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Messages - cobalt
3751
« on: May 15, 2014, 13:39 »
Well, this is what I dont understand: they had a subscription site, but where not able to make the slightest dent into Shutterstocks progress. So why would it be different if they offer subs from istock?
Either you know how to grow a business or you dont.
So to me it looks like the main goal really is to just create the illusion of being a similar tech story like Shutterstock, in the hope the wallstreet people are so naive to believe it and buy them free when they get floated on the stock market.
And of course introducing subs at istock will create fantastic subs growth rates on paper...as long as nobody asks how many are customers moving back from Thinkstock. So by just shifting their own customers from Thinkstock and Getty to the istock subs program they can create a huge "growth story" on paper.
3752
« on: May 15, 2014, 01:28 »
3753
« on: May 14, 2014, 19:52 »
Well, Michael already has files on getty. maybe when a designer he knows buys one of his files, he can share with us what percentage he got. I am sure many people would like to know what they can realistically expect. I also didn't here from eyem that they think artists will be getting more than 10%. I mean if they had managed to negotiate a brilliant 40% deal for RF content (which would translate to 20% for their own artists ) wouldn't they at least want to give an indication that earnings through them will be an excellent deal? Or at least higher than uploading the images to istock as normal indie content and get 15% plus income from any other site that takes them? They are not working in a vacuum if they want to attract good artists, they will have to explain how they want to bring in the money to attract the interesting people. I like the 6 months exclusivity. At least files won't be tied in forever. I'd say that is a real improvement. Fotolia might be offering files for 3 credits, but the files are not exclusive, so you can go and earn money wherever else you want with them. Is it a better offer? I have no idea. But since the images are not exclusive you can get income from several channels for your files. And if the volume is higher I wouldn't be surprised if returns are similar to 10% from a normal getty sale. Obviously I am not thinking of the list prices but the real average sales. But now I am curious about their own marketplace. The prices they choose, the strategies they will follow. And the most important: do they know how to sell?  stocksy set a great example how a newcomer can find their place and grow rapidly in an overcrowded stock market. What kind of experiences will the eyeem artists have? Will shooting smartphone stock become a part time or maybe even full time source of income? Is the assignement work from Red Bull, lufthansa etc...that they offer lucrative? Better than Imagebrief? Or can you realistically build a shoot around it? What are the chances of getting selected...usw... So following eyeem as a German agency will be really interesting. 
3754
« on: May 14, 2014, 16:08 »
I am just starting out. My portfolio is a complete unknown to buyers. How much do you think I made in my first month on the other sites? I dont think I even earned anything on dreamstime for weeks. I still dont have any sales on gl stockimages, 2,50 on canstock, 50 cents on stockfresh etc...It is not like world has been waiting for me.
How much do you think I should earn anywhere with 340 files?
3755
« on: May 14, 2014, 15:38 »
Ive been uploading for about 6 months, have 342 images there and made around 8.25 euros. Not bad for a small site.
3756
« on: May 14, 2014, 13:40 »
And btw, we already met at an industry event, back when I was with iS...
Ok, so maybe when you attach a name to your alias I will know more Like I said, best of luck. I am just trying to point out what I have seen can happen again and again if artist expectations are not properly managed. With good and clear upfront information, disasters are easy to avoid.
3757
« on: May 14, 2014, 08:41 »
Hi eyeem, thank you for getting in here. It is exciting to see a start up from Germany in the stock world. I am glad to hear that you will also offer an additional market place where you sell direct and the artist will get a true 50% of what the customer spent. But like I have pointed out before you are advertising that you share 50% with the artist and will have to then face up to the disappointment that this will mean only 10% royalty from sales via the getty connection. The agencies keep 90%. Unless of course you were able to negotiate a much higher rate than the usual 20% Getty pays out...but since you are a start up.... I mean Getty cancelled the flickr deal and is now sourcing "real life" images from you. From Flickr the artists were paid 15-20%. Id say there is a high probability the deal Getty has with you is even cheaper for Getty... And in addition to that your artists will painfully discover that the high prices on the Getty website are just list prices. Getty has a lot of customers who get huge discounts, over 90% of the list price. So your artists will not just discover the 10% royalty they are getting, they will also learn about 5 dollar sales for images that are listed for several hundred dollars...and their 50 cent returns... And then some artists might realise that if it is stock worthy content,i.e. without logos and with releases, they could have offered it elsewhere for more money...but they probably cannot move the content because once it is opted in the content is exclusive for a given time frame,no? Or can your artists offer the same content at Eyeem and at Fotolia? I am just trying to point out potential pitfalls, or more clearly the looming internet shitstorms you are probably heading towards if artists feel they were disinformed (or not informed) I am sure you are following what has been going on in the industry. Getty Google deal, shotshop/deposit deal and currently the dpc drama that fotolia is going through. These issues can blow up very fast very quickly, DPC apparently lost 25% of their content, over 6 million files, in a very short time. Since you have already signed everything, you will now have to find a way to handle it when it happens. I genuinly wish you all the best and hope I get to see you sometime at an industry event. And most of all I hope you make 99% of your sales from your own marketplace. Viel Erfolg!
