Is selling on MyFonts a good idea?

Typofactory
Typofactory Posts: 56
in Type Business
Hello,

I am finishing up a font, and I have no experience in selling fonts. MyFonts seems to be the obvious choice; however, many on TypeDrawers seem wary of MyFonts. Should I use MyFonts to sell my fonts, or should I use some other platform. Also, if I were to sell on MyFonts, could I put my fonts on Adobe Fonts or another reseller platform?
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Comments

  • Igor Petrovic
    Igor Petrovic Posts: 307
    edited November 2023
    -
  • FontInsider
    FontInsider Posts: 8

    I've been doing some research on the latest (freshest) platforms for selling fonts, and I've discovered that there are many more options available than what's commonly discussed. Each platform offers unique advantages and caters to different audiences. In light of this, I highly recommend considering a variety of platforms, especially since MyFonts has become quite saturated and their terms appear to be shifting towards more conservative policies.

    Here are some notable platforms to explore:

    It's 2023, and the notion that MyFonts is the only viable option for font distribution is definitely outdated. Today, you also have the flexibility to distribute your fonts independently using platforms like Gumroad for the download delivery. 

    It's much easier now than it was a decade ago to get your fonts into the market, and there's no need to be locked down by some of the new restrictive terms coming out. 

    I hope this information helps you in exploring new avenues for your font distribution.

  • k.l.
    k.l. Posts: 109
    FontSpring, CreativeMarket, Dribbble ... one company.
  • Olexa Volochay
    Olexa Volochay Posts: 50
    FontInsider said:

    Here are some notable platforms to explore:


    It looks like you haven't done much research... Since there are questions about some of the platforms you mentioned. In particular, about the abundance of leaked materials from there. Compared to them, Myfonts is a super-secure resource.
    A separate story is about sales of stolen fonts... Or resale of fonts, which is prohibited by the original license... Which indicates an irresponsible approach to the processing of posted material.

  • k.l.
    k.l. Posts: 109
    I wonder what this list – including items not marked in bold – says about designers and hence design these days.
  • FontInsider
    FontInsider Posts: 8
    Compared to them, Myfonts is a super-secure resource. 
    This is an odd statement, but you sound like you are very confident in your “research” so what does that mean? 
  • Olexa Volochay
    Olexa Volochay Posts: 50
    edited November 2023
    FontInsider said:
    Compared to them, Myfonts is a super-secure resource. 
    so what does that mean? 
    There is such a thing as piracy. Practice shows that the maximum that can be stolen from Myfonts is a web font (and even then not always). Other resources have certain holes through which a new product (in the original) very quickly appears on pirated sites. So has it become clearer?
    Now I’m thinking about which platform to go on my “independent sailing”. But I don’t consider some of your resources, also for this reason.


  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,216
    @Justin Penner

    Boring old mid-century “modern” sans fonts?
    Apparently this is what the market wants!
  • Olexa Volochay
    Olexa Volochay Posts: 50
    Nick Shinn said:
    @Justin Penner

    Boring old mid-century “modern” sans fonts?
    Apparently this is what the market wants!

    + this is all Monotype fonts...
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,216
    I know, just being my usual off-topic self.
  • FontInsider
    FontInsider Posts: 8
    Olexa Volochay said:
    FontInsider said:
    Compared to them, Myfonts is a super-secure resource. 
    so what does that mean? 
    There is such a thing as piracy. Practice shows that the maximum that can be stolen from Myfonts is a web font (and even then not always). Other resources have certain holes through which a new product (in the original) very quickly appears on pirated sites. So has it become clearer?
    Now I’m thinking about which platform to go on my “independent sailing”. But I don’t consider some of your resources, also for this reason.


    That’s just you jumping to assumptions, it sounds as though you haven’t done your research.

    Rip the webfont, convert it back to desktop, and post the pirated font takes less effort than using stolen information to purchase a font. So you might want to rethink your made up piracy theory, because MyFonts looks the least secure because of this. Saying the maximum that can be stole from them is you just making up random ideas.

    The other platforms mentioned all have user authentication to some degree, I even recall YouWorkForThem having customers wait on their first download till their team reviewed the signup data to reduce piracy. Envato used to call customers as well to validate credit card charges, also to reduce piracy. I have never heard of MyFonts doing any of those steps. 


