Quote from: cobalt on March 10, 2014, 15:56

But if I look at the numbers some long term contributors were kind enough to share, I have to admit I didn�t see that. I saw growth as long as  they kept uploading. Robert Kneschke is the most prominent, but I have also the numbers of people who don�t post them publicly.

Don�t people here keep reporting that their income keeps going up at SS?

Sorry to say, Gbalex's suggestion matches my numbers pretty well.  My monthly take on SS the past several months has been less than half what it was a couple of years ago.  For a number of years I did not earn less than three digits on a (nonholiday) weekday.  Now I am typically getting in the mid double digits. 

And yes I keep uploading, and no, in the case of SS it doesn't appear to be "the wall".  I hit the wall a couple of years ago across most agencies, and although my SS income didn't grow after that, it maintained for 3 years or so.  It has only gone down abruptly starting late last year. 

There have been reports from many other long term contributors, both here and at SS that the search has changed to favor newer, cheaper contributors.  Note that I did not say newer images, of which I have a fair number.  But my newer images pay out at highest rates whereas yours and Sean's equally good ones pay out less.

In my opinion, the market is over flooded with newer lower quality content.
I don't think SS cares about 38cent vs 34cent.

They just announced they are bringing in a huge crowd of flickr artists into the getty community.

Can you post a link of the announcement?

If Getty build 3 tier content supply with:
Getty -the most expensive
Istock - middle priced
Thinkstock - cheap sub model

Why they are making Getty's most expensive content free
And don't include Istock and Thinkstock content in this deal?

Just a thought.
What do you think?

That is what I wrote in another thread about the new Istock sub. model:
"The new iIstock sub. model will drastically decrease contributor's income.
It is not about playing with RC 35% vs 30% or even 20%.
It is about getting 28 cent - 75 cent for XXXL image sale!!!
Istock site is so buggy and so complicated - it will not move even single buyer back from SS.
This move will accelerate the race to the bottom as many exclusives will drop the crown and flood the market with their ports."

From the forum:
"Im sure that iStock will make all the adjustments to achive that contributors be happy and motivated and the change be good to everyone. im sure they know the importance of this.  Why not wait and see what happens? Why not trust?"

Oh, my.

Amazing.
The new iIstock sub. model will drastically decrease contributor's income.
It is not about playing with RC 35% vs 30% or even 20%.
It is about getting 28 cent - 75 cent for XXXL image sale!!!
Istock site is so buggy and so complicated - it will not move even single buyer back from SS.
This move will accelerate the race to the bottom as many exclusives will drop the crown and flood the market with their ports.

Quote from: Zeus on March 05, 2014, 12:15

This explains the move some time ago to increase the allowable submission rates from a very controlled few to near infinity.

I don't think so.  I think that had more to do with Thinkstock since the submission rates were mainly changed for nonexclusives, for nearly all exclusives you could already upload more than you could produce before the change.

I think it related to the new Istock sub. model:
Theoretically If Istock will accept all indi images available on SS + subscription model + exclusive images SS does not have - why should one buy from SS if he can buy same content + exclusive content from Istock?

photo contest on the Getty
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=359432&messageid=6987512

They are looking for new images and can't find them!

Files still ARE showing in portfolios but ARE NOT showing up in searches.
Ghost ship, ghost files...

Titaistock�

"Please place your head between your knees for the crash position." 

http://seekingalpha.com/pr/9033813-shutterstock-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2013-financial-results

- Fourth quarter revenue increases 38% from prior year, to $68.0 million
- Full year revenue increases 39% from prior year, to $235.5 million
- Adjusted EBITDA of $15.4 million in fourth quarter, increase of 37%
- Adjusted EBITDA of $53.4 million for full year, increase of 53%
- Quarterly paid image downloads reach record of 28.0 million
- Collection exceeds 33 million images and 1.5 million video clips
- Number of active customer accounts surpasses 940,000

Impressive numbers!

Does anyone using "Fresh match"?
What is the point of this search option?

Maybe this can help?
http://www.shutterstock.com/buzz/photoshop-curves-tutorial

Thanks! Really helpful!

I think a ton of people will be dropping the crown in the coming months. They really have no choice.

Jasmine, some people don't have to make this difficult decision.
They already started uploading exclusive content somewhere else without dropping the crown.