Don't know how long google cache lasts, so I'm posting the lost thread here since its important - sorry for the long post
rogermexico
Comentado Fri Sep 10, 2010 4:34PM The complete details of all the coming changes are here. Please take the time to read this.
Here is a summary along with some frequently asked questions and answers.
How does the new royalty structure work?
Beginning in January 2011 all iStock contributors will qualify annually for their royalty rates. Your royalty rate will no longer be tied to your lifetime downloads total. Instead it will depend on how many credits were used downloading your files over the course of the previous year.
Redeemed Credits
There is now a Redeemed Credit total counter on the stats tab of your profile page. This represents the absolute value of credits used downloading your files.
-If you get a 1 credit extra small photo download, it goes up one.
-If you get a 20 credit extra large Exclusive photo download, it goes
up 20.
-If you get a 150 credit extended license download, it goes up 150.
There is a different total for each file type.
Currently the counter updates every week but we will have it updating daily soon.
How do Redeemed Credits determine royalties?
Every January we will announce royalty targets for the upcoming year. So in January 2011, we will announce the targets for 2012.
On January 1, 2012 your starting royalty for 2012 will be determined by whichever target your Redeemed Credit total meets.
Here are some examples using the 2011 targets posted here.
If you are an Exclusive photo contributor and have 42,000 redeemed photo credits at the end of 2010, your starting royalty rate on January 1, 2011 will be 35%. Remember: this is just your starting rate for the year.
If you are an Exclusive Vector contributor and have 76,000 redeemed video credits at the end of 2010, your starting royalty rate on January 1, 2011 will be 35%.
Why are the targets different for each file type?
The average download for each file type involves a different number of credits. The average illustration download involves almost twice as many credits as the average photo download. So to keep the
distribution of the different royalty levels more or less similar between different kinds of artists, the targets need to be different.
A Vector artist's Redeemed Credit total will grow faster than a photographer's who gets the same number of downloads. So while the targets for the Vector artist are higher, if the Vector artist and Photographer are similarly successful as far as the number of downloads they get, they will progress through the royalty targets at roughly the same rate.
Do Redeemed Credits carry over year to year?
No. Every year your Redeemed Credit total resets to zero and you begin accumulating them again.
Will my royalty ever go down during the course of a year?
No. You will be guaranteed that initial royalty for the full calendar year. Your initial royalty for the following year may go up or down depending which target you hit.
Can my royalty increase during the course of a year?
Yes. Each January your Redeemed Credit total resets to zero and you begin accumulating them again towards the next year's goals. If at some point during the year your total hits one of the higher targets,
you will immediately graduate to the higher level.
For example, if you start 2011 at 35%, and reach the 2012 Redeemed Credit level for 40% during course of 2011, you will immediately move to the higher rate.
Are the targets flexible?
The targets are based on our best projections for the upcoming year's growth and sales. If we discover that we are off in our projections as a year goes on - that the goals are too difficult and too many contributors are missing them - we will adjust them, yes.
* * *
The Agency Collection
The Agency Collection will be a new premium content collection at iStockphoto coming in late September / early October. It will contain content from select iStock contributors and photography agencies within the Getty Images family.
How does an iStock contributor get their photographs into Agency?
We will be inviting photographers to contribute with the aim of engaging people who create excellent images, can help us fill some of the gaps in our regionalized content, or are creating work that we feel will sell well a this price and at the different sites Agency will be available.
Where will the Agency Collection be available?
iStock, Getty Images, Jupiter and PunchStock.
What are the royalties?
For dowloads here at iStockphoto, the royalties will range from 22, 24, 26, 28 & 30%.
For downloads at all other sites the royalty will be 20%. Please note that at other sites Agency Collection will have a higher price point and a slightly modified license.
Why are the royalties at iStock different for this Agency Collection content?
Because the content itself is closer to 'traditional' RF prices, it comes with a modified royalty still higher than the standard Getty Images 20%.
What kind of photographs will be in this collection?
Content for Agency is being chosen specifically to address under-represented areas of the iStock colleciton, specifically regional content from different international markets.
Will content from outside of iStockphoto in the Agency Collection
be inspected?
Yes. Every photograph in the Agency Collection will go through our regular inspection process.
(Edited on 2010-09-10 18:39:25 by sylvanworks)
joyze
Comentado Wed Sep 15, 2010 2:57PM First I want to start by letting you all know that I have read all of the forum posts and spoken with many of you personally and I both feel and understand your frustrations and concerns. I want to reassure you that we have spent a long time working on this change, crunching numbers and looking at different options. At the end of the day, these changes were necessary to ensure long-term success for iStock over competitors from customers looking for the best, freshest stock content, and will keep the community thriving. I know many of you dont want to believe us and some of you say you have lost trust in us. Id like to ask that you at least give this new program a chance and give us the chance to win your trust back. The below aims to provide answers to your most pressing concerns and issues. If you still have further questions or require further clarification, please contact Contributor Relations.
1. Why should we endure these pay cuts when the company is so successful?
Please be assured that we have not taken any decisions or made any changes lightly. And while we know that they may be painful in the short term for some of you, our motivation in making them is the long-term continued success of the company and the community.
The changes have been decided on the basis of very thorough analysis and projections that indicate if we were to maintain the status quo, it may ultimately impede both the business and our community from prospering.
