MicrostockGroup

Footage on Shutterstock has done well for me. So far I've been averaging about five to six downloads per month, with a good mix of hd and full sd. I only have 240 clips there so far.

I was disappointed when I read about the price drop, but I really don't know what the ultimate outcome will be. Sales volume may, in fact, compensate for the reduced commissions, but only time will tell, and now there will be no way of knowing if sales would have increased at the former prices when SS started to take promotion of SS Footage seriously.

In any case, I doubt they will go back, now that it's been announced, so it's time to make the best of it. I have already applied to upload footage to istock, and will continue uploading to Pond5. I will also consider StockXpert Footage when they launch. The prices are all about the same now, and SS and IS offer the lowest commissions by far. (33% and 20% vs. 40% at StockXpert and 50% at P5)

With photos, I never minded uploading to multiple sites. IPTC data and rapid uploading made that easy. It takes hours to upload a single HD clip from my connection, and I don't look forward to repeating that process many times over several weeks, or even months! Still, once I get caught up, I guess it will be very similar to the way I have been working with stock photos.

Ultimately, I think SS may have shot themselves in the foot on this one. The only thing that set them apart from the competition is gone.