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Messages - kuriouskat
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226
« on: January 04, 2022, 06:06 »
I'm familiar with both Firn's and your portfolio, and appreciate the work put into these. For myself, when I signed up here many years ago, I did so anonymously, as I wanted to be able to voice opinions of the various sites without fear of any retribution. I'm not sitting here in a tinfoil hat, but we all have seen people banned from sites over the years for speaking out.
I do regret that. I also know Firns and Annie's work through the Shutterstock forum.
I think people on this forum are more careful. More often a pseudonym, more often without showing their work.
At Shutterstock we did have discussions about that with people who did that because they were afraid of stealing their work.
(I tried to create a shutterstock link with icon, but that went wrong. So I mentioned my website, which also contains a link to my stock sites)
But the reason is the fear of reactions from the Stocksites?
I used to be very active on the Shutterstock forums, but stopped posting many years back after several of my ideas got copied. However, I still read them and it's why I'm familiar with Firn and Annie's work. Here I will remain anonymous for a number of personal reasons.
227
« on: January 04, 2022, 05:36 »
I find RPDs (average return per download) to be a fairly static ratio. They are good for comparing average commissions between agencies, but they don't actually tell you if you made more income.
I use RPIs - return per image. (Sales divided by number of images). This tells you what income has gone up or down compared to the last time you calculated it. I use it to tell me what subjects to keep shooting (if it has risen) or alternatively what to stop shooting.
Because I shoot/create a lot of different types of images - photos, videos, stop motion animation, graphic design layouts, it helps me enormously to show where I should direct my resources in the next 3 or 6 months.
I agree, the RPI is a very important indicator, although it's more of a personal statistic than RPD which, as you say, is good for comparing average commissions between agencies, and is a good indicator of whether the Shutterstock Levels have had a positive or negative impact on earnings.
I use Stock Performer to access all of this information at a glance, as I can view total earnings for a particular shoot, plus number of files/downloads, total revenue, RPD, RPI per month and RPI overall. I also have the cost shown, and can see at a glance whether a shoot has run at a loss, broken even or is in profit. Drilling down further, I can check the earnings per site, first upload date, average file age and STR, (sell through rate).
It's an invaluable tool if you are running this as a business and find statistical information to be beneficial, and maybe one to consider if you don't already use it?
This, alongside my monthly management accounts, gives me a very clear picture of where my business is going.
I trialed Stock Performer! back in 2015 or maybe it was 2016, on the advice of a friend but decided not to go ahead with it.
But I am a bit confused, your information here is a bit different to what you first said to Firn above. Plus, if your income is declining as you said in your first response, and Firn's is increasing, then maybe Firn is the one who should be giving us all advice   (just kidding - to each his own)
Sorry, I'm not sure what information here you are referring too? I agreed with you that RPI is an important statistic, and discussed the value of other factors that I find useful, such as RPD, and also recommended the software I use to obtain them, just in case anyone is interested
How does this contradict my first post to Firn?
Its ok, KKat, you can relax. It was just a little bit of a joke on my part that obviously went horribly wrong.
I'll try and explain>
You started off by saying "with 2020 and 2021 seeing more significant drops", and prior to that " I am seeing a very real drop in earnings" ... but then ended with a whole lot of stats info from Stock Performer! saying 'It's an invaluable tool if you are running this as a business". (Confusing part: you are promoting a very expensive analysis tool even though its not helping your income  )
There was lots of discussion re RPDs in between. You kept talking RPDs. Firm doesn't see the fuss with RPDs.
My silly Aussie humour kicked in and my thoughts were, if Firn's income is going up without stats, and yours is going down (with lots of stats) then maybe Firn should be the one giving us all advice.
But its just a joke. Being an accountant, I am a stats person myself but I can see the funny side of it all. The joke is on me as well. I also know Firn's port and she has put a lot of hard work into her shoots, has created some very good stock imagery, and has done extremely well in a relatively short period of time in a very difficult market.
Anyway, the bottom line is: To each his own. You like stats, I like stats, Firn doesn't. No one is right or wrong, its what works for us individually. And of course, the absolute bottom line: CONTENT is KING.
(In case you're wondering, my photo sales are doing fine, but it's video income where I have lost money. I have the wrong content that can withstand the income drop with SS's video subs and the fall in the Aussie Tourism market. I need different video content.)
