For me, volume on Shutterstock is pretty good and well ahead of this point in 2024. RPD, however, is poor so far and well behind 2024. So plenty of low value sales and I need a few higher value ones to pull the RPD up. But early days still.

What really matters in the end is the bottom line.

RPD is one way of understanding changes to the bottom line - double your images and double your sales but bottom line is unchanged - it probably is because the RPD has dropped. If you double your images and sales number doesn't change but RPD is the same - it is probably due to falling sales per image and not RPD.

Of course, in reality sales per image are dropping along with RPD for most contributors.

RPE - Return Per Effort would be a better metric, but also a lot harder to see and chart.

you're right, rpd by itself doesn't matter but rpd times volume is your bottom line.  for me and i think many others volume is a little higher on shutterstock but the rpd is so low that the bottom line is much less $ than adobe.  i think we can all agree that $ in the bank is what matters at the end of the day.

RPD matters because it represents the average price that you sell your work for. Microstock is a business and, in a business, you can't work out if you are making money if you don't know what your sales price is.

you need more than sales price to determine if you're making money.  again, my AS RPD is 2-3x that of SS but SS brings in more cash , often 2x or more.
so reporting JUST RPD is meaningless - at best, it's only half the equation - you need to consider actual income = RPD * sales.   

RPD matters because it represents the average price that you sell your work for. Microstock is a business and, in a business, you can't work out if you are making money if you don't know what your sales price is.

Well, if you look at it that way, RPD is as important as volume. Both go together in terms of earnings. And earnings in relation to effort is what really counts if you see it as a business. In other words, how much do I earn at an agency against which effort. In that regard, submitting to Adobe or Shutterstock is more or less comparable. iStock requires more effort Motion Array even more.

But of course, there are emotions involved too. Selling your content via microstock agencies is per definition degrading your work. We all hate the 10 cents at Shutterstock, but are the 38 cents at Adobe so much better in terms of valuing your work? Still pennies, and the only way to get something out of it is having volume.

In the end, what keeps us going, is the payout at the end of the month. Businesswise, I don't care whether it's done via high volumes on low RPD's or high RPD's on low volumes. Emotionally, I prefer higher RPD's on lower volumes, but then again, is it really a difference in terms of getting treated respectfully or getting recognition for your work? Not for me. If you want your work to be valued emotionally, then Microstock is not the right place for you.

Quote from: Roscoe on February 14, 2025, 17:03

...
Well, if you look at it that way, RPD is as important as volume. Both go together in terms of
earnings. And earnings in relation to effort is what really counts if you see it as a business. In other words, how much do I earn at an ency against which effort. In that regard, submitting to Adobe or Shutterstock is more or less comparable. iStock requires more effort Motion Array even more. ...

again, RPD is worthless as a measure of usefulness or performance- my RPD from alamy is $30 but actual % of my income is < 5%. similarly, pond RPD has varied from $2 to $15 but overall income is again < 10% since actual sales (ie INCOME) is just a blip (tho welcome) on monthly sales

if RPD were important i'd be concentrating on alamy & pond rather than AS & SS which provide 90% of my income.  i heartily endorse those who make their decisions based on RFD since it pays for my additional international travel!

But I am concentrating on Alamy?  Yes, of course and this is what it all comes down to in these threads. Alamy has a wonderful RPD IF someone gets a download. SSTK has the worst RPD but for many had higher volume. (that's ended now, from what I see) Adobe has the best mix of downloads and RPD for many people. iStock is a mystery. For what used to be the top agency, they went downhill, until (for me) they are doing slightly better than DT.

Wirestock, for all others, all the agencies where I don't want to have an account, I only have 500 images or so, and I make more there than IS or DT. The RPD is scary bad, but the all others, and the $30 minimum, I get paid, makes up for that. I may have never made payout at 123RF or Envato or DP, but just by having the old collection, on WS, I get "Free Money" from all the deadbeat agencies.

