I'm hoping there's nothing to this, but right now in the Shutterstock forum, everyone is up in arms about the possibility that SS has dropped On-Demand downloads.  I'm not even sure how to verify this, but I do know that I haven't seen any ODs yet today, which is odd at this point in the day for me.  These typically account for about 20 - 30% of my SS revenue, so that would be awful!

I've had five so far today, and I don't read their forum.

Someone in the SS forum pointed out that she just had a few ODs today since this news broke, but someone else suggested this could be unused credit in the buyer's account.  Everyone there seems to think that ODs have been removed as an option, and looking at their downloads today, they're convinced it's true.

I don't want to get too alarmed yet, so I turned to MSG for your thoughts.  Is anyone seeing evidence to suggest that ODs are done?

I logged in using my company's account and clicked the Renew button. There are 4 types of On Demand subscriptions available today.

Hm, I had one On-Demand-Download today (for $1.07).

I just tried to find the OD-Plan on the Shutterstock site (I'm not a buyer, just looking at www.shutterstock.com/subscribe), can't locate it.
Only the 25-a-day Subscription and the Enhanced Subscription seem to be available.

I've had 26 downloads today so far, no ODs.  Looking over my stats over the past few months, I've never had a day with a ratio of subscription downloads to ODs greater than about 15:1.   Suggests something is going on, but I'm still hoping this proves to be nothing.

Maybe Shutterstock is trying to push the On-Demand-Downloaders to BigStockPhoto that they recently purchased?

Quote from: fotorob on October 29, 2009, 16:07
Maybe Shutterstock is trying to push the On-Demand-Downloaders to BigStockPhoto that they recently purchased?

That's what I was thinking... 

Just looked on the German page. There the OD plan is still existing...

Quote from: Digital66 on October 29, 2009, 16:11

Quote from: fotorob on October 29, 2009, 16:07
Maybe Shutterstock is trying to push the On-Demand-Downloaders to BigStockPhoto that they recently purchased?

That's what I was thinking... 

But there is no link from Shutterstock to Bigstock.  So, customers interested in buying only one or a few images will simply go somewhere else!

Quote from: Digital66 on October 29, 2009, 16:14

Quote from: Digital66 on October 29, 2009, 16:11

Quote from: fotorob on October 29, 2009, 16:07
Maybe Shutterstock is trying to push the On-Demand-Downloaders to BigStockPhoto that they recently purchased?

That's what I was thinking... 

But there is no link from Shutterstock to Bigstock.  So, customers interested in buying only one or a few images will simply go somewhere else!

No problem, I offer my images elsewhere too... 

Quote from: dirkr on October 29, 2009, 16:11
Just looked on the German page. There the OD plan is still existing...

You are right.  In fact, it seems only the English page is not offering the OD plan

That's not true. The English plan IS offering OD subscriptions. I just looked at it. You are spreading misinformation.

Quote from: epantha on October 29, 2009, 16:21
That's not true. The English plan IS offering OD subscriptions. I just looked at it. You are spreading misinformation.

It's not there on mine...so if you're seeing it and some of us are not, that leads me to believe it's probably a glitch.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Quote from: epantha on October 29, 2009, 16:21
That's not true. The English plan IS offering OD subscriptions. I just looked at it. You are spreading misinformation.

I still can't see it... Looks like a bug.

So whose OD sales have dried up today?  Glitch or intentional change, I'm now at 28 downloads but 0 On Demand.  Without precedent in my recent stats.  Something is definitely happening or this is one mighty big coincidence, glitch, whatever you want to call it... I don't like it!

C

I've had an OD today as well. I can't imagine that they would remove OD's. I would think they are a huge cash cow for Shutterstock.

Quote from: epantha on October 29, 2009, 16:21
That's not true. The English plan IS offering OD subscriptions. I just looked at it. You are spreading misinformation.

Have you refreshed your browser?  Maybe you are looking at a cached page.

On demand has been a success for SS, so I think this is probably a glitch and some forum hysteria.

Emptied cache in Safari. Still see OD subscriptions available. In Firefox, no OD subscriptions available.

Sorry guys, I was wrong about the situation. Guess I just didn't want to believe it  I called the SS 800 number and they said they have removed the OD plan and told me about the company they acquired (Bigstock). Kind of shocking to find out this way.

Well, there's the confirmation.  This is sure to be a rocky transition.  I can't see getting the same number of additional downloads on BigStock to equal my loss of ODs on SS, at least in the short term.  Plus, for each of those downloads, I'll likely get $.50 or $1.00 for a download I would have received $2.70 for before the switch?  This is going to result in a BIG drop in my numbers.

On the other hand... I did get a surprise $58.80 from a BigStock licensed download last Friday, so if SS helps drive more of those, maybe there's a silver lining?  I'm assuming I would have seen just a $28 EL if it had been sold through SS.

Wow! That's pretty shocking and will put a pretty big dent in my income there. I'm still hoping it isn't true.

If they are going to replace ODs with BigStock, I wish they had an option to move whole SS portfolio to BigStock with  a couple of clicks. (I have only a part of my portfolio uploaded at BigStock, and no easy way to tell what I have uploaded and what not)