With some of the Microstock agencies you will at some point need to decide if you want to go exclusive. What this means is that you agree to only upload your vector illustrations to their agency. Sometimes it means that you can’t upload the same images to other sites, but you can still upload different images or art to other agencies. Fotolia has levels of exclusivity. Dreamstime lets you choose whether individual files are offered exclusively on their site.
The advantage of going exclusive mainly has to do with commissions. As an exclusive artist you make more money each time you sell the rights to your work, but you also give up the option to upload your illustrations to other sites in order to maximize your exposure and your income. Sometimes there are other quirks that go along with being an exclusive artist, such as faster review times.
There are many artists who are exclusive and do really well. The choice is different for every artist. Some artists sell really well on all of the sites they upload to and others don’t. Agencies cater to different clients with different needs as designers. They also may have different likes and dislikes when it comes to style of art. I suggest uploading to many sites and discovering for yourself where you make the most sales. The option to go exclusive is completely up to you. If you’re not sure what you want to do you can just continue as a non-exclusive artist until you’ve decided which direction you want to go.
One thing that personally directs me to remain a non-exclusive artist is that sometimes the vector illustrations that I create are not what every agency is looking for. For instance I feel that iStock has many more restrictions on the type of art that they will accept. That is not to say the iStock is bad or wrong in any way, on the contrary they are one of my top two agencies along with Shutterstock. They do however have strict acceptance policies to maintain their collection as they like it. There are times that I will create an illustration knowing beforehand that it probably won’t be accepted by the iStock reviewers. The lack of acceptance is usually due to the subject matter, simplicity or composition. I will still upload it to them anyway just in case it is accepted into their collection. That doesn’t help my acceptance percentage, but that would only be a concern if I intended to go exclusive with them, which I don’t. My point is that if I was an exclusive artist with them I would be much more limited in what I could create for Microstock. A few of the rejections from iStock and Dreamstime have gone on to be my best sellers at other agencies.
There are at the time of this writing several agencies that I feel are at the top of the list for sales of vector art. This list includes iStock, ShutterStock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, 123RF, Canstockphoto and Bigstockphoto. These are the sites that I deal with and continue to sell my royalty free vector art through. There are many others, some of which are listed in the Resources page. Listed below are the current advantages of being an exclusive contributor to these particular libraries as stated on their websites.
iStock pays royalty rates of between 15%-20% to its non-exclusive contributors.
Every time someone downloads your files, you get closer to earning higher royalty rates. Contributor royalties begin at 15% and increase based on the total amount paid to license your files each calendar year ("Redeemed Credits"), up to 45%. Each year, Redeemed Credit targets will be announced. These targets will be used to guide a contributor's royalty rate during that year and to establish the initial royalty rate in the following year. A contributor's royalty rate will move up during the year as that contributor's Redeemed Credits hit the announced targets. A contributor's initial royalty rate for the following year will be determined using the Redeemed Target announced the previous year.
iStock pays royalty rates of between 22%-45% to its exclusive contributors. For more information please see the royalty schedule
If you get cold feet, you can cancel your Exclusive contract with 30 days notice, after providing us with a reason ("it's not you, it's me"). And we'll always take you back, with a 90 day reinstatement waiting period.
Once you become an exclusive artist, you can sell your images, videos and audio files on the entire Getty Images family of sites, and increase your royalties through our iStock partner programs.
Exclusivity only covers your royalty-free stock files. iStock does not require Exclusivity for:
Are there other restrictions?
Please read the complete Exclusive Artist Supply Agreement and/or the Audio Exclusive Artist Supply Agreement. If you have any questions at all, contact us and we'll be glad to help.
If you have 250 downloads, a minimum 50% approval rating, and have no royalty-free stock images, vector illustrations, video footage, audio clips or Flash files available at other agencies, you can join our exclusive team. Video contributors only need one upload to be approved as an exclusive contributor while sound artists only need 10 downloads. Once eligible, contributors must apply to join the exclusivity program.
iStock is the world's most popular stock media website. Exclusivity brings more attention to your portfolio and makes the most out of all that traffic. You will see a difference.
Exclusives have increased upload limits and a shorter inspection queue, so more of your work gets online faster. Audio upload limits do not increase when you become Exclusive.
Exclusivity makes it easier for us to protect our contributors. We can better enforce compliance issues when we know an image came from us and must follow our licensing agreement.
Not available as of the time this article was written.
Non-exclusive contributors:A non-exclusive contributor is an artist who uploads images that are also available for sale with other stock agencies. These contributors may upload their images to Dreamstime.com while selling the same images through other channels. Non-exclusive contributors shall receive 25-50% of the net sale price received by Dreamstime.com for the images they have contributed to the site which are subsequently sold by Dreamstime.com.
Exclusive images: A contributor may work with other agencies in addition to Dreamstime.com. However, the images provided to Dreamstime.com and marked as being exclusive are sold only on Dreamstime.com. An exclusive image is represented by concepts, models, wardrobe, and subject matter which provide a unique creative message and small variations in the image (variations in camera angle, model posture or gesture, for example) do not enable an image as being different. Exclusive images may only be sold through Dreamstime.com and may not be offered through other channels. Contributors shall receive 27.5%-55% of the net sale price received by Dreamstime.com for the exclusive images they have contributed to the site which are subsequently sold by Dreamstime.com. A Contributor may remove the exclusivity rights to an image with thirty (30) days prior written notice to Dreamstime.com.
Exclusive contributors: An exclusive contributor is not represented by any other agency and will work solely with Dreamstime.com for selling their images. Exclusive contributors may, however, sell their other artwork on a photographer-to-client basis, under a work for hire contract, outside of this Agreement. Exclusive contributors shall receive sixty (60%) percent of the net sale price received by Dreamstime.com for the exclusive images they have contributed to the site which are subsequently sold by Dreamstime.com, as well as a commission of $0.20 (twenty cents) for each submission uploaded and accepted by Dreamstime.com. Dreamstime.com is under no obligation, however, to accept an exclusive contributor’s submissions and acceptance of images is at Dreamstime.com’s sole discretion. Dreamstime.com may terminate an Exclusive Contributor’s status at any time with no advance notice; an Exclusive Contributor may terminate their status as an Exclusive Contributor with thirty (30) days prior written notice to Dreamstime.com. If an Exclusive Contributor terminates this Agreement prior to the passage of six (6) months, Dreamstime.com reserves the right to recover all commission payments made to the Exclusive Contributor prior to the termination of Exclusive Contributor status. These payments include the upload bonus received after each accepted submission and the extra Revenue Share earned by exclusive contributors.
Total Exclusivity means that Fotolia is the only website or image bank that will sell your RF files. This is the highest level of exclusivity.
If you choose Total Exclusivity, you won't have the right to sell any of your images outside Fotolia, except in the following cases:
Contributing artists are offered file-level exclusivity. Their portfolios consist of exclusive files (which are not offered on other websites or agencies) and non-exclusive files (which can also be offered on other microstock websites or stock photo agencies)
Contributing artists sell imagery on Fotolia and on other stock photo agencies.
Not available as of the time this article was written.
I see an option to submit artwork exclusively when I upload a file, but I don’t see where there is any reward given for it.
Not available as of the time this article was written.
All images found on CMVA.com may not be used, distributed, manipulated, reproduced or showed publicly or privately without a written permission from the artist. All pictures presented here are for viewing on this web site only. The only exception is the photos in the tutorials which can be used in creating the art in the lessons. Design and content © 2013 CMVA and AWesleyFloyd.