The Turbosquid kerfuffle

[bluebox]

As some of you might have heard already there was lately a lot of fuss in the industry among people selling their wares on Turbosquid (that's a site where people buy your models/textures for a certain commission).

 

Turbosquid decided that they will be lowering their rate for the artists selling their products from 50% to 40%. They are also implementing something called the SquidGuild, sort of an elite club for artists that will be selling exclusively on Turbosquid for a 60% cut.

The reaction wasn't hard to predict, couple of people removed there products from Turbosquid and moved to different sites, some even calling for an open boycott of the site.

 

In the mean time a new forum was created for anyone interested in selling CG related products - 3D Stock Talk http://www.3dstocktalk.org where people can find some tips about where to buy and sell 3d models, how to deal with this rate cut and many other related issues.

[Nic H]

i would like to see turbosquid fail

 

its a terrible site full of overpriced low quality crap

utter crap, dont shop there.

[bluebox]

that sure is a strong statement.

I personally don't want them to fail ... I would rather see them improve the site.

[braddewald]

I agree, I don't want to see them fail but an improvement in quality would benefit both the site and its users. (I do think that there is too much low-quality, high-priced stuff on the site as well.)

[Nic H]

ok a tad strong but they are super expensive and very low quality, they need some competition to knock some sense into their greedy low res heads.

[Devin Johnston]

I've purchased quite a lot of stuff from them over the years, I've never found them to be overly expensive and the quality of their models is certainty comparable to sites like Dosch Design. I do agree however that lowering the artists rates is a bit much in this economy, I'm sure they did it because they've seen their own profits taking a hit but the only justifiable reason to do that would be if there were no other way to keep the company in business. Unfortunately for them if the word gets out and people find other better ways to sell their models things will get a lot worse, it's a bad move on their part.

[Magnus_Alexander]

I just want to chime in and say that people should use the word "kerfuffle" more often.

[Jeff Mottle]

At SIGGRAPH this year I spoke with Beau and he mentioned the new SquidGuild. I know their ultimate goal is to improve the overall quality of the models on the site. They have a number of things they are doing towards this end, but the guild is part of that game plan. I do have to admit I was a bit surprised at the level of this backlash. I know there are a lot of other TurboSquid competitors, but I guess I underestimated the amount of sales they obviously must be generating for 3d asset sellers. My original estimation would have been that the vast majority of sales for an artist would have come from TS, so the prospect of going exclusive to get a higher percentage would not be a big deal. I don't know if it's true or not, but I did see a post about also not allowing artists to sell the models privately either once they are in the Guild, which certainly is a bit restrictive.

[Trick]

....I don't know if it's true or not, but I did see a post about also not allowing artists to sell the models privately either once they are in the Guild, which certainly is a bit restrictive.

 

This just sounds like some sort of very cheap labour. Evermotion has their own artists by which they can lower their prices to really competitive levels. In that regard the TS prices are waaaay too expensive. Why don't they also hire people and offer models against the same prices or just a little more expensive if you can ask for customized ones. DesignConnected can do it, so why can't they. If they don't change their policy soon, they not only lose clients and sellers, but also their business. Don't get me wrong: I have been very thankful for the existence of TS because it saved me numerous times. But if it wasn't for the emergency of things I would never dream about building some collections from TS models.

[bluebox]

That's very interesting Jeff.

I know they were planning this for a year at least, but apparently they overestimated their dominant position in the market.

From what people are saying on the aforementioned forums, TS makes about 60% of total sales when people upload their whole portfolio. Of course for some it will be 80% and for some 40% as this is a bit random.

 

As for the 'usefulness' of Turbosquid and similar sites with stock 3D objects. You can get a ton of well made objects from Evermotion for example, but it's mainly furniture or trees, but try looking for a specific car, or some other less-than-usual object. You will be happy to pay $200 for a single model, despite the fact that you could be getting 50 sofas for that.

[bluebox]

I just want to chime in and say that people should use the word "kerfuffle" more often.

Thanks

I like that word a lot :-]