04 Feb 2016 CanStock Partners with Print Supplier FreeArt

CanStockPhoto announced yesterday via an email to contributors a new partnership with FreeArt, a photographic print supplier.

If the name “FreeArt” scares you, read on.

Art Prints and Royalty Rates

CanStockPhoto already has a fixed royalty rate of 20% for print sales.

That same rate will apply to paper prints through FreeArt, which is a new business currently closed to the public, but available to unlock via an invitation code supplied in the contributor notification.

Materials more expensive to print than paper, including acrylic, metal, canvas, mugs, will pay only 10%.

That’s not great to hear, but print customers only get a print, not the file, and no license to use the photo in any other way.

And of course for those products the printing is more expensive, justifying the lower royalty rate.

And the price is higher, so despite the lower rate, the royalty ‘amount’ will be higher than for a paper print.

Where Does the Free Come In?

FreeArt offers customers a “free” small print of any image in their library – the CanStockPhoto library – with the customer paying just $1.99 in “shipping costs”.

25 cents of that shipping costs will find its way back to CanStockPhoto contributors as a royalty.

The idea is that the free prints will attract customers who’ll end up buying bigger and more expensive prints, in which case the royalty to photographers is the 20% or 10% explained above.

The company believes the free prints will “bring valuable exposure” for contributors’ files, and ultimately more downloads. Yes, that’s another eye-roll statement.

Also Adding 4k Video

Also part of the announcement is the addition of support for 4k and 4k+ video clips at CanStockPhoto.

The company reports already having 35,000 such clips, and that the royalty amount is double that of standard definition clips.

Remember Us?

It’s been a long time for updates from CanStock.

Since their sale to Fotosearch in November 2008 they’ve been very idle on the business development.

Their earnings potential has stayed relatively constant at a low level – often worthwhile uploading, but never any signs of moving up the ranks.

Both CanStockPhoto and Fotosearch are very relaxed companies who aren’t much for high profiles.

Despite the potential for contributor upset over the lower royalty rates and low royalty amounts in this announcement, most will be happy to see CanStockPhoto actually doing something to create opportunities.

Updated Legals

Both the updated Payout Schedule reflecting the additions in video and print, and the new Membership Agreement are available online.