MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Shutterstock.com => Topic started by: blvdone on January 17, 2024, 02:45
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So far this month in January 2024. This is sad. It's on pace for only 1/2 the January 2023 sales. Shutterstock used to be the King. Whatever gone wrong there.
Shutterstock used to pay us $0.38 minimum for subscription sale like Adobe Stock does. Since they introduced wonderful $0.10 photo sub commission, contributor enthusiasm seem eroded. Probably Shutterstock nowadays doesn't get as many quality photos or videos as Adobe Stock does. They still own Pond5 now. So, they get the best stock videos on Pond5. But for the photos, Adobe Stock is the King now, no question. They totally had a wrong approach toward contributors belittling us while Adobe Stock is trying to work with us. Big mistake.
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Yeah, Adobe Stock is so hot right now. Customers who are buying subs are definitely choosing AS over SS.
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Video on SS is in the same boat.
Crazy how fast things can turn.
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The greediness of their management has no limit. So here are the consequences...and when the numbers talk all the rest does not matter.
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If you different portfolios how you can even compare them, I have exactly the same portfolios on AS and SS, for me SS is 3x the number of downloads of AS.
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If you different portfolios how you can even compare them, I have exactly the same portfolios on AS and SS, for me SS is 3x the number of downloads of AS.
SS 99% are only 0.10 USD per download, for me.
For me SS would need to sell 100 times more then AS.
But AS sells 100 times more then SS.
My case.. AS wins clearly.
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If you different portfolios how you can even compare them, I have exactly the same portfolios on AS and SS, for me SS is 3x the number of downloads of AS.
Do you make 3x on SS as well?
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Video on SS is in the same boat.
Crazy how fast things can turn.
Wow, that's sad. At SS's peak years like 5-6 years ago, SS video sales were sometimes on par with Pond5 video sales. Video sub drastically and quickly decreased SS video sales revenue. So, I stopped selling videos on SS. I see many contributors doing the same.
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If you different portfolios how you can even compare them, I have exactly the same portfolios on AS and SS, for me SS is 3x the number of downloads of AS.
Do you make 3x on SS as well?
Usually more than double.
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If you different portfolios how you can even compare them, I have exactly the same portfolios on AS and SS, for me SS is 3x the number of downloads of AS.
Do you make 3x on SS as well?
Usually more than double.
Good for you!!
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The greediness of their management has no limit. So here are the consequences...and when the numbers talk all the rest does not matter.
Yeah, you can only screw people over so long before it catches up with you. By people I mean contributors - who they actually need to look after otherwise we go somewhere better, like Adobe stock. I have zero loyalty now towards S/S. Karma is a biatch.
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The greediness of their management has no limit. So here are the consequences...and when the numbers talk all the rest does not matter.
Yeah, you can only screw people over so long before it catches up with you. By people I mean contributors - who they actually need to look after otherwise we go somewhere better, like Adobe stock. I have zero loyalty now towards S/S. Karma is a biatch.
It's business and loyalty doesn't come into it. I don't expect SS (or Adobe for that matter) to be loyal to me and I'm certainly not loyal to them. I will continue to contribute to SS just so long as it's is in my interests. If the terms or circumstances change so that it is no longer in my interests then I will walk away.
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While not perfect, I also see that the "poll results" seem to indicate AS leadership. SS used to almost always be the leader.
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If you different portfolios how you can even compare them, I have exactly the same portfolios on AS and SS, for me SS is 3x the number of downloads of AS.
Do you make 3x on SS as well?
Usually more than double.
Not to disagree or be argumentative, but that also depends on what images and what kind of subjects. It's possible that your talents are more in line with what SS buyers want. Nice going.
I have 5,450 images on SS now and 984 on Adobe. I make easily 3X on AS what I do on SS. But, unlike you and many others, the images are different. Adobe doesn't take what SS does and for the most part, SS doesn't take what Adobe does. I'd be unfair to expect that someone else would have identical results as mine.
The only thing I can say, aside from bottom line, how much did I make last year, would be RPD. If that was identical, I'd be happy, but nowhere close. SS is less sales and for less commission. 3X the money for 1/5th the images, and I only joined Adobe after they bought FT. I'm impressed. :)
You are doing very well, congratulations.
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The greediness of their management has no limit. So here are the consequences...and when the numbers talk all the rest does not matter.
Yeah, you can only screw people over so long before it catches up with you. By people I mean contributors - who they actually need to look after otherwise we go somewhere better, like Adobe stock. I have zero loyalty now towards S/S. Karma is a biatch.
It's business and loyalty doesn't come into it. I don't expect SS (or Adobe for that matter) to be loyal to me and I'm certainly not loyal to them. I will continue to contribute to SS just so long as it's is in my interests. If the terms or circumstances change so that it is no longer in my interests then I will walk away.
Absolutely true. But I don't think it's a smart corporate strategy.
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I disagree that business does not reward loyalty.
The whole point why companies make such a great effort to have a fantastic reputation and great relationships with both producers and customers is to keep their business at the absolute top in the industry.
Can you imagine Adobe having the same bad reputation as SS?? Never ever!
Can you image Adobe closing the producer forums and refusing to interact with their customers directly?
Because the producer community directs the customers. Many graphic designers recommend an agency to clients. If a company treats you badly, refuses to talk to you...why would anyone recommend them??
Companies invest crazy money into their branding and having a reliable reputation and a great way to communicate is worth equally as much as the products or services you are trying to sell.
Even more important if your business is about selling subscriptions. You want people to keep renewing forever.
SS is a media company, their products are used for communication.
How can a communication company not know how to communicate and interact??
The upload flows by producers go to the companies that give them a reliable income, ideally an increasing income.
SS still has fantastic video, but if you look how the sales of video are dropping, especially for the fantastic exclusive content on pond5...what are they doing with these jewels they have?
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The greediness of their management has no limit. So here are the consequences...and when the numbers talk all the rest does not matter.
Yeah, you can only screw people over so long before it catches up with you. By people I mean contributors - who they actually need to look after otherwise we go somewhere better, like Adobe stock. I have zero loyalty now towards S/S. Karma is a biatch.
It's business and loyalty doesn't come into it. I don't expect SS (or Adobe for that matter) to be loyal to me and I'm certainly not loyal to them. I will continue to contribute to SS just so long as it's is in my interests. If the terms or circumstances change so that it is no longer in my interests then I will walk away.
You do you :)
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I disagree that business does not reward loyalty.
The whole point why companies make such a great effort to have a fantastic reputation and great relationships with both producers and customers is to keep their business at the absolute top in the industry.
Can you imagine Adobe having the same bad reputation as SS?? Never ever!
Can you image Adobe closing the producer forums and refusing to interact with their customers directly?
Because the producer community directs the customers. Many graphic designers recommend an agency to clients. If a company treats you badly, refuses to talk to you...why would anyone recommend them??
Companies invest crazy money into their branding and having a reliable reputation and a great way to communicate is worth equally as much as the products or services you are trying to sell.
Even more important if your business is about selling subscriptions. You want people to keep renewing forever.
SS is a media company, their products are used for communication.
How can a communication company not know how to communicate and interact??
The upload flows by producers go to the companies that give them a reliable income, ideally an increasing income.
SS still has fantastic video, but if you look how the sales of video are dropping, especially for the fantastic exclusive content on pond5...what are they doing with these jewels they have?
Well said :) :)
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Well for the first time since 2011 looks like I'll not reach the minimum $35 payout for January. Even subscription sales have died to zero for days just the occasional "single and other" sale.
In Jan 2018 I made over $318 and in 2019 $212 this Jan maybe $20. :'(
Glad I don't rely on them anymore :)
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Well for the first time since 2011 looks like I'll not reach the minimum $35 payout for January. Even subscription sales have died to zero for days just the occasional "single and other" sale.
In Jan 2018 I made over $318 and in 2019 $212 this Jan maybe $20. :'(
Glad I don't rely on them anymore :)
There is still time until the end of the month; there is a high probability that you will have sales. ;D
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Where is the representative from shutterstock here on the forum? Maybe we should invite them. Let them tell you why video sales and video income began to decrease.
