Responding to Feedback on the Payout System Changes

Sadly this is just the beginning. Have you seen the latest? :-
https://www.cgtrader.com/forum/general-discussions/terms-and-conditions-update

I was just getting into the CGTrader but these numbers are discouraging at best, and straight up robbery at worse.

What CGTrader do that requires %40 cut from the model, aside from other fees?

Sites like Upwrok provide better payments systems and being a middleman for freelancing while charging %10 including escrow. Seriously very predatory numbers here, I've no reason to upload models on CGtrader every other platform has a better system.

It appears that the authorities at CGTrader have not considered your message. Their current approach suggests a focus primarily on maximizing profit, rather than addressing the concerns and interests of the sellers on the platform.
woow woow woow 80 to 68 wooow https://prnt.sc/lWhu5GxXcCF3

Why are creators paying up to 30% of their earnings to CGT, if it isn´t to cover marketing, infrastructure and "boost"?
Isn't that the whole point of a platform like this?

I raised all my prices today to cover the earnings difference. I can see a lot of my buyers on CGTrader going to Cult3D to buy my designs instead,

So you compound one cash grab from the seller with yet another, and call it a bonus feature? FFS! You want us to pay half our earnings and more to get bumped up in a search engine? So not only are you cutting our earnings, you are making our sales less likely. WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU ON?

https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/exterior/sci-fi-exterior/no-new-payout-rate

Hey everyone,

While we're aware of the concerns regarding recent changes, we want to make sure you're also aware of new tools designed to directly help your sales. Today, we're launching Search Boost – a powerful new feature that gives your models top visibility in search results.

This means your designs can now appear first for relevant keywords, significantly increasing their chances of being seen and purchased, which eventually helps you to increase your payout percentage rate. We've even provided free credits in your account (converted from your past reputation) so you can try it out immediately and see the potential impact on your revenue.

You can find all the details and get started with Search Boost in our main announcement thread here: https://www.cgtrader.com/forum/general-discussions/get-ready-to-be-seen-introducing-search-boost-on-cgtrader

We hope this new feature will provide a valuable avenue for you to boost your sales and mitigate some of the challenges you're facing.

Happy boosting and selling,
The CGTrader Team

It is notable that I have not seen a single reply to any of the posts here & elsewhere from anyone at CGTrader. Nor have I had any reply to the email I sent them with my concerns about this. I know people in Vilnius. Maybe I should just get them to take a few friends to the Trading park where the office is and deliver something in person, because they sure as hell aren't showing any sign of appearing here?

Wow. Just wow. This is the most sugar-coated, tone-deaf corporate backpedal I’ve seen in years.

CGTrader, you really had the audacity to slap us with this pathetic payout restructure and then thank us for “helping shape a better marketplace”? Are you serious? Do you think we’re this stupid?

You’ve effectively punished your most loyal creators by introducing a grindy, manipulative tier system that gives a measly 60% to new or small sellers — the very people who need support the most — and then act like tossing them 1% more every few hundred bucks is some kind of favor. It takes $300,000 in sales just to reach the 85% tier? That’s not a reward structure, that’s a greed ladder.

You’re pretending to “listen” while shoving this system down our throats with a smug PR smile. You want us to keep making assets for your store, but you're gutting our share to boost yours. Why not just say it plainly: you want a bigger slice of our work without doing any of the actual creation. You're not a marketplace anymore — you're a glorified tax collector leeching off the community that built your platform.

We built your reputation. We brought buyers. We trusted this platform because it used to be fair. Now you’re just squeezing creators dry like every other soulless marketplace. You want to talk about “balance”? Here’s balance: creators leave, customers follow, CGTrader collapses under its own short-sighted greed.

Don’t bother replying with another generic “we’re reviewing your feedback” message unless it ends with “we’re scrapping this exploitative system and apologizing.”

Until then, enjoy watching your credibility go up in flames.

