Author Topic: Looking back at SS a brief history (Read 9637 times)

Uncle Pete · « **on:** December 20, 2021, 11:00 »

Here's a brief history of SS royalties. (early years originally compiled by Photobomb)

2005 Sub’s .20

2006 Subs .20
OD’s introduced $3.99
EL’s introduced $20
March 30th Sub’s increased to .25

2007 Subs .25
April 30 Sub’s increased to .30

2008 Subs .30
May 14th Levels introduced
Sub levels .25 - .33 - .36 - .38
OD’s increased to current tier level
El’s increased to $28

2011 SOD’s introduced

2013 Facebook .38 SOD’s introduced

2014 Larger SOD’s

2016 EL's change, level pricing, amounts vary, most under $28.00

2020 new commissions, June 2020 based on downloads current year.
0-100 = 15%, to 250 = 20%, to 500 = 25%, to 2,500 30%, to 25,000 35%, over 25,000 40%
Minimum 10 cents

2021 January You have been reset to level 1

Level6 · « **Reply #1 on:** December 20, 2021, 13:26 »

For me it went to 10 cents for a photo but I don't so many photos and about $1.25 to $1.75 for editorial video, hardly worth it unless you get massive amounts of downloads, just like music and spotify royalties, unless you're BTS or some big name group it's hard as you need millions of downloads.

I could upload more photos but for 10 cents it's not worth it. Video same thing....might make $1.75 if I'm lucky.

Jaggy · « **Reply #2 on:** December 20, 2021, 14:37 »

I don't get fixated on the 10 cents for an image thing. What matters to me is the average RPD over the year.

Unfortunately, this year (2021) I'm looking at a 33% drop in RPD compared to 2020. That is largely due to two factors. The first is that the first four months of the year were terrible for revenue as I fought my way through the levels. The second is the absence of any ELs (2020 I had two) and fewer SODs.

When I look at RPD for May through December, it's at the same level as 2020 and better than 2019.

So, while I have made marginally more revenue this year (+2%) it has taken 52% more downloads to get there.

So my prediction of May 2020 has come true. More downloads to stand still.

Level6 · « **Reply #3 on:** December 20, 2021, 14:57 »

Quote from: Jaggy on December 20, 2021, 14:37

I don't get fixated on the 10 cents for an image thing. What matters to me is the average RPD over the year.

Unfortunately, this year (2021) I'm looking at a 33% drop in RPD compared to 2020. That is largely due to two factors. The first is that the first four months of the year were terrible for revenue as I fought my way through the levels. The second is the absence of any ELs (2020 I had two) and fewer SODs.

When I look at RPD for May through December, it's at the same level as 2020 and better than 2019.

So, while I have made marginally more revenue this year (+2%) it has taken 52% more downloads to get there.

So my prediction of May 2020 has come true. More downloads to stand still.

You must be still getting a lot of 10 cent sales to even make it worth it to upload, you really need volume now it seems.

Jaggy · « **Reply #4 on:** December 20, 2021, 15:14 »

Quote from: Level6 on December 20, 2021, 14:57

Quote from: Jaggy on December 20, 2021, 14:37
I don't get fixated on the 10 cents for an image thing. What matters to me is the average RPD over the year.

Unfortunately, this year (2021) I'm looking at a 33% drop in RPD compared to 2020. That is largely due to two factors. The first is that the first four months of the year were terrible for revenue as I fought my way through the levels. The second is the absence of any ELs (2020 I had two) and fewer SODs.

When I look at RPD for May through December, it's at the same level as 2020 and better than 2019.

So, while I have made marginally more revenue this year (+2%) it has taken 52% more downloads to get there.

So my prediction of May 2020 has come true. More downloads to stand still.

You must be still getting a lot of 10 cent sales to even make it worth it to upload, you really need volume now it seems.

Six of my last 20 sales have been at 10 cents.

However, you are right. It is all about volume now.

Level6 · « **Reply #5 on:** December 20, 2021, 15:33 »

Quote from: Jaggy on December 20, 2021, 15:14

Quote from: Level6 on December 20, 2021, 14:57
Quote from: Jaggy on December 20, 2021, 14:37
I don't get fixated on the 10 cents for an image thing. What matters to me is the average RPD over the year.