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SS is well aware of these pitiful results, as they lowered their payment threshold to $25. Enough said!
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Where is the representative from shutterstock here on the forum? Maybe we should invite them. Let them tell you why video sales and video income began to decrease.
They closed their forums and made it clear they don‘t want to talk to us.
They used to have great team, not anymore.
In their financial statements they keep promoting how they are turning the company to be a „data licensing company“ and are already making 20 million a quarter with ai licensing versus 80 million for stock sales which have not increased.
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You almost have to wonder if they seriously cut back on their stock marketing ads and such.
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You almost have to wonder if they seriously cut back on their stock marketing ads and such.
I don't see the side spam as often as I used to, but that's just me. Maybe they have changed to new sites. When they had that, it was always humorous because one or two of my own images would always show up, on top. I don't know if that was an error or so we'd get excited that SS was actually promoting our work. It was just reading cookies from our own systems, and not what the rest of the world would see.
I did notice that recently, when I look at an image, I get an email saying "did you forget something". They are reminding people who search, that they looked at something.
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... it was always humorous because one or two of my own images would always show up, on top. I don't know if that was an error or so we'd get excited that SS was actually promoting our work. It was just reading cookies from our own systems, and not what the rest of the world would see....
i had the same experience & always figured they were just finding my pix to mislead me into thinking that was a real result
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Really sad to see this... I've always submitted my best works to Shutterstock.
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It all started when then CEO of Shutterstock Stan Pavlovsky, the embodiment of corporate greed, started screwing contributors with the new royalty schedule and levels and yearly resets.
Then he left the sinking ship. I'm still angry when I think of how he introduced that whole fiasco. And look at where we (they) are now. Surpassed by Adobe.
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Where is the representative from shutterstock here on the forum? Maybe we should invite them. Let them tell you why video sales and video income began to decrease.
They closed their forums and made it clear they don‘t want to talk to us.
They used to have great team, not anymore.
In their financial statements they keep promoting how they are turning the company to be a „data licensing company“ and are already making 20 million a quarter with ai licensing versus 80 million for stock sales which have not increased.
Interesting, Shutterstock signed a 6-year training data agreement with OpenAI.
Since OpenAI has also signed a partner ship with newspaper publishers, such as Axel Springer, it is very likely that OpenAI want to play it safe and have alternate data resources in case they lose the lawsuit against New York Times and some artists.
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Where is the representative from shutterstock here on the forum? Maybe we should invite them. Let them tell you why video sales and video income began to decrease.
How is the video sales on Shutterstock these days compared to pre-video sub 2019?
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Where is the representative from shutterstock here on the forum? Maybe we should invite them. Let them tell you why video sales and video income began to decrease.
They closed their forums and made it clear they don‘t want to talk to us.
They used to have great team, not anymore.
In their financial statements they keep promoting how they are turning the company to be a „data licensing company“ and are already making 20 million a quarter with ai licensing versus 80 million for stock sales which have not increased.
How does the Data Licensing work?
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You almost have to wonder if they seriously cut back on their stock marketing ads and such.
Maybe that's the reason Pond5 sales have gone down too.
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It all started when then CEO of Shutterstock Stan Pavlovsky, the embodiment of corporate greed, started screwing contributors with the new royalty schedule and levels and yearly resets.
Then he left the sinking ship. I'm still angry when I think of how he introduced that whole fiasco. And look at where we (they) are now. Surpassed by Adobe.
Stan the Man!!!! He got paid well. I'm not sure if everything was his idea though. He obviously was No. 2 to the founder.
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Billionaire Jon Oringer Buys A-Rod’s Former Trophy in Miami Beach for $42M
Published: May 18, 2021 | By: American Luxury Staff
Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer is the new owner of this imposing, complicated modern-style in Miami Beach. The tech guru paid $42 million for the property in October of last year, but the transaction was carried out quietly, according to The Real Deal, who revealed that the seller was Gold Coast Beverage Distributors founder Stephen Levin. The 2011 build was previously owned by Alex Rodriguez.
The home begins with a large pivoting front door that swings wide to reveal a living area; distinguished by wide-plank white oak floors, an unornamented style, and a transition from interior space to interior/exterior, the opening remarks of this house are a neat synopsis of the upper-tier South Florida living style at the present time.
Sliding and pocketing glass opens the home broadly to its outdoor living space, as well as an interior courtyard. In back, the transition and outdoor living areas constitute much of the home’s appeal, with 275 feet of frontage on Biscayne. An outdoor bar is positioned poolside for entertaining, converting the patio complex, covered outdoor space and lawns into a pavilion of sorts.
Amenities include a no-holds-barred contemporary kitchen—suitable for catering—as well as a gym with a steam room, a great room lit by two levels of glass panes, and a home theater.
Oringer founded Shutterstock in 2003. His net worth is north of $1 billion.
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Where is the representative from shutterstock here on the forum? Maybe we should invite them. Let them tell you why video sales and video income began to decrease.
How is the video sales on Shutterstock these days compared to pre-video sub 2019?
Terrible. I'm usually quite upbeat about Shutterstock video sales because while there are bottom basement commissions it is usually balanced with much higher commissions. Not this year though with most sales under $10 and many for just a pitiful $1.
Was reading on Facebook how a couple of contributors use to make $2k a month on Shutterstock and one mentioned he could only afford a Big Mac meal with his earnings so far this month.
I'm just hoping the bigger sales return after holiday season is over.
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Shutterstock used to pay us $0.38 minimum for subscription sale like Adobe Stock does.
Yes, once you got to a higher level. Level one for subs was $0.25c.
It took a few years of earning $0.25c subs on SS but finally, I accumulated $500 which brought me up to the next level. Unfortunately, the timing couldn't be worse. All I had was about two months to enjoy the new $0.33c subs and then SS changed their commissions structure. That felt like a kick in the guts. All that time waiting to progress to the next level and finally after you reach it, they pull the rug right from under you.
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Where is the representative from shutterstock here on the forum? Maybe we should invite them. Let them tell you why video sales and video income began to decrease.
They closed their forums and made it clear they don‘t want to talk to us.
They used to have great team, not anymore.
In their financial statements they keep promoting how they are turning the company to be a „data licensing company“ and are already making 20 million a quarter with ai licensing versus 80 million for stock sales which have not increased.
How does the Data Licensing work?
Agencies license content for "legal and ethical" ai training. The opposite of what midjourney is doing who just stole everyone images from the internet.
Just google it, there are a tons of ethical licensing partnerships going around. Many companies also building their own ai systems.
Read the Shutterstock financial statements. They basically admit that their usual stock business is not growing and keep repeating how fully focussed they are on data licensing.
And they don't share that income with artists, we get very, very little from these data deal sets.
Has anyone seen a 20% increase in revenue from data licensing?
Actually 20 million in addition to 80 million stock sales is 25% more.
Video ai is still in its infancy but I am sure they are already very busy licensing videos for those projects.
If you read their statements, they are not showing any commitment or ideas to increase their sales in stock.
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Where is the representative from shutterstock here on the forum? Maybe we should invite them. Let them tell you why video sales and video income began to decrease.
How is the video sales on Shutterstock these days compared to pre-video sub 2019?
Income decreased by 5 times.
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It all started when then CEO of Shutterstock Stan Pavlovsky, the embodiment of corporate greed, started screwing contributors with the new royalty schedule and levels and yearly resets.
Then he left the sinking ship. I'm still angry when I think of how he introduced that whole fiasco. And look at where we (they) are now. Surpassed by Adobe.
He did something else, because in my opinion the number of buyers has decreased.
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When loyalty is not their priority (since many years..) no wonder people will look elsewhere to buy/sell. They used to be #1 but something got completely off inside that company: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.shutterstock.com?sort=recency (https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.shutterstock.com?sort=recency)
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Looking down be the worst month since I started in 2013. Down 95% from the peak.
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Well for the first time since 2011 looks like I'll not reach the minimum $35 payout for January. Even subscription sales have died to zero for days just the occasional "single and other" sale.