Thanks for coming back to clarify, and no harm done. My comments about income drop were related specifically to Shutterstock, (as the thread was about Shutterstock Levels). At one point many years back, Shutterstock sales accounted for around 70% of my income but the ratio has changed over the years, as I've simultaneously added to other sites. Other sites are now more than picking up the slack from Shutterstock and, although I wouldn't want to lose my Shutterstock earnings, I have spread things out to reduce the dependancy. I too come from an accounts background, (from many years back), and value statistical information to help me ascertain where to concentrate my efforts. Shutterstock were my number one site for monthly earnings until 2021, but for at least a few of the months, other sites knocked them into 2nd or even third place. During lockdown, when I've been unable to travel, I've been concentrating on uploading the balance of my portfolio to other sites and, so far, the efforts are paying off. 2021 is marginally up overall on 2020, despite an 18% drop in annual income on Shutterstock. My portfolio is approx 75% travel and wildlife, so it's difficult to tell how much of that Shutterstock loss is due to market conditions, increased competition or buyers changing suppliers. Hopefully 2022 will quickly see the back of the Covid pandemic and will be able to get back to something a bit more normal. I'm familiar with both Firn's and your portfolio, and appreciate the work put into these. For myself, when I signed up here many years ago, I did so anonymously, as I wanted to be able to voice opinions of the various sites without fear of any retribution. I'm not sitting here in a tinfoil hat, but we all have seen people banned from sites over the years for speaking out.
228
« on: January 03, 2022, 13:10 »
I may be the anomaly, but the reality for 99% of contributors to SS is that they earn money from being on SS... and 100% of those that aren't on SS, don't earn money from SS.
If you think that there's been some kind of, or will be some kind of, mass exodus of buyers from SS due to a relatively small percentage of contributors leaving (or that lost earnings from SS will automatically be made up elsewhere), then you might be the one who is being naive. Sure, my earnings might dwindle over time... they might at any agency, and that can be reviewed on an ongoing basis, but in the meantime I'm earning money from the time I'm spending uploading, so nothing will come back to bite me. And they're not dwindling now... I made a decent amount more last year then I did the year before.
And if you think my post was 'talking up' SS then... well, that's just strange.
I don't think you are an anomaly and I agree with your post.
I don't particularly care about SS, Adobe or any of the others. I use SS because it serves my purpose and when it stops serving that purpose I will move on.
The reality is that I still sell more on SS than any other site. I also made more in 2021 than I did in 2020. Not much more - 3.38% - but still more. Adobe did well for me last year too although still not as well as SS.
In addition, the absolute number of downloads I got at SS increased last year and at a greater rate than I added to my portfolio. So that suggests that the buyers haven't gone away.
I also agree. I am less than happy with the Shutterstock levels, but I still sell a lot there, and certainly can't afford to walk away and lose a good chunk of my income.
My Shutterstock downloads were slightly reduced in 2021, but I expected that with a portfolio of mainly travel and wildlife. Income there was down by a higher margin, but the loss was more than covered by a good increase in income at Adobe an Istock, plus a couple of others. However, I think that was mostly to do with organic growth, rather than buyers jumping ship.
That said, I certainly know of a couple of companies that have not renewed subscriptions in recent months, but they also deal with travel subjects, (travel agents/websites), so that may be more to do with market conditions than anything else. It will be interesting to see what happens to the market post-pandemic.
Somehow the above replys are missing the point, I believe that Shutterstocks business model of scamming the contributors will lead to their downfall.
As I keep saying, its not about now and how much your portfolio is making at the moment, which I bet is far less than three years ago.
Its about the talent not uploading, sure your going to get the odd person who will continue too, but overall the bigger picture is, the majority of creative people are not going to be uploading and this will in time have an impact, I predict (and it is the Season for predicting) that five years from now Shutterstock will be a mere shadow of what it was five years ago.
Maybe it will even go bust, Agencies and Designers are not going to be buying from a company that shafts their contributors.
Cutting the commission rates is a double whammy for Shutterstock, designers, art directors and image buyers, the people who buy from them will get to know that the commission rate has been cut and simply not renew their contracts, this along with the talent not uploading new work, is really the death nail for them, and it will be a slow death, any independent shareholder should seriously think about getting out as soon as they can.
