Quote from: Wilm on December 31, 2021, 07:20

But here's a question: How many images have you uploaded to shutterstock this year?

I think I see where you are going with that Wilm, and if I'm right it highlights what to me is probably the most profound change in microstock over the years. A trend which I'm afraid will continue well past 2022.

Earnings growth at one time much was more in line with portfolio growth. It was never a direct correlation obviously, but it was as I say, more predictable. I remember when feeding the beast used to be the mantra, and for a while it seemed to work. Now not so much.

Quote from: Level6 on December 31, 2021, 11:46

How do you justify and find the motivation to even try going forward even without hiring models but just filming or photographing anything in your city?, for 10 cents and now 1 to 7 cents at Alamy it's barely a hobby or small side income for those who are retired.

Even though the qustion wasn't directed at me, I'd still like to throw in my answer. 10 cents or 1-7 cents aren't  motivating me to go forward. But the four-digit number I earn with microstock each month is. If you want to keep being motivated, it's better to pay less attention to earnings of single sales or RPD and look at the money you earn within a month.  Because these 0.10$ sales are very dicouraging for sure. I have images that I put lots of work in or had costs for props that so far haven't managed to earn me back the time and money spent. Maybe they never will. That's frustrating, but I try not to dwell on that too much, because I also had images that cost me literally nothing, didn't take much more than 5 minutes to shoot/edit/keyword and earned me like 100$ within a year and 100$ for 5 minutes of work doesn't seem so bad? And in the end, at least for me, the images that underperform and the images that perform better than expected (and the imags that perform as expected) all even out each other.
Before Alamy introduced the very low sales and before Shutterstock had the commission cut iStock was the only agency that had these very frustrating sales of 0.2$ and quite a lot oif it. At the beginning I would look at my monthly report and it would really frustrate me, because I thought "I'd rather not sell my images at all  than sell them for 2cents!". But somehow, no matter how frustrating the single numbers looked, it all added up to a nice sum in the end.

Of course even the overall earnings each month probably aren't much of a motivation if they are very low. But it is still possible to make decent money with microstock and still possible to increase your earnings.

Lower and lower rates because we do nothing about it, people still contribute regardless so the agencies do whatever they want.

Around 2500 images, I think. I don't know the exact number, I don't think there is a way to ckeck on Shutterstock?
But so far I pretty much submitted a very similar amount of photos each month. I like sticking to fixed schedules.

Lower and lower rates because we do nothing about it, people still contribute regardless so the agencies do whatever they want.

Quote from: Steveball on December 31, 2021, 04:54

Lower and lower rates because we do nothing about it, people still contribute regardless so the agencies do whatever they want.

despite actual evidence posted here that RPD haven't declined!!  where your evidence (rather than continuous whinging & blaming the agencies for everything)

...

In the physical world here even the second hand stores don't give product away for free.

Microstock will just get worse over the short term, commission rates will continue to be cut, maybe even stopped or put �on hold� as many of the sites will call it.

Shutterstock have shown the way on this with their January restart every year, I believe the overall outlook is very grim.

On the upside, in the long run, I believe that many countries, probably starting in Europe will look to bring in legislation to fairly compensate contributors, perhaps with a law that makes these companies responsible to all stake holders on a equal basis, when a company is sold, takes on debt, commission rates or terms and condition changes, basically all contributors having a equal vote at the shareholders annual meeting.

Perhaps they will bring in laws that state contributors/creatives are the ones who decide how much their work is charged out at, along with the commission rates.

As for the sites manipulating the search engines to favour the highest return for their �shareholders� this will also be outlawed.

As in the music industry, new technology has been used to scam artists in our sector of the creative arts, initially drawing in the talent and then after suckering them in, ripping them off.

The law and basic human rites are always slow to catch up with the 19th century mill owners, but it will come.

Or perhaps the advent of new technology will supersede microstock as we know it, like a search engine that seeks out individual websites of artist, photographers as a listing site, creating a market of independent online shops, which to a certain degree has been happening, maybe this will supersede microstock sites as we know them.

The other point I would make is, companies like Adobe have a vested interest in higher commission rates for us, as we buy their software, lets hope they hold their nerve, as many contributors (myself included) will only be uploading fresh content to them alone, ignoring SS/Getty and the other low hanging fruit, maybe 2022 could be a breakthrough year for Adobe.

I would suggest that if Adobe offered an exclusive contract, this could be a knock out blow for the likes of Getty and Shutterstock.

Personally, and I'm sure most people would like to see this, is Getty going bust and then wound down, with all the constituent parts sold off individually.

I also believe that there should be legislation on separating historic or commisioned photographs, art/illustation libraries from individual contributors portfolios on Microstock sites, companies should only be allowed to sell one or the other, or they should have the two types of content on totally separate sites.

Overall the outlook in the long term is better than in the short term.