In Jan 2018 I made over $318 and in 2019 $212 this Jan maybe $20. :'(
Glad I don't rely on them anymore :)
That's how it looks for me too. I have my minimum payout at $100, and it's quite possible that I won't reach that.
In January 2015 it was $793, with around 1,000 images. Today it's 1,350.
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Looking down be the worst month since I started in 2013. Down 95% from the peak.
It is quite grim. I'm hoping there are a group of sales that just didn't make it to our dashboards yet, but I'm not holding my breath.
Here's my trend from January 2022 - January 2024. Very disturbing. My January Motion Elements is currently beating SS so far, which is totally unheard of.
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Very strange. It's almost like a collapse.
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Those are really scary stats to read.
I guess I should not be upset anymore that they kicked me out?
But I would very genuinely prefer for shutterstock to be thriving and strong. And to have a port there again :)
The downfall of Shutterstock is also the downfall of pond5, we are losing two marketplaces at once.
And again, without changing anything Adobe is increasing strongly.
Which is also reflected in the respective share prices. Adobe has gone up 70% in one year, while ss has dropped 24%. And is 60% down from the high in nov 21.
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The downfall of Shutterstock is also the downfall of pond5, we are losing two marketplaces at once.
Yes, you're right. I just ran the numbers for P5 during that same period and the chart is virtually identical.
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Makes you wonder what is going on. Perhaps advertising spending is being cut back and there is some kind of change coming?
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The greediness of their management has no limit. So here are the consequences...and when the numbers talk all the rest does not matter.
I agree, they are too greedy. My earnings have significantly reduced to 1/4 of normal which I used to get. No matter how good quality you upload, nothing will work.
SS just looted us and remember karma always strikes back.
From past couple of years, I have personally asked my clients to choose Adobe Stock over Shutterstock.
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Well for the first time since 2011 looks like I'll not reach the minimum $35 payout for January. Even subscription sales have died to zero for days just the occasional "single and other" sale.
In Jan 2018 I made over $318 and in 2019 $212 this Jan maybe $20. :'(
Glad I don't rely on them anymore :)
That's how it looks for me too. I have my minimum payout at $100, and it's quite possible that I won't reach that.
In January 2015 it was $793, with around 1,000 images. Today it's 1,350.
I reduced my payout to the $25 minimum you'd probably be best to do that too.
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Makes you wonder what is going on. Perhaps advertising spending is being cut back and there is some kind of change coming?
What kind of exciting news is coming for producers?
Especially for the exclusive content on pond5?
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I asked in German groups and there are still producers with around the same sales as the years before.
Perhaps this is mostly a problem in the US markets?
How are the Europeans here doing?
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Well for the first time since 2011 looks like I'll not reach the minimum $35 payout for January. Even subscription sales have died to zero for days just the occasional "single and other" sale.
In Jan 2018 I made over $318 and in 2019 $212 this Jan maybe $20. :'(
Glad I don't rely on them anymore :)
That's how it looks for me too. I have my minimum payout at $100, and it's quite possible that I won't reach that.
In January 2015 it was $793, with around 1,000 images. Today it's 1,350.
I reduced my payout to the $25 minimum you'd probably be best to do that too.
Yes, I could do that. I've got it all over the place at $100, and it won't make me a dime more if I lower it. Then I won't get a January payout from shutterstock - if it continues like this. I have to accept that.
I have to admit, though, that I'm pretty shocked at the download volume at shutterstock. January is also bad at AS, but shutterstock is really historically bad.
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I asked in German groups and there are still producers with around the same sales as the years before.
Perhaps this is mostly a problem in the US markets?
How are the Europeans here doing?
and only few/some folk in the US - many of us have seen little decrease - and there's still copious anti-SS venom polluting the waters of discussion
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I asked in German groups and there are still producers with around the same sales as the years before.
Perhaps this is mostly a problem in the US markets?
How are the Europeans here doing?
and only few/some folk in the US - many of us have seen little decrease - and there's still copious anti-SS venom polluting the waters of discussion
I think it's more than a few folk. Otherwise SS wouldn't have consistently dropped so much in the "Earnings Rating" column at the right of the page.
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Those are really scary stats to read.
The downfall of Shutterstock is also the downfall of pond5, we are losing two marketplaces at once.
Interesting you say this because I'm on both and Pond5 is even worse than Shutterstock now. Pond5 has gone from bad to worse since Shutterstock took over.
I've noticed the views have suddenly dropped off with Pond5 from over hundreds a day to less than 10 and wondering if they have decided to pull back on their advertising - which looks like was a costly disaster with burning through advertising funds.
As for Shutterstock in January 2024 compared to January 2023, a 40% increase in downloads in January 2024 but a 23% decrease in earnings. And this is with well over 1000 videos added to the port over the 2023 calendar year.
And again, without changing anything Adobe is increasing strongly.
Compare the above stats with Adobe Stock January 2024 compared to January 2023, a 96% increase in downloads and a 165% increase in earnings.
Clearly Adobe is rewarding our work, at least by comparison to the other agencies. And I don't even have any AI content.
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As for Shutterstock in January 2024 compared to January 2023. I'm receiving half the amount of money despite having the same number of downloads.
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I asked in German groups and there are still producers with around the same sales as the years before.
Perhaps this is mostly a problem in the US markets?
How are the Europeans here doing?
and only few/some folk in the US - many of us have seen little decrease - and there's still copious anti-SS venom polluting the waters of discussion
I still read that some contributors at Schutterstock are quite successful. And for me personally, that was the best agency for many years.
But at the moment - as far as I know - it looks like there's nowhere to feed the beast more than shutterstock.
If you do that and are diligent, it still seems to generate income. But personally, I don't want to get to the point where I have to create, tag and upload images that generate an average of $5 over the years. That's not my path.
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My last 12 months on SS
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My last 12 months on SS
Are you U.S. based?
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There is no problem with sale numbers, but with royalties… sale numbers are almost the same, but royalties are catastrophic, especially this month… ‘contributor fund’ acted as some kind of bonus to balance those sad earnings…
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My last 12 months on SS
Are you U.S. based?
No, Europe
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maybe in the us ss is losing customers to adobe much faster than in europe?
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How are the Europeans here doing?
I am from Europe. My sales numbers are steady, but revenue has dropped significantly. I think the most noticable change is that while most of my sales used to be subscriptions in the past, now I have way more "Single & Other" sales. And these used to be good sales, but now they are usually mostly 0.10-0.17$, so they just don't bring any significant amount of money anymore.
I think SS has added some new plans for customers that aren't subscription plans, but earn us even less than subscriptions.
Also - I have not seen anyone mention this, so am I the only one? Shutterstock has been extremely laggy and slow for me for months now. It takes very long to load my dashboard and my catalogue manager is the worst, sometimes it takes up to 5 minutes for it to load, but most of the time it will not load at all and I have to refresh and wait another 5 minutes. It is super annoying. We have 2024, how is it still acceptable to wait for 5 minutes for a website to load? I do not know whether the problems also occur on the customers' end, but if it does I know it would be something to drive me away from a website if I was a customer.
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I am from Europe. My sales numbers are steady, but revenue has dropped significantly. I think the most noticable change is that while most of my sales used to be subscriptions in the past, now I have way more "Single & Other" sales. And these used to be good sales, but now they are usually mostly 0.10-0.17$, so they just don't bring any significant amount of money anymore.
I think SS has added some new plans for customers that aren't subscription plans, but earn us even less than subscriptions.
Also - I have not seen anyone mention this, so am I the only one? Shutterstock has been extremely laggy and slow for me for months now. It takes very long to load my dashboard and my catalogue manager is the worst, sometimes it takes up to 5 minutes for it to load, but most of the time it will not load at all and I have to refresh and wait another 5 minutes. It is super annoying. We have 2024, how is it still acceptable to wait for 5 minutes for a website to load? I do not know whether the problems also occur on the customers' end, but if it does I know it would be something to drive me away from a website if I was a customer.
If not happy be mature, stop complainning and quit the place. You will soon be able to go prompting the machines for cooking hamburgers at McD ;D
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If not happy be mature, stop complainning and quit the place.