I don't feel I'm missing your point and I don't really disagree with what you are saying. However, I think the demise will be slow, and good content will be uploaded whilst money is being made - even if it is at a lower rate. Most people who have invested a lot of time and money over the years, simply aren't in a position to pull it down and take the financial loss. Some might stop uploading or slow down their efforts whilst building elsewhere, but Shutterstock still have enough pull to keep many of us there for now - even if we like to moan about the way they have treated us.
229
« on: January 03, 2022, 12:14 »
I may be the anomaly, but the reality for 99% of contributors to SS is that they earn money from being on SS... and 100% of those that aren't on SS, don't earn money from SS.
If you think that there's been some kind of, or will be some kind of, mass exodus of buyers from SS due to a relatively small percentage of contributors leaving (or that lost earnings from SS will automatically be made up elsewhere), then you might be the one who is being naive. Sure, my earnings might dwindle over time... they might at any agency, and that can be reviewed on an ongoing basis, but in the meantime I'm earning money from the time I'm spending uploading, so nothing will come back to bite me. And they're not dwindling now... I made a decent amount more last year then I did the year before.
And if you think my post was 'talking up' SS then... well, that's just strange.
I don't think you are an anomaly and I agree with your post.
I don't particularly care about SS, Adobe or any of the others. I use SS because it serves my purpose and when it stops serving that purpose I will move on.
The reality is that I still sell more on SS than any other site. I also made more in 2021 than I did in 2020. Not much more - 3.38% - but still more. Adobe did well for me last year too although still not as well as SS.
In addition, the absolute number of downloads I got at SS increased last year and at a greater rate than I added to my portfolio. So that suggests that the buyers haven't gone away.
I also agree. I am less than happy with the Shutterstock levels, but I still sell a lot there, and certainly can't afford to walk away and lose a good chunk of my income. My Shutterstock downloads were slightly reduced in 2021, but I expected that with a portfolio of mainly travel and wildlife. Income there was down by a higher margin, but the loss was more than covered by a good increase in income at Adobe an Istock, plus a couple of others. However, I think that was mostly to do with organic growth, rather than buyers jumping ship. That said, I certainly know of a couple of companies that have not renewed subscriptions in recent months, but they also deal with travel subjects, (travel agents/websites), so that may be more to do with market conditions than anything else. It will be interesting to see what happens to the market post-pandemic.
230
« on: January 02, 2022, 18:41 »
I find RPDs (average return per download) to be a fairly static ratio. They are good for comparing average commissions between agencies, but they don't actually tell you if you made more income.
I use RPIs - return per image. (Sales divided by number of images). This tells you what income has gone up or down compared to the last time you calculated it. I use it to tell me what subjects to keep shooting (if it has risen) or alternatively what to stop shooting.
Because I shoot/create a lot of different types of images - photos, videos, stop motion animation, graphic design layouts, it helps me enormously to show where I should direct my resources in the next 3 or 6 months.
I agree, the RPI is a very important indicator, although it's more of a personal statistic than RPD which, as you say, is good for comparing average commissions between agencies, and is a good indicator of whether the Shutterstock Levels have had a positive or negative impact on earnings.
I use Stock Performer to access all of this information at a glance, as I can view total earnings for a particular shoot, plus number of files/downloads, total revenue, RPD, RPI per month and RPI overall. I also have the cost shown, and can see at a glance whether a shoot has run at a loss, broken even or is in profit. Drilling down further, I can check the earnings per site, first upload date, average file age and STR, (sell through rate).
It's an invaluable tool if you are running this as a business and find statistical information to be beneficial, and maybe one to consider if you don't already use it?
This, alongside my monthly management accounts, gives me a very clear picture of where my business is going.
I trialed Stock Performer! back in 2015 or maybe it was 2016, on the advice of a friend but decided not to go ahead with it.
But I am a bit confused, your information here is a bit different to what you first said to Firn above. Plus, if your income is declining as you said in your first response, and Firn's is increasing, then maybe Firn is the one who should be giving us all advice (just kidding - to each his own)
Sorry, I'm not sure what information here you are referring too? I agreed with you that RPI is an important statistic, and discussed the value of other factors that I find useful, such as RPD, and also recommended the software I use to obtain them, just in case anyone is interested How does this contradict my first post to Firn?
