Author Topic: Shutterstock just became iStock 2.0 (Read 124248 times)

Rage · « **Reply #375 on:** May 28, 2020, 22:09 »

Well the shutterstock stock is dropping. A ton of retweeting of this might just help them on the way down

https://twitter.com/Tickeron/status/1266116463070343168?s=19

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #376 on:** May 28, 2020, 22:13 »

Quote from: ArenaCreative on May 28, 2020, 16:11

Whatever this means for our royalties, they are getting so low nowadays that who the heck even cares... I would encourage anyone who does microstock for a full time living (if that is even possible, in this day and age) to drastically re-think their priorities in life. You have zero control over anything. Find a business model that you have more control over, and pursue that.

Yep. There will only be worse changes. Most people seemed to think SS was trustworthy so this should be the absolute wakeup call. If this is your primary or significant income, you should be planning an exit or you're setting yourself up for financial ruin. Even if this change doesn't severely affect you, the next one will.

marthamarks · « **Reply #377 on:** May 28, 2020, 23:14 »

Quote from: izzikiorage on May 28, 2020, 22:09

Well the shutterstock stock is dropping. A ton of retweeting of this might just help them on the way down

https://twitter.com/Tickeron/status/1266116463070343168?s=19

Excellent news!!! Let's keep it up, friends.

gnirtS · « **Reply #378 on:** May 28, 2020, 23:59 »

Ive never bothered looking before but i just looked at SS on Trustpilot ( https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.shutterstock.com )

As expected a few pages of 1* reviews from contributors BUT the more worrying thing from SS own perspective is after that its made up nearly entirely of 1* reviews from BUYERS complaining about poor support, sneaky wording, unable to cancel and all kinds of things.
They do NOT have happy, smiling customers on there. Contributors they can ignore, customers they cant.

cobalt · « **Reply #379 on:** May 29, 2020, 00:21 »

Quote from: gnirtS on May 28, 2020, 23:59

Ive never bothered looking before but i just looked at SS on Trustpilot ( https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.shutterstock.com )

As expected a few pages of 1* reviews from contributors BUT the more worrying thing from SS own perspective is after that its made up nearly entirely of 1* reviews from BUYERS complaining about poor support, sneaky wording, unable to cancel and all kinds of things.
They do NOT have happy, smiling customers on there. Contributors they can ignore, customers they cant.

People skills are something you either have or you don‘t.

If they are abusive and heartless towards contributors, they will also behave that way to customers.

And they won‘t be able to choose good quality new staff because again they lack the necessary people skills to identify them.

It is a vicious circle.

For Adobe this year will be the easiest in business.

Shutterstock is acively driving customers and artists towards them.

Roscoe · « **Reply #380 on:** May 29, 2020, 01:14 »

Despite all the protest and people pulling their portfolio's, Shutterstock database gained roughly 100.000 images yesterday.

Horizon · « **Reply #381 on:** May 29, 2020, 01:17 »

Is there a method in the SS madness??......anyone at SS can see and understand that this would cause complete mayhem!

ribtoks · « **Reply #382 on:** May 29, 2020, 01:19 »

I did some calculations to estimate contributor earnings loss based on number of monthly downloads. Since you know your monthly downloads, you can check how much you are affected by this change. Here's a link to analysis: https://xpiksapp.com/blog/2020/new-shutterstock-earnings-breakdown/ and there's also a link to Jupyter notebook in the blogpost if you want to verify/change the calculations.

Currently if you have around 100 monthly video downloads, you will loose around 2.5% of earnings for the whole year. But if you have only 20 video downloads per month, you will loose as much as 19% in total earnings. You can check more numbers in the blog

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #383 on:** May 29, 2020, 01:45 »

Quote from: ribtoks on May 29, 2020, 01:19

But if you have only 20 video downloads per month, you will loose as much as 19% in total earnings.

26%... if you include the 10 lots of 15% and the 40 lots of 20%.

cobalt · « **Reply #384 on:** May 29, 2020, 02:11 »

Quote from: Roscoe on May 29, 2020, 01:14

Despite all the protest and people pulling their portfolio's, Shutterstock database gained roughly 100.000 images yesterday.

Donˋt worry about that. They usually get over 2 million a week, so this is already lower than average.

It takes time for artists to think about this and make decisions.

Even the lowest paying agencies get some content every week, but when the income goes down the uploads go down.

I am sure many people are also hoping Shutterstock will withdraw the new system.

Because if they don’t 1.2 million contributors will massively swamp the internet and recommend all customers and their own clients to switch to Adobe. It just takes a few clicks.

Nobody will recommend a company that just decided to crash your income every January first.

The plan is insane and to announce this in the middle of a pandemic cruel and heartless.

Rage · « **Reply #385 on:** May 29, 2020, 03:02 »

can each of us ensure we get some 10-12 people to rate the app down and sign petitions.

First your family, since an earning drop for you affects them hugely.

The idea is to get SS to rely even more heavily on paid reviews that can be marked as spam.