Unfortunately, this year (2021) I'm looking at a 33% drop in RPD compared to 2020. That is largely due to two factors. The first is that the first four months of the year were terrible for revenue as I fought my way through the levels. The second is the absence of any ELs (2020 I had two) and fewer SODs.

When I look at RPD for May through December, it's at the same level as 2020 and better than 2019.

So, while I have made marginally more revenue this year (+2%) it has taken 52% more downloads to get there.

So my prediction of May 2020 has come true. More downloads to stand still.

You must be still getting a lot of 10 cent sales to even make it worth it to upload, you really need volume now it seems.

Six of my last 20 sales have been at 10 cents.

However, you are right. It is all about volume now.

I guess all it takes is one viral photo to get that volume though, two come to mind, when COVID first hit there was this photo of a tray holding test tubes and a hand written word "covid 19" with a black sharpie on the orange tray.....all the media outlets bought it and are still buying it and using it today, it's everywhere. I laughed when I first saw that photo and not laughing now, that photographer banked!.

The other one is the laptop keyboard, black keys with white LED backlight and two hands on the keyboard, used everywhere by media in stories on hacking and cyber crime, very simple shot, no find art just two hands on a keyboard in the dark.

wds · « **Reply #6 on:** December 20, 2021, 17:15 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on December 20, 2021, 11:00

Here's a brief history of SS royalties. (early years originally compiled by Photobomb)

2005 Sub’s .20

2006 Subs .20
OD’s introduced $3.99
EL’s introduced $20
March 30th Sub’s increased to .25

2007 Subs .25
April 30 Sub’s increased to .30

2008 Subs .30
May 14th Levels introduced
Sub levels .25 - .33 - .36 - .38
OD’s increased to current tier level
El’s increased to $28

2011 SOD’s introduced

2013 Facebook .38 SOD’s introduced

2014 Larger SOD’s

2016 EL's change, level pricing, amounts vary, most under $28.00

2020 new commissions, June 2020 based on downloads current year.
0-100 = 15%, to 250 = 20%, to 500 = 25%, to 2,500 30%, to 25,000 35%, over 25,000 40%
Minimum 10 cents

2021 January You have been reset to level 1

Was SS a public company all along ?...if not at what point did it turn public?

Level6 · « **Reply #7 on:** December 20, 2021, 17:33 »

Quote from: wds on December 20, 2021, 17:15

Quote from: Uncle Pete on December 20, 2021, 11:00
Here's a brief history of SS royalties. (early years originally compiled by Photobomb)

2005 Sub’s .20

2006 Subs .20
OD’s introduced $3.99
EL’s introduced $20
March 30th Sub’s increased to .25

2007 Subs .25
April 30 Sub’s increased to .30

2008 Subs .30
May 14th Levels introduced
Sub levels .25 - .33 - .36 - .38
OD’s increased to current tier level
El’s increased to $28

2011 SOD’s introduced

2013 Facebook .38 SOD’s introduced

2014 Larger SOD’s

2016 EL's change, level pricing, amounts vary, most under $28.00

2020 new commissions, June 2020 based on downloads current year.
0-100 = 15%, to 250 = 20%, to 500 = 25%, to 2,500 30%, to 25,000 35%, over 25,000 40%
Minimum 10 cents

2021 January You have been reset to level 1

Was SS a public company all along ?...if not at what point did it turn public?

SSTK launched in 2003 but went public with an IPO on October 11 2012 and is currently trading at trading at $105/share.

For Real · « **Reply #8 on:** December 20, 2021, 18:19 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on December 20, 2021, 11:00

Here's a brief history of SS royalties. (early years originally compiled by Photobomb)

2005 Sub’s .20

2006 Subs .20
OD’s introduced $3.99
EL’s introduced $20
March 30th Sub’s increased to .25

2007 Subs .25
April 30 Sub’s increased to .30

2008 Subs .30
May 14th Levels introduced
Sub levels .25 - .33 - .36 - .38
OD’s increased to current tier level
El’s increased to $28

2011 SOD’s introduced

2013 Facebook .38 SOD’s introduced

2014 Larger SOD’s

2016 EL's change, level pricing, amounts vary, most under $28.00

2020 new commissions, June 2020 based on downloads current year.
0-100 = 15%, to 250 = 20%, to 500 = 25%, to 2,500 30%, to 25,000 35%, over 25,000 40%
Minimum 10 cents

2021 January You have been reset to level 1

Makes me want to throw up!