231
« on: January 02, 2022, 05:22 »
I find RPDs (average return per download) to be a fairly static ratio. They are good for comparing average commissions between agencies, but they don't actually tell you if you made more income.
I use RPIs - return per image. (Sales divided by number of images). This tells you what income has gone up or down compared to the last time you calculated it. I use it to tell me what subjects to keep shooting (if it has risen) or alternatively what to stop shooting.
Because I shoot/create a lot of different types of images - photos, videos, stop motion animation, graphic design layouts, it helps me enormously to show where I should direct my resources in the next 3 or 6 months.
I agree, the RPI is a very important indicator, although it's more of a personal statistic than RPD which, as you say, is good for comparing average commissions between agencies, and is a good indicator of whether the Shutterstock Levels have had a positive or negative impact on earnings. I use Stock Performer to access all of this information at a glance, as I can view total earnings for a particular shoot, plus number of files/downloads, total revenue, RPD, RPI per month and RPI overall. I also have the cost shown, and can see at a glance whether a shoot has run at a loss, broken even or is in profit. Drilling down further, I can check the earnings per site, first upload date, average file age and STR, (sell through rate). It's an invaluable tool if you are running this as a business and find statistical information to be beneficial, and maybe one to consider if you don't already use it? This, alongside my monthly management accounts, gives me a very clear picture of where my business is going.
232
« on: January 01, 2022, 14:25 »
Interesting results. The levels do seem to make a huge hit initially at least....
based on what? reported RPD don't show a big drop - if levels were a big influence, we'd expect RPD in the .2-.3 range. and some reports show better RPD in 1st 6 months than last - opposite of what you'd expect if levels made an impact - decreased income is much more likely due to market conditions
My RPD in January 2021 was 43c and had risen to 68c by December. Market conditions may affect the overall number of downloads and earnings, but they don't affect RPD. My sale overall are down in 2020 and 2021, which is based on market conditions, as my portfolio is largely travel and wildlife. Covid has certainly had an impact on demand for the images I produce. If RPD has increased for some in the earlier months, it is because of a disproportionate rate of higher value commissions over and above the 10c rate.
233
« on: January 01, 2022, 13:17 »
And I care very much about my earnings, because I would rather have 1000 hours of my work earn me $10,000 than $5000.  That's my priority.
I think we are both agreeing from a different direction! I'm certainly not looking to argue, as I'm sure we are all agreed that bottom line profit is always the priority. I am just using RPD as a fairly accurate way to extrapolate that forward to predict my earnings and create a meaningful budget for the year.
234
« on: January 01, 2022, 12:45 »
I submit about the same amount of photos each year, have the same work, but earned more than double as much for the same work than the year before. That's good enough for me because I only care about the money I earn and not how much I sell my images for on an average.
I don't care about RPD and don't understand people's fixation with it. Someoen can have an RPD of 10$ and still make poor money, because he has to pay rent for locations, props and models. Someoen else might have an RPD of 0.50$, but has no costs and spends almost no time on his photos because he only shoots his backyard flowers. The first person could make a financial loss with his photos or barely cover his costs without being paid for his time, the second a profit. RPD is a strange factor to care about so much as it says nothing about how much money you actually get for your work, just for a photo, which is a very random factor as creataing a photo can be a matter of seconds and cost you not more than the gear you have, or cost thousands of dollars and take hours of time.
I agree 100% - it's all relative, and you can only work with what is relevant to you and your business. I think the fixation with RPD is simply that it is the only true comparison that we can make that shows real increase or loss regarding what the actual companies are paying us. If you tell me you are up 100% in December 2021 compared to December 2020, then that's impressive on the surface of things. However, if that increase is from $100 to $200, maybe it's not so impressive if I am reporting a 20% drop, but that's from $1000 a month to $800. Also, RPD is a big factor in business planning and projections, as a drop in RPD on Shutterstock means I have to either upload more to compensate, or earn that loss back from another site. I care very much about RPD, as I would prefer that those 10000 downloads earned me $10,000 rather than $5000.
235
« on: January 01, 2022, 11:58 »
Alread posted this in another thread, but here is my revenue comparison for the past year:
January 20->21: +131%
February 20->21: +214%
March 20->21: +151%
April 20->21: +74%
May 20->21: +132%
June 20->21: +140%
July 20->21: +148%
August 20->21: +123%
September 20->21: +45%
October 20->21: +98%
November 20->21: +23%
December 20->21: +11%
That's an impressive increase and congratulations to you. It's nice to see that some people are still on an upward trajectory. Your Shutterstock figures are very close to my Adobe returns over the period.