I have increased the prices of all my products to compensate for the percentage that CGTrader will take from me. If my sales fall, I have already looked at new options for trading platforms. I am sure that most sellers will adhere to this strategy. Only old portfolios from companies will remain. Independent sellers will leave. Something like this happened on TurboSquid. For the sake of interest, I duplicate my models there - one sale per month, while on CGTrader there are several dozen. It is a pity that CGTrader has chosen a path that will lead to its decline

Cgtrader needs to do one small change to their new payout rates - change it from yearly to lifetime and it would be solve almost all the issues. No rewards for those who upload thousands of worthless Ai generated shit per day, no severe punishment for those who worked hard to climb the payout latter for years, no more incentive to spam forum and gallery with worthless comments. It's a win-win-win for all. People still would be motivated to work hard and sell more because they'd feel that this has been rewarded, unlike in proposed system. One small change and it would make everything to look completely different. If only cgtrader would listen to their community...

Incredibly disheartening to see an obvious reduction in royalties sugar-coated as a better "transparent" alternative to the previous system. As a designer who has been selling on this site for years, and is finally nearing the 80% royalty mark, I'm now being kicked back down the royalty ladder and will be making less on the site, despite years of contributing. Despite the fact that I've already worked my way up CGTrader's previous royalty system.

Asking independent artists, and even small studios, to make $38,000 a year (equivalent to the salary of some full-time jobs) to achieve a royalty rate that they have already hit is ridiculous.

I understand that the previous "reputation" based royalty system needed adjustment, but this feels unnecessary. Making comments and forum posts shouldn't affect royalty increase. Fine. A more appropriate royalty system would be one based on lifetime sales / revenue. IE, $100,000 over your lifetime = 90% royalty. That encourages sellers to make higher quality / higher priced models. Additionally, it would mean you don't lose your royalty rate after you've achieved it.

Under this new system, if you have a bad year, you could lose your royalty rate, causing a downward spiral for sellers. This new system punishes smaller teams / solo artists, and does absolutely nothing to stop the flood of low quality models on the site.

If they want to increase the reputation and traffic of their site, CGTrader needs to do more to stop scammers, model thieves, AI garbage, etc. Not slice more off the top of their sellers' revenue. This is yet another disappointing decision by CGTrader that seems to negatively affect the very people they're trying to keep on the site.

All that to say, I will be focusing my efforts on other store fronts, such as FAB and Flipped Normals, and I suggest others do the same.

No replies from CGT AT ALL. Clearly, they don't really care what we think. I am VERY disappointed in them right now.

Could be a better situation if the lowest level was 70% & the highest was 80% (as it is now). Breakdown as follows:

Level 1 $0 70%
Level 2 $50 71%
Level 3 $100 72%
Level 4 $200 73%
Level 5 $500 74%
Level 6 $1000 75% (before ai this was my average level of sales over 12 months)
Level 7 $2000 76%
Level 8 $4000 77%
Level 9 $8000 78%
Level 10 $16000 79%
Level 11 $24000 80%

Using this breakdown I would only see a 5% drop in royalties based on current 12 month performance , as opposed to the 15% drop due to be implemented on the 2nd June.
I know there will be lots of reasons as why this wouldn't work, but I think fewer levels in a tighter range makes it easier to plan ahead, in terms of expected income & how much time an artist spends producing models.

If someone is making more than $2000 a month in sales I would say it's very likely they are producing work to a standard that can get them a job in most studios. I'm sure if the team at CG Trader put themselves in the position of an artist or a small team that was making in excess of this, at some point they would be asking "why are we letting what is essentially a hosting site take 20% of our revenue?"

I began selling here in 2016 & was drawn here due to the royalty levels increasing as you got more involved with the community. I thought here's a platform for artists ran by people who are artists themselves. That made CG Trader different to Turbosquid & a more inviting place to not only sell, but also interact with other designers.

Maybe let all existing artists have a choice - either keep your current royalty level, but only recieve a smaller amount of reputation points than we do for certain things currenlty or move onto the new system as explained above?

This is very bad decision! I've been here since the very beginning and it's not clear to me why you would shoot yourself in the foot with this model. Whose brilliant idea is this? So, according to this chart, as an individual, I barely, over the years made it to 77% and now, instead of some reward, I get 10% less, that is 66%, and probably even less if this trend continues!? Last year was quite bad and this year is even worse. I have slowly lose interest and stopped making models and on top of all that you are introducing this kind of nonsense. What will happen with such games and experiments, I think you yourself know: Slowly but surely, designers who have been on this platform for a long time will lose motivation and move to other platforms, and new ones will lose interest because it is not really worth it. Instead what you should do is reduce the constant sales off, do something with free models, fix the bugs on the site, remove or at least reduce the number of spammers , motivate new comers and designers, leave the AI ​​nonsense and go back to the old and functional site.