We believe strongly that this is the best path to iStocks continued market leadership internationally. If we do not plan and act for longevity, we could easily be caught at the back of the pack. We believe that would hurt everyone here much worse.
2. Why are you not grandfathering anyone in?
The new system is a fresh start and a level playing field. With that as the objective, it wouldnt make sense to grandfather anyone in. We understand this is unexpected and upsetting. You may be having trouble deciding what is best to do. Our contributor relations team is very good at helping people weigh pros and cons based on their unique situations. If you need more clarification, we encourage you to give them a call.
3. What are the new prices for Vetta?
Well change pricing on Sept. 27, and it will continue to be priced above Exclusive+, but below the pricing on Getty Images and below The Agency Collection. Designers have told us repeatedly, and it is underscored again in a Graphic Design USA survey just published that they want fresher, better and more exclusive content that is easy to find. And they are willing to pay for it. At the same time, when they want a simple, economical image, they want to be able to go to a one-stop-shop to find either
Small 30 credits
Medium 50 credits
Large 70 credits
XLarge 100 credits
XXLarge 125 credits
XXXLarge 150 credits
4. Why are illustrators' credits worth half of photographers' credits?
Vector targets are higher than photo targets strictly because the average Vector download uses more credits - roughly twice as much. For example, when you download a small photo, 3 credits are used, but we don't offer file size with Vectors so more credits will be redeemed when downloading a vector file on average. We separated the levels for each file type, as it was the most fair to the contributors. Please also know that we do have some great things planned for Vectors, however to keep our competitive advantage, we're not able to announce them at this time, but will very shortly.
5. Because Vectors have a different redeemed credits value than photos, are you separating Vector exclusives, Flash Exclusives and photo exclusives now?
Well be exploring that and will have an answer before the end of the year for everyone. But for right now, if youre exclusive in one, youre exclusive in all (Photo, Vector and Flash)
6. How will you increase sales?
As in years past, we will continue to invest heavily in our marketing and business growth initiatives. These investments certainly include the changes we are making to the site, beginning with F5 and continuing with new and improved search which will make it even easier for more customers to find and download more of your files. We have many marketing and business growth initiatives planned for next year, along with a new and improved search interface. Again, we can't release further details in order to keep our competitive edge.
7. We need more info on Agency Collection
We survey thousands of customers regularly and from their feedback we learn how we need to grow and expand to meet a broad spectrum of customer needs and ensure they buy from iStock. We know there are many current and prospective customers who purchase from the traditional stock agencies. At the same time, many iStock contributors have asked for a collection like this for their images. So the agency collection is being added to fill a need, not as a replacement. While this will be a small collection, it helps position us to provide a full suite of images in all price ranges to meet all of our clients needs.
The images in the agency collection will be treated in the same manner as any file uploaded to the site. They will go through the inspection process and be approved only if they meet the standards we have set for this collection. In search and Best Match the images will be weighted fairly and will not have a heavier weight than any other file. In other words, you won't find the entire agency collection at the front of every search. You will find some agency collection files scattered in with every search, just the same as you see now for Vetta and exclusive plus files.
This collection will give you the opportunity to compete with the best stock houses in the world, on their turf and on your own.
If you'd like to discuss these questions, please post here
(Edited on 2010-09-15 14:58:29 by joyze)
joyze
Comentado Tue Sep 28, 2010 4:06PM
We've compiled some more questions that have been asked and answered them below:
1. When are "redeemed credits" going to be fully integrated into stats charts, royalty download pages, etc.
Full integration is expected as we get closer to the implementation of the new royalty levels. Currently, each business day redeemed credit totals are updated for each contributor and available in your stats tab.
2. Why are certain "exclusives" part of Vetta, yet they can sell the same content on other non-Getty sites
The exclusive collection contains photos and illustrations by contributors whose royalty-free stock is only available from iStockphoto and the Getty Images family of companies and their distribution partners. With the Hulton Archive collection, these images may be found elsewhere because Getty is also distributing them through their distribution partners.
As well, there was an issue where a contributor was distributing their images both through iStock and other channels. This is not permitted under our Exclusivity terms and once it was brought to our attention it was handled. When contributors are exclusive with iStock, they may not sell their images through any other channel unless it is a program created through iStock directly. If you find further cases like this one, we ask that you contact us at
[email protected] and well investigate the matter and handle it appropriately.
3. Why is it taking so long to do all the F5 fixes for things that were broken (EL page, my_uploads, etc.)
Our development schedule is jam-packed with new features and improvements to existing functionality. We have been focused on optimizing the site for improved customer experience, and now that we've made such a gigantic stride forward in that area, we're turning our focus back on the contributors. We've therefore pushed a whole raft of fixes to the top of our TO Do list. We have front end and back end fixes. Sometimes in order to make the front end fix work we need to focus on the back end first. This is the case for some of these broken features. But, I want to reassure you that we are working on them and will have them out to you as quickly as possible. You will see these fixes coming online during our weekly releases over the next few months.
4. How does the "Agency" payment agreement work with outside content - do their sales affect our target levels
The Agency folks that are not contributors to iStock do not collect Redeemed credits, they are paid on a flat percentage rate.
5. Are "Agency" "inspections" causing the exclusive queue to go to almost a week? If not, why is the queue so long?
The Agency files have very little impact on the exclusive queue. Were aware of the backlog and the inspection team is on a blitz to kick the Q down and it should be back under control soon.
(Edited on 2010-09-28 16:07:02 by joyze)
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