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Messages - everest
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201
« on: January 04, 2021, 06:44 »
There are a few that come to my mind: Stocksy, Trevillion, Arcangel, Filmsupply.com, etc.....Everyone of them is focusing on a specific area of visual content. if they are going to survive in the long term is an open question. I hope so.
What are the niche agencies?! Sent from my motorola one using Tapatalk [/quote]
202
« on: January 04, 2021, 06:39 »
That would be interesting but I have not seen any sign of this happening anytime soon in the future.
What to see when Google enters this business Sent from my motorola one using Tapatalk [/quote]
203
« on: January 04, 2021, 06:37 »
You are totally right on that. I hope you are right about Adobe, but I fail to see why they wouldn't - at a certain point in time - start dropping prices and commissions too either to match competition (and gain market share) or just to optimize their own earnings, or ... both.
It's hard business, not charity.
204
« on: January 04, 2021, 06:36 »
I just think Adobe is becoming the main player in this industry at the expense of Shutterstock and Istock/Getty. All other players are not relevant anymore. Of course they are not doing any of us any favours and the day when they stock tumbles I think we will see the same kind of slashed that Shutter and Istock/Getty and many others have done. But the fact they are very entrenched in the creative community because of their software gives them a huge advantage that will become bigger and bigger. I don't understand why you rate Adobe the King of the hill? they manipulate and skew searches as much as the others and not doing any favours at all. I know many big contributors completely slaughtered by Adobe same as SS. They are all nursing the eastern countries!
I think the truth is that no agency is performing well and the big money is gone forever no matter the portfolio content. As far as I'm concerned there are no winners just less losers!
205
« on: January 03, 2021, 13:54 »
The stock industry is consolidating faster than I thought only a few years ago. I think most players are irrelevant already that were still on the radar not so long ago.
Small players are already totally wiped out and sending anything to them is a huge waste of time and an opportunity that your content lands in the wrong hands. Middle tier have also mostly slipped down. Alamy 123RF, Dreamstine,Envato,Deposit are a shadow of what they were and in a few years will join the low ballers if they aren't already.
Now the "big players" that are competing as hard as never before even if it means for some of them trumping their relationship with contributors:
The 800 pound gorilla has shrunk to a baboon with a red and ugly ...... Still on the top list but falling every month. I remember when the exclusive number was around 300 (earning rating on the right). Very soon that number will be under 1 agency where you don't need to be exclusive. Their 15% has made many people loose interest. Less content less buyers.
Shutterstock: Well they lost their leadership a few months ago and will keep falling. Many demotivated people have already abandoned them and this trend will persist. Thy still have a lot of content but others are taking the throne fast.
Pond5: They are only a player in video but I think they will be part of the leadership group in this area for a while. I wish they could get stronger and also make a dent in the image department as I think they are by far the most fair agency to contributors.
Adobe: Climbing steadily and killing competition slowly but without merci. I think they are the ones that could turn the whole market upside down if they wanted killing all competitors in a few years. Make file exclusivity happen (50-55%) accept editorial, and start footage subs and Shutter and Istock would be history very fast. A couple of years and they would be gone. Getty/Istock probably bankrupt.
Other more selective or niche players like the few RM or premium agencies left will still survive offering specialized content that is not available on the micros.
In any case if Adobe does not make major mistakes it will be king of the hill by far in 2 or 3 years.
That's how I see it. The post pandemic world is changing many variables so I could be wrong but it will be interesting to see the final check mate when it happens.
206
« on: December 24, 2020, 01:47 »
Now you all know where all those under 1$ 4k video sales come from in the Getty and Shutter reports. As Getty & Shutterstock sales commissions are not transparent by any means they could be earning 99% of the deal with this people. So much unethical actions going on with this two agencies that it is really amazing nobody has already filed an request for an official audit on their numbers. I would not be surprised at the scandal that will follow.
Everybody talks about the chinese scam stock companies making up their numbers and doing "creative accounting". Those two companies do the same thing.....
