Shutterstock is simplifying content standards as per a mail that came in today. Sharing info from the link on the mail

Content Publishing Standards and Policy Updates

Shutterstock is introducing a simplified approach to the standards for content review.

Shutterstock is committed to continuously improving the contributor experience. Last year we focused on rolling out improvements to the contributor platform, which continue into 2023. This year we are turning our attention to simplifying our content review standards and the requirements for getting your submissions approved on our marketplace.

We are starting off with the following changes, which will become effective on April 1, 2023.

No longer required:

Witness information for Model or Property releases will no longer be required.

Reference images for the following content will no longer be required:*

Silhouettes, including photographs with composited silhouettes

Auto-traced vectors

Gradient meshes (non-abstract)

Photos filtered to look like illustrations or used as the basis of an illustration

Low-poly (non-abstract)

Pixel/mosaic art (non-abstract)

Software and license information for 3D renderings of interior spaces will no longer be required (i.e., 3D Interior Property Releases).*

Vintage content (content shot between 1930-1990) will no longer have special release requirements:

Content featuring recognizable models will no longer require an explanation of the contributor's relationship to the model on the Model Release form.

Creative (non-editorial) vintage content will require a standard property release proving you are the owner of the content, but additional information with an explanation of how the contributor became the owner of the content will no longer be required.

Thumbnail previews of the vintage content will no longer be required to be attached to the property release, but are still recommended.

Editorial vintage content will no longer be subject to a property release at all.

*Content submitted with releases that are no longer required after April 1, 2023 will be rejected.

New requirements:

All Model Release forms must include the model�s date of birth.

The age requirement for models depicted in mature content will be changed from 21 to 18 years of age, to align with industry standards.

All Minor Model Release forms are required to include a parent or legal guardian name.

Note: Any releases submitted after April 1, 2023 and missing the above information will be rejected.

We have published new support articles on Legal Documentation, Intellectual Property, and Contextual Metadata standards to familiarize our contributor community with Shutterstock�s streamlined approach to content review. Existing articles on content review will also be updated to reflect the new standards and requirements.

Change is never easy, but we hope that these improvements designed to simplify and streamline your content submission workflows will be a welcome one. We will continue to update this article as new resources become available. In the meantime, if you have any questions or feedback, be sure to contact us!

Quote from: aetb on February 08, 2023, 01:56

As I understand... they want the control of the price... which is bed to me.
It was cool that with Pond5 we could have very high proces for some very nice hard to get footage.
Now what ?

"3. Pricing and Your Share of Net License Revenue

    You have the option to set the price of your Content. However,

        we will have sole discretion to adjust the price of any Content to maximize your overall revenue performance or comply with our minimum pricing guidelines;"

I am not a Pond5 contributor, but from what I have read from other contributors this is not new. Contributors were often complaining about Pond5 selling their videos for much lower prices than what they themselves had set the prices to.

This has been true for a while. Especially the whole lower pricing for smaller countries fiasco where Pond5 would sell at much lower rates in certain countries

And knowing shutterstock they will try and push their AI created art and price it at pennies. Contributors fund pennies might just become the new subscription sales with us looking forward to the ocassional 10c sale

I'm guessing video will be next, so we'll all have to figure out some next steps to ensure we stay afloat

Bumping this up, i made an account there and somehow wss never able to figure out the get another person to help with metadata. So not much up there at this moment and zero sales

Have any of you had more luck there? I'm guessing it makes a ton of sense with the shutterstock tier system

Seems like a much better response than others like SS which have stopped people from uploading AI art, and then have turned around and said that they will make it themselves, giving a very unclear payment structure method.

I guess its evolution, and its upto the artist to learn how to best manage this tool and get something amazing. Its the same as saying that just buying the most expensive DSLR does not automatically make you an artist same will be with this.

The better question is where do we start learning? And what software to pick up?

These are all from Blackbox, but as SS is the only place that does licenses that high, then they may as well be screenshots of SS earnings... but just 15% higher. Will that do you? Now, if you could just provide proof that SS gave you sales due to you emailing them, that everybody you've spoken to has experienced a massive drop in earnings, that SS are stealing etc etc... to demonstrate you're not a liar... that would be much appreciated.

This is spectacular stuff, I've never even heard of a 1k+ sale. More power to people like you

Search google books for your name and user names. Also "copyright YOUR NAME"

Thanks for the tip, tried this. The only issue is that google shows me the appendix where my name ks mountings and often not the place where the image is actually used


I second the thought that its usually good to see how an image was used. Can help come up with new ideas and often helps give ideas for new variations if the same pic. The process is hard for pics and i don't think there is any way to do this for videos.

Its always been hard to see where the pics you've sold have been used. My goto has been a google image search.

Recently started to use https://tineye.com/ and its been a good find. Usually gets me more results than a google reverse image search.

What else have you all been using and is there something similar for vidoes as well?

Have been loving the app. Some small issues but has been my goto for figuring out of I've made any money

Keywords seems to have become a necessary evil, with most submitters putting in all 50 keywords just to maximise chances of a view.

This is clear in the kind if results stock sites show up even for very specific queries. So it'll be interesting to kmow how buyers are actually searching for stuff. Is it a word, aeries of words, an actual sentence etc

Maybe not as bad as the others, but seems like they are trying to lure people back. Would you restart post this


As a photographer, you deserve a place to share your photos, connect with a global community and make money doing what you love! Have a hard time picking which photos to share? We've got you. Starting September 1 we�re not just doubling but TRIPLING your upload limit from 7 to 21 images per week.

With triple the uploads, you�ll be able to get even more feedback and engagement on your photos, participate in more community activities like Quests and have more chances to have your work featured in the exclusive Editors� Choice. And if that's still not enough, you can always upgrade to an Awesome or Pro membership for unlimited uploads!

Plus, we�re making a few exciting changes to our Licensing payout structure starting September 1:

If you submit exclusive content (you�re not submitting it to other stock websites) you will receive a royalty of 60%.

If you submit non-exclusive content you will receive a royalty of 25%.

If you upgrade to a Pro or Awesome membership, you will receive a royalty of 100% on all exclusive content. ( that�s unheard of in the stock photography business

Gave it a shot today, it seems to be unforgiving with my HP laptop with integrated intel XE graphics. It almost melted.

But its pretty fun to use vs Adobe that seems to throw up strange problems at times