MyFonts and families

Nick Cooke

Have any of you with families on myFonts noticed a drastic reduction in sales since Monotype started pushing their subscription service? Before they took over my family sales were pretty healthy, now it's mainly singles with the occasional family. Anybody else noticed the same?

Nick Shinn

When did they start the subscription service?

Florian Hardwig

Late January 2016.

Ray Larabie

Yes.

Ramiro Espinoza

My guess is the problem is more related to Myfonts' bundles.

Ingo Preusss

Yes. I have observed the same.

Jasper de Waard

My sales are too small to notice such patterns. Is this issue exclusive to Myfonts, though? I would think offerings at Myfonts influence sales at other vendors as well.

Botio Nikoltchev

Yes I have about 55% reduction in my sales compared to 2014. I´m not sure if  just Monotype´s  subscription service caused it. I think its also the Bundle Sales. Also meanwhile its a lot easier to produce fonts, so I guess there are much more type designers releasing fonts than few years ago.

Ramiro Espinoza

Well, guys, it's time to look for better distributors and make your website a better webshop.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

It's time to create a better distributor.

Nick Shinn

My 2015 and 2016 were fairly similar.

Mark Simonson

I did see a bit of a drop at MyFonts starting in mid-2016, but I can think of other reasons for it.

Andreas Stötzner

My earnings are too volatile to draw such a conclusion. I’m more concerned about the increasing “clearance” strategy by which they sell 30-fonts packages for 29$ every third day. Where is this going to?

Thomas Phinney

Once you drive pricing down, it is hard to raise prices again.  

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

I have an idea.

Jasper de Waard

Hrant H. Papazian said:

I have an idea.

Care to share?

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

Some ideas are just too good to. :-)  I have to be a bit selfish too once in a while. Sorry for being a tease... I do want people to know we haven't given up though.

(Not sure why Stephen would vote that down.)

Jasper de Waard

I have been thinking for a long time that we need not so much a new vendor but an online catalogue, where type buyers can view and search typefaces. Once they want to buy, they get redirected to each foundry's own website. The catalogue website would have to be paid for by all participating foundries (equal amount, or depending on the amount of fonts on offer?).

That way, the 'vendor' doesn't take a cut of the profit, and doesn't have to pay nearly as much taxes. It would have to be orgnized as a non-profit.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

I think this is the sort of thing Typographica has been talking about. It's a good idea, if a bit conservative. And something the stillborn Tyd* would have done.

* https://www.microsoft.com/typography/links/News.aspx?NID=515

Stephen Coles

Sorry to be harsh, Hrant. I just didn't think your tease added anything to the conversation. 

@Jasper de Waard We are working on something like that, as indicated at the end of this ATypI talk.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

It added hope. Something that does not have to be loud and explicit.

Ramiro Espinoza

@Thomas Phinney

>>"Once you drive pricing down, it is hard to raise prices again. "

True, but no serious foundry can publish quality type families every 3 months selling them at $29. It's simply unsustainable. Myfonts may be profiting from this scheme now but at the cost of becoming a repository of dubious quality fonts and lookalikes.
Yes, I know there are some good and decent foundries at Myfonts but the company is not making it easy for them. 

Andreas Stötzner

I’m under the impression that the scenery is about to change these days, more rapidly than the three years before. The problems are not new. MF seems to aim at becoming the world’s clearance house for font sales, working more and more on pushing masses rather than focussing on quality and value for money. They are working on destruction of the market. Not to mention recent random experiences with getting bullied by dinosaurs who seem to have them in their hands, more or less. - There will be alternatives (there are some already) for us indie fontists, I trust. I think the days of MF are counted.

Ramiro Espinoza

@Andreas Stötzner
I am of the opinion that like in every cultural industry there will always be different markets for different tastes. Some distributors will choose profit over anything else and others will privilege quality and originality as their unique selling proposition.
More than ever it's important to educate clients about the differences.

Stephen Coles

In the long run, MyFonts’ slide could be good for market diversity. For many years the retailer held overwhelming power, with foundries of all classes compelled to sell at MyFonts or risk losing the largest pool of buyers. This dominance was comparable to the way Amazon is the default channel for most book publishers. In the last 1–2 years the trend has shifted, and many foundries are choosing to sell directly and/or through non-Monotype channels such as Fontstand, Fontspring, or Type Network.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

Although certainly not as bad as "90% off", I don't think rental outfits help value perception.

Stephen Coles

To get back to @Nick Cooke’s original question, I crunched my MyFonts affiliate numbers. While your experience as a foundry may vary, maybe these figures can shed some light on the overall sales trends.

The average price of sold units (combining both singles and families) has fallen sharply over the last three years. It was stable for at least five years, hovering at $40 throughout 2008–12, but dropped to $38 in 2013 and again to $36 in 2014. In the last quarter of 2016 it was at $34.

Unfortunately, I don’t have more specific data so can’t pinpoint a single cause. As others have mentioned, there are various suspects: decreasing family sales, the Monotype Library Subscription, and other notable MyFonts trends during this period that lead to cheaper fonts, like heavy discounting and frequent flash sales from Monotype as well as third-party foundries.

And of course we have to consider outside influences as well, such as cheap and free alternatives from Typekit (library subscription) and Google, whose collections and influence grew significantly during this period. Webfont services also gained traction in 2013–14. Despite these alternative sources, my individual affiliate sales at MyFonts actually went up during those years — it was the average price of each unit that fell.

In early 2015 units sold began to decline steadily and have not recovered. This was many months before the introduction of the MT Library Subscription, so I wouldn’t blame it specifically. 

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

Great insights, thank you!

Maybe renting is harming sales too. (It would be interesting to learn what proportion of Fontstand renters end up buying.)

Max Phillips

Shouldn't unit price be considered in the context of sales volume? If I'm making $34/unit when I used to make $40/unit, but moving 25% more units than I used to, I'm winning.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

Winning in the short term, but the damage to value perception festers.

Stephen Coles

@Max Phillips, Definitely. Volume may spike for those who cut prices, but I'm not sure it is sustainable. Continually pumping out promotions in which the discount is central seems a poor way to build a reputation.