Do you mind if I ask whether you significantly increased your portfolio and what your RPD comparison was?
Also, out of curiosity, can I ask when you started submitting? My income grew year on year from 2008-2015, but has declined a little each year since 2016, with 2020 and 2021 seeing more significant drops.
I didn't join Adobe until 2015, and I'm still seeing year on year growth there, although I am expecting it to plateau at some point.
Thank you. Actually Adobe is the agency with the smalles increase for me, on some months I even had a decrease compared to last year 
I increased my SS portfolio by about 2500 images, same as every year as I have a somewhat regular upload shedule. I don't know my RPD, but I increased my port by around 28%, but my earnings increased by 107%, so my RPD should also have increased.
I started submitting at the beginning of 2019, but my first year where I mostly tried to submit illustrations wasn't very sucessfull.
Interesting, and thanks. My income steadily increased for 7 years on Shutterstock before it reached a plateau and then started dropping. I'm watching Adobe with interest, as I'm 6 years in and still climbing. There definitely does appear to be a point at which you hit critical mass. My uploads are fairly consistent each year, and my RPD rose steadily on Shutterstock year on year, largely due to the incremental increases as each level was achieved. From 2015 the RPD remained consistent until the commission change in 2019, and has been dropping since then. However, you mention your portfolio growth against income growth and assume that your RPD must have increased, but that's not necessarily the case, as RPD is a calculation based purely on income over downloads. For example, 10000 downloads per annum earning $10,000 = RPD $1, but 15000 downloads earning $12,000 the following year is a 20% increase in earnings but an RPD of only 75c. On the surface of things, 20% income growth looks great, but the reality here is that you are only earning 75% of the rate you had the year before.
236
« on: January 01, 2022, 07:34 »
Alread posted this in another thread, but here is my revenue comparison for the past year:
January 20->21: +131%
February 20->21: +214%
March 20->21: +151%
April 20->21: +74%
May 20->21: +132%
June 20->21: +140%
July 20->21: +148%
August 20->21: +123%
September 20->21: +45%
October 20->21: +98%
November 20->21: +23%
December 20->21: +11%
That's an impressive increase and congratulations to you. It's nice to see that some people are still on an upward trajectory. Your Shutterstock figures are very close to my Adobe returns over the period. Do you mind if I ask whether you significantly increased your portfolio and what your RPD comparison was? Also, out of curiosity, can I ask when you started submitting? My income grew year on year from 2008-2015, but has declined a little each year since 2016, with 2020 and 2021 seeing more significant drops. I didn't join Adobe until 2015, and I'm still seeing year on year growth there, although I am expecting it to plateau at some point.
237
« on: January 01, 2022, 06:12 »
Well for me, with almost identical download numbers for January 2020 and 2021, January 2021 was less than half of 2020's earnings.
February 2021 saw a small drop in download numbers, (around 10%), but again the earnings were less than half of the same month in 2020.
Averaging across the course of a whole year, download numbers were down 5% on 2020 but income was down 18%
Comparing to 2019, which was wholly on the old earnings scheme, 2021 was 12% lower in terms of downloads but 33% lower in income.
I am not seeing the levels average out across the year - I am seeing a very real drop in earnings.
My RPD has dropped as follows:
2019 - 77c
2020 - 68c
2021 - 59c
238
« on: November 22, 2021, 03:24 »
Have you looked at Smugmug?
There's a Lightroom plugin that makes uploading very easy, and they offer a range of prints and products plus digital downloads for both images and videos. There's also an option to add tax at applicable rates, although I only sell prints, (as I didn't want to go down the whole EU VAT road), so I don't know how user friendly that section is.
Also, there is the option to download your uploaded images, so it doubles as cloud storage.
There are lots of 'off the shelf' templates, and the facility to customise if you want, but it's not as fully customisable as a Wordpress site might be. Having started with the whole Symbiostock site, then moved to another Wordpress site when Symbio stopped, I've found it to be a very straightforward alternative.
They have a 14 day free trial if you want to take a look, and if anyone is interested, I can post a referral link that's worth 20% off.