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #9 on:** December 21, 2021, 09:52 »

Quote from: For Real on December 20, 2021, 18:19

Makes me want to throw up!

I'm not trying to praise them for going from 20 cents, up and then down to 10 cents. Just a history of how artists were paid.

Can anyone tell I'm bored? Must be Winter in Wisconsin.

Also I just worked this out and if anyone has any evidence that any number is off, please tell me. Sometimes, someone will say, "hey look, there's a photo of this banned subject, how did they get it passed?" (because they used to be allowed) Or maybe for looking at who stole what image from where. The idea is a rough attempt to estimate the date a photo was accepted, by ID number. Image data has become harder to come by, or I'd have included 2007. On the other hand, before 8,650,000 is 2007 or before.

SS Image ID Numbers with Approximate date. Year of image accepted starting with:

8650000 2008
23250000 2009
43400000 2010
91600000 2012
121000000 2013
172000000 2014
240000000 2015
360000000 2016
550000000 2017
776000000 2018
1280000000 2019
1643000000 2020
1888500000 2021

Level6 · « **Reply #10 on:** December 21, 2021, 17:49 »

Some references to Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer here, looks like he's moved on. https://www.wired.com/story/miami-tech-boom-where-memes-come-true/

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #11 on:** December 21, 2021, 20:22 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on December 21, 2021, 09:52

...The idea is a rough attempt to estimate the date a photo was accepted, by ID number.

I can add a couple of additional data points.

18829 uploaded Oct 29 2004
71306 uploaded Dec 21 2004
152974 uploaded Feb 15 2005
248541 uploaded Mar 30 2005
537086 uploaded Sep 06 2005
693135 uploaded Nov 05 2005
888312 uploaded Jan 15 2006
1240080 uploaded Apr 24 2006
2128452 uploaded Nov 7 2006
2900019 uploaded Mar 18 2007
5432761 uploaded Sep 18 2007
6157531 uploaded Oct 16 2007
7146277 uploaded Nov 20 2007

I had saved a page showing the Top 50 images that week on November 8, 2005 and at the bottom it said there were:
"420,035 photos available for download · 12,259 new photos added in the past week"

May 2 2006 top 50 images:
"727,930 photos available for download · 6,839 new photos added in the past week"

Nov 15 2006 top 50 images:
"1,219,859 photos available for download · 15,397 new photos added in the past week"

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #12 on:** December 22, 2021, 11:07 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on December 21, 2021, 20:22

Quote from: Uncle Pete on December 21, 2021, 09:52
...The idea is a rough attempt to estimate the date a photo was accepted, by ID number.

I can add a couple of additional data points.

18829 uploaded Oct 29 2004
71306 uploaded Dec 21 2004
152974 uploaded Feb 15 2005
248541 uploaded Mar 30 2005
537086 uploaded Sep 06 2005
693135 uploaded Nov 05 2005
888312 uploaded Jan 15 2006
1240080 uploaded Apr 24 2006
2128452 uploaded Nov 7 2006
2900019 uploaded Mar 18 2007
5432761 uploaded Sep 18 2007
6157531 uploaded Oct 16 2007
7146277 uploaded Nov 20 2007

I had saved a page showing the Top 50 images that week on November 8, 2005 and at the bottom it said there were:
"420,035 photos available for download · 12,259 new photos added in the past week"

May 2 2006 top 50 images:
"727,930 photos available for download · 6,839 new photos added in the past week"

Nov 15 2006 top 50 images:
"1,219,859 photos available for download · 15,397 new photos added in the past week"

I figured you knew that, I remember you had some ideas back when we were looking at Who Uploaded This Image First for a copied/stolen image. I'm trying to not get back to that question because we've seen that SS doesn't care.

Now for today's installment?

