Pure Reviews

123RF launches two new features to their site.  First up Audio is coming to the site and they will allow you to set your price points per a chart.  See below for how to upload your stock audio and the royalty breakdown.  Second they have announced a new image size of ML which will push everything up 1 credit from the Large price point.  A full chart is listed below.  Sign up for 123RF look for the link on the right size. Adding 'Audio Stock' to its list of endless digital creative content, 123RF is inviting Audio Composers and Authors to send in their audio clips, sound effects, music tracks and compilations to be included in its all-encompassing collection. You'll be able to access a worldwide clientele via the 123RF.com platform. 123RF can now be viewed as the ideal launch pad for audio professionals looking to market their projects to the creative industry. Contributors get 30% to 60% of the selling price. And the best part is, you get to decide how to ...

Press release from Shutterstock that now allows downloading images directly to your tablet or cell phone on apple products.  Check out the release below. We know our contributors are always interested in getting their work seen by as many customers in as many ways as possible. With that in mind, here’s an update on what we’ve been doing to help you promote and license your images on mobile devices — and let you track your results on the go, too. The Shutterstock App for iPhone and iPad — now with downloading! We recently updated our award-winning app to make it available on iPhone as well as iPad. Both versions let users search and explore images, scroll through a seamless mosaic of options, add selections to Lightboxes, and share them with colleagues. The apps have been a huge hit with customers — to date, over 300,000 users have downloaded and begun using them! This month, we released version 2.5 of the app, giving customers the ability to download images straight to thei...

YAY announces new partnership with Pond5, Zoomy & Photokore.  Read about it below. Hi, I hope you are doing well! We at YAY would like to give you a short update on the latest news. First, we're happy to announce three new partners in our partner program: Pond5, Zoomy and Photokore. You will find more information and opt-out at the API information page . We know some of you would like to get more information about your sales at YAY, as well as your partner sales. We've been running a bit behind on this, but plan to update the pages soon. Therefore we would like to know what information you find most important, and what features you are missing on our sales- and api-page. Other suggestions are welcomed as well. Sometimes it's a bit difficult to understand why an image has been rejected. To improve our review service the reviewers can now e-mail the photographer and explain the reason for rejections. If you have questions about rejections you can also e-mail us at  ...

Shutterstock updates their royalty rate for referrals.  Payout will increase by once sent and a referred person will be active for 2 years.  See the info below and if you wish to join Shutterstock click here .  SS is consistently one of the highest respected stock photography sites.

So Bigstock has announced that they are going to start doing subscription sales this year.  Joining what seems to be a new industry standard they are setting their royalty base at only $0.25.  Sadly this seems to be more and more common ( Fotolia , iStock , 123RF , etc).  The odd part of this announcement is that Bigstock was bought by Shutterstock so they could have pay as you go style site.  So this begs the question of why start moving your site to the SS formula with lower royalties.  How do you feel about the changes, comment below. As you know, we already offer Bigstock customers the flexibility of pre-paying with credits. Next week, we’ll be offering our customers an increasingly popular way to buy images:  subscriptions. How will this affect me? Subscriptions can generate higher download volumes, which can increase your total earnings from Bigstock. Here’s how you will earn royalties from Bigstock subscriptions: Eve...

I want to talk a little moment away from out typical photography posts to talk about Kylie Minogue's new hit album "The Abbey Road Sessions."  This is a stellar album with a staggering 16 songs including some great classics with some new hits.  It's very rare that I find an CD that has as many good songs as this.  Out of the 16 songs total, I only felt a 4 of them where just ok.  To all my bloggers if you have not enjoyed Kylie's music in that past this is a great album to pick up, after all she was in the Olympics for a reason.  Top classic song hands down on the album is "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" and my favorite new song would have to be "On A Night Like This".  If you are a traditional fan of Kylie you notice a slight shift in her music as she has a lot more slow paced songs compared to her club hits of the 90's.  This is just more of a showing how she can change with the time Her full line up of songs is as follows: 1. A...

Veer launched this week a new collection of highly stylized and eye catching images called Veer Royale.  As several of the stock photography companies image count grows it is getting harder and harder to find some of those outstanding images.  As a new trend companies are creating top class collections on their sites to help put the best of the best in front of their customers.  Check out the info below. Today we are excited to share with you some sweet news: the launch of Veer Royale – a new collection of images and illustrations designed to highlight the best of Veer . Stretching across a variety of subjects, our editors have been on the lookout for content that is unique and highly stylized with strong aesthetic appeal. Royale is designed to help customers looking for eye-catching imagery find a filtered set of results with just a click. Some of you may already see a few of your images in the collection, and if you don't, keep sending us your best and there's a c...