As soon as you give me a good alternative how to earn my livelihood I will do that. So far no one was able to and who would quit their job without having an alternative?
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If not happy be mature, stop complainning and quit the place.
As soon as you give me a good alternative how to earn my livelihood I will do that. So far no one was able to and who would quit their job without having an alternative?
We share the same goal, earn a livelihood. And I revised my expectations significantly downwards.
Realize that you kill yourself your own future (and other's) using AI. See you in a near future with more complaints, since I've got ideas about what this leads to, since AI will be soon autonomic. Of course, one could argue that if you don't do it yourself, others will do (Only sheep expect others to act like sheep too) However, I remain convinced that I made the right choice not to provide ANY AI generated fake photo IMAGE (Because yes, they are not photographs, even though the platforms sell them as such).
My portfolios are in no way polluted by these images and they will perhaps be spared during the big clean-up (who will come in his time, whether by deleting certain contributor accounts or by the eviction of their images by algorithms, which will lead to the same), since for me, a photograph is a subject (often living), a real place, an existing moment, even the memory of an event, the transmission for the future, the reflection of the organic, a skill resulting from long training, a subtle and sensitive testimony, unsuspected creativity, a personal visual interpretation of reality, but also imperfection, accident, unpredictable, and therefore charm.
Is this really the tool you want to use to secure your future????
(https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cutting-branch-your-sitting-on-260nw-794340445.jpg)
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If not happy be mature, stop complainning and quit the place.
As soon as you give me a good alternative how to earn my livelihood I will do that. So far no one was able to and who would quit their job without having an alternative?
We share the same goal, earn a livelihood. And I revised my expectations significantly downwards.
Realize that you kill yourself your own future (and other's) using AI. See you in a near future with more complaints, since I've got ideas about what this leads to, since AI will be soon autonomic. Of course, one could argue that if you don't do it yourself, others will do (Only sheep expect others to act like sheep too) However, I remain convinced that I made the right choice not to provide ANY AI generated fake photo IMAGE (Because yes, they are not photographs, even though the platforms sell them as such).
My portfolios are in no way polluted by these images and they will perhaps be spared during the big clean-up (who will come in his time, whether by deleting certain contributor accounts or by the eviction of their images by algorithms, which will lead to the same), since for me, a photograph is a subject (often living), a real place, an existing moment, even the memory of an event, the transmission for the future, the reflection of the organic, a skill resulting from long training, a subtle and sensitive testimony, unsuspected creativity, a personal visual interpretation of reality, but also imperfection, accident, unpredictable, and therefore charm.
Is this really the tool you want to use to secure your future????
(https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cutting-branch-your-sitting-on-260nw-794340445.jpg)
I was under the impression this was a thread about Shutterstock and I am pretty sure I specifically talked about my Shutterstock earnings. Shutterstock does not even accept AI images.
So what in the world are you talking about...?
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I am from Europe. My sales numbers are steady, but revenue has dropped significantly. I think the most noticable change is that while most of my sales used to be subscriptions in the past, now I have way more "Single & Other" sales. And these used to be good sales, but now they are usually mostly 0.10-0.17$, so they just don't bring any significant amount of money anymore.
I think SS has added some new plans for customers that aren't subscription plans, but earn us even less than subscriptions.
Also - I have not seen anyone mention this, so am I the only one? Shutterstock has been extremely laggy and slow for me for months now. It takes very long to load my dashboard and my catalogue manager is the worst, sometimes it takes up to 5 minutes for it to load, but most of the time it will not load at all and I have to refresh and wait another 5 minutes. It is super annoying. We have 2024, how is it still acceptable to wait for 5 minutes for a website to load? I do not know whether the problems also occur on the customers' end, but if it does I know it would be something to drive me away from a website if I was a customer.
If not happy be mature, stop complainning and quit the place. You will soon be able to go prompting the machines for cooking hamburgers at McD ;D
Of course, everyone noticed and discussed the SODs - this had been discussed already. No idea what shutterstock has done there again. Completely non-transparent.
For me, the peak was a day with a sub:SOD ratio of 1:12. And, yes, if the ratio between subs and SODs is roughly the same, the SODs often make less money than the subs.
But at the end of the day, we're talking about very small amounts anyways, since shutterstock hardly gets anything in anyway.
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If not happy be mature, stop complainning and quit the place.
As soon as you give me a good alternative how to earn my livelihood I will do that. So far no one was able to and who would quit their job without having an alternative?
We share the same goal, earn a livelihood. And I revised my expectations significantly downwards.
Realize that you kill yourself your own future (and other's) using AI. See you in a near future with more complaints, since I've got ideas about what this leads to, since AI will be soon autonomic. Of course, one could argue that if you don't do it yourself, others will do (Only sheep expect others to act like sheep too) However, I remain convinced that I made the right choice not to provide ANY AI generated fake photo IMAGE (Because yes, they are not photographs, even though the platforms sell them as such).
My portfolios are in no way polluted by these images and they will perhaps be spared during the big clean-up (who will come in his time, whether by deleting certain contributor accounts or by the eviction of their images by algorithms, which will lead to the same), since for me, a photograph is a subject (often living), a real place, an existing moment, even the memory of an event, the transmission for the future, the reflection of the organic, a skill resulting from long training, a subtle and sensitive testimony, unsuspected creativity, a personal visual interpretation of reality, but also imperfection, accident, unpredictable, and therefore charm.
Is this really the tool you want to use to secure your future????
(https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cutting-branch-your-sitting-on-260nw-794340445.jpg)
I was under the impression this was a thread about Shutterstock and I am pretty sure I specifically talked about my Shutterstock earnings. Shutterstock does not even accept AI images.
So what in the world are you talking about...?
Omg, it's so low level here.
In any case, you did not respond to my message with anything intelligent, that would have surprised me.
Reread the topic, where is written "Adobe Stock" too... yes, the impression -you were under- was fake, as fake as the images you make the machines make by using AI.
Forget, have a lovely day, explore your keyboard typing your prompts, I will continue to enjoy exploring and promoting reality by using my eyes. :D
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If not happy be mature, stop complainning and quit the place.
As soon as you give me a good alternative how to earn my livelihood I will do that. So far no one was able to and who would quit their job without having an alternative?
We share the same goal, earn a livelihood. And I revised my expectations significantly downwards.
Realize that you kill yourself your own future (and other's) using AI. See you in a near future with more complaints, since I've got ideas about what this leads to, since AI will be soon autonomic. Of course, one could argue that if you don't do it yourself, others will do (Only sheep expect others to act like sheep too) However, I remain convinced that I made the right choice not to provide ANY AI generated fake photo IMAGE (Because yes, they are not photographs, even though the platforms sell them as such).
My portfolios are in no way polluted by these images and they will perhaps be spared during the big clean-up (who will come in his time, whether by deleting certain contributor accounts or by the eviction of their images by algorithms, which will lead to the same), since for me, a photograph is a subject (often living), a real place, an existing moment, even the memory of an event, the transmission for the future, the reflection of the organic, a skill resulting from long training, a subtle and sensitive testimony, unsuspected creativity, a personal visual interpretation of reality, but also imperfection, accident, unpredictable, and therefore charm.
Is this really the tool you want to use to secure your future????
(https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cutting-branch-your-sitting-on-260nw-794340445.jpg)
I was under the impression this was a thread about Shutterstock and I am pretty sure I specifically talked about my Shutterstock earnings. Shutterstock does not even accept AI images.
So what in the world are you talking about...?
Omg, it's so low level here.
In any case, you did not respond to my message with anything intelligent, that would have surprised me.
Reread the topic, where is written "Adobe Stock" too... yes, the impression -you were under- was fake, as fake as the images you make the machines make by using AI.
Forget, have a lovely day, explore your keyboard typing your prompts, I will continue to enjoy exploring and promoting reality by using my eyes. :D
You just don't make any sense.
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As of today, majority of my Shutterstock photo sales are "Contributor Fund" and still 1/9 of Adobe Stock's sales. Sad.