SS stats and history from the archives.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #13 on:** December 22, 2021, 11:13 »

Country Search as of December 2018 - data is no longer available. There's no certainty that this is really the country because it's user supplied. Not all accounts had a country.

Thailand      2567
Russian Federation   2122
Ukraine      1857
United States      818
Italy         367
Belarus         346
United Kingdom   344
Spain         301
Czech Republic      258
Serbia         227
Romania      205
Japan         202
Canada         197
Indonesia      168
Andorra      168
Malaysia      156
China         134
Turkey         132
Netherlands      128
Australia      117
Latvia         115
India         107
Hungary      90
Bulgaria      84
Moldova      76
Azerbaijan      75
Kazakhstan      71
Estonia         67
Slovakia      67
Lithuania      65
Luxembourg      65
Lithuania      65
Sweden      59
Brazil         57
Portugal      57
Israel         55
South Africa      50
Switzerland      50
Austria         49
Taiwan         48
Greece         45
Korea         44
Croatia         42
Belgium      36
Finland         35
Vietnam      34
New Zealand      33
Hong Kong      31
Denmark      29
Bosnia and      28
Norway      24
Pakistan      23
Philippines      22
Singapore      20
Ireland         20
Mexico         19
Colombia      18
Macedonia      17
Armenia      15
Georgia      14
Cyprus         11
Iceland         6
Uruguay      6
Antarctica      5
Cuba         3
Tunisia         3
Cocos Isl.      2
France         2
Tajikistan      2
Niue         1
Solomon Islands   1

Wilm · « **Reply #14 on:** December 22, 2021, 11:44 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on December 22, 2021, 11:13

Country Search as of December 2018 - data is no longer available. There's no certainty that this is really the country because it's user supplied. Not all accounts had a country.

Thailand      2567
Russian Federation   2122
Ukraine      1857
United States      818
Italy         367
Belarus         346
United Kingdom   344
Spain         301
Czech Republic      258
Serbia         227
Romania      205
Japan         202
Canada         197
Indonesia      168
Andorra      168
Malaysia      156
China         134
Turkey         132
Netherlands      128
Australia      117
Latvia         115
India         107
Hungary      90
Bulgaria      84
Moldova      76
Azerbaijan      75
Kazakhstan      71
Estonia         67
Slovakia      67
Lithuania      65
Luxembourg      65
Lithuania      65
Sweden      59
Brazil         57
Portugal      57
Israel         55
South Africa      50
Switzerland      50
Austria         49
Taiwan         48
Greece         45
Korea         44
Croatia         42
Belgium      36
Finland         35
Vietnam      34
New Zealand      33
Hong Kong      31
Denmark      29
Bosnia and      28
Norway      24
Pakistan      23
Philippines      22
Singapore      20
Ireland         20
Mexico         19
Colombia      18
Macedonia      17
Armenia      15
Georgia      14
Cyprus         11
Iceland         6
Uruguay      6
Antarctica      5
Cuba         3
Tunisia         3
Cocos Isl.      2
France         2
Tajikistan      2
Niue         1
Solomon Islands   1

I am very sure that this list is not true, Pete.
Where is Germany? Where is France? Andorra - 168 - with its 77,000 inhabitants compared to Indonesia - also 168 - with its 274,000,000 inhabitants? Hmmm...

cathyslife · « **Reply #15 on:** December 22, 2021, 11:52 »

France is fourth from the bottom, but I don’t see Germany either.

Wilm · « **Reply #16 on:** December 22, 2021, 12:16 »

Quote from: cathyslife on December 22, 2021, 11:52

France is fourth from the bottom, but I don’t see Germany either.

Right, thanks, I overlooked that.

Pixart · « **Reply #17 on:** December 22, 2021, 14:52 »

I wonder how has the 10 cent commissions changed contributions. I was shooting youth sports which sucked me dry so I more or less stopped uploading regularly before the price change, but I wonder how anyone can do this full time any more? Who is uploading photos? And how can anyone "invest" in a quality photo shoot? For example, If I rent a hockey rink for 1 hour for $250, pay the kids $25 per hour, yikes - that is a hella lot of 10 cent photos just to recoop. Not to mention, hockey is plastered with logos. All over every piece of equipment and the arena which means hours in post! There isn't a lot of incentive to shoot anything for stock. Taking the card out of my camera and adding to lightroom is more effort that it's worth!

