My impassioned yet most likely ineffectual letter to the folks at Shutterstock:
I am disabling my account for the following reasons:
- The new 'stick and carrot' tier system that is basically a pyramid scheme to get contributors to work harder for less.
- The recent addition of 4K video subscriptions, which highly undervalue content that customers would literally have to spend thousands of dollars to create themselves (per clip). The payouts on these clips will never be made up for by volume and do nothing but lower the bar for the entire industry and reinforce the customer expectation that they deserve the closest thing they can get to free content.
- The apparent shareholder gains that clearly resulted in the recent earnings structure change.
- All of this either being introduced/maintained during one of the worst times of financial hardship most people have seen since 2008.
As a video contributor I have to stress how much I disagree with the new video subscription packages.
I understand some customers need quick and easy content, and I might be willing to entertain the sale of my content for low res web use at SD quality for such small amounts. However, for 4K or HD video, I feel that this is still high demand/quality content that needs to be labelled as such. I would be open to a sale price drop to increase competitiveness and overall volume as long as the net revenue went up but I think this new subscription plan is lowering the bar to an unacceptable degree.There is no way that any increase in volume will make up for the decrease in return per download.
Furthermore, Shutterstock is well aware most contributors sell much less video than photo, and that video yields a much higher profit per download than photo. The new tier system affects video earnings for contributors in a much more significant way. The new changes purport to provide incentives for contributors to produce better content, but I can't see how there is an incentive if most contributors, even with a reasonable amount of effort, will end up losing out on the average annual commission percentage, even if they do make it to 30%. The losses are even more pronounced when you take in account investment into high end photo equipment, models, lighting, and other expenses to create a quality video/photo.
What I would hope for is an end to the annual reset, the abolishment of 4K video subs in place of a lowered price option for large clip packs that result in a increased profit for both a parties, and increased focus on valid customer usage of content.
You guys need to realize that just because you are the biggest game in town doesn't mean every single person is going to go along with your method to up your shareholder's stock. Yes, Shutterstock helped people earn a supplemental income, or even create a living, but the company would be nothing without the efforts of those that put in work to make it what it is. Just remember that.
Regards,
Adam Melnyk.
I am disabling my account for the following reasons:
- The new 'stick and carrot' tier system that is basically a pyramid scheme to get contributors to work harder for less.
- The recent addition of 4K video subscriptions, which highly undervalue content that customers would literally have to spend thousands of dollars to create themselves (per clip). The payouts on these clips will never be made up for by volume and do nothing but lower the bar for the entire industry and reinforce the customer expectation that they deserve the closest thing they can get to free content.
- The apparent shareholder gains that clearly resulted in the recent earnings structure change.
- All of this either being introduced/maintained during one of the worst times of financial hardship most people have seen since 2008.
As a video contributor I have to stress how much I disagree with the new video subscription packages.
I understand some customers need quick and easy content, and I might be willing to entertain the sale of my content for low res web use at SD quality for such small amounts. However, for 4K or HD video, I feel that this is still high demand/quality content that needs to be labelled as such. I would be open to a sale price drop to increase competitiveness and overall volume as long as the net revenue went up but I think this new subscription plan is lowering the bar to an unacceptable degree.There is no way that any increase in volume will make up for the decrease in return per download.
Furthermore, Shutterstock is well aware most contributors sell much less video than photo, and that video yields a much higher profit per download than photo. The new tier system affects video earnings for contributors in a much more significant way. The new changes purport to provide incentives for contributors to produce better content, but I can't see how there is an incentive if most contributors, even with a reasonable amount of effort, will end up losing out on the average annual commission percentage, even if they do make it to 30%. The losses are even more pronounced when you take in account investment into high end photo equipment, models, lighting, and other expenses to create a quality video/photo.
What I would hope for is an end to the annual reset, the abolishment of 4K video subs in place of a lowered price option for large clip packs that result in a increased profit for both a parties, and increased focus on valid customer usage of content.
You guys need to realize that just because you are the biggest game in town doesn't mean every single person is going to go along with your method to up your shareholder's stock. Yes, Shutterstock helped people earn a supplemental income, or even create a living, but the company would be nothing without the efforts of those that put in work to make it what it is. Just remember that.
Regards,
Adam Melnyk.