207
« on: December 23, 2020, 16:19 »
The only thing he will try to improve is his bank account. He has been very clear about that with his actions.
208
« on: December 22, 2020, 06:04 »
209
« on: December 20, 2020, 03:48 »
For me it has been the worst month since 2010. At that time I had 1000 files Now I have 20.000. The oil tanker is sinking faster than I thought......
210
« on: December 16, 2020, 13:04 »
You have a case no doubt. This happened to me in the past with a few top red flames bestseller images uploaded by some pirate to them. I made them aware of that I also contacted the legal department at Istock/Getty and the images were gone in 10 days after many mails by me to them. Nowadays I would not go this route. I would send only 1 mail and maybe a registered fax and afterwards sue seeking damages. It is their responsibility the content they sell on their site. Does not matter what's in their TOS. A Judge will see what kind of responsibility they carry whatever they say. If you are not in the US go to court in your country. If they violate intellectual property their site might be banned access in your country. And if this happen I am sure they will contact you quickly and negotiate a settlement before court. Don't be afraid if they are big. If you are telling the truth they stole your content and are selling it. No way they are going to win such a case. Before you initiate judicial actions go to a public notary so he can certify that they are still selling the content on their web. After that for everyday it was online you ask for damages and to be taken down obviously. Ive been going back and forth with their support from someone overseas with no real power to et anything done. Getting the usual BS. This time I responded back with their infringement department ccd, saying that theyve essentially admitted that theyve broken the terms of service by still having it for sale. They can either take it down or the next correspondence will be from my lawyer. I think Ive got a case. The only question is whether its worth going through with a lawsuit.
211
« on: December 12, 2020, 03:39 »
Really sorry about your loss. You have been always a very positive force on these forums. Your husband was very lucky to have you as a life companion.
212
« on: December 06, 2020, 05:47 »
Shutterstock has a mafia style of doing things. It is beyond of me why people, for a few dollars in most cases, deal with such an unethical company. I watched this video yesterday.
https://youtu.be/Dfqp9xD188A
"This video tells you about the outcome what can happen if you disclose your stock photography earnings publicly. Even sharing screenshots or writing about your earning in any post or blog is a violation of Shutterstock terms of service and will get your account banned!"
Has any also experienced account disabling for this reason?
213
« on: December 05, 2020, 05:27 »
No doubt about that. There are producers that are very successful and shoot with high end gear and those as you said that make soma small side money with it but get their bread and butter from paid gigs. But I can tell you that 95% of the stock submitters are phone, mirrorless, dslr users and agencies give usually no technical problems to accept those files unless some phones were they are a little more picky. However there are lots of people that already have invested in the equipment for other reasons than stock (for example shooting videos for clients or some narrative projects etc.). It doesn't cost them even a bit to grab their Red or Ursa mini etc. since they already have it.
214
« on: December 05, 2020, 05:14 »
Successful sites are the ones that have content variety and quality. I give you the results of a search with 2 keywords: spain castle
POND5: 14102
ADOBE: 13431
SHUTTERSTOCK: 9589
DREAMSTINE: 2196
ISTOCKPHOTO: 1808
123RF: 1802
GETYYIMAGES: 1227
VIDEOHIVE: 235
ENVATO ELEMENTS: 72
VIDEOBLOCKS: 133
STOCKSY: 13
You can replicated different searches and you will nearly always get similar results. There are 3 large players in video and the distance is growing larger and faster every day from the minor players. Those try to compete with low priced subscriptions but I think the industry will consolidate. The large player can destroy those little ones with the push of a button. Shutterstock has already gone this route. Getty the same with royalties most of the time under 5$. We are fortunate that the two other large players have kept ground and I guess that is the reason they are getting much more content nowadays.