The other problem and I've said this for years, all agencies don't accept the same images, some sell different types better than others. I sell many more Illustrations on Adobe than SSTK. IS seems to sell anything, but the problem is, low RPD and low volume. Alamy is all kinds of things that none of the previous do well on.

Anyone who's comparing RPD, RPI or pick your stat, and they have a different number of images, different images or video, different styles, and then compares agency A to Agency B, isn't using comparable data. And especially when someone says, SSTK is much better than Adobe, and someone else says, Adobe is much better than SSTK, the point is, we don't have the same images, subjects, or numbers. My numbers are nearly worthless to anyone else, and visa versa.

SSTK 5,500 images, RPD for 2024 was $0.65
Adobe 1,041 images, RPD for 2024 was $0.87 And total I made 3 times more money from Adobe

bottom line - SS pays more bills than AS, no matter what the RPD says. everything else is window dressing & bragging rights

And yes, I agree, except Adobe pays more bills than SSTK, and all the letters and numbers are mostly, after the fact, observations, that don't really change sales? It's like looking at the weather. Watching doesn't change it.

Besides the stats and bragging and watching, the most important part of this, for anyone who's actually trying to make some money, isn't RPD, RPI, or position, rank or any of the other junk stats. The heart of the business is, what sells the most, what sells best, and where. Then recognizing the market demands, and creating more of that kind of material.

ps I just passed 7,000 images on Alamy. I expect I'll make more money this year, than when I had 5,000 images last year. Of course my expectations don't mean anything to the buyers. They only care about their needs. 

One Alamy DL is equal to an entire month of iStock. I just need to get up to one DL a month on Alamy, to have things balance. Otherwise 1,087 images on IS is making me more than 7,000+ images on Alamy. $$$ to DLs I'll take Alamy over IS for now.

Have to agree with the above.
My January SS wasn't too bad even with the levels reset (not as good as before but better than any Jan under the "new" system.

Feb im seeing the same download numbers but despite having levelled up, ALL the sales are tiny.  Im under half the RPD for last month.

Absolutely everything is a low value SOD or Sub.  I have "sold" 2 videos though.... at $0.25 each.

Only SS (photo, no video)

Jan 2025 RPD $0.57
Feb 2025 RPD $0.41 (up to today)

RPD 2024 $0.75
Best month Jun 2024 RPD $1.25
Worst month Feb 2024 RPD $0.45

February is going terribly for me too. But it happened last year too. It was the worst month of 2024.

Quote from: Roscoe on February 14, 2025, 17:03

...
Well, if you look at it that way, RPD is as important as volume. Both go together in terms of
earnings. And earnings in relation to effort is what really counts if you see it as a business. In other words, how much do I earn at an ency against which effort. In that regard, submitting to Adobe or Shutterstock is more or less comparable. iStock requires more effort Motion Array even more. ...

again, RPD is worthless as a measure of usefulness or performance- my RPD from alamy is $30 but actual % of my income is < 5%. similarly, pond RPD has varied from $2 to $15 but overall income is again < 10% since actual sales (ie INCOME) is just a blip (tho welcome) on monthly sales

if RPD were important i'd be concentrating on alamy & pond rather than AS & SS which provide 90% of my income.  i heartily endorse those who make their decisions based on RPD since it pays for my additional international travel!

Here's what counts:


This is all that stats are, most of the time:

People are worshiping the stat Oracle, instead of the money and the images. Are we in business for money or for stats?

The only way to divine future sales is by carefully studying WHAT sells, and where, not what numbers things sell for, rank, position or trying to game the algorithm for better sales. scientia et sapientia

i heard you guys like metrics, well i've got a new one:

days of less than $1 in sales. 

adobe so far in feb had 2 while shutterstock has 8.  definitely winning. 

(yes i know one day of $10000 sales is better than 9999 days of $1 sales but it's not a trend i'm enjoying, i haven't had a bigger sale on ss in months anyway)

@Uncle Pete

I believe that all these numbers are useful to guide strategies.

Profit is a consequence of strategies.

I'll give you some examples.

I have always sold a lot on Shutterstock.

