Responding to Feedback on the Payout System Changes

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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?