iStock Royalty Rates 2013

iStock announcement for their 2013 royalty rates.  Very few changes, so read all about it below!

Royalty Rates for 2013

First, we wanted to say thanks to those of you participating in or following the continuing dialog of the past few weeks. We'll never be able to answer every question or address every issue as quickly or as completely as we wish we could, but we're working to improve in this area and will continue these efforts. As Rebecca has explained in her recent comments, the increased communication is something we're dedicated to and plan to continue.

There will be no changes for the Redeemed Credit targets for 2013, the targets will remain at the same levels as 2012. To review where these targets stand, please see: http://www.istockphoto.com/help/sell-stock/rate-schedule

Several key topics have surfaced through this dialog, there are specific conversations happening on many of these elsewhere in the forum and we hope you will continue to participate. One topic that's especially important to all of us is Best Match - we are listening to your comments and continue to work towards improvements and/or clarifications in this and other areas being discussed.

As I'm sure everyone reading this knows very well, the stock industry is in a constant state of evolution, and as a result iStock is too. But one thing that we've been reminded of through the recent discussions is the importance of our amazing contributor community here at iStock. We take responsibility for being neglectful on this front and we're committed to getting things back on track. We know it'll take time and we understand that actions speak louder than words. We also accept that things have never stopped changing around all of us since the old iStock days, so our goal is not to recreate that time, but to establish the new version of iStock – one that maintains as much of the original spark as possible while also making sense in the current and future states of the stock industry.

With all of this in mind we assessed additional actions we could take that would positively impact the greatest number of contributors, and would also make sense to the overall business. The answer we came to is rolling all current royalty rates as of December 31st into 2013.

This means:


If you moved up during 2012 by hitting new levels/targets you will stay at your new rate going into 2013
If you have not made it back to your 2012 level you will not move down on Jan 1, instead you will stay at your current level/rate going into 2013
RC counts will still reset as of Jan 1, the 2013 RC targets will remain as they are, and if you reach a new level target during 2013 you will automatically move up

We understand that not everyone benefits from this announcement, but as stated above our analysis showed this to be the most effective way to impact the largest number of contributors quickly and effectively. Thanks for your continued patience and commitment.