215
« on: December 03, 2020, 09:41 »
I think you already can figure it out why 99% of stock suppliers don't shoot on Arri or Red. Those mentioned subscription sites pay a video a dime, so contributors go for 1-3k equipment, not camera plus lenses that costs 20k+ Same with aerial footage. Drones shots are done with a mavic pro 2 at best. You rarely find footage shoot on Inspire 2 or above. It does exists but it is really a minority as income would not cover expenses. I shoot with Blackmagic 4k as it gives nice quality with good Dynamic Range and excellent codecs but again it is a 1300$ camera. I would not dare at the present times to plunge heavy on camera equipment when clips are paid in single or two digits now, or even less when you are talking about subs. Of course it means. You don't get the same look from a gopro as from an Alexa. (And my main point was still about shooting skills)
There are some DSLRs that are "okay", and many more mirrorless ones, but he didn't mention those.
I have downloaded some stock videos that have been just too bad quality, luckily they were on a subscription based site so no financial damage was done.
Pro level video and cinema cameras mean nothing nowadays. Today cameras are good enough for stock footage by a large margin. It is the right subject and style what matters the most and not if you shoot with an Arri Alexa or a Panasonic Gh5.
I'm not trying to put you down, but learn how to shoot high quality video first. It's not about "Gopro or DSLR", even tho the competition you are facing are using pro level video and cinema cameras.
216
« on: December 03, 2020, 00:48 »
Pro level video and cinema cameras mean nothing nowadays. Today cameras are good enough for stock footage by a large margin. It is the right subject and style what matters the most and not if you shoot with an Arri Alexa or a Panasonic Gh5. I'm not trying to put you down, but learn how to shoot high quality video first. It's not about "Gopro or DSLR", even tho the competition you are facing are using pro level video and cinema cameras.
217
« on: November 30, 2020, 14:22 »
Another walking zombie. Consolidation is accelerating. They were always quite nice to contributors in the past although they did not escape from cutting contributors commissions. There are only a few agencies left where it is worth to contribute from a business point of view. In the past year, 7 sales in lower third of $xxx (gross). 36 smaller sales. Portfolio of 5679 RM.
218
« on: November 30, 2020, 14:18 »
I agree totally with you Sean. Companies like Getty and Shutterstock have underestimated how important it is for many producers to supply to companies that behave in an ethical way. Sure they still get material from some factories but they loose a lot of creative diversity. Stocksy is a strong prove of that. Sure the money is an incentive but tell 100 pros if they would like to be in Stocksy and another 100 if they would like to be or return supplying to Getty/Istock. We all know the answer, they know it too. And about Shutterstock ....they are so low in the scale and loosing so fast premium material content that they might go down even faster than Istock did when they started to whip their contributors. Dumb. Lets make some weird complicated thing instead of just being ethical.
219
« on: November 30, 2020, 14:12 »
I would not be surprised that they are not receiving the content they want. Not briefs and also not custom content. The perks will not engage pros because what they usually want is too expensive to produce for too small reward. Not even at 40% -I am at this percentage- is it worth it. Custom content is even worse. They would need to pay at least 5x times per image selected so I would take the risk to produce a session they want. I doubt pros will jump on this new wagon. In my honest opinion Getty/Istock is in deep trouble, specially on the video playing field. Just make any search on their site or Pond5 and Adobe. The quality and quantity in Getty is dismal. They are loosing clients and premium content producers and they don't know how to stop the bleeding. That's the reality for them. They worked hard to make it happen. Turning the wheel will be nearly mission impossible. Why not just pay us a respectful commission like 40% and skip yet another incentive to succeed???
220
« on: November 27, 2020, 16:03 »
They are a low seller, al least for me compared to Pond5 or Adobe but they do have some sales. I do submit only from time to time as their weord hard rejects get on my nerves, no explanations by inspectors whatsoever. They are very low on my list and I have a fraction of the content I have on the other sites. Stocksubmitter makes it easy to submit to them. If it wasn't because of this I would no send a single file to them because it is not worth the effort. But with stock submitter is only a few clicks.