239
« on: November 12, 2021, 08:11 »
Shutterstock sometimes has Instagram or website links in the bio, but that's probably your only option.
240
« on: November 12, 2021, 05:37 »
I guess agencies don't bother selling images that are free somewhere else (public domain)..
Blueprints are drawings, a big no-no to use if you don't have a signed authorization.
I think the problem with public domain stuff is more to do with verifying whether that actually is the case. There is little point in trying to sell something that can be obtained elsewhere for free, but it also isn't allow to incorporate PD content into new and unique work that could have a value. However, with Shutterstock, this 'no Public Domain conten' applies to some contributors but not others, as per the example above. There are some double standards going on for one reason or another.
241
« on: November 11, 2021, 13:35 »
Example: "Blueprints are subject to copyright and, therefore, require a property release signed by the architect/original designer of the blueprint in order to be acceptable for commercial use" note, even if the blueprint is from the 1800s? Well then clause 2 kicks in. "Content in the public domain or content incorporating elements from public domain content, such as scans of photographs or copies of public domain artwork or footage, cannot be accepted for commercial or editorial use"
Except when they choose to ignore that it's public domain:
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/yogyakarta-indonesia-2-june-2021-joe-1984253228
I found the original photo credited to a Getty photographer. I wonder if he knows that it's been transferred to the public domain?
More and more I'm seeing that there are double standards with reviewing rules on Shutterstock, and some contributors seem to have a free pass regardless.
Sure stinks doesn't it? Legal images, rejected, stolen images, accepted. 
Yes, it really smells bad. Shutterstock publish these rules, so either the review team are very poorly trained or are just turning a blind eye to content coming from their friends or maybe even their own images? [Edited to remove example] Is it incompetence or bias? Either way, it stinks.
242
« on: November 10, 2021, 12:23 »
Example: "Blueprints are subject to copyright and, therefore, require a property release signed by the architect/original designer of the blueprint in order to be acceptable for commercial use" note, even if the blueprint is from the 1800s? Well then clause 2 kicks in. "Content in the public domain or content incorporating elements from public domain content, such as scans of photographs or copies of public domain artwork or footage, cannot be accepted for commercial or editorial use"
Except when they choose to ignore that it's public domain: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/yogyakarta-indonesia-2-june-2021-joe-1984253228I found the original photo credited to a Getty photographer. I wonder if he knows that it's been transferred to the public domain? More and more I'm seeing that there are double standards with reviewing rules on Shutterstock, and some contributors seem to have a free pass regardless.
243
« on: September 21, 2021, 03:17 »
They were referring to the other site (that approached them) in that section.
Assuming they are being honest and this whole things isn't just a fishing expedition to see where they stand legally with their own site...
OK, thanks, I wasn't reading it that way but maybe I misunderstood.
So to clarify, the OP has original images that he owns the copyright for and has cutout. Customers download these from his website to add as overlays to their own images. So far so good.
DepositPhotos has approached him to buy or submit his cutout people images for DP customer to download, add to there own background and resell - is that correct?
How can they resell these images if they don't have a model release?
If DP [edited] support have said it isn't possible, perhaps there was just a misunderstanding between the OP and Bogdan Dudko, and the content is wanted for normal stock purposes, such as products for resale, rather than resale of derivative images?
No.
He has a site where he sells cutouts from his original photography.
A site that also sells cutouts approached him asking him whether he wants to buy their content..
THEIR content is made from images bought from Depositephotos. They claim that the extended licence they have allows the re-selling of the images after removing just the background.
The OP can't seem to get a clear answer from Depositephotos on this issue.
Ah, thank you Firn! I totally misunderstood which way the intended transaction was going.
244
« on: September 20, 2021, 02:26 »
They were referring to the other site (that approached them) in that section.
Assuming they are being honest and this whole things isn't just a fishing expedition to see where they stand legally with their own site...
OK, thanks, I wasn't reading it that way but maybe I misunderstood. So to clarify, the OP has original images that he owns the copyright for and has cutout. Customers download these from his website to add as overlays to their own images. So far so good. DepositPhotos has approached him to buy or submit his cutout people images for DP customer to download, add to there own background and resell - is that correct? How can they resell these images if they don't have a model release? If DP [edited] support have said it isn't possible, perhaps there was just a misunderstanding between the OP and Bogdan Dudko, and the content is wanted for normal stock purposes, such as products for resale, rather than resale of derivative images?
