The new PantherMedia contributor portal

PantherMedia has launched their brand new contributor portal. They claim that the first priority while implementing was to speed up the submission process, especially for bulk images or whole series of images. The PantherMedia beta-testers have uploaded thousands of new images.

The PantherMedia contributor portal is now the fourth portal in a family next to the stock agency, the photo community and the blog. All sales relevant functions are bundled on this new platform. From upload to payout, you can find everything here that is important when selling photos online. 

The portal indeed seems to be quick, well-structured and easy to use! Check it out here.

Shutterstock introduces the Darkroom: Shape The Future of Shutterstock

Today Shutterstock is launching the Shutterstock Darkroom, a place for you to see contributor features in development. It will be used to show off new features and make sure developers are on the right track before deployment of these features to everyone. Every Darkroom page will have a feedback tab on the left, so you can tell Shutterstock team what you think.

The first two new features in the Shutterstock Darkroom are a new Content Editor (which some of you are already testing) and a new Image Gallery Stats page, designed as a better way to monitor your image statistics.

As you use these new tools, please remember a few things: Shutterstock Darkroom features are live and functional, but they are tests and might not work perfectly. Darkroom features have not been optimized for all web browsers, so developers recommend using the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome or Safari.

Visit the Shutterstock Darkroom and see what develops!

The Latest iStock iPhone App

iStockphoto has released a new version of the official iStock iPhone App. Version 1.1 contains new features and improvements (hello recently accepted files), so you'll be spending even more time on iStock than usual. Get the App from iTunes.

Now let’s hope the Android app will also be published. Join iStockphoto to buy and sell photos online.

Crestock introduces 4 new file sizes

Crestock has recently launched 4 new file sizes and now offers the images for sale in sizes ranging from XS to XXXL, depending on the size of the file originally submitted. The pricing is now ranging from $1 to $25, which increases the sales opportunities in both lower and higher price points from Crestock’s original pricing structure. The minimum threshold for an Extra Large (XL) image is 6MP. The Crestock team strongly suggests that submissions meet or exceed that size, so that the images are available for sale in the largest range possible. They have also increased the pricing for all vector files from $10 to $15 due to the extensive scalability of vectors.

See the new pricing here

To join Crestock as a contributor click here

Fotolia commission system updated

New royalty structure was announced by Fotolia. Commissions have been reduced approximately by 10-20%, depending on the contributor rank. The good news is that no changes were done for those with the emerald status and higher. While the newcomers, who want to sell photos through Fotolia, will earn just 20% of the stock photo price based on the new system. Take a look at the new royalties here. If you are interested in older Fotolia commission information, it is available at microstockgroup wiki.

Royalty changes at iStockphoto are live

As announced earlier in September, iStockphoto implements the new royalty structure. This change caused a huge resonance within the microstock industry. Now the system is confirmed, and the only thing that has changed, is the structure of redeemed credit target. The changes were recently announced and can be found here: new royalty structure at iStockphoto.

Based on the previous year redeemed credit target, iStockphoto defines the starting royalty for 2011. And to be frank, it is still disappointing at least 90% of the microstock contributors. Despite the announced changes, these targets are just enormous. Even the exclusive contributors get less than non-exclusive at some other leading microstock websites. Well, only time will show what are the consequences of such decisions.

Also, you will need to agree with all changes of the iStockphoto Artist Supply Agreement. The next time you log in you will be directed to the new agreement.

Zoonar strengthens its international partners network

The picture agency Zoonar (Hamburg, Germany) announced the Photolibrary picture agency is the latest partner. Now there are six reselling partners in the company network. In addition to the German suppliers DDP Images, Fotofinder, DFJV and Picturemaxx, the photographers can now also offer their photos via Alamy, AGE/THP and Photolibrary.

As of 24 December 2010, Zoonar offers the photographers a lump-sum share of 60% of all received commissions via the partner network. A brilliant commission in comparison to other international agencies.

Zoonar's CEO Michael Krabs announces the aim of integrating further partner agencies in 2011. "Our aim in the long term is getting 20-30 partners who are extremely well in direct selling." According to Michael Krabs 100 agencies can already be integrated in the selling with the existing partners. The winning of sales networks is very popular in the agency business. 

Though the speciality of Zoonar according to Krabs is "that the photographers own the complete control over their pictures and that they can variously distribute single photos, price segments or license types. Other than that, microstock photos can be integrated in the distribution network".

According to Zoonar's CEO, the sale via the new partner network will mainly start in the first quarter of 2011. That's why they calculate with a considerable growth in sales as of the second quarter of 2011.

All of the above sounds nice. Let’s wait to see how the guys cope with this.