221
« on: November 22, 2020, 14:27 »
Well sometimes you have to make decisions that hurt you in the short term to gain in the long. You know loose a battle to win the war.Its simple strategy. I have living full time from stock the last 12 years and I think I did not because I am specially talented. On the contrary to make the right decisions at the right time. Two years ago I decided to slowly shift to footage and not supply getty as I thought the under a dollar royalties and low commission percentage was not worth it. I felt the same with Shutter. I knew I would loose an important part of my video income which is till very low compared to the photography one. But good things have happened. One I put all the editorial files at P5 as exclusives and get very high sales every month (none for less than 30$ and usually around 50$). I know that before leaving Shutter my net for video was usually 13-16$ with more and more sales for 5$. As it took a few months that they could still sale my content at SS I saw my latest 4 sales were 0.77$ for me , yes 0.77 not 7.77$ at 77.7$. So do you think I did the right decision. My sales increase slowly and constantly at my other outlets . The went to 0 at SS but are recovering much faster than I thought. Sales at SS were a tad higher than P5 not double (we are talking video) so the you will make it in volume does not apply here. But my sales net commission has increased by 50x times respect those 0.77 sales. I know those might be some kind of subs or whatever but I wonder what the average net will be in January with the new conditions if it was already very low at 16$ before the robbery. It is not only the lowering of contributor commissions but the total lack of respect to those in their communication department that makes this one as many others bad agencies to work with. In any case good luck to those that stay with Shutter. Maybe I am completely wrong but I would not bet on this horse on the medium long term. I think Justanotherphotographer gave you an excellent summary. Shutterstock is on decline. Whatever you do , if you stay with them or not prepare, adjust and plan ahead in this business as with any other one. Staying with sinking ships is never a good idea. Owners of the firm are abandoning the ship to and we all know what happens next........
Forget pride and ethics. You are destroying your own business if you keep uploading to Shutterstock.
They have a way of cutting our revenue as much as they like and still be able to claim they are paying the same percentage. They have been losing ground to other agencies for a while.
If you dont realise whats already happened and whats to come I dont know what to say. January will 2021 be devastating. It will look like heaven compared to 2022.
Interesting view that some have is they remove good images and stop uploading, then complain because sales are down. Not that I'm happy with the new plan or the reset that's coming in 39 days. But when someone effectively disables and depletes their account and discovers they are earning less, I'm not very surprised. Remember how one of the unwritten principles of Microstock is, "You must upload or sales will go down." 
Is Shutterstock actually on the decline or is it just on the decline for contributors? In which case, yes you're right. Even bigger is, all of Microstock is on a decline. So much for a long term investment of time and effort for some residual income. Not playing out that way. I can understand the disappointment.
I loved your view of the situation, which I agree overall for Microstock, not just SS. I made this some years back.
222
« on: November 22, 2020, 06:09 »
In my case I endured the pain already. Dropped them as soon as they announced their new rules. At this point I am growing at a steady pace with my other agencies even with this pandemic situation. At one point or another people that take this career seriously will have to make the jump if they want to keep growing. Buyers are not that stupid that agencies are making us believe, they do look elsewhere and with your content on Shutterstock you will surely never really take off in the ones that pay you better royalties. Yes, buyers are price conscious but at this already rock bottom prices they follow where the content is. Many great contributors are abandoning Shutter and placing their content elsewhere, this are the ones you should be watching closely. Shutter raised because they understood this and now they will fall because of the greed of their management that wants to quickly sell their stock and invest somewhere else........ It will take time though, for now SS continues to be in the top 3 per month with pond5 and Adobe contributing more to monthly income and SS dropping fast.
The scary part will be the coming few months where monthly income will go down
223
« on: November 22, 2020, 05:59 »
I think Justanotherphotographer gave you an excellent summary. Shutterstock is on decline. Whatever you do , if you stay with them or not prepare, adjust and plan ahead in this business as with any other one. Staying with sinking ships is never a good idea. Owners of the firm are abandoning the ship to and we all know what happens next........ Forget pride and ethics. You are destroying your own business if you keep uploading to Shutterstock.