SGTRADER management apparently does not understand that they exist and earn money at the expense of 3D designers. In vain you quarrel with us because of your greed. I emphasize, you exist at our expense, and not at the expense of buyers. If you have nothing to sell, then buyers will have nothing to buy) After all, everything is interconnected. It's time to understand this.

I'm feeling concerned about the recent changes to the freelance work model. Initially, there was talk of increasing freelance opportunities while adjusting the commission from 95% to 85%, which didn't suggest an overall increase in the job market. Now, we're seeing commission rates shift from an initial 70-80% down to 60-85%. While the numbers might seem favorable at first glance, the maximum increase is only 5%, whereas the lowest rate has dropped by 10%. Achieving the 85% commission tier would mean generating $300,000 in annual income, a figure that appears largely unattainable.

It also appears that there's an encouragement to use AI models daily to achieve high rates.

As a solo artist, if I create 4 models a month, totaling 48 annually, each priced at $30, I need assurance from the marketing team that these models will sell consistently .Because othervise its impossible to reach even 75% .

We genuinely need more traffic on CGTrader. Perhaps focusing on increasing platform visibility would be more beneficial than adjusting artist compensation downwards before system improvements are implemented.

May be you can really keep my 80%? Because it looks like I am going to have about 72% now.
The may principle may be not so bad, just give us more %s for lower levels, please.

TO EVERYONE.

Did you saw the 26 steps? Its fucking hilarious.
300.000$ MONTHLY to get 80% Are you fucking idiots or what?

Look at ArtStation Marketplace 95% PAYOUT!!!! 95 fucking %
You all here in the system of CGTRADER are insane.
60% payout is where you SELLERS are all gonna be for the couple of years or more.

Lets assume: from 2mln models available here
the average monthly sales on all the platform is roughly 250.000$
(from which CG Trader grabs to itself and ASTONISHING amount of money!!! 40% is 100.000$ to the pocket

I'm sorry to say this but, did you looked at your site from 2005?
With such an amount of income monthly you doing ASTONISHINGLY BAD JOB and you want MORE MONEY!

Your payout rate must be AT LEAST 85% to 95% to all of the USERS PERIOD!
USERS.... LETS VOTE FOR THIS!!!!!!!! 85 to 95 or we just QUIT to any other available place with better %

Otherwise its not a platform its a fucking robbery. Are you a TAX 40% system on which we pay another fucking 40% tax on top? GET OUT!

Indeed. This seems to be nothing but an ill conceived cash-grab, designed to get rid of those who just sell a few models, and a kick in the face for the majority of people who have been around a few years, possibly with a niche market, that currently sit around the 70 to 80% royalty rate. I look likely to lose around 10 to 12% royalties, and am absolutely not happy with this situation at all, especially since we will still be paying the fee for sales. If this is the case, I may as well just move back to Turbosquid & become an exclusive seller. Not happy at all.

The reason I consider the new payout system unfair is that, under the previous model, I received 80% of the revenue from each sale. However, under the new system, my earnings have decreased to just 68% per sale. This represents a significant reduction in seller compensation, which I believe is unjustified and discouraging.

The newly implemented payout system appears to be designed in a way that significantly reduces earnings for sellers, which is both unfair and based on unrealistic expectations. This change is particularly discouraging for new sellers who are just beginning to offer their 3D models on CGTrader. Such policies risk demotivating talented creators and may ultimately impact the overall quality and diversity of content on the platform.

I admit to not fully understanding what you are about to do, without consulting any sellers first I might add.
BUT, It seems to me that my work in building up sales gradually to just under the 78% ("Genius" Level) is about to count for nothing, at least in my reading of the recent email. Are we to be compensated in ANY way for the progress already made, or is everyone now expected to submit to vastly lower income - in much the same way that happened in TurboSquid - which is why I came here in the first place?

Maybe i am wrong, but i believe if you send a mail to all artists with this communication, it will be a great idea. Many users simply ignore forums.