Sad story! went from great to average, from average to bad, bad to worse and then.......... just vanished.

The pattern is all the same no matter which stock model. The same thing is happening right across the board. Getty is a classic example of this. Some fifteen years back one often had sales-advices of a five figure caliber, today its pot luck if its around a four figure amount.

SS and the rest is just following the trend of slowly coming down to smaller earnings. The hype is gone, most quality have vanished and given way to quantity and I bet every one of the larger micro's have internal problems, old people leaving replaced by new and without experience, cutting wages and so on.

Its all become a shakey and edgy business. What amazes me more then anything is not at all the drop in earnings or anything money related but the complete ignorance of the people in charge. Slowly killing the business and in a few years they, themselves might be out of a high-flying job.

Whatever gave you this idea in the first place?  they are simply worlds apart. DT used to be a good earner but nowadays they are just pushing subs and any credit sales are almost extinct.

I don't know my ratio but I am with both agencies since 2007 and DT have never, not even once been close to SS.

Well if based on amounts of uploads then a friend of mine would be extremely well off. Port of 22000 files, joined in 2009. He upload in thousands all the time. His earnings took a 40% dive this year. There are many more examples.

So called factories are probably well looked after and somehow I am sure the little people must get some sort of a favour if not only to keep the interest going.

It's all wide speculation I guess.

Yes and this is what happens when you collect assets in the shape of pictures, jut to impress share-holders. Only thing is...... its our pictures, our assets.

just a thought.

Sure they are! I had a great August with some nine EL's and four single-sales alone. No complaints there. Business however takes a bit more imagination then just counting money, thats the easy part and if there is no money to count its even easier, saves counting

Sustainability is the name of the game. Do you think we still have terrific days when they reach 100 million images in files? takes years and years to build up a company, a reputation but only one bad move, five seconds to ruin it.

Seems to be working in UK now. Question is, what about buyers?

You are not alone, it has happened to most everyone I know with older ports. They just do not want to bring themselves or others down by talking about it in public. Occasionally on very bad months they express their frustration on various forums, but if you talk to them in private most have no problem sharing the reality of the new normal at shutterstock.

I do know a few with very specialized ports who are not seeing as large of drops, but their best selling images have been demoted.

Amen to that!  been there since 2005 and its on its way down for sure and almost all so called "oldies" agree to that. I had sort of come to expect it and not surprised. It's the same right across the board, rights-managed, royalty-free or microstock. No difference.

When I try to open the contributor area, I receive a message:

"Moved Temporarily. Redirecting to https://contributor-accounts.shutterstock.com/oauth/authorize?state=8da93a701364fe9d05b874d0494a5dd9&redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fsubmit.shutterstock.com%2Foauth%2Fcallback%3Flanding_page%3D%252F500%26realm%3Dcontributor&scope=user.view%20user.edit%20media.submit%20media.upload%20media.edit&hl=en&client_id=Contributor&type=web_server"

Only happen to me ?

Same message here!

A splendid example of how an agency should treat their members! Wish some agencies read this, take it to heart and learn from it.

Thanks Adobe!

Quote from: weymouth on August 30, 2015, 08:33

I really don't think they get much business anymore. Place is deserted. No doubt the subs are aiding DT but for the members it's just a slow and painful death. Been there for seven years with 8000 images and never seen it this bad.
Might be wrong but todays micro seems to be all about SS and FT with DT and IS just draining away.

WOW. Congrats on a big port. I agree that sales are diluted by subs. I used to get waves of OD sales but that has slowed to just a couple every week. The rest are subs.  I completely agree with you that DT is still probably making out with subs, but the contributor isn't.

I know! same here plenty of good credit sales Can't remember but some time back they made some deal or something? and ever since that it's gone downhill, so much so that speaking for myself it's not even worth uploading anymore.

I think its a mistake judging an agency by their size or income. No agency will ever come close to the Getty and Shutterstock levels of revenue, simple as that.
Agencies like Stocksy, Arcangel, Blend and many more fill a gap in the market. They provide quality and niched content for a specific market and doing it rather well I suppose.
Magnum is an example, today it's but a shadow of its glorious past and working with them is more of an honor then even thinking in terms of money.
Said above, they do not want a flood of people dumping all sorts of portfolios or they would lose their identity.

Quote from: madman on August 21, 2015, 05:27

Quote from: Dumc on August 21, 2015, 01:56

I think this is because lots of contributors shoot the same object in countless different positions and angles. And then you have 5 different subjects, each having 50 different photo variations and there you have 250 images that look almost identical. Add thousands of contributors that are doing the same and here you go, hundreds of thousand of photos each week.

thats so true but sadly all selling sites still accept this kinda images because of their only think is to rise their own stock images amount, sadly including istock too anymore, what a blind sight, I wonder what will happen much much later, when the number of junk pictures so much increase in a unpredictable manner, customers will need to make hours of search.

OR....Hopefully we'll go back to the days when companies actually Hired Photographers to shoot for them.  digital came along, then Micro and everyone is a Photographer. Ya right. Digital made it to where everyone can enjoy Photography, It also killed traditional Stock work Done By a select few that made a living at it.

The minute companies discovered that we'll take 20 cents. we were done and I blame the original Microsites for going so Low especially Istock, then the rest. And I also Blame us for letting this happen. We went from a $400 average commission to 20 Cents in a week.

Biggest problem we face is to many are happy with 25/38 cents still , 12 years later. Thats the vast majority of submitters guys and there joining at a alarming Rate.

There is still lots of money to be made in the traditional markets but the photographers there keep quiet about it and for obvious reasons. There are a couple of non public forums housing many of these photographers. Reading what some of these people are earning! oh boy, makes us all look poor.