Instant Download: Questions, Suggestions and Feedback!

[James]

Hi Creators, 

We're so excited to introduce Instant Downloads to Zazzle. If you haven't checked out the announcement and dedicated Landing page including FAQ's and How it works, please do so.

We're sure you might have some questions about this and some thoughts, so please feel free to share them here. 

Thank you,

The Creator Team. 

[Cat]

I really want to know what size/resolution the poster downloads are. If it's the same download we get then it's only 2048x2048 even for a 40x40 inch poster. If someone thinks they're gonna print that at 40x40 inches, the resolution is gonna be pretty darned lame. On the other hand, if they're doing 300 dpi print resolution, that would work out to 12000x12000 (assuming my math is correct.) Unless it's a vectorized pdf or something, that's gonna be a 50 MB file at least!

Anyhow, I think that the customer would want to know what they're getting before paying for it, and that fine artists probably do NOT want people to be able to download super fine resolution files of their work for just a few dollars.

And yes, seating charts need to be a separate product for this very reason.

[James]

As the content owner, it is completely your right to decide where to sell your content. To this end, you absolutely have the right to make certain products eligible for Instant Download or not, including posters. The Digital Migration option is provided as a convenience for those who want to take full advantage of this new offering and want to make all eligible products in the store available for Instant Download. You will still have the opportunity, after the October 31 Digital Migration, to opt into the program either at the individual or category level.

[kennethwfd]

Agree. If I am going to sell digital products, then I would stick to things like cards and invites, with low res. images, also insert a date such as "Thanksgiving 2022" to try and make it difficult for subsequent reuse 

[Cat]

I'm wondering which products are included in "Posters & Print." Does that include paper sheets, stationery, foam core boards, banners? I'm mostly just curious but also think that perhaps this is a good time to suggest that Zazzle might want to consider separating seating charts into their own product. 

I've long thought that would be helpful because the words "seating chart" eat up a LOT of characters in the title, but now I'm thinking that it would make sense in terms of what is and isn't available for digital download. Seating charts are probably the thing I get the most requests for emergency downloads, so I think it's good to offer those, but I'm sure that there are designers out there who use Zazzle's poster product to sell fine art prints, and I can't imagine they would want high resolution versions of their art made available for $15. If seating charts were migrated to a separate product, they could be made available for download without offering up people's fine art prints as well.

I'm thinking at the very least, Zazzle might want to send an email out to designers about this rather than just this announcement because it would be really easy for someone to miss this if they don't sign in and check the forum regularly - and since you're automatically opted in unless you choose to opt out, I can see a lot of artists being pretty darned unhappy about this development.

[Claire]

Agreed. Most of my posters are fine art photography without customization. Less than $15 for a high res download seems really low. What's the expected use for digital posters if they don't print them? Screen backgrounds?

[James]

For the initial beta test, we are only planning to make Posters and Photo Prints available for Instant Download. Tapestries, Foam Core, and Banners will not be eligible at this time, but we will consider it at some point in the future.

[Barbara]

I'm confused. Design migration used to be for things such as what happened with water bottles where one was discontinued and a replacement was found. We now have an all-or-nothing situation where, in order to disallow digital download, we also have to turn off design migration. Is the latter something that Zazzle is no longer doing, and if so, shouldn't that checkbox not even exist any longer?

Colorwash's Home

[KeegansCreation]

There was a 12 hour (or less) window in which digital download was yoked to design migration and I wrote a post about having to turn off design migration (a still-useful feature). The next morning there was a new button that was just for enabling digital download. So now I have design migration enabled (which they still do) but digital download disabled.

[Barbara]

Thanks, @KeegansCreation. It's still confusing as to why this was done but it's good to know I can turn migration back on.

[James]

Hi @Barbara ,

We wanted to provide a point of clarity: Opting into design migration is independent from opting in from the one-time Instant Download migration. The checkbox you see in your Advance Store Settings is provided as a convenience for you to make all eligible products available for Instant Download. If you are not ready to opt in your entire store, by October 31st, you still manually opt-into Instant Downloads on either a product or category-basis.

[Brownielocks]

Hi James,

I'm not sure if this should be in "Technical" but, I just wanted to say that the feature in "Advanced Settings" to approve the new Digital Migration that was in the email I received does not show up on my store's Advanced Settings page. I am part of the Associate Program also.  So, I have no buttons to click to go to digital download for my cards.  Any advice?