3758
« on: May 14, 2014, 06:32 »
I think it might make sense to replace it with +- or agree/disagree word options. But I think it is valuable information to see how many people disagree with a statement. I would also like to see absolute numbers of agree/disagree. at the moment the hearts and arrows cancel each other out, but the real numbers would be interesting to see. For me the up down voting is not a personal issue. I hope Lisa comes to that conclusion as well and returns. Being on forums with a controversial subject can be emotionally very difficult. The best is just to take a break, get away from the computer and just do something else to get your balance back. She is one of the most respected voices in the industry and a pretty tough lady. Please come back I have often just ignored a certain thread or a subject completely. When I believe I have said what i needed to say or presented the information that I feel was necessary to let the community see, then it is often good to step back and just let people evaluate and think about things.
3759
« on: May 14, 2014, 05:49 »
Look the truth in the eye - Fotolia came to a death agony, more than 6,500,000 images opted-out of DPC and the number keeps growing. Do you really think that you can return that many images back to DPC with the help of this news?
In a few months 6 million new files will be back there,unless everyone opts out, which will never happen. The important thing is that the artists are informed that their images have been moved to dpc and that they have an opt out option if they dont want to be there. There are agencies out there that are even cheaper than dpc and there is the creative common license. Even agencies that offer only free legal files, I think panthermedia has one. The difference is CHOICE. As artists we produce files for many price points,files for 500 dollars and files for 1 dollar. At least I do. Not every snapshot I take is high quality. But I need to be in control what goes where. istock used to have the dollarbin where we can move our old files too. Some agencies offer a free section where you can donate files in the hope it will drive traffic to your portfolio. But it is the artist who makes the decision (or should be, istock later removed our option...) For me I would need an individual opt in and if I wanted to try DPC it would be with old files or files that have never sold anywhere. I wouldnt mind selling those for a dollar before they die on my hard drive. So if Fotolia had invited me into the DPC, offered me an individual opt in, a bonus for those who opt in everything...that would have been the right way, the professional way to do it. But they didnt so now they have to live with the shitstorm they created. I believe that first of all artist need to know that their files have been moved to a new portal without asking them. I hope that the threads on the various forums have reached as many people in the community as possible.
3760
« on: May 13, 2014, 23:55 »
I love pond5 too, unfortunately they only seem to be really good at selling videos not photos.
I do support fair trade sites, but many of the smaller agencies don't seem to have the ambition of becoming a large agency where you might be able to get a full time living from as a regular stock producer.
I think it would take an experienced team like the people from stocksy or at least someone on their level of drive and talent to grow a fair trade agency to enter the ranks of the top 4.
I love stocksy, it is a great example of what can be done if someone really has a vision for a business. Unfortunately, being an edited collection only a very small part of the stock artist community can find a home there. I feel very lucky I got in.
Maybe pond5 can become a powerhouse for selling photos as well. It would be wonderful if they could rise to a similar rank with photos like their video business.
3761
« on: May 13, 2014, 23:43 »
Getty has a revenue of around 800 million dollars a year. This includes everything, their microstock business, their macro business, their news business, rf and rm.
They also have around 2 billion dollars in debt, which they accumulated through being sold several times and owners paying themselves generous bonusses on a falling business or by letting the company finance it's own sale by taking on more debt.
And they still haven't reached their final destination because they are currently owned by a hedge fund who will be selling them again as well.
The Carlyle group keeps posting statements on how the getty business is doing so that investors can evaluate the risk of the Getty loans. You can find it all on the internet.
It would be great if new managers come in with really good ideas to grow the business again. Because Getty still has an excellent group of artists. I do believe it is possible to revive the business.
But as long as they keep demoralizing them, especially the exclusives, how will they turn their ship around?
At least today is 100% royalty day. I hope it brings the exclusives more income and istock a few new customers. But it is a drop of water after years of drought.
