Licensing: Earnings/Sales History - FAQ

What is the Earnings page in my profile drop down?

The Earnings page displays your Sales History, this is where Licensing Contributors can track their licensing sales. New sales from 500px’s exclusive distribution partners will be listed here as well as legacy sales details from 500px Marketplace or previous distribution partnerships.

Here are a few definitions to help you interpret the information in the Sales History page:

Sale date

The date the photo sold. For distribution partners, this is the day the photo sold on their platform. For 500px Enterprise and 500px Marketplace, the transaction date is the day the customer downloaded the photo from each platform.

Source

The platform or company where the photo was sold. The following Sources may be displayed, depending on who sold your photo:

Getty Images

500px’s exclusive global (except mainland China) distribution partner 

VCG (Visual China Group)

500px’s exclusive distribution partner in mainland China

HD Download

500px used to sell digital wallpaper downloads. These were usually $2.99 and provided a limited license to use the image for personal digital wallpaper.

Prints (New Era)

Print on Demand business that 500px used to operate, selling art decor, wall art, etc..

500px Marketplace

Direct, e-commerce platform operated by 500px

500px Enterprise

Direct, e-commerce platform for 500px enterprise Licensing clients

Other Distributor

All other 500px distribution partners. The list is too large to have a source for each one but this distinction includes partners like: AdobeStock, Amana Japan, Fotostock, etc.

Sales territory

The region that your image was sold in. Our distribution partners sometimes provide us with this information in our monthly royalty reports. The sales territory information either means that a sales office in that region sold the image, or it can also mean the client or customer who purchased the image is based in this specific part of the world. We don’t always list this information for individual sales, so this section may also be left blank depending on the information provided by our partner.

Royalty rate

The percentage of royalty a Licensing Contributor will receive when a photo is sold.

500px has three royalty rates:

  1. 100% royalty rate for exclusive content submitted by Pro and Awesome members 
  2. 60% royalty rate for exclusive content submitted by free members
  3. 25% royalty rate for non-exclusive content submitted by all members

Earning (USD)

The amount that a Licensing Contributor receives after sharing the royalty with 500px.

Payout status

The payout status of a particular transaction. The various statuses are: Available, Processing, Paid, and Failed. Once a photo is available to be paid out it will be listed under the "Available" status. When a particular payout is processing it will display the "Processing" status. The "Paid" status is for photos that have already been paid out. Finally the "Failed" status is displayed when a payout has failed. Failed means the payout has not been completed and you will need to contact our Customer Excellence Team to have them review the payout request.

 

I received a notification that my photo sold, but the amount I received is much less than the price listed on your distribution partner’s website. Why?

Distribution partners provide a list price or the suggested price on their platforms. In other industries it's known as the MSRP or Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price. The suggested price on our distribution partner platforms is based on file size. However, from time to time our distribution partners will provide bulk pricing or discounted pricing based on their client’s needs or a specific pricing agreement that may have been negotiated between the distribution partner and the client. Each distribution partner has sole discretion over pricing. All major licensing platforms in the stock photography industry work in the same way. This has been the case since we began working with distribution partners in 2015. Of note, this was also true of 500px Marketplace when it was operational. 

What is the royalty split between 500px and each of your distribution partners, like Getty Images or VCG?

As per our distribution agreement terms, we are unable to divulge the royalty split between 500px and our distribution partners.

Have more questions? Ask us!