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...

We see more and more downloads each day on Christmas images, so if you plan to have Christmas in your portfolio, it is now that you need to upload. In fact you can consider you are already late and really hurry. Designers are already downloading images and sending them to the client for review. Don't wait for the Christmas to arrive, very few will actually download them at that time and the selection criteria will be tougher. You might want to do a careful search before uploading, remember this is the most prolific theme of the year, so don't upload the same cliches.

Read Petar's new article for more hints on Christmas and stock photography.

We have just been informed us that our application for membership in CEPIC was approved by the CEPIC Board of Directors and Dreamstime thus becomes the first member of CEPIC from the microstock community.

Sylvie Fodor, CEPIC Executive Director, sent us the news today and we take this opportunity to share the wonderful news.

To introduce CEPIC here is a description from their web site:

CEPIC, was established in Berlin in 1993 as a non-profit European Economic Interest Group (E.E.I.G) in accordance with the European Communities Regulation and registered in Paris in 1999. CEPIC has Observer Status at WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization and is an Associate Member of I.P.T.C, the International Press Telecommunications Council. CEPIC represents over...

The previous record of $4,500 for a SR-EL license was exceeded today with a $5,100 sale. The file was acquired with exclusive SR-EL rights by a chocolate producer.

The image listed on the left is for illustration purposes only. The acquired file was very similar, but it is not this file. We cannot post the original here, but I thought this info would be useful to contributors and to everyone analyzing our industry.

And just as a side note, being exclusive matters. Royalties awarded to the non exclusive photographer would be $2,550. The exclusive additional royalties for such sale add $510 more, which is not bad at all.