3762
« on: May 13, 2014, 17:53 »
Here is another interesting statement straight from their own website (in German again) 6.March 2014 http://dl.eyeem.com/press/releases/Getty_Images_und_EyeEm_werden_Partner.pdfThey announce that eyeem images will be sold in cooperation with Getty through istock and also on the Gettyimages website as a special collection. "Getty Images und EyeEm starten neue Foto-Kollektion EyeEm-Fotos knnen knftig bei Getty Images lizenziert werden" "Berlin/Seattle, 6. Mrz 2014 EyeEm, die einzigartige Community und Verkaufsplattform fr Fotografie wird knftig mit Getty Images kooperieren, dem wichtigsten Produzenten und Anbieter von visuellen Inhalten und anderen digitalen Medien der Welt. Gemeinsam wollen beide Partner ausgewhlte Bilder von EyeEm fr den Lizenzerwerb auf den Getty Images-Plattformen zugnglich machen. Die Fotos stehen knftig u.a. bei iStock by Getty Images und als mageschneiderte Kollektion auf gettyimages.com zur Verfgung. " ... "Dank unserer Partnerschaft mit Getty Images und dank dessen umfangreichen Vertriebsnetzwerks bekommen die Mitglieder unserer Community jetzt eine groartige Chance, mit ihrer kreativen Arbeit Geld zu verdienen." So this is indeed going to be another feeder agency for both istock and getty. ETA: Here is the link for the English version http://dl.eyeem.com/press/releases/EyeEm_x_Getty_Images_Partnership_Release.pdf"Getty Images and EyeEm partner on new crowd sourced collection EyeEm photography to be available for licensing with Getty Images BERLIN/SEATTLE March 6, 2014. EyeEm, the world ́s premier community and marketplace for the photographer inside all of us, is partnering with Getty Images, the world's leading creator and distributor of visual content and other digital media, to make EyeEm images available for licensing across Getty Images platforms, including on iStock by Getty Images and a bespoke collection at gettyimages.com." "And now because of our partnership with Getty Images and their extensive distribution network, members of our community will have a great opportunity to earn revenue from their creative work." There is also a clear explanation of their social media campaign project: "EyeEm Marketplace. The EyeEm marketplace is for those brands, agencies and small businesses who want to find easily searchable and crowd-sourced mobile stock images of places, people and environments. Since its launch, selected brands such as Lufthansa, Redbull and Vice Magazine have set up highly curated missions to crowd source new images for their (social) marketing campaigns. The community created images were successfully sold through the EyeEm platform with a revenue share for the photographers. While some brands/marketers have already purchased photos captured by the EyeEm community, the full marketplace offering will be launched later this year." So this is the plattform they want to market. But for stock sales, you will definetly be opted into getty with a 50% royalty cut of whatever eyeem gets.
3763
« on: May 13, 2014, 16:53 »
They paid you $0,29 for a $5 sale since the introduction of the monthly subs. That's neither new nor connected to DPC.
Now they're raising that to $1, if you're out of DPC and $1,25 if you're in.
That's how I understand it.
First of all any kind of raise is good news. And the raise is taking place on Fotolia where we are currently earning our money. This is exactly what I suggested, that if someone takes the risk of opting into DPC they should receive the risk bonus on Fotolia, not dpc. After all we are scared that DPC will hurt our existing sales on Fotolia. So those who take the risk to join a new business model will get a reward for taking the risk. And there also seems to be a change that will give a raise to those of us not opted in. Interesting. Personally I would like to see an individual opt in on a per file basis. The content I have sent to Fotolia was sent for the Fotolia business model, i.e. mostly credit sales with a price range between 1-10 dollars with an appropriate percentage paid to me (at the moment still low, but hopefully rising one day). So when I send content to Fotolia I know I will be getting 40-50% cent subs, but the rest is credit sales with a decent return and sensible volume. They are the largest German agency, so this is an established market place I want to be present. Will I offer content for 1 dollar? If I get an indiviudual opt in, I will try. I have a huge variety of content, files I think should be sold for 500 dollars, files I believe can be sold for 1 dollar (especially older files). But I would need to choose on an individual basis. I am sure dpc can also work with older content or low sellers. Everyone has to make their own decisions, but now there is an opt in opt out option and those that are opted in get a risk bonus paid on Fotolia. And the rest of us seem to have gotten a raise as well. That is certainly a much better offer than 3 weeks ago. Is it enough? That will be everyones personal decision. But overall working together the artists have achieved a change. So making our voices heard as a movement works.
