Westend61 has been receiving a lot of publicity lately as photographers look for agencies with higher license prices. Westend61 also is a Stock Performer partner, so we decided to interview the CEO and share with you his thoughts on the market.

The interview is a great source to learn more about the agency Westend61.

https://www.stockperformer.com/blog/interview-series-gerald-staufer-ceo-of-westend61/

Enjoy!
Luis

Interesting.   Thanks for sharing.

Very interesting interview. Thank you very much

It doesn't seem like it would be beneficial to be splitting tiny royalty amounts with a distributor, as far as MS goes.

I do not think you can compensate a 60% share for Westend by a supposedly better ranking.

If I understood this project correctly  with kind respect to all, In my opinion people on MS group could easily build a "hyper-portfolio" together, I sure don't doubt it would be a quality one and save themselves above 60% of the cut right in the start.

That mostly goes if one is targeting with this one the same market he is present with his work now.

   

yes you can, if they earn double than i would myself because they have for instance a much higher ranking at fotolia, while my individual account is still bronze, plus higher rankings in searches...etc...

That's good idea for beginners at microstock. I have much higer ranking and placement than you mentioned. So, they would need like few years to get to my level.
Anyway, he was talking about their photographers that were "not willing to go through the hassle of keywording their images for microstock"?!?! Man, they got really spoiled over there at macrostock.

They have been around for 11 years, more than most agencies in the market. And they don�t depend on microstock, their main income is from macro and direct sales here in Germany.

But like I said, i am keeping my own portfolios,but will specialize them more. So for me this is a good option, but nobody has to follow my path.

However I am not aware of any other macro agency that offers specific micro distribution as well. I just see blend, tetra etc...distributing older content via the micros, but maybe they offer a micro distribution option for their artists as well, I don�t know.

In the end it is not different to sending files to stocksy,getty,spacesimages... or any other excusive sales/distribution agent. There is always a risk, but by spreading files, you lower the risk.

It�s a small agency, their online community life is all in German. They also coproduce together with their artists in Germany/Switzerland/Austria, so I think it makes most sense to apply if you live in the region and can benefit from working closely with them. 

However there seem to be a few stocksy artists there, so if you are interested in working with a macro agency or have previous experience with Getty macro or maybe Corbis, you can apply.

I don�t know how difficult it is to get in, I met them at a dinner during mexpo and then applied and they took me.

Why not just write to them to find out what their procedure is.

But keep in mind that working with an agency that specializes in distribution means you don�t get any real time sales info and that because their many different partners might take files only once every few months it can time quite a while to see your files spread around the globe. It is a different way of working and you have to be very patient.

My portfolio is still new and very small, so I can�t comment on sales, but from what I hear it is similar to what you would expect from what we had as Getty house artists. Except that you are not limited to getty, but your files can end up on offset, corbis,masterfile and many,many others. But - they also might not go there, so for instance I have found my files on Corbis but not (yet?) on Offset or Getty.

If you want the real time sales experience, then stocksy is more what people are used to from microstock. But the prices on stocksy are limited to 100 dollars (plus extended licenses). Here your files will be offered for much higher prices (529 euros in Germany), but with discounts can also end up with sales that are lower, like on Getty. But no subs sales. And they also sell direct here in Germany.

But the artists who have been with them for a long time, seem to be very happy.

I don�t know how many more artists they want to have or how they want to grow.

Maybe just write to them and ask when it is best to apply or what subject matter is on their needed list.

Overall the biggest advantage in my opinion is that they take in a huge diversity in styles and subject matter. They have such a small group of artists but get an incredible variety out of them.

yes you can, if they earn double than i would myself because they have for instance a much higher ranking at fotolia, while my individual account is still bronze, plus higher rankings in searches...etc...

Is there any evidence for a better best match position? You would need to upload a set of identical images both through the distributor and directly and then check which files rank higher.
Contributor ranking may not be such an important factor at all. Download numbers divided by online time should be more important. As a matter of fact, high contributor ranking may have the opposite effect if the site has to pay higher royalty rates.
As far as I remember this is the case at FT. Some time ago emeralds (or whatever they are called) complained here that their sales at FT had tanked. At that time I had to smile, because I had only a small port of old images there and the emeralds were not doing so much better than me as they should have. This might have changed of course, I just don't follow that site. The point is, such a site as FT benefits when lower rank contributors are promoted.