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Well for the first time since 2011 looks like I'll not reach the minimum $35 payout for January. Even subscription sales have died to zero for days just the occasional "single and other" sale.
In Jan 2018 I made over $318 and in 2019 $212 this Jan maybe $20. :'(
Glad I don't rely on them anymore :)
There is still time until the end of the month; there is a high probability that you will have sales. ;D
One day left of the month and have made $24.74 :(
If I get the same sales as I did today (1 SOD for $0.10) then I won't make it :'(
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So far this month in January 2024. This is sad. It's on pace for only 1/2 the January 2023 sales. Shutterstock used to be the King. Whatever gone wrong there.
Shutterstock used to pay us $0.38 minimum for subscription sale like Adobe Stock does. Since they introduced wonderful $0.10 photo sub commission, contributor enthusiasm seem eroded. Probably Shutterstock nowadays doesn't get as many quality photos or videos as Adobe Stock does. They still own Pond5 now. So, they get the best stock videos on Pond5. But for the photos, Adobe Stock is the King now, no question. They totally had a wrong approach toward contributors belittling us while Adobe Stock is trying to work with us. Big mistake.
So, it took 10 years to get 6,500 photos on Adobe Stock, but took only 3 months to add 3,000 AI generated photos on Adobe Stock. $120 x 3 months Midjourney cost is very well spent. I'll make way more than $120 in AI photo sales this month. Also, I'm lucky I got 3,000 AI photos accepted before the mass rejection trend started.
Sure, you feel so sorry you can't flood SS with tons of AI images you get from Midjourney? since you are one of the human tools of it.
You know what, Well, that's sounds perfect to me! :D
They do a "Big mistake"?, hem, maybe you actually do also, who knows... future will say it ;)
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So far this month in January 2024. This is sad. It's on pace for only 1/2 the January 2023 sales. Shutterstock used to be the King. Whatever gone wrong there.
Shutterstock used to pay us $0.38 minimum for subscription sale like Adobe Stock does. Since they introduced wonderful $0.10 photo sub commission, contributor enthusiasm seem eroded. Probably Shutterstock nowadays doesn't get as many quality photos or videos as Adobe Stock does. They still own Pond5 now. So, they get the best stock videos on Pond5. But for the photos, Adobe Stock is the King now, no question. They totally had a wrong approach toward contributors belittling us while Adobe Stock is trying to work with us. Big mistake.
So, it took 10 years to get 6,500 photos on Adobe Stock, but took only 3 months to add 3,000 AI generated photos on Adobe Stock. $120 x 3 months Midjourney cost is very well spent. I'll make way more than $120 in AI photo sales this month. Also, I'm lucky I got 3,000 AI photos accepted before the mass rejection trend started.
Sure, you feel so sorry you can't flood SS with tons of AI images you get from Midjourney? since you are one of the human tools of it.
You know what, Well, that's sounds perfect to me! :D
They do a "Big mistake"?, hem, maybe you actually do also, who knows... future will say it ;)
You sound like a bitter old man. Cheer up!! 😂😂
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So far this month in January 2024. This is sad. It's on pace for only 1/2 the January 2023 sales. Shutterstock used to be the King. Whatever gone wrong there.
Shutterstock used to pay us $0.38 minimum for subscription sale like Adobe Stock does. Since they introduced wonderful $0.10 photo sub commission, contributor enthusiasm seem eroded. Probably Shutterstock nowadays doesn't get as many quality photos or videos as Adobe Stock does. They still own Pond5 now. So, they get the best stock videos on Pond5. But for the photos, Adobe Stock is the King now, no question. They totally had a wrong approach toward contributors belittling us while Adobe Stock is trying to work with us. Big mistake.
Same with me. VERY LOW SALES. But we still have 11 months to go:)
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For me SS is providing 4 digits income and in the same time i see a 25-30% increase in reveneu from Adobe, 0 AI prompts in my portfolio.
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"For me SS is providing 4 digits income and in the same time i see a 25-30% increase in reveneu from Adobe, 0 AI prompts in my portfolio."
As I recall, you are not in the US. It seems this "revenue reduction" many of us are seeing (and is reflected in the poll results) is geographically dependent.
My best guess is that perhaps SS is spending its marketing dollars differently in different parts of the world.
Other agencies have been more or less on an "even keel", whereas SS has dropped like a rock for some (US based?) contributors.
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For me SS is providing 4 digits income and in the same time i see a 25-30% increase in reveneu from Adobe, 0 AI prompts in my portfolio.
It seems this "revenue reduction" many of us US based contributors are seeing (and is reflected in the poll results) is geographically dependent.
My best guess is that perhaps SS is spending its marketing dollars differently in different parts of the world?
Other agencies have been more or less on an "even keel", whereas SS has dropped like a rock for some (US based?) contributors.
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So far this month in January 2024. This is sad. It's on pace for only 1/2 the January 2023 sales. Shutterstock used to be the King. Whatever gone wrong there.
Shutterstock used to pay us $0.38 minimum for subscription sale like Adobe Stock does. Since they introduced wonderful $0.10 photo sub commission, contributor enthusiasm seem eroded. Probably Shutterstock nowadays doesn't get as many quality photos or videos as Adobe Stock does. They still own Pond5 now. So, they get the best stock videos on Pond5. But for the photos, Adobe Stock is the King now, no question. They totally had a wrong approach toward contributors belittling us while Adobe Stock is trying to work with us. Big mistake.
So, it took 10 years to get 6,500 photos on Adobe Stock, but took only 3 months to add 3,000 AI generated photos on Adobe Stock. $120 x 3 months Midjourney cost is very well spent. I'll make way more than $120 in AI photo sales this month. Also, I'm lucky I got 3,000 AI photos accepted before the mass rejection trend started.
Sure, you feel so sorry you can't flood SS with tons of AI images you get from Midjourney? since you are one of the human tools of it.
You know what, Well, that's sounds perfect to me! :D
They do a "Big mistake"?, hem, maybe you actually do also, who knows... future will say it ;)
You sound like a bitter old man. Cheer up!! 😂😂
AMAZING!!!! You INSULTED ME HERE by calling me a MOFO, a “Mother Fucker”. >:( >:( >:(
I reported this to the moderator.
Surprising that your message has changed, but no mention of «Last Edit». ???
So it was not you who rewrote this message, but surely a moderator.
So, people can freely insult others here, with no much consequence. Has the "rewriting" be made by the moderator? Wow, Disastrous what this community is becoming
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As I recall, you are not in the US. It seems this "revenue reduction" many of us are seeing (and is reflected in the poll results) is geographically dependent.
My best guess is that perhaps SS is spending its marketing dollars differently in different parts of the world.
Other agencies have been more or less on an "even keel", whereas SS has dropped like a rock for some (US based?) contributors.
and for others has stayed the same, but we still see these general statements claiming it's a disaster
location of an artist has little effect, since we get global sales
and one more time - the poll has been worthless for a long time -'self hosted' as really shot up to 4th over istock & SS?
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Using the ignore button can be really helpful :)
Better focus on actual stock producers.
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As I recall, you are not in the US. It seems this "revenue reduction" many of us are seeing (and is reflected in the poll results) is geographically dependent.
My best guess is that perhaps SS is spending its marketing dollars differently in different parts of the world.
Other agencies have been more or less on an "even keel", whereas SS has dropped like a rock for some (US based?) contributors.
and for others has stayed the same, but we still see these general statements claiming it's a disaster
location of an artist h as limttle effect, since we get global sales
and one more time - the poll h as been worthless for a long time -'self hosted' as really shot up to 4th over istock & SS?
Many agencies give stronger exposure to local artists when a customer does a search. Which makes sense, a German apple cake looks different to a US apple cake, a German mixed business team will have more of a cauasian and mid east mix and very rarely black or asian people, a US diverse team will have a much broader mix of people from different backgrounds etc…
So if Adobe is taking over a lot of client contracts in the US, then the US based artists should feel it a lot sooner than Europe or other places.
Of course, maybe there is something else going on. If SS is really enjoying fantastic sales with their licensing deals, perhaps they are skimping on advertising for stock in the US market.