On twitter, They've already started asking users to just share their portfolio using #shutterstock to ensure that not all tweets are grossly negative.

Sent from my HD1901 using Tapatalk

pics2 · « **Reply #386 on:** May 29, 2020, 03:21 »

Quote from: cobalt on May 29, 2020, 00:21

Quote from: gnirtS on May 28, 2020, 23:59
Ive never bothered looking before but i just looked at SS on Trustpilot ( https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.shutterstock.com )

As expected a few pages of 1* reviews from contributors BUT the more worrying thing from SS own perspective is after that its made up nearly entirely of 1* reviews from BUYERS complaining about poor support, sneaky wording, unable to cancel and all kinds of things.
They do NOT have happy, smiling customers on there. Contributors they can ignore, customers they cant.

People skills are something you either have or you don‘t.

If they are abusive and heartless towards contributors, they will also behave that way to customers.

And they won‘t be able to choose good quality new staff because again they lack the necessary people skills to identify them.

It is a vicious circle.

For Adobe this year will be the easiest in business.

Shutterstock is acively driving customers and artists towards them.

Very well said! But, there is one thing that we all here get wrong. Most of the artist have the same workflow - sending their work to all the agencies at the same time. So, Adobe is not going to profit from this regarding artists' work, unfortunately.

Rage · « **Reply #387 on:** May 29, 2020, 03:47 »

Yes, but they have the option to cut out SS since a file sold anywhere else earns them more. Its just a matter of in checking them on an FTP program.

With the new rates a file earns almost 3x to 8x more in some cases on Adobe. So even if one in 5 people move to Adobe to buy my images/videos I'll be profitable.

Sent from my HD1901 using Tapatalk

pics2 · « **Reply #388 on:** May 29, 2020, 03:48 »

Quote from: georgep7 on May 28, 2020, 15:50

Quote

And thank you, Dimco from eastern Europe, Skopje, Macedonia, for expressing it so well.

Offtopic but this was supposed to be North Macedonia.

Macedonia is located in Greece. Haven't you watched the News and the aggrement between our countries?

I know you have problem with this, but, sorry, people from exYugoslavia still call it Macedonia (Makedonija) in everyday language and will always do. As part of exYugoslavia, one of six republics it was called Makedonija. It was political victory for Greece and a lot of potential votes for leading party for next elections, but nothing more than that. Makedonija is still Makedonija.

Visualab · « **Reply #389 on:** May 29, 2020, 04:17 »

i wonder how many people complaining here are still submitting to istock getty or subs plans that pay you way less than ss...said that the reset on the 1th january is absolutely a money grab!!! they could take in account the year before instead of reset everything...but ss knows that artists will not close their port because as happened with getty istock many of them are still there...
if you want to make this story public we need a journalist who writes an article about this and make it viral all over place...

Lizard · « **Reply #390 on:** May 29, 2020, 04:36 »

Quote from: georgep7 on May 28, 2020, 15:50

Quote

And thank you, Dimco from eastern Europe, Skopje, Macedonia, for expressing it so well.

Offtopic but this was supposed to be North Macedonia.

Macedonia is located in Greece. Haven't you watched the News and the aggrement between our countries?

I watched, heard about the agreement and I still say they have every right to call themself as they wish disregarding any documents their politicians were forced to sign by blatant blackmails.

georgep7 · « **Reply #391 on:** May 29, 2020, 04:57 »

I have to disagree. I wish you all well, we are all contributors and what we say?

An agreement is a agreement.

Either between countries either between contributors and agencies.

So SS might also say, c'mon this is how always was going and done dudes.

Snow · « **Reply #392 on:** May 29, 2020, 05:01 »

Quote from: Visualab on May 29, 2020, 04:17

i wonder how many people complaining here are still submitting to istock getty or subs plans that pay you way less than ss...said that the reset on the 1th january is absolutely a money grab!!! they could take in account the year before instead of reset everything...but ss knows that artists will not close their port because as happened with getty istock many of them are still there...
if you want to make this story public we need a journalist who writes an article about this and make it viral all over place...

This is sadly true. Many are still providing those who are leading the race to the bottom so should not be surprised by this move.

I only submit to SS, AS, P5 and AL and will not take anything less then 30%. I have lost hundreds of dollars by doing this but never regretted my decision.

I still believe that when enough of us move shop our buyers will follow so sales will improve. It doesn't matter which agency. We are not as replaceable as some think on this forum. We're not robots yet

pics2 · « **Reply #393 on:** May 29, 2020, 05:03 »

Quote from: georgep7 on May 29, 2020, 04:57

I have to disagree. I wish you all well, we are all contributors and what we say?

An agreement is a agreement.

Either between countries either between contributors and agencies.

So SS might also say, c'mon this is how always was going and done dudes.

Disagree with what? People calling it Makedonija in everyday language? There is nothing to be agreed upon, it is a fact. As I said the agreement is there, it will be officially called Northern Macedonia, but people won't call it that outside Greece. In US yes, but I bet americans don't even know where it is.

