Back in November iStock contributors were told that “Due to the complexity of the work required (in the iStock Royalties and Unification Project) we are pushing back most of the changes by about a month.” Given the new system for calculating subscription royalties that was being introduced, January statement would
not be available until February 20th and royalties would be paid on February 25th.
February 20th has passed. Getty Images has announced that they cannot meet the revised deadline they set for themselves three months ago and that there will be further delays.
Dear contributor,
We’d like to inform you about a technical system issue that will affect the timeline of the January 2017 royalty statements. Royalty statements will be delayed by a day or two due to a temporary technical problem. We are working to address this technical issue as quickly as possible. We will update this message once all statements are available and we apologize for any inconvenience caused by this issue. Please note: This issue impacts the January 2017 royalty statements only. Payments are not impacted and will arrive according to our normal schedule. Thank you,
Getty Images Contributor Services
Many photographers say they have been unable to access the Enterprise Submission Platform (ESP) where sales information and account history should be available. In addition, when they email iStock to try to get clarification as to what they need to do to access ESP they get no response.
Some photographers say that they still have been unable to get their December sales information.
If this were the first time Getty had a problem with a launch or system upgrade, it might not be so concerning. But in the last few years it has seemed that every time Getty makes a technological upgrade serious problems occur. Contributors are beginning to wonder if Getty doesn’t need a whole new technology team.