players?

While we are doing our best to motivate the photographers (hey, we offer a free photocommunity for everyone), grow our partner channels, grow our customer base and try to increase prices and commissions (40% for non-exclusives, up to 60% for exclusive photos), we still have to react on market shifts in the future. That is why we are still on the market and still growing. By the way, our percentage of payout compared to the big agencies is higher (some companies announce or have to announce their revenue and their total costs and payouts -> look what percentage of the revenue is commissions).

Anyway, I also understand the competition amongst contributors is increasing and that image growth is or will become stronger than customer growth, hence a decrease in total royalties per contributor will occur if the contributor also does not react on this shift (increase production quantity/quality, find new agencies, produce for RM or PremiumRF, etc.).

So, here we are after 10 years, still fighting for every customer and sale and enjoying being part of this market. I would be happy if you watch out for our news and developments. While our relaunch is focused towards our customers (thus increasing sales), we will also introduce new services for photographers this year and it will go in the direction you mentioned. I know smaller agencies (after the top 4) are sometimes a pain and cost a lot of valuable time, but they are also good for the balance of the market.

Best regards,

Robert

Hi there,

thanks for your interest. 2014 will be a year of many improvements and changes. Re the upload process, it actually is quite fast for batch uploading a lot of images (if you want to start and have a lot of images to begin with (>2.000), please let us know and we can import them directly for you). I will record a screencast to explain how fast and easy the upload is if used to its full extend.

However, there will be a lot of improvements on the sales side of the business. We are starting with a complete relaunch of our agency soon with new products, new licences, etc. Please register for our newletter to stay updated. Soon thereafter, we will launch new features to the site with improved earning capabilities. Please mind that I cannot share this at this current moment, but all this will take place in the first half of the year. So sales will improve, and we are still growing. However, we recommend to upload directly to us (the more images and the more regular the uploads, the better the sales) and activate all optional rights (subscription, rightsmanaged, partners) for the full potential. 

Please sign up and have a look around and watch out for the newsletters. I am quite confident this will motivate you to give it a try. If you have a quite large portfolio with more than 2.000 images to start with, we are happy to help you with the initial import.

Best regards,

Robert

@hofhoek:

I am sorry, but double tax is something we cannot change. However, you can apply for a tax exemption at the German government and you get 100% (but therefore pay the tax in your home country).  Anyway, double tax means that you do not pay taxes twice. Hence, you can deduct the 15% taxes locally. Please refer to your local tax office for more information. Regarding the tax exemption, please contact our support team and they will send you the documents and help you get the exemption. Best regards, Robert

@vilainecrevette
Please mail me your username at PantherMedia. Generally, after cancellation we take the portfolio off our website and delete it from our distributor network within the cancellation period of 6 months. When our partners or customer pay the sales report, we are notifying our photographers re the sales, even if you cancelled your membership. That's another reason for the cancellation time. You can log in any time until your membership has expired and can request your payout, without a threshold. If you still have money on your account or anything happened with the transfer of money, please contact me or our team at panthermedia.net. We have never held back an amount that we owe our photographers. 

@cidepix
If you recommend other photographers to not join panthermedia, you should give the other photographers a chance to understand why and us a chance to respond. Reasons may be very subjective due to portfolio size or content or any other reason that may not apply to everybody else. Thanks.

Robert

Obviously, because we are paying out hundreds of photographers every month. We are quite strong in the German speaking area, but have distribution partners in other parts of the world. However, with a strong western focus on the images, sales chances are quite high. How many images have you uploaded so far? If you contact me with your username, I can probably give you some tips and tricks to improve sales on our site. Best regards, Robert.

Hello everybody,

in 9 years of operation, we have never missed out a single payment. The only way the payout gets delayed is if you are living in a country where we cannot use our standard payment methods: direct bank transfer or paypal. For these photographers, we offer our manual payment via skrill, and this may cause some delays because it is not automated. Please get in touch with our support if the money is delayed. Usually, there is the wrong email address used for payment.

Best regards,
Robert

As posted above, it is at
http://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/nn_318/DE/Wirtschaft__und__Verwaltung/Steuern/000.html

Every country has its own regulations and double tax treaties, so it is different from US legislation.

Best regards,
Robert

Hi everyone,

anybody experiencing problems in opening the contributor portal?

Best regards,
Robert

@EmberMike

why did sxc work and ultimago not? Both sites are targeting exactly the same target group (buying or not buying, sxc also targeted non-buying customers). we can generate revenue with both parties (buying=upselling or premium-membership, not-buying privates=advertising income), sxc could not since they only send a fraction of their users to stockxpert and did not share the advertising with photographers. We do.

@sharpshot:
In addition to the difference in opting in or out, I also want to raise another major difference. When comparing services, we also need to compare the licences. While our "free licence" is restricted, the getty connect licences are also different to microstock (RF) licences and paid on a pay-per-view basis. Basically, it is two different services and licences.

Best regards,

Robert 

Hello all,

let me explain the business model beyond the newsletter:

First of all, I would like to point out that Ultimago is a new company and is not part of PantherMedia. However, we use the traffic of Ultimago to upsell PantherMedia images or to cross sell posters/canvas prints to earn licence fees.

Second, it is important to compare Ultimago licences for free images with microstock image licences. Microstock images as we all know them are not for free on Ultimago. There is a private and restricted commercial licence in the free section for customers who would unlikely join the microstock market as a paying customer, but rather steal images on the net (e.g. images for a private birthday invitation). We do not want to support stealing images, so we want to offer a solution where still money is spent, but indirectly via advertising and other sources. But if customers want to use images commercially in the sense of a microstock licence, they have to become a paying premium member. Basically, this is a subscription offering. Additionally, we can connect Ultimago to distribution partners, who pay monthly or per download. And last but not least, if customers want to print images on canvas or posters, we will charge a licence fee and forward this to the photographer. 

At the end of the day, it is not a free service to people who use the images/site as regular microstock customers. However, we are expanding the business model to people who currently not buy at microstock agencies or private people who spend money indirectly buying posters and canvas prints and other partner products. All this income is split with the contributing photographers.

Best regards,

Robert

 

Great! Thanks, Luis!