They have a way of cutting our revenue as much as they like and still be able to claim they are paying the same percentage. They have been losing ground to other agencies for a while.
If you dont realise whats already happened and whats to come I dont know what to say. January will 2021 be devastating. It will look like heaven compared to 2022.
224
« on: November 17, 2020, 03:00 »
Tough question because talent is always the most important success in any creative approach. Next is subject matter and as you would already know researching many posts around here nature and travel are the most oversupplied subjects in stock and also the ones with the lowest returns. That doesn't mean you can not achieve success in than camp but it will be a lot harder and 1000$/month is hard nowadays if you are starting now.
I was making over 10k a month a few years back only from stock photography (not anymore) but when the quick declines accelerated I moved to video (2 years ago) I mainly do now drone video and stills with some footage from the ground and today I am hoovering from 500 to 800$ months from video alone so it is tough (around 3500 clips). It is true that I don't longer supply neither Shutterstock nor Istock at the moment because their rock bottom prices and royalty percentage to contributors so that number would probably be a little higher if I was submitting to them to but I am in for a longer term and sustainable business and those two don't tick my policy.
Templates, music and 3D are much more profitable because the access line is harder. Every Joe and Mary shoots stills and video nowadays with reasonable good quality. The bar has lowered a lot in video and with a 1000 mirrorless camera you can do wonders so as a business point of view I would definitely keep going with templates. If you travel and want to shoot something for the libraries go ahead. A few hundred clips will start to give you a picture of what you can expect from your clips but as I said with travel material don't rise the expectation to high.
And about the question:
What sells best: People doing stuff if in an office environment better. Keep it real.
The new GoPro s are good enough for video but if you want to improve your quality a small mirrorless will give you much better results. The newest fujis have amazing quality and are not that big.
How long: It depends: with drone footage I try to max out my minute but when doing still life, lifestyle etc 10-15 seconds is enough.
Best marketplaces: Pond5 and Adobe at the moment for the big known names. Istock I am not in but hear too many stories about under 1 dollar sales and only 20% is not very enticing.
Shutterstock was before I left my best seller with P5 but their new ultra low prices, subs and with a 15% commission at the start of every year is not very alluring either.
I also have some clips in Envato market (not Elements) and sales are not bad although not at the same levels as P5 and Adobe.
I also submit recently now to Artgrid but still don't have any meaningful number as they pay only twice a years if I am not mistaken.
Enjoy your journey and film and take stills of course but don't get the shooting limit your travel-life experience in any way. I think from an economical point of view it will be not worth it. With a few good templates you will make much more than with hundreds of clips.
I wish I was in your shoes now as I also travel a lot but right with all the countries in lock down mode I have to do studio shots which I really don't enjoy that much.
So all the best and good luck with your trip.
225
« on: November 14, 2020, 09:38 »
Thank you very much for your explanation. On a different subject I hope someday in the future StockSubmitter will include in their supported agencies Artgrid. Right now their submission system is still archaic with no option to add description, keywords for every file as you can only do that submitting a csv file. If at one point they develop this it would be great to do the submissions through your software. Thank you for the reply and info
It would be be useful if there was some info on the site that you want to use about pricing and the conditions you just explained here. About the Chat it would be great if it was unable when it is out of service for whatever reason but giving you a number and remaining time to be attended might be confusing some people.
In any case thank a lot for the info. I will stay with StockSubmitter and sending many thousands of ProRes clips would end up a very costly solution for me. For still images it is a great option I think.
Kind regards.
If you click on your account balance in the top right corner you will be redirected to your subscription dashboard page where you can manage your subscriptions and see the packages and prices 
Not so intuitive, we're planning to rethink this part.
As of the chat - we're using the LiveChat, we've specified in settings that we would prefer using their "continuous chats" and there should be no queue number or a ETA time provided. Probably a bug on their end.
Apologies for the confusion.
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