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Messages - elliottcowand
1
« on: April 24, 2025, 21:47 »
Not bragging. I've had plenty of stupid rejections. But in the last two days Shutterstock has relaxed acceptance and had nearly instantaneous review times. This has happened before. Think their servers have emptied? This won't last long.
2
« on: February 28, 2025, 04:15 »
Can anyone advise how to use the new version successfully?
The new upload seems to be getting better. Location now works and the other inputs aren't disappearing. However, if you try and save it copies many of your keywords and puts you over the 50 limit.
I tried the new uploader recently and I found it was frustrating as hell. I was really losing patience as my metadata and categories kept disappearing. And 'editorial' kept changing back to 'commercial' by itself for editorial imagery. I almost lost count of how many times I had to copy and paste the same things again and again. I was swearing like a sailor.
I noted that often, the metadata would vanish when I tried to save. And putting anything in the location field causes issues as well. So for the next few files, I did not save at all and kept the location blank. And it worked. I had no further issues. No more disappearing metadata.
Thanks, good to know I'm not alone! What's your browser?
Google Chrome.
3
« on: February 26, 2025, 04:48 »
Trouble attaching the screenshot. Sale was for 0.01 cents !!!
4
« on: February 26, 2025, 04:39 »
.
5
« on: February 21, 2025, 06:51 »
I tried to use the new one but after I entered my description, keywords, category and Illustration file type and tried to submit, most of what I had entered disappeared! I tried doing it in different orders, and saving multiple times during the process but no matter what I did I lost my inputs and couldn't submit. I ended up using the suggestion above about getting to the legacy version via the keywording tool and was able to submit that way. Can anyone advise how to use the new version successfully?
True. The Save button doesn't save. You better enter all the cells at the same time or keywords, categories and location get erased.
6
« on: January 24, 2025, 23:30 »
Adobe sent me a 1099 tax form for my 2024 earnings. Problem is, I had no payouts in 2024. I plan to not report these sales until after I'm paid. Thoughts?
7
« on: January 07, 2025, 15:22 »
SS is one of the leaders in the price race to the bottom, Getty is one of the leaders in the percentage paid to the artist race to the bottom. Together they will deliver really exciting news.
. Not just lower commissions, but they'll probably reject more submissions as well.
8
« on: January 07, 2025, 14:54 »
I pray to god that they use Shutterstocks submission process and not that PITA one iStock use. It's one reason I don't submit much too them, takes way too long.
. I'm used to Shutterstock's submission process, so I hope it stays the same.
9
« on: January 04, 2025, 16:59 »
Don't you mean "exciting" news? /s
Perhaps that will be how they'll present it to contributors when they describe the lower commissions.
10
« on: January 04, 2025, 03:56 »
11
« on: December 16, 2024, 16:07 »
-So are we supposed to keep a file of our rejects so we don't forget what we already submitted?
-Has Shutterstock mentioned a penalty if you do resubmit?
-SS is using AI to decide if the image was previously submitted.
Wonder if we can fool it with a new pixel size, upscale, color rebalance and recrop?
12
« on: December 06, 2024, 17:48 »
What are Adobe's rules in order to sell photos for editorial use?
13
« on: December 04, 2024, 09:50 »
Envato just paid me one cent for a photo!
14
« on: November 01, 2024, 03:38 »
I interviewed Doug Jensen, veteran stock footage contributor, with a portfolio of 9,187.
Question: In terms of sales volumes and revenue, have you experienced a decrease in the past two years since our last interview?
Answer: "If you define “sales volume” as being the total number of clips that are sold, then that number has remained fairly consistent since we last spoke. Unfortunately, my revenue, which is ultimately the metric that matters most, has dropped by more than 50% during that same time period. I attribute this to two things: First, Shutterstock made a lot of changes to their commission structure that have hurt contributors. And second, Shutterstock is really pushing customers towards a subscription-based sales model which results in overall lower pricing per clip — thus lower revenue for the contributors who created those clips.
Here’s how I see it: If a customer pays an agency $50, does it really matter to the agency whether that $50 covers a single download or a hundred downloads? $50 is $50 of income to the agency no matter how you slice it. But the agency didn’t put any effort whatsoever into shooting, editing, uploading, or creating the metadata, so they don’t really care whether that $50 covers one download or a hundred downloads. It’s still $50 of income (minus the commission) to their bottom line. But to the average contributor, it is devastating because we only get a very small slice of that $50 if the customer is downloading multiple files. The way the subscription model works, the more clips a customer downloads, the less money any individual contributor will get for their slice of the pie. The bottom line is that when you have agencies that are offering customers unlimited 4K and HD downloads for as little as $50 per month, who do you think loses? The contributor."