Shutterstock launches a Viewfinder Contest that focuses on photography challenges.  For example the first challenge this month is " Celebrating Life " so any image that you feel captures that enter it in for a chance to win some great prizes.  Check out their full write up below and join Shutterstock here . Shutterstock contributors are some of the most creative in the business, and to us, that’s something worth celebrating. Cue the Viewfinder Challenge – a themed competition that gives you the chance to show off your best work and bask in the brilliance of your fellow creatives. You can even score some great prizes and major exposure while you’re at it. The theme for the first challenge is “ Celebrating Life .” Submit your best photos, footage, or illustrations that capture  “a spirit of celebration, whether it’s personal, local, global, or universal.” For reference, check out these collections of  examples of “Celebrating Life” our curator pulled to...

Fotolia updates their submittable process which allows you to categorize, keyword, title, etc several images in on batch.  Check it out next time you upload some images, see official write up below.  New to Fotolia, join here . We are happy to announce the launch of a new feature that is sure to be appreciated by large content uploaders: the multi-indexing tool. Imagine you're uploading a series of 50 images via FTP and need to index them all. Thanks to a dedicated interface, this new feature will save you time by letting you index all your images at once. How does it work? Once uploaded, all your images will be listed in a new section within your Files Management area: the "Indexing"...

I would like to take give a quick shout out to Sonos who is running a great promotion on a Wireless HiFi System at Target.  If you love music and want to stream your whole collection via WiFi then you really need to look into one of these systems as they are very cool and sleek looking.  I am always glad to see a well designed and modern looking item for mass consumers.  Check out the video below which explains the Sonos system.  Also remember fathers day is coming up and this would make a great deal. Right now through June 16th, 2012 at Target you will get a free $30 Target gift card when you by the Play 3 unit or a $40 Target gift card when you by the Play 5 unit.  Happy shopping Disclaimer:  I participated in this campaign as a member of  One2One Network  and I'm eligible for a prize drawing.  All opinions stated in the post are my own.

Shutterstock gave themselves a facelift a few weeks ago and I must say it looks great.  The company is going to be focusing on better content and continued growth.  Check out their write up below about the new look and also check out the video.  Keep up the great work Shuterstock and if you want to join as a buyer or photographer click here . Video: About Our New Look It’s an exciting day at Shutterstock! We’re thrilled to unveil our new logo and visual identity, the result of months of development and a sign of our commitment to creativity and innovation. This video shows some of the potential built into our new logo. What you probably noticed first, after our dramatic color change, is something special going on with the “O” in Shutterstock. We call it the Viewfinder, and it’s there to allow us to showcase our vast, constantly updating collection of amazing images and videos. The Viewfinder symbolizes the artistic empowerment of Shutterstock ...

Zoonar adds Getty Images to their partner distribution list.  Its interesting that they have it in their clause that you cant send the images to their biggest competition Veer and Corbis.  The second bit of news is they are dropping the commission rate by 10%  for partner sales.  Zoonar sales will still get commissions up to 80%. Dear photographers, we have important news for you: 1. We are pleased to present Getty Images as our new distribution partner. As of now you can only submit photos which don’t require a model or property release. We hope to offer you a new release management tool by the middle of 2012, which will make it possible for you to submit photos that require a release. Getty Images has generated high sales through its platforms Jupiterimages and Thinkstock which has made many photographers want to submit photos for this partner. We are expectant to see how many photos will be accepted by Getty Images. We have no figures based on exp...

YAY does some updates fresh updates on their site.  New features include downloadable stats via CSV files, new partners and a increase minimum megapixels requirement.  Read all about the updates below or join YAY here . It’s time for a new update about what is happening at YAY : First, we’re happy to announce that you’ll now get the sales stats as csv-files. You’ll find it under http://yaymicro.com/salestats. action when logged in. Some of you might see partner sales with a low price for each image. This is due to partner subscription of small or extra small images. On partner subscriptions we get paid for our share of downloads, and then we divide our share with the photographers with sold images. Therefore you will see a combination of large and small prices from the same partners, depending on how many images the customer downloaded, and your share of those images. If you have any questions about this – just e-mail me (reply to this email), and I’ll help...

After a few months of delay the new stock video section has launched at 123RF .  For a while now you have been able to upload your stock video to the site, but they had not been live until recently.  So what are you waiting for, go download some cutting edge video now.  Join 123RF here .