Level6 · « **Reply #18 on:** December 22, 2021, 15:22 »

Quote from: Pixart on December 22, 2021, 14:52

I wonder how has the 10 cent commissions changed contributions. I was shooting youth sports which sucked me dry so I more or less stopped uploading regularly before the price change, but I wonder how anyone can do this full time any more? Who is uploading photos? And how can anyone "invest" in a quality photo shoot? For example, If I rent a hockey rink for 1 hour for $250, pay the kids $25 per hour, yikes - that is a hella lot of 10 cent photos just to recoop. Not to mention, hockey is plastered with logos. All over every piece of equipment and the arena which means hours in post! There isn't a lot of incentive to shoot anything for stock. Taking the card out of my camera and adding to lightroom is more effort that it's worth!

Sadly, you can't, even as editorial, 10 cents a photo and it's not like there will be thousands of sales.

This pays so little you're losing money just going out filming by yourself, if you look up HotelFoxtrot on Pond5, the sets and models they used, definitely a thing of the past. The agencies are still charging a decent price for the content but nothing for us and what amazes me is how many people still upload for 10 cents.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #19 on:** December 23, 2021, 10:24 »

Quote from: Wilm on December 22, 2021, 11:44

I am very sure that this list is not true, Pete.
Where is Germany? Where is France? Andorra - 168 - with its 77,000 inhabitants compared to Indonesia - also 168 - with its 274,000,000 inhabitants? Hmmm...

Taken directly from the SS artists information, not made up.

I did say, that countries were a choice of the artist and that some have no data. I should have included, this is artists with 1000 or more images on that date, which was 17872

Germany was my error - omission 559
France the same - 137

If I had something that counted words in a document instead of doing it myself, with a search, "find" one by one, I'm sure the results would be better. But I'd still need to remember to search for Germany, before I could count that. My mistakes.

Andorra has always stood out as an oddity. Maybe people used it for fake accounts or some substitute for a real location. I have no answer for the illogical number.

For today, on April 29, 2017, 100 contributors had 100,000 or more images in their collections. Top 11 because they were over 300,000 at the time

#   Author   Type   Portfolio   Added per week   Country   Member since
1   Africa Studio   Photographer   1067700   4700      2007
2   Rawpixel.com   Photographer / Illustrator / Vector Artist   859700   14400      2014
3   Aha-Soft   Illustrator / Vector Artist   689600   300   Russian Federation   2010
4   Toluk      564100   17000      2011
5   lineartestpilot   Illustrator / Vector Artist   505900   0   United Kingdom   2009
6   wavebreakmedia   Photographer / Videographer   473400   0   Ireland   2006
7   Ionut Catalin Parvu   Illustrator / Vector Artist   431900   0   Romania   2016
8   ImageCatalog      401900   1100      2016
9   Sergey Nivens   Photographer / Illustrator / Vector Artist   338900   1000   Australia   2009
10   Kathy Hutchins   Photographer   326200   1200   United States   2010
11   iDesign   Illustrator / Vector Artist   308800   0      2011

Anyway, I selected artists with 1,000 images as a cut off for what some would call serious. Even that is flawed, because someone with 600 stunning, well produced images, could have a serious account and make some good "serious" money. It's just an arbitrary number, because I had to find something that was representative. I picked 1,000

Wilm · « **Reply #20 on:** December 23, 2021, 10:32 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on December 23, 2021, 10:24

Quote from: Wilm on December 22, 2021, 11:44

I am very sure that this list is not true, Pete.
Where is Germany? Where is France? Andorra - 168 - with its 77,000 inhabitants compared to Indonesia - also 168 - with its 274,000,000 inhabitants? Hmmm...

Taken directly from the SS artists information, not made up. I did say, that countries were a choice of the artist and that some have no data. I should have included, this is artists with 1000 or more images on that date, which was 17872

Germany was my error - omission 559
France the same - 137

If I had something that counted words in a document instead of doing it myself, with a search, "find" one by one, I'm sure the results would be better. But I'd still need to remember to search for Germany, before I could count that. My mistakes.

