The landscape of creative opportunity is continuing to evolve, and technology is playing an even more instrumental role. We recognize that Bigstock has not enjoyed many of the platform advances we have introduced in recent years on Shutterstock and we're making changes to address that. Here are the changes and opportunities that will soon be coming your way:
Shutterstock will soon begin to make modifications to Bigstock's front end and back end technologies in an attempt to stabilize, and hopefully revitalize, the site.This renovation will be disruptive to certain parts of our current workflow and so we have decided to temporarily suspend new content submissions on Bigstock as of June 30th, 2023. During this time, you will still be able to access your Bigstock contributor account and will continue to accrue earnings for licenses completed on your current catalog. Additionally, you will continue to have the ability to request payment on accrued earnings at any time.

Our Contributors are a vital part of our ecosystem and for those of you who are not already a part of our Shutterstock community, we would encourage you to start a portfolio on Shutterstock.com so you can access greater opportunity as a content creator and reach our growing global customer base. This support article will further explain how this will impact your contributor account.

We are introducing the Contributor Fund as a way to compensate Bigstock contributors for your data's role in training computer vision models. Generative AI is an exciting technology that has quickly become a big part of the discourse on creative production. Shutterstock is partnering with the premier AI companies in the world that are building responsibly sourced AI generative content models. One of the ways Shutterstock supports the advancement of AI technology is by supplying customers with content known as datasets on which they can train their models while the artists who produce this content are compensated – you can learn more about it here.

We have also put together this Bigstock FAQ to explain how datasets and the Contributor Fund apply to your Bigstock account, including the ability to opt-out from future data deals. As innovation of this ground-breaking technology continues, we're excited to see Bigstock play an even larger part.

Thank you as always for being a valued part of our contributor community. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact our support team by sending an email to [email protected].

Quote from: Schadenfreude on June 20, 2023, 21:14

We have also put together this Bigstock FAQ to explain how datasets and the Contributor Fund apply to your Bigstock account, including the ability to opt-out from future data deals. As innovation of this ground-breaking technology continues, we're excited to see Bigstock play an even larger part.

Did anyone figure out how to opt out of this? Because the FAQ does not explain it or even mention it.

From the FAQ page:

In July of 2023, we are excited to extend this new revenue opportunity to our Bigstock contributing artists as well! However, if you feel that this new way of licensing content is not the right option for your portfolio, you can manage your licensing permissions under your profile on the My Account page.

but good luck finding it.

From the Bigstock site...

"The landscape of creative opportunity is continuing to evolve, and technology is playing an even more instrumental role. We recognize that Bigstock has not enjoyed many of the platform advances we have introduced in recent years on Shutterstock and we're making changes to address that. While we explore future improvements, starting on June 30, 2023 Bigstock will no longer accept new content submissions.

If you are an established contributor with Bigstock, despite no longer having the option to upload new content to Bigstock, your portfolio will remain active on the site. You can continue accruing earnings from downloads and requesting payouts once your earnings reach the minimum threshold of $30.


For those interested in accessing greater opportunities as a content creator and reaching our global customer base, we invite you to join our growing community of Shutterstock contributors. You can learn more about Shutterstock Account and Submission Guidelines here.


We will communicate further changes to our Bigstock contributors as soon as those updates become available."

Looks like they are slowly shutting the site down.

Offset and bigstock---closing soon

Quote from: PhotoBomb on June 20, 2023, 22:10
From the FAQ page:

In July of 2023, we are excited to extend this new revenue opportunity to our Bigstock contributing artists as well! However, if you feel that this new way of licensing content is not the right option for your portfolio, you can manage your licensing permissions under your profile on the My Account page.

but good luck finding it.

Yeah, of course I already looked there. The My Account page only has the following options:

        Billing
        VAT
        Receipts
        My Downloads
        Edit Profile
        View My Profile
    Lightboxes
    Uploads
    Commissions
    Help & FAQ


Under profile I only have

Profile Name
First Name
Last Name
Email Address
FTP Login
   
If there is an opt out option, it's hidden too well. I don't see it.

Quote
Shutterstock will soon begin to make modifications to Bigstock's front end and back end technologies in an attempt to stabilize, and hopefully revitalize, the site.

Looks like they don't have high hopes themselves in improving business there.
Feels a bit odd to invest time and money then.

I never really understood the site... Owned by shutterstock, smaller image database, and even seasoned contributors make only few bucks per month with them at best.
Why would any buyer go to bigstock instead of shutterstock? I assume that shutterstock must have some profit-oriented strategy to keep BS alive, which is beyond my understanding.

"temporarily suspend new content submissions on Bigstock as of June 30th, 2023" - Until when ? How do we know when to start re-submitting ?

Quote from: Schadenfreude on June 20, 2023, 21:14
Generative AI is an exciting technology [...]

Generative AI is an exciting technology 

Look like I'm ritcher for 10$ overnight. Dont have a clue where it came from. Also can find button, where it shows my sales.

EDIT: I found it, its at the bottom at the page.

Apparently I got 10.50$ for some reason, it doesn't look it was image sale.

My payable earnings shot up by $47 overnight with no new sales showing, could this be a payment for training AI usage as at Shutterstock maybe?

Quote from: emjaysmith on June 22, 2023, 19:34
My payable earnings shot up by $47 overnight with no new sales showing, could this be a payment for training AI usage as at Shutterstock maybe?

Of course it is ~ and I got $17

Judas got 30 pieces of silver which is slightly more 

My earnings shot up by $60 and I am pretty pissed.
There was, of COURSE, no option to opt out of this, like they claimed in the mail. I sent a mail to Bigstock asking about the opt out option and requesting my account to be closed if no such option was offered. Got a reply, that the option would be added within the next 24-48 hours. (Did not happen so far) But of course meanwhile my images have already been used to train some AI without my consent, just like with Shutterstock.   

When I try to looking my earnings the page just says "Incorrect usage of CUBE/ROLLUP and ORDER BY"... anyone else with that and an idea how to fix that?
Tried Chrome, Edge on Win 10 and 11...

My earnings jumped also, but there is no way to request payment. At this point, I have to trust or faith in the company. Should have left years ago.

Figured out I had to scroll down past two blank screens to get to payment info

Oh great, thank you!
I could have thought of that too ;-)

Click on Image Earnings and there's a new Adjustments field at the top with 'surprise' Earnings

The Data Deals opt-out is now active under edit your profile.

Quote from: PhotoBomb on June 24, 2023, 14:18
The Data Deals opt-out is now active under edit your profile.

After they have already taken and used what they needed. Now you can opt out.

This still doesn't beat, rejected images will now be used for data sets. Imagine the pennies you can get from your rejected images on SS? 

Looks like Bigstock is shut down for good now, no more uploading from 1st July.

Quote from: Shuttershock on July 13, 2023, 22:32
Looks like Bigstock is shut down for good now, no more uploading from 1st July.

Still some sales though, every now and then.
I guess it's a matter of reaching payout, cashing out and pulling out.

If they let it die, which looks like their strategy, sales will completely dry up over time and you might not even reach the next payout.

Quote from: Shuttershock on June 21, 2023, 10:48
"temporarily suspend new content submissions on Bigstock as of June 30th, 2023" - Until when ? How do we know when to start re-submitting ?

https://support.bigstockphoto.com/s/article/uploading-submitting?language=en_US

"We will communicate further changes to our Bigstock contributors as soon as those updates become available."

Let me translate? They don't know. 

We can now request payout at $25.