In late June 2018, 500px shifted from the stock photography destination known as 500px Marketplace to offer a spectrum of premium and midstock-priced royalty-free imagery directly through two exclusive distributors: Getty Images (exclusive worldwide, except People’s Republic of China (PRC)) and Visual China Group (VCG), exclusive in PRC.
This is part of a strategic repositioning of 500px’s network of contributors and the licensable content they submit to 500px. These changes enable 500px to serve the needs of a broader cohort of visual media customers, and represent a significant revenue opportunity for the company and its contributors.
What are Distribution partners?
Distribution partners work directly with local brands and advertisers in specific territories. Distribution partners operate their own websites where they host licensable 500px content.
Are my images automatically available on your Distribution partner's websites?
No. Photographers have to enable the image(s) for Licensing. In addition to this on the 500px side, both Getty Images and VCG conduct their own submission curation and inspection before they publish images from the 500px collection.
What kind of photo credit does Getty Images & VCG provide for 500px photographers?
Getty Images and VCG provide photographer credit right down to the photographer's 500px username or simply the 500px photographer name.
How do I know if a Distributor has licensed one of my images?
500px issues a notification email when your photos have sold. If you think there has been a sale processed for one of your images but you haven't received notification, you should check your Licensing Sales History first to ensure the sale is in our system. Due to reporting processes and timing, distributor sales may not appear immediately in your Licensing Sales History. However, we can always connect with our distribution network to inquire about a specific image ID that may have sold, but is not yet reported to us.
How do Distributor royalty Payouts work?
500px receives monthly and quarterly sales reports depending on their royalty reporting process. Once received, 500px will wait for full payment from the partner before processing the sales in our own system. Once the money has been received, we process the payouts through our system and if necessary, backdate the payout to the month it was sold by the distributor. Lag time between the actual sale through the distributor and a payout to the photographer can exist in some cases.
What if I want to remove my images from Getty Images' and VCG's website(s)?
If you're not interested in licensing your work through 500px and our distribution partners, you can disable licensing related to each image.
If I disable licensing, how long will it take for 500px to remove my image(s) from your distribution partner's website(s)?
We do our best to remove Selected Images for sale or distribution within 180 days of receiving such a request.