3764
« on: May 13, 2014, 11:30 »
Ive looked at several articles in German about eyeem. All articles say that the stock part of selling images to professional image buyers will be done via their cooperation with Gettyimages. But nowhere do they mention that Getty only pays 20%, which means artists in the end get 10% of what the customer pays while the agencies together pocket 90%. You just keep reading that "eyeem will share 50 % of their income" without explaining what this means. Once the artists start doing test buys to check on their percentage, what will happen? Or is anyone believing the the artists will be happy with a 10% revenue? http://www.chip.de/news/EyeEm-Foto-Plattform-macht-Instagram-Konkurrenz_69708057.html"Anders bei der Kooperation mit Getty Images: Mit dem Sidekick "EyeEm Market" will das Unternehmen professionellen Bildkufern Material von Fotografen aus aller Welt bereitstellen. Diese entscheiden selbst, welche ihrer Bilder angeboten werden und sollen mit 50 Prozent an den Einnahmen beteiligt werden. " http://www.connect.de/news/eyeem-foto-app-plattform-konkurrenz-instagram-2319891.htmlhttp://www.swp.de/ulm/nachrichten/wirtschaft/Mit-Handy-Fotos-Geld-verdienen;art4325,2600917http://webmagazin.de/social/EyeEm-startet-Angriff-auf-Instagram-Flickr-Co-173409http://www.pcgames.de/Internet-Thema-34041/GNews/EyeEm-Berliner-Startup-tueftelt-an-Instagram-Konkurrenten-1120789/etc.. The information is always the same. The sales will be done via the cooperation with Getty. And the artists can decide wether to offer files via this sales path, but this does not mean they can opt out of Getty. Gettyimages is the eyeem marketplace. This is very clear in all articles. And also explains why the images are now visible there and not on a marketplace on eyeem. I am not seeing anything in there that says eyeem is ever planning to sell stock directly without Getty. That is why I think the "50% of all earnings" for the eyeem stock marketplace statement is misleading. I am sure people reading will misinterpret this as meaning they are going to get 50% of what the customer paid. The articles also mention that eyeem is testing a service for large companies who need specific images for their advertising. They have done projects with Nike,Lufthansa etc...and chosen images for their advertising campaign. So far the artists have not been paid for this but in the future they will be. Sounds to me like a sort of image brief for smartphone images. Maybe this is where they will share a fair revenue of 50% directly with their artists. In the end it is their start up and their own community. But if people discover the 10% royalty from getty and there is a community backlash, please dont complain. It is not possible to hide the real royalty rate, maybe it would be better to give clear examples of what people will earn from the start to avoid misunderstandings at a later stage. And if it is not the artists that will discover the 10%, they can rely on their competition to do it for them...so I believe transparency and honest earnings examples are better.
3765
« on: May 13, 2014, 11:02 »
So dpc is being more aggressively marketed via social networks than fotolia (6 versus 44 tweets). This is what I meant worries me about Fotolia. That it will now be the unloved stepchild while they grow dpc. the same that happened to istock when getty started Thinkstock.
3766
« on: May 13, 2014, 07:21 »
Oh, PS: As far as I know, if I decide to license my content through EyeEm, I do not have to license them through Getty. And not all images accepted for the EyeEm market are being accepted to Getty as well. So the EyeEm Market will definitely contain more images than the EyeEm collection on Getty Images.
For me this would make eyeem more interesting, if I could opt out of partner and distribution deals for instance. Like I said, any market place opening their doors with a 50% promise has my attention. Just on reading more about it I became really very disappointed. I do like speculating not about percentage but about what kind of earnings might be possible and if a business model looks promising. So i opted out of dpc because it didnt make any business sense to me. But I also agree that sometimes things just need to be tried. I just dont know if this is one of them. They are marketing that they share 50% with artists, but how will artists feel if they actually received much less than the customer paid for from their partner agency? We will see what happens and like you say, it does not have to be anyones primary focus. But I would love to see a new 50% agency and community succeed. So I hope they will make 99% of their sales from their own plattform.
3767
« on: May 13, 2014, 06:44 »
Then why is their unique content already for sale at another agency and not on their own plattform?
It is a very strange way to start a new business.
They have some good people, I certainly wish them well. But right here, right now I am not convinced of their independence as a market place or as a business.
3768
« on: May 13, 2014, 06:31 »
The eyeem market place is supposed to pay out 50% and I would love to be supportive of this.
But when I heard about the Getty connection I became very discouraged. Getty usually pays 20% for RF and if we share those 20% with eyeem it will be 10%...minus the exchange rate discount getty likes to take if the customer doesnt pay in dollars, so you might end up with only 8% of what the customer really paid. I am sure some designer will buy files from a photographer he or she knows, so eventually we will get real feedback of how much the artist is really earning. Maybe we get a positive surprise, who knows?
I am also worried that eyeem will not really be marketed as a sales plattform, that instead it will just be another content feeder agency for Getty. Similar to the content they took from flickr.
