Thread should be titled: Low Wage Shutterstock Contributors Create First Silicon Alley Billionaire

I'm in. 

Aw man. I thought I was in.

Guess I have to go through another round of inspection. (10 images)

How much money have you made for Shutterstock? Any guesses or ballpark figures?

Hello Mike,

Thanks.  The team will be monitoring subscription volume and usage on an ongoing basis.  Bridge to Bigstock contributors are guaranteed the highest subscription download royalty of 38 cents per download for six months.  Changes can't be guaranteed, but the team is sensitive to contributor royalties. If any changes are expected based on how Bigstock customers are responding to subscriptions, they would be communicated in advance during that time period or at the end of the six months.  The goal is to have both fair and competitive rates while also minimizing the possibility of having to adjust rates in the future.

Best,

Scott 
VP Content
Shutterstock

Please address the obvious referral program update issues.

Is Stocksy going to be all royalty free or will they include rights managed?

I don't think the $12 was given until after contributors started protesting, and even after the measly $12 it made people even more angry.

Wow, what a terrible couple months for microstock in general. You can tell it's all going under pretty quickly.
iStock has always been the rudest and most difficult agency for me to deal with, this just confirms their true colors for me.
Look at how they treat their exclusive artists, I don't even want to know what they think about non-exclusives.

Out of human decency I'm pulling my port from IS when I reach my payout. I won't earn a cent more for them.

Walmart made profits of $15.7 billion last year and pay their workers minimum wage. History repeats itself people. No reason to expect Shutterstock to treat us like anything other than cheap employees.

I just received a reply from BigStock:

" Hello,

We understand your concern.

One of the reasons behind this change is to provide our contributors with a higher chance to earn higher royalties. Subscriptions can allow more downloads, and higher total earnings, and you will still make the current amount from downloads made using credits.

We encourage you to stay, allowing the chance to see your earnings grow.

Please let us know how you would like to proceed. "

Here's the e-mail I just sent:

Mr. Pfeifer,

I'm not sure what you're thinking in implementing the schedule of contributor compensation outlined in your e-mail earlier today.

You must be aware of the low-earning status BigStock has for most contributors . Bottom-tier sites get supplied by contributors - in spite of their low earnings - as long as they meet several criteria. One is ease of upload; two is that they don't undercut a higher-earning site; and three is that they have decent royalty rates and a low payout threshold.

In the past, Big Stock has just about met all three of those (I have been with BigStock since 2005, with a hiatus from 2008-11 as an iStock exclusive and a new account when I returned in 2011). Your e-mail this morning has shot two of those three criteria in the head and the uploads are only OK - nothing like the easiest out there.

With the low earnings, it makes it very easy for contributors to walk away from BigStock, and with a recent rash of bad behavior by agencies, existing contributors are significantly on edge. Realistically, 50,000 downloads a year - even subscription downloads - isn't something that most of your contributors will ever reach. Many never will on Shutterstock, where the volume of business is much, much larger. And for heaven's sake don't even consider making some argument that you'll double, triple (or whatever) sales at BigStock in the next year or two. Not realistic.

Perhaps you aren't concerned about losing existing contributors and feel that there is an endless supply of willing participants with a nice point and shoot who'll supply you with content when the current crop of malcontents leaves. If that's the case, you're certainly making sure we head quickly for the exit.

If you have any concern about keeping your existing contributors, I strongly urge you to promptly reconsider this move. It is strongly reminiscent of the moves airlines made a few years ago for a two-tier pay system for pilots - one for the regional jets and one for the long-haul ones. From that, they tried to move jets classified as "regional" to the longer routes and move the pay scale with it. The real worry here isn't BigStock, but that you're looking to try this compensation scheme out and then move it to Shutterstock.

In the IPO documents, amid all the flowery words about a virtuous cycle, was a note of risks for the business. One was that contributors would no longer want to continue supplying you with content. You have the storefront but contributors own the content. Do you really want to start alienating your contributors when in general you are one of the respected agencies? Why just throw away all that goodwill you've spent so long building?

regards,

Jo Ann Snover (jsnover on both sites and contributor 249 at Shuttersock)

Good reply. Mine wasn't..as nice as yours

Look at recent happenings at FT, IS, SS, and now BS. Nobody gets 50,000 downloads/year at Bigstock.

There is no future in microstock. Pulling my portfolios today.