The people reporting a drastic drop in sales are very experienced producers who are still uploading. So something is happening.
Add to that the drastic drop in sales on pond5…inspite of all the exclusive content…
I guess we will soon get exciting news.
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I'm new to this game. My sales on SS have dropped in January 2024. However, I spoke to an experienced US video contributor who mentioned that January 2024 was his best month since May 2022. My best months so far have been November and December 2023. I understand that the nature of this business is unpredictable and fluctuates from time to time. Despite the setback, I remain optimistic.
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Indeed, this is the first time I've observed almost no sales from the US. It's quite unusual, and although the numbers aren't drastically low, the earnings are disappointing.
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So far this month in January 2024. This is sad. It's on pace for only 1/2 the January 2023 sales. Shutterstock used to be the King. Whatever gone wrong there.
Shutterstock used to pay us $0.38 minimum for subscription sale like Adobe Stock does. Since they introduced wonderful $0.10 photo sub commission, contributor enthusiasm seem eroded. Probably Shutterstock nowadays doesn't get as many quality photos or videos as Adobe Stock does. They still own Pond5 now. So, they get the best stock videos on Pond5. But for the photos, Adobe Stock is the King now, no question. They totally had a wrong approach toward contributors belittling us while Adobe Stock is trying to work with us. Big mistake.
So, it took 10 years to get 6,500 photos on Adobe Stock, but took only 3 months to add 3,000 AI generated photos on Adobe Stock. $120 x 3 months Midjourney cost is very well spent. I'll make way more than $120 in AI photo sales this month. Also, I'm lucky I got 3,000 AI photos accepted before the mass rejection trend started.
Sure, you feel so sorry you can't flood SS with tons of AI images you get from Midjourney? since you are one of the human tools of it.
You know what, Well, that's sounds perfect to me! :D
They do a "Big mistake"?, hem, maybe you actually do also, who knows... future will say it ;)
You sound like a bitter old man. Cheer up!! 😂😂
AMAZING!!!! You INSULTED ME HERE by calling me a MOFO, a “Mother Fucker”. >:( >:( >:(
I reported this to the moderator.
Surprising that your message has changed, but no mention of «Last Edit». ???
So it was not you who rewrote this message, but surely a moderator.
So, people can freely insult others here, with no much consequence. Has the "rewriting" be made by the moderator? Wow, Disastrous what this community is becoming
You've been rude to me many times, but now playing a victim? ;D ;D
You never started a meaningful thread on forums. All you do is to attack and ridicule people. So, please ignore me and not comment on my thread!!!
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you two should start your own topic to yell at each other since you're both ignoring the "ignore" button
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What I have done in January on SS I make in a typical day on AS...
That's how bad the SS got.
:-\ :-\ :-\
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Worst month ever at shutterstock!
My first January with shutterstock was January 2011, when I had about 300 images in my portfolio and five times the income of January 2024 with 1,350 images in my portfolio.
I don't remember what the pay levels were like, except that you reached the highest level after $10,000. So I guess I was still at the lowest compensation level in my third month with shutterstock back then. That's how miserable it got.
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Shockingly low month. I have to go back 10 years for a similar performance. And that was back when I had a fraction of the items in my portfolio.
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Also, Shutterstock's AI generator is a joke. Who would use that POS???
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Shockingly low month. I have to go back 10 years for a similar performance. And that was back when I had a fraction of the items in my portfolio.
How's your video sales on SS compared to pre-video sub January 2020? Is it like 1/4 of January 2020?
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My SS photo sales was 1/14 of Adobe Stock's photo sales in January. Wow.
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My SS photo sales was 1/14 of Adobe Stock's photo sales in January. Wow.
1/6 here - and it was not a good AS month!
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How's your video sales on SS compared to pre-video sub January 2020? Is it like 1/4 of January 2020?
January, 2020 was literally 10x higher than January, 2024.
184 sales in January, 2020 vs 95 last month, so I don't think the subscriptions was the ultimate culprit.
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Just scraped over $31 for all of January what a pile of garbage :(
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My SS photo sales was 1/14 of Adobe Stock's photo sales in January. Wow.
1/6 here - and it was not a good AS month!
My sales on Adobe Stock is increasing because of AI images addition to my portfolio. So if I didn't add them, still it would've been like 1/9 of my Adobe Stock sales.
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How's your video sales on SS compared to pre-video sub January 2020? Is it like 1/4 of January 2020?
January, 2020 was literally 10x higher than January, 2024.
184 sales in January, 2020 vs 95 last month, so I don't think the subscriptions was the ultimate culprit.
Wow. Thanks for the info. That pretty much cancels a possibility of me enabling video sales on Shutterstock. My video sale went down immediately after the video sub intro by 1/2 and now top producer like you're making 1/10? Not worth it and probably negatively affect my Pond5 sales.
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SS treats its contributors like bums, and on top of it, their commissions are laughable. I tried SS by uploading 30 vector graphics to see how much I make from those vectors compared to the same vectors in AS. After 3 months, I made just 12$ out of 59 sales in ShutterStock compared to 54$ from the exact same amount I sold on Adobe. Safe to say, SS is a waste of your efforts (if you exclusively post on it). Adobe actually treats you like a partner and gives a fair share.
Sent from my SM-S918U1 using Tapatalk
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This Uncle Pete HodagMedia guy has been rude to me on Shutterstock forum and here. I'm not the one who attack somebody first. I'm only reacting to somebody being rude attacking me. That MFer only posts meaningless crap.
The amount of attacks I got from other contributors for posting it on Shutterstock was insane. Those people are turning other cheek to Shutterstock. Something I wouldn't do. After what Jon did to us last year reducing our pays instantly, honestly assessing his photos as "suck" was nothing. He's not an active contributor not dedicated to the art of creating stock photos/videos to pay some bills anymore. Do any of those people think he's crying because I called his photos "suck"? Come on man.
I have no problem anybody disagreeing with me, but you and some others do personal attacks against me. I'm only rude to those who are rude to me making personal attacks. I never start attacking people first. I only react to those who attack me. So, try being nice and respectful even when you disagree with somebody posting on forums. Learn to be a better person and a productive part of a society. That's my advice to you HodagMedia. I've never ridiculed and attacked others first on those forums like you and other useless trolls do. So, look at yourself in the mirror.
P.S. Mr. Oringer has a better stock photo portfolio than you do imo.
Bye.
It seems to be that you have relational difficulties with many other people here.
Paranoia often leads to aggression. Take care of yourself, there are professionals for these questions. ;)
You've been rude to me many times, but now playing a victim? ;D ;D
Rude? many times? ::) ::) ::) It seems to be there is a lot of confusion among you...
I think I have a capacity for expression that allows me to exchange in another, more civilized mode. The language of sheep is not my favorite, that said. ;D ;D ;D
Now sorry, I click "ignore", to value my time...
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A little bit more nuanced here: I had a rather decent month in sales volume at Shutterstock, considered January is never a good month.
But earnings are really low, RPD of 0,27. I can't recall seeing such a density of sales in the 10 - 20 cent range.
Level reset and climbing up is one thing, but there's something else too. Almost every S&O sale is the bare minimum of 10 cents.
To compensate, I had a very decent month at Adobe Stock. Ratio Shutterstock vs. Adobe is 1:2 with only half the portfolio size at Adobe.
There were times it was the other way around, and no matter what, Shutterstock came out first, leading with quite a big margin.
EU-based here.
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Despite doing the same amount of downloads I do every month (around 120), my earnings from those DL's were about 45% down from previous months. My downloads and earnings on Adobe are where I expect them to be.
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How's your video sales on SS compared to pre-video sub January 2020? Is it like 1/4 of January 2020?
January, 2020 was literally 10x higher than January, 2024.
184 sales in January, 2020 vs 95 last month, so I don't think the subscriptions was the ultimate culprit.
Wow. Thanks for the info. That pretty much cancels a possibility of me enabling video sales on Shutterstock. My video sale went down immediately after the video sub intro by 1/2 and now top producer like you're making 1/10? Not worth it and probably negatively affect my Pond5 sales.