  • Olexa Volochay
    Olexa Volochay Posts: 50
    FontInsider said:
    Envato used to call customers as well to validate credit card charges, also to reduce piracy. I have never heard of MyFonts doing any of those steps.
    You defend these sites so zealously that one gets the feeling that you have some kind of personal interest in this:-)
    You are considering only one option for piracy - «buy and share» ((it doesn’t matter whether it’s an honest purchase or a stolen card). And this is not at all true.
    And finally, use the search, there have been quite a few threads on some of these resources, including the most offensive thing for any designer - having their work appropriated by other “authors”.




  • FontInsider
    FontInsider Posts: 8
    Funny, I was going to say the same about you and MyFonts :)

    I have no interest in those platforms, I simply provided alternatives to MF/Monotype, since that's where the thread was going. But you took my input and twisted it into something else about piracy and how great MF was, which you are still making abstract assumptions about. But hey, we can keep going in circles...

    I would still suggest those platforms (and a few others) for new foundries to explore, as they have large audiences with value to a foundry trying to make a living. 

    Your last statement, could also be said for a search on MyFonts...



  • JoeManbeck
    JoeManbeck Posts: 26
    edited November 2023
    @James Puckett I'm sorry you feel that way.

    Our contract allows us to adjust pricing to "maximize your overall performance", to "help secure additional revenue on your behalf", and to "maximize sales or revenue on your behalf."

    I believe the only time we've adjusted pricing in this way was to enforce minimum pricing thresholds, moving pricing up instead of down.

    When Fontspring sought to increase our web font and application license pricing tiers in February of this year, we did so by notifying foundries in advance, made it optional, and made it very easy to switch back to original pricing if you didn't opt out.

    To my knowledge we have never offered a "steep discount" against a foundry's wishes, but if you have a specific example of CM or Fontspring doing that, I'd like to know. That's not the way we run our businesses.
  • Justin Penner
    Justin Penner Posts: 65
    Hopefully the scenario @James Puckett is referring to is only hypothetical. I've had a Creative Market shop for a couple years, and have not seen any examples of this. Whenever there's a sale, I have to opt in, choose what products to offer, and choose the discount level myself. The contract does say that CM can make price changes, but they have to be for the benefit of the shop owner in most cases.
  • Jasper de Waard
    Jasper de Waard Posts: 641
    @JoeManbeck I appreciate you coming here and joining the conversation. Now that Fontspring is no longer independent, I think many of us fear that what Fontspring has done in the past may not reflect what it will do in the future. In that respect, having a contract that allows a steep price cut without the type designers agreement is... less than ideal.

    I am afraid, and I think I'm not alone, that Fontspring was great until it wasn't anymore.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,896
    edited November 2023
    JoeManbeck said:

    Our contract allows us to adjust pricing to "maximize your overall performance", to "help secure additional revenue on your behalf", and to "maximize sales or revenue on your behalf."

    It sure seems like “sales” in “sales or revenue” would mean units as opposed to money. So at least you have the right to maximize units by selling at as low a price as you want. As long as it increases units sold, it is allowed.

    Is my understanding correct?

    If so, I am still totally willing to believe that current management wouldn’t do that. But if the contracts allow it, and it might be in the interest of the platform to have some loss-leader deep discounts, it is entirely reasonable to worry about the longer term.
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,440
    Aren't there legal hitches to the idea of a manufacturer dictating the price of a distributor? Isn't that why there's the S in MSRP?
    What price controls can be put into a foundry-distributor contract that can be reassuring to the foundry but will not be liable to a legal charge of price fixing? 
  • George Thomas
    George Thomas Posts: 647
    @Craig Eliason Price fixing would be if foundries were in collusion to set prices.
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,440
    edited November 2023
    Yes, my terminology is wrong. Maybe "resale price maintenance" would better name the legal hazard we're talking about. Or maybe even "vertical price fixing" specifically?
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,896
    edited November 2023
    They are called “resale price maintenance agreements” (RPM), and although no longer inherently automatically illegal (“per se violations”) at the federal level in the USA (since 1997 for maximum prices, 2007 for minimum), they are still per se violations in at least some individual states, including California.

    I would not be shocked if the kind of contractual guarantee that some folks on the foundry side would like, is in fact an RPM and in violation of state laws in some states. Probably in some other countries too.   :#

    Not that I am a lawyer. This might be a good time to consult one, if one was considering such terms.

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