Lizard · « **Reply #394 on:** May 29, 2020, 05:11 »

Quote from: georgep7 on May 29, 2020, 04:57

I have to disagree. I wish you all well, we are all contributors and what we say?

An agreement is a agreement.

Either between countries either between contributors and agencies.

So SS might also say, c'mon this is how always was going and done dudes.

If so..

My country and your country dont have any agreements about how am I gonna call Macedonia in public or formal speech and you have not any grounds at all to correct me whatsoever.

Also an agency didnt come to me a force me to sign a contract with them if i want to hold camera in my hands and even if i signed that it would not be legally valid by any law.

It is also interesting how Greece was not trying to force that agreements on Yugoslavia all those years when "REPUBLIC" of Macedonia was constitutional part of it.

georgep7 · « **Reply #395 on:** May 29, 2020, 05:31 »

you are correct, I cannot dictate you anything

be well

2dvector · « **Reply #396 on:** May 29, 2020, 05:55 »

Their Google Play apps are being flooded with 5Stars reviews from India:

“Amazing app”

“Beautiful app”

“Great app”.

They permanently lost my trust in them, amazing how they turned out.

Dimco · « **Reply #397 on:** May 29, 2020, 06:08 »

Quote from: georgep7 on May 29, 2020, 05:31

you are correct, I cannot dictate you anything

be well

Be well you too. So happy that we can come to an agreement.

The idea behind me writing where i come from was that we can all somehow feel more connected.

it would be nice to see more engagement from people all over the globe trying to fix thier common issues.
So you know that there is a contributor behind, trying to make ends meet in this tough environment that is changing everyday, where we are forced to make tough choices in order to survive. the framework we operate in is the toughest there is, you couldn’t get any more competitors than the whole world. this and in fact anytime is the time to be smart and act towards achieving our common goal. you and everybody’s effort should be directed towards what can you do today so that we can all benefit. i’ll do the same and we will be better off bocause of it.
do not let penny differences divide us, we are together in this, we, the contributors!
all the best,

love, unity, respect, responsible, tough and smart

jjneff · « **Reply #398 on:** May 29, 2020, 06:25 »

I find it amazing to see artist turn on each other in these times of crisis! Fact is they want us too and they want in no way for us to unite. Another fact is we can all work together for the betterment of the community to protect our earnings no matter our views. There has been some very constructive battle plans laid. We need to start a new thread not talking about SS as they could care less about us, but the ways we have to fight back together, this they will fear.

cobalt · « **Reply #399 on:** May 29, 2020, 07:10 »

Quote from: pics2 on May 29, 2020, 03:21

Quote from: cobalt on May 29, 2020, 00:21
Quote from: gnirtS on May 28, 2020, 23:59
Ive never bothered looking before but i just looked at SS on Trustpilot ( https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.shutterstock.com )

As expected a few pages of 1* reviews from contributors BUT the more worrying thing from SS own perspective is after that its made up nearly entirely of 1* reviews from BUYERS complaining about poor support, sneaky wording, unable to cancel and all kinds of things.
They do NOT have happy, smiling customers on there. Contributors they can ignore, customers they cant.

People skills are something you either have or you don‘t.

If they are abusive and heartless towards contributors, they will also behave that way to customers.

And they won‘t be able to choose good quality new staff because again they lack the necessary people skills to identify them.

It is a vicious circle.

For Adobe this year will be the easiest in business.

Shutterstock is acively driving customers and artists towards them.
Very well said! But, there is one thing that we all here get wrong. Most of the artist have the same workflow - sending their work to all the agencies at the same time. So, Adobe is not going to profit from this regarding artists' work, unfortunately.

Not really. Agencies like 123rf or the hundred other small places have tiny levels of files. Very few companies have over 100 million.

If there is no money in it, people don‘t upload, the system is pretty self selecting.

Personally I just supply SS, Adobe, Pond5, eyeem (sometimes stocksy). I just recently looked at istock again for older content, because inspite of the 15%, they do have sales.

I have dead ports on alamy, dreamstime, deposit etc...but I really don‘t have the time to upload everywhere.

But the most powerful is not just the upload streams, it is that many people in the producer community are designers and buyers of content.

You buy where you like the content offered and usually you will then also upload to these companies to get back what you pay for pictures.

In the end this is how istock started it all - designers exchanging their files for free to help each other.

So if SS is upsetting 1.2 million creatives it is certainly going to be an adavantage for other places.

Their sales team can even point out that they are an „ethical“ company that supports creatives and does not set them back to zero every year. There are many customers that care.

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Author Topic: Shutterstock just became iStock 2.0 (Read 124248 times)

Rage

PaulieWalnuts

marthamarks

gnirtS

cobalt

Roscoe

Horizon

ribtoks

SpaceStockFootage

cobalt

Rage

pics2

Rage

pics2

Visualab

Lizard

georgep7

Snow

pics2

Lizard

georgep7

2dvector

Dimco

jjneff

cobalt

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