MyFonts application process

Johannes Neumeier
Johannes Neumeier Posts: 380
edited April 2018 in Type Business
Hey all,

I was wondering if there is anybody here who could shed some light on what is currently happening with the MyFonts foundry application process, or if there is others who have experienced a similar delay in their submissions being even responded to - my initial submission was 5 months ago. There's an automated email informing me of a "up to 45 business day" delay with dealing with new submissions, and some time ago I have received human-written email reassuring me that my submission is still in the review queue, but again heard nothing ever after.

Reluctant as I was to consider selling my designs through that channel in the first place, the question begs: Is this business as usual?


Edit: I might add that I was somewhat reluctant to bring this issue up "publicly"; I do not mean to start a discussion about MyFonts, retailers, or particular business practices. I am simply looking for peer experiences given the lack of any real information, and after they missed their own delay estimate by factor three, I have less reservations about what, if any, light this shines on MyFonts.
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Comments

  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    edited April 2018
    It usually takes about a week only after you become one of their established customers. I don't remember the first time, it has been too many years.
  • Moritz Kleinsorge
    Moritz Kleinsorge Posts: 17
    Same here, I am waiting since mid December. They have some technical issues at the moment.

    That's what they told me 2 weeks ago:
    "This is - as you can imagine - not at all the normal feedback and waiting time!
    The technical issues are caused by the fact a new upload platform will be launched in the course of this year. Some of the tests that were done messed-up the existing platforms/sites we use to work on. This prevented the MyFonts Team, the Review Team etc. to work on normal speed or even work at all by moments, causing huge backlogs in installation, follow-up and applicants review/approvals.

    I'm really sorry your application (and many others) coincided with this testing period.
    We - at MyFonts - had not expect we would have that much issues caused by the testing.

    All our apologies for the very long waiting time. We are very aware of how frustrating all this is... we can only hope the new platform will be operational soon and all will go smoother again."
  • Jasper de Waard
    Jasper de Waard Posts: 641
    When I joined, there was a panel that looked at my work quite thoroughly, and even gave some useful feedback. But I don't think it took longer than a few weeks.
  • Johannes Neumeier
    Johannes Neumeier Posts: 380
    Thanks for your input, especially @Moritz Kleinsorge  - so it seems this is neither how things normally go nor am I alone with this waiting time. I got a less informative email answer, but this makes sense, sort of.
  • Botio Nikoltchev
    Botio Nikoltchev Posts: 31
    We had also massive issues with the promotion prices in the different currencies by the last 3 releases.
    Waiting now more than a month for MF to upload our new release. There are supposedly some issues to upload TTF and CFF in one package, but already three weeks MF cant provide any information what exactly the issue is.
    Compared to Fontspring the same job took 1,5 days...
  • Vassil Kateliev
    Vassil Kateliev Posts: 56
    A friend of mine is also waiting for six months to sign up with MyFonts. They replied to only a fraction of the e-mails he sent and the replies contained no usable information about his admission besides appologies. Pfff...
  • Moritz Kleinsorge
    Moritz Kleinsorge Posts: 17
    In mid December they told me, I need to wait till the end of January to get feedback. In the beginning of February, they told me I need to wait till mid February. Since them I am waiting. In the meantime I also sent them some mails, just the last one was answered from someone, who is part of the support, but not a member of the Review Team. 
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    Not good customer service anymore?

  • Kiril Zlatkov
    Kiril Zlatkov Posts: 1
    edited April 2018
    I applied for a new foundry at MyFonts 7 months ago! My first mail with ready files was send to them exactly on 25th of October. What can I say? During this time I wrote them all kinds of mails – surprised, angry, sarcastic, compassionate... Still nothing. They keep assuring me that my family will be reviewed soon. I'm still waiting. And I wonder what kind of business is this?
  • André Simard
    André Simard Posts: 186
    I would want to send some of my fonts. As I read, It will wait for a while.
  • Vasil Stanev
    Vasil Stanev Posts: 775
    Nothing is too fat to die. I'll take my business elsewhere.
  • Johannes Neumeier
    Johannes Neumeier Posts: 380
    FYI: The process seems to have picked up pace a couple of weeks back for several designers/foundries, myself included, and I am happy to say that after some back and forth my own application went through, eventually. Mixed feelings remain, I suppose.
  • Vasil Stanev
    Vasil Stanev Posts: 775
    edited July 2018
    Exactly the same here. Hope they increse their staff.

    I couldn't go around them. It seems the biggest vendors are under the same hat, so writing to Monotype directly means still waiting. I didn't know that then so I'm eating my words.

    I'll wait it out i suppose. But that's good, I will have more time to perfect the designs even further.

    Could somebody point me to a "who owns who" chart in the Type Business world? 
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,897
    You’re right, Vasil. Monotype owns most of the brands these days: MyFonts, Monotype, Linotype, FontShop, ITC. The former Bitstream library.

    The two bigger independent retail font organizations are FontSpring (~7,000 fonts. 593 foundries, by  the largest remaining non-Monotype group) and TypeNetwork (~300 families, 24 foundries). The other indie agglomeration that springs to mind is Village Type Foundry (a consortium of 11 foundries). All of them put together are a tiny fraction of the size of Monotype.
  • Thierry Blancpain
    Thierry Blancpain Posts: 210
    It might also be thought about how the foundries on Village combined probably have a larger market share than the bottom ten or twenty percent of MyFonts, maybe even more. Number of foundries is probably not in a very direct relation to actual revenue.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,897
    Great details from Florian!
    I've got to get used to thinking of Typekit as a desktop font distributor.
  • Stephen Coles
    Stephen Coles Posts: 1,008
    At ATypI last year Underware was going around asking folks to quickly diagram the type industry on some scratch paper. I'd love to see the results. Was pretty proud of my map until I realized I had totally neglected Asia, relegating it to "Parts Unknown".
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 1,998
    edited July 2018
    How many graphic designers realize how much of font retail is controlled by Monotype?
  • Vasil Stanev
    Vasil Stanev Posts: 775
    edited July 2018
    Stephen Coles said:
     Asia, relegating it to "Parts Unknown".
    "Here be 龍's"  :smiley:
    James Puckett said:
    How many graphic designers realize how much of font retail is controlled by Monotype?
    Well, it is what it is I suppose.  :/
  • Vasil Stanev
    Vasil Stanev Posts: 775
    edited August 2018
    Shameless plug :). I am happy to announce that my first font finally got through. I hope everything will be OK and it will be the first of many!
     :)
    https://www.myfonts.com/search/ergam/

    I am still getting the hang of where to announce my new products, but I hope to improve with time. :)
  • Andriy Dykun
    Andriy Dykun Posts: 11
    Johannes Neumeier said:
    Hey all,

    I was wondering if there is anybody here who could shed some light on what is currently happening with the MyFonts foundry application process, or if there is others who have experienced a similar delay in their submissions being even responded to - my initial submission was 5 months ago. 
    Hi. I waited for the opening of my store for about 10 months :) It seems they have too little staff... And even after signing the contract, I had to bomb support mail for about a month to speed up the process a little.
  • Rafael "rafaeiro" Ferreira
    Rafael "rafaeiro" Ferreira Posts: 76
    I believe that sending more and more messages does not help nothing.

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