[Barbara]

@Brownielocks  I've had the impression that digital downloads won't begin until Nov. 1. I say this because we have the ability to adjust things (can't remember what they are) through Oct. 31. As always, I could be totally wrong.

Colorwash's Home

[James]

Hi @Brownielocks ,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble locating this. Please make sure you have your store and not profile selected in the dropdown, then go to your setting tab to access the advanced settings of your store (vs profile). Let me know if you are still having trouble.

Thank you.

[MasterpieceCafe]

Two questions ...

Are customers buying a hi-res file to print their own poster?

Can we 'opt in' for small paper products, but 'opt out' for posters?

[Claire]

I was wondering this too. What's the expected use case for a digital poster? That they print it or just use it as screen backgrounds or...?

[James]

Hi @MasterpieceCafe ,

If you choose to make your product eligible for Instant Download, customers receive a license to download a high resolution file of the poster. It is up to the customer if they would want to print the file on their own accord or simply keep it in its native digital format – for example: phone wallpaper. It is your option if you choose to opt-in to small paper products, but opt out for posters. 

[MasterpieceCafe]

I will not be participating in the poster size for digital downloads. But I do not see an option to opt in to specific product lines? Is that option not live yet?

[WHS_Designs]

Yesterday, it looked like we didn't have to click on the already ticked tickbox ("don't migrate my eligible products to be sold as a digital download"). We are (were) automatically opted out.

When I checked again this morning, it looked like the situation has been reversed, and now the text next to the ticked tickbox has been rewritten to read "migrate my eligible products to be sold as a digital download."

Am I seeing things??

In any event, I have turned off Design Migration.

[klstock]

 I checked it yesterday too and it was an opt-in option. After reading your post, I checked again and it had switched to show that you have to uncheck the box to opt out...in other words, it had opted me in and I had to uncheck the box to opt out. Thanks for that heads up!

[WHS_Designs]

@klstock you're welcome (and so glad to see that I wasn't imagining things!)

[idraw]

Same here, yesterday each of my stores, unchecked. This morning, checked.  Had to uncheck and save for each store.  Makes it hard to trust, when something like that happens. Geez, do we have to check each of our stores on a daily basis now?…. 😖

[WHS_Designs]

it might be a good idea to do screengrabs (for recordkeeping purposes).

that way, none of us are scratching our heads later and wondering if what we saw actually happened,

because my first thought was "I know that wasn't the case yesterday" ... and then my second thought was "am I sure?"

[buxmontweb]

Same thing happened to me - I commented on it in another thread.

[angelafuller729]

QUESTION:  Are postcards auto migrated or do we need to also do another listing as a greeting card for the instant download to be an option?

[James]

Hi @angelafuller729 ,

Postcards will not be eligible for the initial  Instant Downloads beta test, but we looking at enabling post cards at some point next year.

[Mistica]

Now that I have calmed down, It sadly occurred to me that the art that I buy always has a license and rules involved. A big issue with them (artists) is not to sell or give away their art. .. digitally.

I do have some art that I created using various methods. I will have to think about how I want them to be used. 
When this very cool feature is implemented. how will I know that I protected my self as far as how many setting would I have to change.


I checked to not migrate for digital use. I hope that is enough.

I would be destroyed if I broke my license agreements.

[Lais]

I have some questions too. I think I'll keep creating new invitations as always but before allowing them to be sold digitally I will contact directly the artists and ask if that's okay (at least on Etsy and Creative Fabrica, that's possible). 

[RG]

I am not excited about this.  Nothing stops someone from taking that downloaded art and uploading it to other sites to print items, even if it's for themselves or doing other things with the download that takes away from the artist's income.  This downloaded art has many chances to be abused at the artist's expense.  

IMO this is not a good thing for an artist's income and artistic integrity.

Once that digital download is out there, there is no way to control it.  I have had so much art stolen and sold not only on physical products but downloads as well.  Doing this is like opening a can of worms that can never be closed.

[Westerngirl2]

I'm skeptical, too, although I understand why Zazzle (and many designers) would like to tap into this stream of revenue in today's world. But I keep thinking about all those mass producers and tag spammers that have been attracted to the MP. Bet their little heads are working overtime right now.