You don't have any video on SS? Pond5 is owned by SS that's the end of them.
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How's your video sales on SS compared to pre-video sub January 2020? Is it like 1/4 of January 2020?
January, 2020 was literally 10x higher than January, 2024.
184 sales in January, 2020 vs 95 last month, so I don't think the subscriptions was the ultimate culprit.
Wow. Thanks for the info. That pretty much cancels a possibility of me enabling video sales on Shutterstock. My video sale went down immediately after the video sub intro by 1/2 and now top producer like you're making 1/10? Not worth it and probably negatively affect my Pond5 sales.
You don't have any video on SS? Pond5 is owned by SS that's the end of them.
Everybody knows SS owns Pond5.
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If not happy be mature, stop complainning and quit the place.
As soon as you give me a good alternative how to earn my livelihood I will do that. So far no one was able to and who would quit their job without having an alternative?
We share the same goal, earn a livelihood. And I revised my expectations significantly downwards.
Realize that you kill yourself your own future (and other's) using AI. See you in a near future with more complaints, since I've got ideas about what this leads to, since AI will be soon autonomic. Of course, one could argue that if you don't do it yourself, others will do (Only sheep expect others to act like sheep too) However, I remain convinced that I made the right choice not to provide ANY AI generated fake photo IMAGE (Because yes, they are not photographs, even though the platforms sell them as such).
My portfolios are in no way polluted by these images and they will perhaps be spared during the big clean-up (who will come in his time, whether by deleting certain contributor accounts or by the eviction of their images by algorithms, which will lead to the same), since for me, a photograph is a subject (often living), a real place, an existing moment, even the memory of an event, the transmission for the future, the reflection of the organic, a skill resulting from long training, a subtle and sensitive testimony, unsuspected creativity, a personal visual interpretation of reality, but also imperfection, accident, unpredictable, and therefore charm.
Is this really the tool you want to use to secure your future????
(https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cutting-branch-your-sitting-on-260nw-794340445.jpg)
I was under the impression this was a thread about Shutterstock and I am pretty sure I specifically talked about my Shutterstock earnings. Shutterstock does not even accept AI images.
So what in the world are you talking about...?
Omg, it's so low level here.
In any case, you did not respond to my message with anything intelligent, that would have surprised me.
Reread the topic, where is written "Adobe Stock" too... yes, the impression -you were under- was fake, as fake as the images you make the machines make by using AI.
Forget, have a lovely day, explore your keyboard typing your prompts, I will continue to enjoy exploring and promoting reality by using my eyes. :D
You just don't make any sense.
Just ignore this guy. It's the same pattern again and again. He ridicules people, then when get a harsh response, he plays a victim. There are a few others here with the same pattern. I ignore all of them. It's a waste of time. They don't add anything valuable to the conversation and never started a valuable conversation. Pathetic. I only deal with the vast majority of sane people with good manner.
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I haven't uploaded a photo in SS for a year... Of course, first reason is - 10c per photo is ridiculous, but the other reason is that, even with that small commision my photos get sometimes rejected... in iStockPhoto I still send photos sometimes, as they at least accept everything, and somehow I get better income from iStock, comparable with SS when they still had 38 cents.
I am still trying to find out why SS did that... Did they want to remove all small photo contributors from the site, or to earn something? I don't know. I guess only big contributors stayed there, but even then, they can not cover everything....
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The problem is, new content is almost impossible to sell.
I think that their politics to accept everything to become the largest database in the world has led the to purposely hide the new content. Accepting everything means that they accept even sh*t. I've seen ports that are beyond any imagination, and I'm speaking of 100K+ ports that really should not even exist.
What do you do if the search engine shows such a shame? You make that the search only shows popular and bestseller images. But how can a content become popular if it just does not exist when you search for it? The beginning of this disaster was in late 2016 and we're still paying those brilliant ideas.
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are anybody recieve payment from shutterstock this month?
usualy 3-5 of the month
but this month no letters no money
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What's with all these youtubers heavily promoting Shutterstock in their videos? They make all sorts of crazy claims in their videos about making ridiculously high amounts of money in a relatively short space of time. And typically, no mention of the negative aspects like the 10c subs or the annual level resets. I guess they do it for the views. Then you'd get a flood of new contributors wondering why they're not making big dollars on SS. Many of these new contributors probably don't even know how to take a decent photograph or may not be knowledgeable about photography in general.
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are anybody recieve payment from shutterstock this month?
usualy 3-5 of the month
but this month no letters no money
Nothing yet, not even the payment e-mail... Maybe another glitch...
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What's with all these youtubers heavily promoting Shutterstock in their videos?
Who? Are these recent videos or old ones when things were more profitable?
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i have seen the slump, because of the 0.10 image earn to contributos, no one can live in an inflation with that. so many contributors are not uploading there anymore.
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I'm curious to see the Q4 2023 financial report.
In Q3 2023 Shutterstock lost 56,000 subscribers from 2022 (from 607,000 to 551,000 at the end of September) and 6.4 million paid downloads (from 42.8 to 36.2)
Seeing the results of these first 40 days of 2024 I believe it has lost many more customers. Perhaps there could be some changes in their business model.
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I'm curious to see the Q4 2023 financial report.
In Q3 2023 Shutterstock lost 56,000 subscribers from 2022 (from 607,000 to 551,000 at the end of September) and 6.4 million paid downloads (from 42.8 to 36.2)
Seeing the results of these first 40 days of 2024 I believe it has lost many more customers. Perhaps there could be some changes in their business model.
I am very curious about that as well. I remember reading their statements that they were shifting to be a "data licensing company" for ai training and openly admitted that their stock income was not growing.
They did make 20 million with data licensing, versus 80 million with stock sales.
But the ai tool they are offering customers is pretty useless and they don't have a beautiful ai collection for buyers. If you look at the recent uploads a lot of quality content is no longer supplying them.
Their search results in commercial stock look very weak compared to Adobe.
They still have a good editorial selection and they still have the exclusive video content from pond5, but it looks like pond5 is losing clients as well.
But unless they have new management with a real vision, I doubt their income in stock will grow. They are literally handing it all over to Adobe and Getty with bad management.
I mean even for data licensing, why should companies license from SS if Adobe has much better content and Getty has lots of exclusive high quality content nobody else has?
So the data licensing market will get shifted to Adobe and Nvidia/Getty.
I am really worried about pond5 imploding. I would very much prefer if they were successful and thriving.
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are anybody recieve payment from shutterstock this month?
usualy 3-5 of the month
but this month no letters no money
I received payment today.
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If not happy be mature, stop complainning and quit the place.
As soon as you give me a good alternative how to earn my livelihood I will do that. So far no one was able to and who would quit their job without having an alternative?
We share the same goal, earn a livelihood. And I revised my expectations significantly downwards.
Realize that you kill yourself your own future (and other's) using AI. See you in a near future with more complaints, since I've got ideas about what this leads to, since AI will be soon autonomic. Of course, one could argue that if you don't do it yourself, others will do (Only sheep expect others to act like sheep too) However, I remain convinced that I made the right choice not to provide ANY AI generated fake photo IMAGE (Because yes, they are not photographs, even though the platforms sell them as such).
My portfolios are in no way polluted by these images and they will perhaps be spared during the big clean-up (who will come in his time, whether by deleting certain contributor accounts or by the eviction of their images by algorithms, which will lead to the same), since for me, a photograph is a subject (often living), a real place, an existing moment, even the memory of an event, the transmission for the future, the reflection of the organic, a skill resulting from long training, a subtle and sensitive testimony, unsuspected creativity, a personal visual interpretation of reality, but also imperfection, accident, unpredictable, and therefore charm.
Is this really the tool you want to use to secure your future????
(https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cutting-branch-your-sitting-on-260nw-794340445.jpg)
I was under the impression this was a thread about Shutterstock and I am pretty sure I specifically talked about my Shutterstock earnings. Shutterstock does not even accept AI images.
So what in the world are you talking about...?
Omg, it's so low level here.
