"Our new compensation model is designed to reward content creators for producing quality work that is fresh, relevant and in demand by our customers. By resetting the royalty levels each year, we aim to provide an avenue for contributors to be fairly rewarded for content that is performing well at the current time."

It leaves you wondering why anyone would put energy into creating �fresh, relevant, in demand content� for a reduced percentage, especially when it was already low. If you have enough older content to bring you to a higher level quickly you would at best wait to upload fresh content when you were getting a higher rate per image rather than sell it for pennies.

I got 3 over a seven hour span. Just letting them sit for now. Particularly suspicious that it is over a weekend.

Quote from: angelawaye on April 13, 2017, 11:11

Just so everyone knows, 123 has provided a MISC 1099 for 2016 (Late).

I now have to file an amended return. My amended return looks exactly the same as my original but if I don't claim that MISC 1099 I could get a penalty and a bill from the IRS. (I originally claimed 123's income in OTHER gross income received).

Grrr,  I just noticed that my "new" 1099 claims I earned $50 more than what I actually been paid through Paypal and already filed on my tax return

About the same for me too.  I am not sure where they came up with that number. $54 higher than my PayPal receipts from 123rf. If they were calculating it like Fotolia does, based on sales (credits) earned even if they were not paid out they screwed it up even worse.

A batch of emails will be going out on Monday.

Because figuring out how to automate the process is beyond their skill level? Can't keep running through the weekend?

No e-mail for me yet either. I have received all of the other e-mails leading up to the change-over. Not unexpected.

I find it odd that Adobe announced a sale here immediately before adjusting people's accounts for underpayment. So people mistakenly thought they were getting extra sales and got all excited, rather than questioning why they had apparently been under paid for quite a while.

I look forward to being pilloried.

Or maybe not so odd, I suspect more likely that marketing set a promotion and accounting corrected a commission error and both departments were blissfully going along their way without any thought of implications beyond the immediate task or the need to communicate with anyone outside their department. I see it all the time in my day job.

But hey!!

It's free pizza Friday YAY!! 

Many companies in the U.S. will close early today as it is a holiday weekend and they are closed Monday.  Probably cancelled the pizza party today.

But seriously, with a reduced staff due to summer vacations and likely early closing plus Monday holiday this silence could continue for several days.

I found out that some of the over-reporting of net earnings comes from Creative Market calculating what they pay us for the year in terms of total royalties earned through sales, and not by actual cash paid out, as most stock agencies do it.

This seems highly irregular. I'm not sure I can think of another company that works like that. Royalties earned aren't income until they're paid out via PayPal, check, Skrill, bank transfer, etc.

My income on Shutterstock, for example, is what hits my PayPal account each month of the year, not what the site statistics say. Creative Market does this differently as well.

s

I believe that Fotolia does it that way. I questioned them my first year when my 1099 equaled the total credits earned, not the amount paid out.  Their response was that because I could convert credits to make purchases they issued the 1099 on earnings, not payout.

Quote from: klsbear on March 24, 2016, 11:45

Quote from: Dog-maDe-sign on March 24, 2016, 11:08

What do will happen at our portfolios when and if we will be died, without delete them?

.g

The agencies have policies in place where your heirs can submit documents to show they have inherited your property and are legally allowed to manage the account and receive payments. Ideally you would want to have all the paperwork in place with your heir and attorney so it is easy to provide the information. This should include website info, contact info, etc. or you can do what I did the night before a recent surgery where I was giving my husband a list of webisites and passwords, telling him he would have to figure it out but don't leave the money there.  Note to self, get this info more organized for hubby and heirs.

Do you know what paperwork they need? I need to sort out something for wife as I have an operation under general anaesthetic coming up.

I don't know specifically and it might be a little different for each agency but I believe what they want is proof that you are deceased and that the person claiming rights to your intellectual property is the legal heir. I think that writing it out in a will would be best. If the surgery is imminent and you don't have a will perhaps a letter detailing the IP assets (photos, videos, illustrations) with agencies listed naming your heir that was witnessed and notarized would be a helpful step although your estate may need to go through probate first. There was another post here several months back discussing this same topic and I think there was some more specific detail so you might want to search for that. I'm not a lawyer and haven't had to experience this directly so don't consider this to be the absolute answer. You need to check each agency for their requirements. I think some have it listed in their FAQ section.

Thanks everyone.  Mine have always matched exactly and I have always handed everything off to my accountant so I wasn't aware of the rounding allowance.

Lately it seems I've become conditioned to expect the worst.  I have spent far too much time straightening out health insurance billing errors, questioning changes in utility bills, etc. times three as I've taken over managing finances for parents with Alzheimer's and hubby's 99 year old grandmother too on top of our own stuff. I just saw this as one more thing that would need fixing.  Glad to know I can move on and not worry about it. The news made my night!

Freepik, you mentioned that the free downloads require attribution whereas the paid subscribers are not required to include attribution.

Attribution is rather worthless however I am curious as to what steps you take, if any, to assure that those hundreds of thousands of free downloads are properly attributed? 

Generic does not have to be a negative, it just means it is not fitting into a narrow niche.  Stock photos with a generic, broad appeal sell for a reason, they can fit a wider variety of needs. They also fit the trends that were in place for a long time.  The trend of late seems to be going for a look with more variety, more flaws, more like the family down the street that may be less than perfect. Is your image the first one with the woman running? I suppose that would work in a number of countries and cultures where the buyer wanted to identify with young white blond mothers, hence a generic look. Is it selling? That is the real measure of its appeal.