@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

@Fyletto:

Just a small hint: If you upload your images, our systemwill check which images have already been uploaded and will reject those. This means that only those will be accepted for inspection that have not been uploaded at all. That might save you some work.

@Ariene:
After deleting images/cancelling the membership, we deactivate the images from our image search and API for partners immediately. Only will they be available on our site via image number or lightbox for 3 months. That makes sense for advertising agencies who have to consult with their customers for purchase decision. Every 3 months we send out removal lists to partners who do not have an API, who usually remove them immediately, but some also offer a 3 months period for deletion. Hence, there is a maximum of 6 months, but in practice it is faster.

@photostockad:
We sell in our platform RF. IF you activate RM, your images are also delivered to partners like poster printers, who pay per print (e.g. 6 Euro per single print on canvas).

Bet 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

@Goofy:
If you upload images via FTP, did you transfer those into "My images" section? Do they still show in your FTOP account? Please let me know and we can find the problem. Usually, the FTP upload should not take longer than some seconds per image.

Regarding the tax issue, I am sorry the goverments are like that. The print for the tax exemption are in mostly in German language, that is why we help you if you contact us and ask for help. And what do you mean fix - make it available in english? The tax thing? That is the government print, they only accept their print.   

@Fyletto:
Do you want to send us a hard drive or dropbox account, so we can upload them for you and you give it a try?

@Ariene:
We have standard and corporate subscriptions (0,23/0,46 EUR) and also Web, Small and big print subscriptions, so comparing a web download with a shutterstock XXL download is actually not really the same. But I get your point that we need to pay more than the big ones to be more attractive, but after all it is the total you get at the end of the month. And there are only 4-5 agencies that are attractive, right? So there is a big gap after agency 5. However, I recommend to upload to at least 10-15 agencies to have a fair competition. And according to the top contributors, we are between 6 and 10 depending on the month, so maybe you should give the smaller ones more power to get bigger?

Anyway, good luck to you all and hope we increase sales for you with our new site.

Best regards,
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

@vilainecrevette:

That is very harsh accusation you are posting against PantherMedia. You have sent us the ticket just a few days ago, while we are still verifying the issue. Replies that involve contacting partners and deep analysis usually take longer than just a few minutes.

Regarding your case: everything is according not only to our terms, but also to standard business processes in the industry. Let me explain this a bit. Once you decide to quit your membership, we immediately deactivate your images from our website. There is period of 3 months where customer can still find the images in their lightboxes are with the image number (due to the purchasing process of customers that need approval of their editors/customers). Then, we send out removal lists every 3 months to our partners with a deletion period of a max of 3 months. Hence the maximum deletion period of 6 months. So, the removal of your images was within that period.

Now to the reports and payments. Once we or a partner SELL an image, it is only REPORTED once we receive the money. With prepaid products (credits, subscription), we report the sales after the download. With partners or sales in invoice (on demand), we report once we receive the money from the customer. Now, if a partner sells an image, the partner collects the money, then the partner reports the sale to us and then we invoice and then we report once we receive the money. Now you understand why we it takes some time from the actual sales until your receive your report and money.

Now your sales has been legally correct in the period of time we were allowed to sell the image. The report and the collection was after your images have been deleted. As reliable partners, of course we notify you once we receive money that belongs to you, even after your membership runs out.

PS: My colleague from accounting will contact you once she is back from her sick leave.

@Ron: I have no idea what our ISP has to do with this kind of prejudices? Just look into the imprint of our company and call us...As you can see, there is an explanation of this kind of problem.

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

Hi Ariene,

that is our Polish sales office's address (for customer inquiries). For contributor inquiries, please use our ticket system at the given link. 

Thank you,

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

Hi Ariene,

yes, certainly. If you close your account your get your money irrespective of the payout threshold. If you use this link for posting messages to us, it will directly go into our ticket system and you will definitely receive an answer anytime you contact us: http://panthermedia.net/index.php?page=kontakt_ba_fc.php

@yure: Please let me know your username and I will unblock the limit. I will also record a screencast for uploading images, since our batch upload and batch editing system allows the processing of multiple images at a very fast rate. Please also hide the extended metadata features, we only need the top 5 info (rights, where to publish, model- and property release, keywords -> imported via IPTC). That is all.

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

DNS Problem solved. Please notify me directly at [email protected] is this happens again. This was not an attack on panthermedia.net, but a DNS problem that was not within our hands.

Please mind, this issue had nothing to do with panthermedia.net or our team.

Best regards,

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.

Hi everybody,
this is definitely not triggered by us. We are currently working on our server to see where this is coming from and will eliminate this asap.

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

Dear photographers,

PantherMedia proudly presents the new photo competition "My Pet and Me". It begins Sunday, 1st of September and ends Tuesday, 15th of October.

In cooperation with the Industrial Association of Pet Care Producers (IVH), we are looking for authentic, non-commercial and natural images that symbolize the emotional relationship between people and their pets.

The photo competition is divided into 5 categories, "people and...
- Cats
- Dogs
- Small animals
- Ornamental birds
- Ornamental fish

In each category you can win the following prizes:
- 1st prize: 250 Euro
- 2nd prize: 150 Euro
- 3rd prize: 75 Euro
and additionally one licence for all winning images in all categories plus extra licences for really good images at 75,00 Euro net per image.

Important: Please make sure you upload the images with the "rightsmanaged" option in your policy management.

For more information, please visit http://contributor.panthermedia.net/cms/photo-competition-my-pet-and-me?aff=fcenivh

Good luck,

Your PantherMedia Team

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

@Colette,

you can apply for a tay exemption at the German government. We will help you with that. Based on the country you are living in and the respective double tax treaty, you might get up to 100% of your payout. Please contact our support if you need help with that.

Best regards,

Robert

Hi everyone,

anybody experiencing problems in opening the contributor portal?

Best regards,
Robert

Hi all,

we are liable to report the income to the German Tax authorities based on the double tax treaty with the respective country the photographer lives in. By asking the question, we can identify if the income is commercial or private. However, this tax has to be paid anyway, but you can report it to your tax offices or you get an exemption from the German tax authority (depends on the double tax treaty between Germany and your country). We will help you filling out that form and then we can pay out up to 100% of your payout. Please contact our support for help, we are happy to help you to get 100%!

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 

Hi Cricket,

our support colleagues are not native english speakers, so please excuse the wording.

After consulting our IT guys, they told me that there was a problem when importing files from FTP with extremely long file names. We have fixed that bug and it should work now. If you encounter other problems upon importing files from FTP into the system, please let us know with an exact problem description / error message including the image number or files that did not work. Our "morons" will then check the problem.

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

 

Hi all,

we are happy to inform you that all images now carry the new watermark in the middle of the image - old ones and also the new uploads.

Looking forward to receiving your images,

Robert

Great! Thanks, Luis!