245
« on: September 18, 2021, 07:17 »
Hi,
Thank you for your answers. It confirms what I thought.
I have my own website/ministock specialising in cut out people that are meant for architectural visualizations. All original photos. (www.vishopper.com).
I was approached by a similar cutouts site with an offer to buy over their whole content, which is based on stock images. And this is how I came to investigate the matter.
The stock site in question is Depositphotos. Their representative claims they have Enterprise Digital licence which allows this kind of reselling.
So you are selling cutouts on your own website that are cutouts from stock photos you've downloaded?
No, s/he said they are from original photos.
Another site that offereded content for sale uses cutouts from Stockphotos and claim the licence allows this, though I don't know a single stock site that allows the re-selling of original content in this way.
Are you sure? I was basing my answer on this: "The photos are originally purchased from stock site with and extended licence, then edited and now resold."
246
« on: September 17, 2021, 09:51 »
Hi,
Thank you for your answers. It confirms what I thought.
I have my own website/ministock specialising in cut out people that are meant for architectural visualizations. All original photos. (www.vishopper.com).
I was approached by a similar cutouts site with an offer to buy over their whole content, which is based on stock images. And this is how I came to investigate the matter.
The stock site in question is Depositphotos. Their representative claims they have Enterprise Digital licence which allows this kind of reselling.
So you are selling cutouts on your own website that are cutouts from stock photos you've downloaded? You may well be in breach of the licence you purchased if that is the case, even is it was with an extended licence. I would imagine that DepositPhoto think that you own the copyright to these.
247
« on: June 16, 2021, 03:53 »
"Contributors who participate in the Revenue Share Special Program will share 40% of net subscription revenue. Royalties are prorated among Contributors according to the proportion of their files in individual subscribers downloads, with increased earnings for those at higher Contributors Levels. Royalties for files downloaded under the Program are awarded in aggregate at the end of each month."
I wonder if anybody got royalties from the Revenue Share Special Program, because all I see is $0.00.
After I removed all best sellers, good sellers and average sellers from their selection I left some low sellers for a test.
When I checked earlier in June, I was seeing a revenue share payment on my May stats page, but that is now showing zero. The total earned hasn't changed, so something is off with the sales reporting.
248
« on: April 20, 2021, 03:21 »
It was in the works long before Pavlovsky became CEO, IMO. Getting rid of customer service for contributors, tons of rejections for established contributors, flooding the site with similars, allowing 50 identical keywords until we put up a big stink, smaller and smaller royalties and fewer and fewer big sales...that all started years ago.
Shutterstock was never about helping contributors make a living or being a viable business long term. Its only purpose was to make Oringer, the investors, and a couple of chosen others rich.
Well said and totally true. Can I ask someone on the forum if I can leave SS as a contributor BEFORE I get to the minimum payout? I can't say what I earned so far but had over 60 DLs but not close to the min threshold. I was only there for a few months when they cut the payments last May.
I read in the T&C's that if you close your account before reaching it you lose your earnings. If true not a fair deal at all.
Oh here's a little drawing that I did about them The guy in the pinstripe suit is the CEO of SS. The drawing's not very good but it's funny I think.
If you read it in the T&Cs that you'll lose your earnings then that is exactly what will happen.
If you ask Shutterstock to make a payment and close the account, they will pay any amount above $1.00. You don't have to reach minimum payout or lose your earnings.
249
« on: March 28, 2021, 08:10 »
"I thought it was just a glitch but, when someone else told me they had the same problem, I was a little worried."
why? why such catastrophic thinking? 2 people didnt get the payment confirmation email so the agency must be in financial trouble. if anything if more people would have the issue i would feel more reassured that its not just me and that it has to be a bug,
if they were on the brink of bankruptcy there would have been a lot more noise for a much longer time
Thanks for your input, but it wouldn't be the first time that the first sign of an agency in trouble is contributors struggling to obtain commissions owed. As many businesses are being hit financially due to a worldwide pandemic, it isn't unreasonable to to be a little anxious, particularly as I was not getting a reasonable or timely response from the site concerned, and other contributors were noting the same issue.
250
« on: March 26, 2021, 05:45 »
Depositphotos have managed to resolve the fault for me this morning, so all is good now.
Thanks, Depositphotos support!
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