And if the files are available now at Getty first instead of launching the eyeem marketplace, then I do wonder how much attention and marketing will eyeem get? I would have thought that their sales plattform would be pushed first? With the files already visible on Getty, the content on eyeem will no longer be new or fresh to the overall market. What will their advantage be?
I understand that you say well, it will all make money somehow. But for me I would really love to see eyeem at work and financially successful (for them and the artists) before their content goes elsewhere.
Also since eyem and getty are so closely connected already, i guess it is fair to assume that they will at some time be bought or merged in some way. Eyeem doesnt have the independence to really do their own thing or build up connections to Offset or other companies for example.
I do look forward to seeing their marketplace and wish them good luck with sales. Any agency that pays out 50% deserves our attention. But I also hope the majority of sales will come from them.
3769
« on: May 12, 2014, 16:15 »
but at this rate it's very possible.
it's also known as herd behavior
Keeping your files there is also herd behaviour. After all we were not given a choice. Noone wrote to us to ask us for our files. So instead of seeing how attractive DPC is to artist by following rising numbers of opted in portfolios, we can now only count the files that are being opted out. Obviously if someone believes the DPC is good for their business I dont think it is wrong to keep your files there. But if you do believe the offer should be improved or if you think that DPC is simply not good for your business it is normal to opt out and either wait for a better offer or just focus on Fotolia itself. I sincerly doubt that an opt out button would have been offered without protest. But at least now we have choices. So I hope that most of the files now on dpc are from people who have thought about it and think dpc is good for them.
3770
« on: May 12, 2014, 15:26 »
Over 6 million images opted out?
The numbers opted out are very interesting, because it gives us an idea how many of the actively producing artist keep following the news in the industry. I dont think that the majority of the content of any of the agencies would ever disappear because so much of the content consists of legacy files and old portfolios that are no longer being updated. I have always wondered how many files that could be. If 25% of the content has been opted out of dpc then how many of the currently active contributors have opted out?
For instance if 50% of the content is old legacy content it would mean that half the active artists have opted out. If the legacy content is just 20% it would be a much smaller group.
Fotolia will know that of course and hopefully they and other agencies will simply be more careful in the future. Give us honest information and opt in or opt out options from the beginning and let us make our own decisions. Convince us with solid arguments for your business ventures and dont go behind our backs.
Fotolia is an agency that is earning many people a reliable income. I hope they keep investing in Fotolia as well and wont ignore it in favor of DPC.
3771
« on: May 12, 2014, 11:04 »
tickstock is gone???
What happened?
3772
« on: May 10, 2014, 12:21 »
You can do a search on pond5 for 4k footage and see the downloads. http://www.pond5.com/stock-video-footage/1/4k.htmlAnd also look at the stats on the artist resource page. http://www.pond5.com/index.php?page=artist_resources4k sales are around 1.5% of the weekly or monthly sales. So not many files yet and not that many downloads. The advantage would probably be that you are getting in early and if there is a niche that you want to "claim" for yourself, it is probably a good time to get in. But how many people need 4k in real life? Who buys these files? It is much too early for me, I need to build up a 2000 file HD portfolio first. But it is certainly worth watching. But I suppose I would need to invest in a new computer and monitor in addition to the camera.
3773
« on: May 09, 2014, 11:59 »
The numbers are amazing. A YOY growth of over 40% for the same quarter? For a company that is 10 years old and working in an established competitive market?
What makes them so different? All sites sell images, many are cheaper.
And is the growth from new customers or are they just taking market share from the others? Probably a mix of both.
Congratulations, well done! And with all the news we get there doesn't seem to be any serious competition coming their way.
istock/getty are always too busy with cool projects to really focus and Fotolia will not get much attention while the owners play with dpc.
And I guess running your company largely drama free and having managers that know how to communicate online and have roots in the stock business community is indeed a successful strategy for growth.
3774
« on: May 08, 2014, 17:17 »
Interesting. How will customers react? It is not a drastic increase, but now that they have a subs package will it have an influence? Or are subs and credit sales totally unrelated?
Good my files are opted out of dpc. I wouldn't want to undercut the credit pricing of the major sites, including istock.
3775
« on: May 08, 2014, 10:01 »
If you go to their photos department and sort all photos (7 million) by sales, the top selling file has 41 downloads. So I really dont think that at the moment photos is a strong subject for them. http://www.pond5.com/photos/1/*.html#1/2176/ But they are a fair trade agency and their business is going up. I only have 127 images there, but already got a few sales. So i think before you upload 4000 files, why dont you just upload 300 and see how it goes? It would be wonderful if pond5 became a stronger photo agency. They do really well with video, so who knows.
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