Link to full interview:
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2023/06/28/interview-with-doug-jensen-stock-footage-expert-fresh-insight-after-2-years/
"That dude used to attack me when I criticized Shutterstock on Shutterstock's contributor forum. Now he's suffering the same fate as everybody else huh."... I had completely forgotten about Shutterstock's forum. That certainly went away fast after they lowered our commissions.
15
« on: October 30, 2024, 21:17 »
Last few hundred on adobe average 0.84
probably propped up a bit by a surprisingly high sub sale last week.
Not sure if I calculated right for Alamy, but this year ~14 something. It would probably be a lot lower if I didn't turn off sales to most of SE Asia after the 0 to a few cents sales they had there.
Quarter 3 on DT 0.56 Q2 = .57 Q1 = .42
I have no way to calculate on canva, but I strongly suspect it is well under 1 cent
. I had a similar experience with Shutterstock. Lots and lots of 0.10 cent sales, then one day last month 3 sold for several hundred each. Strange.
16
« on: October 30, 2024, 18:32 »
Across all platforms, I'm earning an average of 0.90 cents per download (nearly all editorial stills.)
Surprisingly, sales from Alamy: $3.70 av.
Adobe: $1.14
Shutterstock: 0.91.
Wirestock: 0.83.
Dreamstime: 0.55.
17
« on: October 30, 2024, 01:43 »
Inflation has hit everyone, and while stock agencies have lowered what they pay contributors, am wondering if they are charging their customers more?
If we're getting the same percentages of what they charge, then the logical conclusion is, they are charging less and we get less.
Start with the easy one, 15% at iStock. Then move to, SS we don't se subscription sales much, just Single and Other, sometimes on demand, which both are some negotiated price, netting us dimes. DT is pretty consistent at 35¢ I don't know what that means. Adobe moves up and down, based on the package and the price, but most of mine are in the 90¢+ area.
No I don't think they are charging the customers more, I think they are charging less.
. Thank you for responding to question in my original post and getting through the hijacked discussion.
18
« on: October 30, 2024, 01:30 »
Fair question. Here is SS current plans for 2024---if anyone knows what the prices where a few years ago? Also I've heard others companies have raised their fees. So if they are getting more $$$ than why are they not passing the profits onto us artists?
https://www.trustradius.com/products/shutterstock/pricing
Thanks for acknowledging my original question. Wow, but the thread got hijacked immediately.
19
« on: October 18, 2024, 02:13 »
Inflation has hit everyone, and while stock agencies have lowered what they pay contributors, am wondering if they are charging their customers more?
20
« on: February 06, 2024, 00:14 »
It's no different from other sites.
Embed the keywords as metadata in your images and save yourself the extra work of adding keywords for Dreamstime or any other agency.
I usually copy/paste my keywords from Shutterstock to Dreamstime.
21
« on: February 06, 2024, 00:10 »
You may need to look at your files in 200% to detect the artifacts or banding they are looking for.
Currently I am now reprocessing files with the stable diffusion upscaler instead of gigapixel and uploading smaller sizes, 2000*3500 etc...and the reprocessed files in smaller size are being accepted.
I really appreciate the much faster reviews. Makes a huge difference, bec<yue I can just process a few test files from a series, see if they get accepted, if not, reprocess and try again until I have a processing that works for the reviewers.
Fast reviews lead to a much happier community vibe because at least now you at least have a chance to get content on line in time and respond to fresh trends. Cobalt, Other than downsizing what process do you use: detail, structure, denoise?
22
« on: January 01, 2024, 13:36 »
I'm reminded of scams that offer real estate that the seller doesn't actually own. (Probably not the case in this particular post, maybe?)
23
« on: November 16, 2023, 21:53 »
Microstockgroup's history linked me to my answer after posting.
24
« on: November 10, 2023, 02:00 »
When submitting to Adobe you are given two choices for file type.
When submitting photo realistic AI, should you submit as a photo or illustration?
Do you think this is a sticking point that could get an image refused?
25
« on: October 27, 2023, 01:16 »
Guess I've previously been myopic in only uploading 16 X 9 stills and video. Since many sales are to social media blogs, I've started to upload more vertical assets. What aspect ratio sells best for you?
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