Andorra has always stood out as an oddity. Maybe people used it for fake accounts or some substitute for a real location. I have no answer for the illogical number.

For today, on April 29, 2017, 100 contributors had 100,000 or more images in their collections. Top 11 because they were over 300,000 at the time

#   Author   Type   Portfolio   Added per week   Country   Member since
1   Africa Studio   Photographer   1067700   4700      2007
2   Rawpixel.com   Photographer / Illustrator / Vector Artist   859700   14400      2014
3   Aha-Soft   Illustrator / Vector Artist   689600   300   Russian Federation   2010
4   Toluk      564100   17000      2011
5   lineartestpilot   Illustrator / Vector Artist   505900   0   United Kingdom   2009
6   wavebreakmedia   Photographer / Videographer   473400   0   Ireland   2006
7   Ionut Catalin Parvu   Illustrator / Vector Artist   431900   0   Romania   2016
8   ImageCatalog      401900   1100      2016
9   Sergey Nivens   Photographer / Illustrator / Vector Artist   338900   1000   Australia   2009
10   Kathy Hutchins   Photographer   326200   1200   United States   2010
11   iDesign   Illustrator / Vector Artist   308800   0      2011

Anyway, I selected artists with 1,000 images as a cut off for what some would call serious. Even that is flawed, because someone with 600 stunning, well produced images, could have a serious account and make some good "serious" money. It's just an arbitrary number, because I had to find something that was representative. I picked 1,000

Perhaps the Andorra phenomenon can be explained by the fact that Andorra has extremely low income tax rates. A kind of "tax haven/paradise" for contributors? I don't know - it's just really striking.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #21 on:** December 23, 2021, 10:36 »

Quote from: Wilm on December 23, 2021, 10:32

Perhaps the Andorra phenomenon can be explained by the fact that Andorra has extremely low income tax rates. A kind of "tax haven/paradise" for contributors? I don't know - it's just really striking.

There have been other guesses too, all of them good or bad, I have no clue.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #22 on:** December 23, 2021, 10:45 »

I have more details on this one but honestly what they show now and the way, I've lost interest. "Images"? Vectors, photos, illustrations who knows what? So just some notable milestones.

2006 = 1 million images
2009 = 6 million images
2010 = 10 million images
2012 = 20 million images
2014 = 40 million images
2016 = 80 million images
2017 = 160 million images
2020 = 320 million images
2021 = 340 million images

January 15, 2021 - 228,179,907 Photos
Today - 248,629,205 Photos

In one year, as many new photos were added as from 2006 to 2012 for the whole collection. Hmm, maybe things are slowing down?

MysticMarmot · « **Reply #23 on:** December 31, 2021, 08:57 »

I would not expect for someone to copy and sell someone else videos because it would easily be identified as stolen...but here we are, in the last two weeks alone I found roughly 400 of my videos copied (already reported). I am pretty sure that the rest of their portfolios are somebody else work too. So for anyone wondering here they:

https://www.shutterstock.com/ru/g/teoharipetrescu2/video?sort=newest [nofollow]
Still waiting on this one for 29 videos to be taken down.

Another one which just got kicked of depositphotos for copying 219 of my videos, he has small portfolio on shutterstock...so everyone check if the got bitten like me..

https://www.shutterstock.com/da/g/viodumivioche/video [nofollow]

Lets make them famous!

..and happy holidays!

gnirtS · « **Reply #24 on:** December 31, 2021, 13:59 »

The introduction of "nearly free" streaming and subscription services have made it very easy for people to steal videos now.

Also whereas its relatively easy to see which sites (and who) are selling still images, the tech for doing the same with video really hasnt caught up yet.

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Author Topic: Looking back at SS a brief history (Read 9637 times)

Uncle Pete

Level6

Jaggy

Level6

Jaggy

Level6

wds

Level6

For Real

Uncle Pete

Level6

Jo Ann Snover

Uncle Pete

Uncle Pete

Wilm

cathyslife

Wilm

Pixart

Level6

Uncle Pete

Wilm

Uncle Pete

Uncle Pete

MysticMarmot

gnirtS

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