123RF launched their new royalty rates that will go into effect on Jan. 1st, 2013.  Originally they stated that a new rate would be fore new contributors, but it looks like that might have been abandoned for this new system at the end of this year.  They are leaving plenty of time between now and the end of the year to hear the feedback.  Below is their breakdown of how your rates will be give.  Join 123RF here .  It will be hard to swallow $0.216 for the lowest sub sales in the industry.  123RF.com will be changing its Contributor Commission Payout on January 1, 2013. From now till then, 123RF.com shall continue paying our Contributors at a rate of: 50% net value for credits $0.36 per download for subscriptions From January 1, 2013 onwards – 123RF shall adopt the new Contributor Commission Payout schedule depicted in the table below :      123RF shall round the monthly cumulative earnings to the nearest $0.01. ...

Shutterstock launches a sensitive use license that will allow an increase of sales of up to $75 per image.  Unlike several other companies, SS is going to let you opt out of this feature which will keep your models from being featured in sensitive ads for healthcare or other topics.  This is a great new revenue stream and also gives photographers great control of how their photos should be used. To Our Valued Contributors, We would like to tell you about an important update with great potential to increase sales for you. We are updating our Contributor Terms of Service (“TOS”) to enable new sales with a royalty of up to $75 per image download. Shutterstock services both small and large buyers. In addition to our standard and enhanced licenses, we provide custom licenses to buyers such as large advertising agencies. These agencies require more rights and some flexibility in how an image might ultimately be used. That flexibility may include "sensitive uses." ...

Commission changes are on the horizon at 123RF for new users.  The memo below has been posted about what is required to stay on the old commission rate for photographers.  No word on what the changes will be or how they will affect us, but guessing by point 3 they will be moving more to match the other big companies with lower payout rates.  At lest they seem to be honest and trying to hang in there for the long run.  123RF is based here in my home town, so we will keep a close eye on them and let you know more down the road. We will be changing our Contributors’ commission structure effective February 1, 2012. Here’s what you need to know: All existing contributors shall continue to enjoy the current 50% nett commission share ONLY IF they fulfill ALL of the following criteria.: Have registered with 123RF.com before February 1, 2012 . Have at least 150 accepted images in their respective portfolios by January 9, 2012 . Have had a ...

Mostphotos CEO takes a look at the year 2011 and gives us a peek at what the year 2012 will hold for photographers and buyers alike.  Last year sounded like it was the year of getting things running better and this year will be the year of improving and fine tuning.  If you are new to Mostphotos you can sign up here . 2011 was the year when we started our first marketing campaign, kicking off with the Swedish market. The reception has been great, and our customers are even happier than we could ever have anticipated. This past year, as we entered the market, we decided to put a lot of effort into creating functionalities that would benefit our users. Among other things, we improved the online shopping experience with international invoice support, and introduced more attractive bundle options such as the ‘monthly’ and ‘download’ packages. In addition, we now have organisation support and collections, and we also have the request feature that was created during...

DepositPhotos is becoming a stronger stock photography company every day as it meets the challenge to become a top player.  The company has officially launched their new tax center, which brings them in-line with the U.S. government requirements and also matching what several of the stock sites are now required to do.  If you have not already done so, send in your W-2 info digitally on their website (outside US see other options).  Along with the tax center Deposit Photo's will be launching their new Editorial images.  You can start uploading your editorial collection today for acceptance.  Editorial images is a fast growing department among the stock sites as news goes digital around the world.  If you are new to Deposit Photos then sign up here .  I highly recommend adding this company to your portfolio of sites. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 7 Dec. 2011 – Depositphotos , the fastest-growing stock photo agency in the world, announces that it is...

Shutterstock has officially launched their brand new iPad app. which is available for download now at iTunes.  The application will not only allow you to search images in a mosaic type view, but you will also be able to save them to your account for quick downloads.  Also part of the application is the ability to share via email or social media sites like Twitter.  Check out the write up below from the Shutterstock team.  To sign up for Shutterstock, click here . As head of the Mobile team at Shutterstock, I’m excited to announce Shutterstock for iPad is officially live in the iTunes App store. (You can download it for free, here .) After six months of researching, planning, developing, a nd fine-tuning, we hope customers find this application makes browsing for images a more seamless and beautiful experience than ever. With the simple swipe of the finger, you can: Scroll through thousands of images, seamlessly tiled together in a unique Mosaic View th...