From my numbers I saw that Shutterstock's algorithm rewarded my very high quality photos. My best. With 10% of my photos (usually my best) I made 90% of my earnings.

So my strategy was: few photos, but they must be the very best.

I then made comparisons with the numbers of other contributors (these are similar numbers, useful for the example).

Me: 5,000 images $2000 on SS and $500 on AS
Others: 20,000 images $1000 on SS and $700 on AS

From here I see that Adobe Stock rewards quantity more and quality less. (Please note: this is for my portfolio compared to others in my niche)

Then I see that Shutterstock loses customers and Adobe gains them and I lose positions in the ranking.

So a year ago I changed my strategy, I increased the photos and worked a little less on retouching. My images have to be "good enough". And after a few months I'm getting my first results and my ranking (and my earnings on AS) has improved by 1500 positions.

The RPD can then be used to establish how many images you have to send per month to achieve your goal.

If my goal is $3000 per month I try to produce a set number of images each month based on the RPD. Every month I check how much the RPD of the images sent was in the last year or in the last 6 months.

Maybe you see me get angry if the RPD is not what I hoped for, because I had set the goal with a higher number. And this forces me to shoot more and work harder.

And this helps me to verify if a subject I photographed is better than another, to continue photographing it again or stop photographing it.

The more accurate the data analysis, the fewer mistakes you risk making.

Sorry for any mistakes, but it's Google Translate's fault 

Wow check this out... SSTK share price on 19 February 2025 (today) closed at just $26.96.

This is the lowest since 15 February 2013 - 12 years ago!

See image below and check their other periods at www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=sstk where every period is in the red.

Clearly their poor treatment of contributors has not helped Shutterstock Inc and when they turned off a lot of contributors, they just up and walked out the door... and a lot of customers walked out with them.

And here we are today with falling sales, commissions and earnings, and the terminal decline in SSTK share price.

   

 

no  support for any of that - if low payments to artists was a factor, would expect the stock to rise!  many other factors at work, none related to the small number of artists who have withdrawn -  competition, rise of aigen which SS has refused to accept, decreased demand... etc

Clearly their poor treatment of contributors has not helped Shutterstock Inc and when they turned off a lot of contributors,

I dont see anything to suggest thats a factor.  Treatment of contributors is irrelevant, they already have a big enough library and still have plenty of existing and new contributors (mainly stolen and ai content but thats another matter).

What is hurting them are their packages, pricing and customer facing service and policies.  Lots of people are signing up, want 4 free images, get those (so contributors lose out) but then they're being stung with small print 100s of dollars cancellation fees so go elsewhere.

Their market are people signing up for a few free images with no intention of staying enrolled.

Actually one striking reason the stock has fallen is pretty simple. The Merger, makes it a dead corporation. No future, no gains, no potential.

The Merger terms: Shutterstock investors will receive $28.85 per share in cash for each share they own. However, Shutterstock shareholders can elect to receive GETY stock, or a combination of cash and stock as an alternative.

I could understand if someone paid the fees for buying the stock and the cost was under $28,85 a share. Small gains, but no point, because the stock is going to be deactivated. Maybe people are dumping their SSTK shares, because they don't want Getty stock? And I didn't find the cash and stock offer.

If the value of the Getty stock plus the cash, is $26.11 which is what SSTK is listed at right now, that all makes perfect sense.

Should I buy all the SSTK I can afford at $26 and then take the $28.85 a share and pay the short term capitol gains tax? A little help on this: Short-term capital gains tax is a tax on profits from the sale of an asset held for one year or less. Short-term capital gains are taxed according to your ordinary income tax bracket: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% or 37%.

So I buy SSTK for $26.11, 1,000 shares @ $26.11 for $26,110 plus the brokerage fees. If there's a merger, I get $28,850 for a profit of $2,740 then I pay 25% income tax, and I made $2000 profit for risking my $26,110 on the bet that the merger will go through, as planned.

That's why the stock is at $26.11 right now. Potential investment profit and loss, nothing else. Someone with $27,000 to risk, might not think that $2,000 is enough profit?