Hi all, hope everyone is staying safe.
Just wondering if anyone else has seen a recent influx of very low earning sales in the 'single and other' category on Shutterstock during the last few days?  Already today I have had 17 cent, 16 cent, 15 cent, 13 cent, 12 cent, and 10 cent sales. Never seen this amount of sales that are less than 38cents. Are Shutterstock running a promotion or something at the moment?

Cheers,
Chris.

Hi all, hope everyone is staying safe.
Just wondering if anyone else has seen a recent influx of very low earning sales in the 'single and other' category on Shutterstock during the last few days?  Already today I have had 17 cent, 16 cent, 15 cent, 13 cent, 12 cent, and 10 cent sales. Never seen this amount of sales that are less than 38cents. Are Shutterstock running a promotion or something at the moment?

Cheers,
Chris.

It pays to hang out on this Forum more than you obviously do.

You would learn a lot and be much better prepared when the sh*t hits the fan, as it did this past week at SHITTERSTOCK.

I have read all the posts and know the changes. But it says on my dashboard that i am still level 5 and therefore haven't been reset back down to zero.

You will still get 0.1 sales at level 6 too.  Previously subscription sale were not calculated by percent but were a flat rate of 0.38.
Now they are calculated according to the percent... But the biggest issue that they are calculated like if subscribers would use up all their quota. We don't get adjustments for unused downloads.

(but the way, the number of downloads is also on a decline lately...)

Quote from: chrisdorney on June 02, 2020, 08:02

I have read all the posts and know the changes. But it says on my dashboard that i am still level 5 and therefore haven't been reset back down to zero.

You will still get 0.1 sales at level 6 too.  Previously subscription sale were not calculated by percent but were a flat rate of 0.38.
Now they are calculated according to the percent... But the biggest issue that they are calculated like if subscribers would use up all their quota. We don't get adjustments for unused downloads.

(but the way, the number of downloads is also on a decline lately...)

Thank you very much for explaining, much appreciated.  Much more helpful and productive than the other person.

Reset is January 1st

I have read all the posts and know the changes. But it says on my dashboard that i am still level 5 and therefore haven't been reset back down to zero.

Goes to show the levels don't mean a thing. Whether we all get reset on January 1st or sit at level 4/5 in June, sales can always be 10c, with the occasional higher commission sale... That's what makes this so infuriating.
It's a lose-lose situation for every contributor, small fish and big fish alike.

Quote from: chrisdorney on June 02, 2020, 08:13

Quote from: Desintegrator on June 02, 2020, 08:08

Quote from: chrisdorney on June 02, 2020, 08:02

I have read all the posts and know the changes. But it says on my dashboard that i am still level 5 and therefore haven't been reset back down to zero.

You will still get 0.1 sales at level 6 too.  Previously subscription sale were not calculated by percent but were a flat rate of 0.38.
Now they are calculated according to the percent... But the biggest issue that they are calculated like if subscribers would use up all their quota. We don't get adjustments for unused downloads.

(but the way, the number of downloads is also on a decline lately...)

Thank you very much for explaining, much appreciated.  Much more helpful and productive than the other person.

....and this is why top contributors won't join any revolt. Because they got an email saying their royalty rate has been bumped up from 30% to 40% and didn't read any further. In their minds they've all gotten a raise. I'm guessing a lot of them are surprised to see 10� royalties even though it's not January.

Yesterday afternoon, Shutterstock's forum thread on the royalty cut was full of posts from people who had seen their stats and suddenly realized that it wasn't just about the reset to Level 1 in January. Lots more people were starting the process of disabling sales.

Some quotes:


"Thats funny, that earlier everyone was thinking that "reset" in January will be the biggest problem of that change... no matter, as we can see after sales."

"The base of our income, i think, comes from the subs... And these levels don't have (much) influence on this... Only on the expensive sales. So, in the end, these levels are good for the show."

"Goodbye Shutterstock! 10 cents is humiliation. My port is deactivated"

"I am Level 5 so why am I making 10 friggin cents for images??? SS decided to sell subscriptions at a loss, not me, so why do we have to pay for your mistakes."

"SS said that levels 5 and 6 will earn more...I'm level 5 and there is 10� downloads, 13� downloads, 17� downloads and 20� downloads.....strange math SS, very strange."

"Level 5 and I earn much less, 10c, 16c, 17c, totally unacceptable now but imagine from 1st of January 2021"

"That's just terrible! This is worse than my expectations. The drop in profit is 3 times. Well, this is not a serious business. Your excuse for these changes is ridiculous. I will not upload new content from today. "

"Wow - just had my photo sold for... wait for it.... $0.11 (Single and Other license) ! In fact - out of 25 images sole yesterday - only one was for 0.38 (which is what i was getting before the big change), the rest were between $0.10 and $0.20. And i'm level 4... Unbelievable..."