What's the real royalty rate that Dreamstime awards to its photographers? Thanks to the bonuses we support, the royalties are in fact higher than our contract with you, the contributors, bounds us. While the Sell your images page or our terms mention the standard 50-60% rates, here is a detailed explanation of how much the real royalties are:
The credit in the lowest priced package equals $1. A download with such credit brings the photographer $0.5 or $0.6 if he is exclusive.
Higher packages come with bonus credits supported by the agency. For example the $100 package has 130 credits. A credit equals $0.76. But the royalties awarded to the photographer are the same $0.50 and $0.60 for the 1-credit download. $0.60 from the $0.76 credit-value of this package means 80% royalties.
These bonuses could be a part of the equation. A photographer may receive a 20% percentage of the $0.76 = $0.152. For the sake of the comparison, the royalty was set to 20%, a regular commission in the industry.
We also have a custom order tool that awards even more bonus credits. The price per credit goes lower, hence the royalties are higher.
It is all about volume, you know it. So, be aware that this difference is referred to 1 credit. But all images at high res cost way more than that (between 4-8 credits). These values extended to the overall value of our database can be very significant.
Subscription packages, if spent entirely, are over 100%. Some buyers download all images possible, others don't. Our averages and statistics show that the real royalties are around 70-80%. The bonuses will be added into the equation at one point, the agency cannot support to pay 80% forever. But we try to delay that moment as much as possible....The last 3 years showed that is possible to have a good strong business that makes profit while rewarding photographers the best royalties in the industry.