[Jadendreamer13]

I am not excited about this, either. Customers in the wedding niche will buy one download and print all their wedding invitations themselves to save money. So in order for folks in the wedding niche to receive a reasonable royalty for their work Zazzle would need to set the price of a single wedding invitation download high enough that designers will receive a royalty that reflects that of a royalty for selling a typical number of printed wedding invitations. Also, I believe that I read that Zazzle will get 50% of the royalty, is that correct? Why take a 50% cut of the profit if artists are essentially doing all the work in the case of digital downloads? I realize Zazzle will be promoting this feature and it’s tech team will be dealing with technical issues that will arrive, and it’s customer service team will be handling customer questions, but is a 50-50 split in the profits enough to entice artists to allow their work to float around the internet and potentially be used for far more purposes than just emailing folks a digital wedding invitation? There’s a lot of items to unpack before I jump onto the digital download band wagon.

[Cat]

I think the default royalty ranges from 78-94% - with 50% being the minimum.

Maybe you're thinking of the 50% off sale price? Someone suggested that sales should not apply to digital downloads and I agree. 

[buxmontweb]

I also agree that sales should not apply to digital downloads.

[JB]

Yes I would NEVER offer any of my digital downloads for $6 or less. On my personal sites they've always been $15-25. In recent years people swarmed into Etsy undermining everything and selling digital designs for $2-7 but I would never do that. Digital downloads should be a flat price, period. They do not need to be on sale ever. Its a courtesy to a customer and would be a weird choice for  POD to lose revenue this way. Their goal is to get prints, I dont really understand this move. I dont feel comfortable at all.

[DogPlay]

I'm confused about the information provided in this article
https://help.zazzle.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039941013-Secondary-Content-FAQ

Specifically "

How much does Digital Content cost?

Digital Content is free of charge for digital downloads.

If Digital Content is free, do Creators still earn a royalty for their work?

Creators don’t earn a royalty when their Digital Content is downloaded – but they do earn royalties when their Digital Content is added to physical products and purchased."

[Cat]

I agree, that is SUPER confusing! That article refers to a different digital content program which is available only through the Create tool (https://www.zazzle.com/start).

Back in 2019, Zazzle was going great guns with that program, but they sorta dropped it like a hot potato when the pandemic hit, and it seems to be frozen in time now. I design backgrounds through that program and part of the deal is that you have to agree to let people download them for free - but it's a completely separate thing from this new digital content program.

So yeah, I think Zazzle needs to clarify all that somehow because I can see both customers and designers getting confused. They've sort of created two parallel universes - one where downloads are free, and one where you have to pay for them. Hmmm...

[James]

Hi @Jadendreamer13 ,

Opting into Instant Downloads is purely optional. If you choose to participate in this offering, you will have an opportunity to set your royalty rate to whatever you would like, with a minimum royalty rate of 50% – this is compared to our minimum royalty rate of 5% on physical products. This means for every Instant Download sale, this is more money in your pocket as you are effectively selling usage rights to your content.

If you choose to participate in Instant Downloads, when a customer purchases the download license to your design, they will have the usage right to print the wedding invitations on their own – either on their own printer or even at their local print shop. Zazzle is perfectly OK with this model as we are providing more flexible options for our customers and their needs…. And if they ever need our professional printing and premium paper quality, we will always be here if they need us!

[Barbara]

I'd probably be all for this if we uploaded work we're specifically designing for digital downloads rather than giving up our current designs. This way, it would be a true and planned opt-in and we'd be going into it with eyes wide open.

Colorwash's Home

[KeegansCreation]

I think that's ultimately what we'll be able to do. It seems from the articles about this that they are doing a mass migration on (or slightly after?) Oct. 31 that you can be a part of or not. Once that's complete, I think we'll be able to opt in individual products (if we didn't take part of the mass migration) or opt out individual products (if we did and later decided that some products shouldn't be part). That is my take on it from the articles. Hopefully the mods will chime in.

[Windy]

Cool. In that case, I am opting out now, so that I can do a limited amount of work later to opt a few designs in. I don't want to have to go through thousands of products to clean things up. Again. That's way to common a situation at Zazzle.

[buxmontweb]

I'm thinking this will be my approach too.