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Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: fujiko on May 17, 2014, 09:01

Title: What is a subscription?
Post by: fujiko on May 17, 2014, 09:01

With the recent turmoil revolving around DPC and the recent changes on fotolia subscription royalty payments I think it's time to talk about what a subscription is.

Agencies usually pay a flat rate to the contributor when an image is purchased through a subscription. Fotolia recently modified it and now pays a % of the image price and has a flat rate bottom to this % so that it doesn't go below the previous rate but up until now they paid a flat rate regardless of the price of the image to the buyer.

Fotolia and depositphotos are the major players in this game of confusing the contributors with misleading names and trying to turn everything into a subscription. Don't know about others.

Fotolia: 5 image/month - 1 month duration = 25 EUR = 5 EUR / image
depositphotos: 5 image/month - 1 month duration = 37 EUR = 7.44 EUR / image

And they consider this a subscription and pay subscription amounts (fotolia just changed this days ago).

Is this really a subscription?
What is a subscription?
What is a 5 image/month subscription for a single month? Is it really a subscription when it is a one time purchase that does not involve more recurrent payments?
What is next? A 1 image/month subscription for 1 month?

IMHO they are cheating the contributors when they create single month subscription plans that are equal to on demand plans or any one time image packs.

Title: Re: What is a subscription?
Post by: MxR on May 19, 2014, 06:22

Is scam plan.

Subscription must be:

- A lot of number of images, hundred per month or many per day.
- Proportional benefit for contributor.
- Competitive risk for the agency (if a client download all the images of a top contribuitor) SS 750 x 0,38= 285 dollars...

Fotolia and Deposit Scam us.

Title: Re: What is a subscription?
Post by: roede-orm on May 19, 2014, 11:36

Quote from: MxR on May 19, 2014, 06:22

Is scam plan.

Subscription must be:

- A lot of number of images, hundred per month or many per day.
- Proportional benefit for contributor.
- Competitive risk for the agency (if a client download all the images of a top contributor) SS 750 x 0,38= 285 dollars...

Fotolia and Deposit Scam us.

Agree, there must be a definition for the term "subscription" - I think, this is a good summary!

Title: Re: What is a subscription?
Post by: cthoman on May 19, 2014, 13:27

I guess it poses the question of... Does it really matter?

I'm saying this just to play devil's advocate. With that said, how many images from a subscription plan does the average buyers really download a month? 10, 20, 50, 100, 1000?

The answer to that really determines how much your images are being sold for (and what you are being paid for them). Also, if this deal is worse or just the same thing being sold in a different way.