In any case, you did not respond to my message with anything intelligent, that would have surprised me.
Reread the topic, where is written "Adobe Stock" too... yes, the impression -you were under- was fake, as fake as the images you make the machines make by using AI.
Forget, have a lovely day, explore your keyboard typing your prompts, I will continue to enjoy exploring and promoting reality by using my eyes. :D
You just don't make any sense.
Just ignore this guy. It's the same pattern again and again. He ridicule people, then when get a harsh response, he plays a victim. There are a few others here with the same pattern. I ignore all of them. It's a waste of time. They don't add anything valuable to the conversation and never started a valuable conversation. Pathetic. I only deal with the vast majority of sane people with good manner.
How do you answer and quote someone you have on ignore if you can't see them?
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What's with all these youtubers heavily promoting Shutterstock in their videos?
Who? Are these recent videos or old ones when things were more profitable?
I'm not noticing as many these days but some were still being produced and uploaded after SS made the commission changes.
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I see what you mean, I'll take that advice.
(https://i.postimg.cc/P5DGthyQ/blvdone-blocked-2024.jpg)
He writes to answer his own messages.
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Well, hopefully this is a new trend, but here on day 9 of February, and I've already surpassed all of January in sales/income for SS.
Fingers crossed...
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Well, hopefully this is a new trend, but here on day 9 of February, and I've already surpassed all of January in sales/income.
Fingers crossed...
You mean on Shutterstock? I only sell photos on Shutterstock, but as of now, I'm at 1/4 of January revenue on Shutterstock. So, it's not getting better.
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The problem is, new content is almost impossible to sell.
I think that their politics to accept everything to become the largest database in the world has led the to purposely hide the new content. Accepting everything means that they accept even sh*t. I've seen ports that are beyond any imagination, and I'm speaking of 100K+ ports that really should not even exist.
What do you do if the search engine shows such a shame? You make that the search only shows popular and bestseller images. But how can a content become popular if it just does not exist when you search for it? The beginning of this disaster was in late 2016 and we're still paying those brilliant ideas.
I fully agree with you that accepting everything of course leads to rubbish. But basically ShutterStock started to destroy the industry in the first place, by making downloads so cheap. That leads to mass production and acceptation of everything. So quantity above quality. My problem with SS is that they were going for both: and quantity and quality and that does not go together. So that is an additional push back.
If you make chip downloads and mass production, than allow everything, because for photographers to make any revenue, they need you upload bunch of everything. If you do not do that, it will make the death of stock faster. It will otherwise dye anyway, just slower.
So, they are now finishing what they started when they appeared - take the market, take the money, destroy everything and run. But hopefully Adobe has seen what happens and still hold the line somehow, making the death of whole market a bit slower...
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What's with all these youtubers heavily promoting Shutterstock in their videos?
Who? Are these recent videos or old ones when things were more profitable?
I'm not noticing as many these days but some were still being produced and uploaded after SS made the commission changes.
I bet they have referral links on the videos? That's the main reason for the hype.
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But basically ShutterStock started to destroy the industry in the first place, by making downloads so cheap. That leads to mass production and acceptation of everything.
You mean Microstock or Subscriptions or both?
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How's your video sales on SS compared to pre-video sub January 2020? Is it like 1/4 of January 2020?
January, 2020 was literally 10x higher than January, 2024.
184 sales in January, 2020 vs 95 last month, so I don't think the subscriptions was the ultimate culprit.
Wow. Thanks for the info. That pretty much cancels a possibility of me enabling video sales on Shutterstock. My video sale went down immediately after the video sub intro by 1/2 and now top producer like you're making 1/10? Not worth it and probably negatively affect my Pond5 sales.
You don't have any video on SS? Pond5 is owned by SS that's the end of them.
It's the genius type who hate SS, hate AS, hate all other except Pond 5, owned by SS. They remove all of their video and go Pond 5 exclusive to help make SS rich. Then come here every day to tell how terrible video sales are at the rest.
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I had a bunch of $2.55 photo sales on Shutterstock today. Now SS sales this month is up to 1/6 of Adobe Stock photo sales. Don't count them out yet!!
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My stats for this month:
SS downloads (mix) 2.5x more than AS
SS RPD (mix) 0.65$ (AS RDP is over 1$ per file (mix))
SS earnings 1.5x more than AS
I see a small decrease in income on SS side mostly due the video income, on images im doing better than last year, on AS I see an increase of income almost 30% in the first 2 months compared with the average of last year.
Overall both agencies are bringing more income montly than last year.
0 AI images.
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For the February 2024 on Shutterstock photo sales, I'm 40% down in revenue and 10% down in number of downloads compared to 2023 February. I added about 1.5% more photos than February 2023.
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So far this month in January 2024. This is sad. It's on pace for only 1/2 the January 2023 sales. Shutterstock used to be the King. Whatever gone wrong there.
Shutterstock used to pay us $0.38 minimum for subscription sale like Adobe Stock does. Since they introduced wonderful $0.10 photo sub commission, contributor enthusiasm seem eroded. Probably Shutterstock nowadays doesn't get as many upcoming (https://upcomingslots.com/) quality photos or videos as Adobe Stock does. They still own Pond5 now. So, they get the best stock videos on Pond5. But for the photos, Adobe Stock is the King now, no question. They totally had a wrong approach toward contributors belittling us while Adobe Stock is trying to work with us. Big mistake.
Totally agree with you
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My February, 2024 SS income is up 157% from January, but is still way down from the heyday of stock earnings.
January, 2024 was a complete trainwreck on SS. Hopefully my February numbers are the start of a new upward trend.
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My stats for this month:
SS downloads (mix) 2.5x more than AS
SS RPD (mix) 0.65$ (AS RDP is over 1$ per file (mix))
SS earnings 1.5x more than AS
I see a small decrease in income on SS side mostly due the video income, on images im doing better than last year, on AS I see an increase of income almost 30% in the first 2 months compared with the average of last year.
Overall both agencies are bringing more income montly than last year.
0 AI images.
You don’t upload to istock?
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SS will not last more than 3 years, victim of AI and its own greed the infamous agency will have a slow death.
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So far this month only 1/14 of Adobe Stock's photo sales earning. On its way to less than $100/month earning on SS. I used to make average of $600/month from photos on Shutterstock. This is disastrous. I wouldn't recommend anybody starting stock photo today to upload to Shutterstock. Adobe Stock is the only site worth your time uploading and tagging. Sad.
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So far this month only 1/14 of Adobe Stock's photo sales earning. On its way to less than $100/month earning on SS. I used to make average of $600/month from photos on Shutterstock. This is disastrous. I wouldn't recommend anybody starting stock photo today to upload to Shutterstock. Adobe Stock is the only site worth your time uploading and tagging. Sad.
Looks like video is headed in the same direction. I stopped uploading photos on Shutterstock months ago and now going to pause on uploading videos. I'll restart if video earnings-per-download pick up again but given the last 3 months of pitiful commissions it is not worth it. Video RPD on Shutterstock is now much worse than Adobe Stock.
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Looks like video is headed in the same direction. I stopped uploading photos on Shutterstock months ago and now going to pause on uploading videos. I'll restart if video earnings-per-download pick up again but given the last 3 months of pitiful commissions it is not worth it. Video RPD on Shutterstock is now much worse than Adobe Stock.
In 2024, I have the same video RPD on Shutterstock ($6.06) and Adobe Stock ($6.08), with Shutterstock offering lower commissions. However, my level on Shutterstock is about to reach level 3, so in the upcoming weeks, my RPD on Shutterstock will likely increase and surpass Adobe Stock.
In contrast to Adobe Stock, I occasionally receive large value sales ranging from $60 to $130 on Shutterstock, particularly for niche content. In a crowded market, it is becoming increasingly crucial to find a profitable niche to succeed. To do so, one must use one's "unfair advantage(s)," but I assume most experienced contributors are already aware of that.
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Woah! Sad that Adobe's video RPD has dropped that low. Considering that video downloads are only worth 3x image downloads for their bonus program, does that imply they are expecting video RPD's to drop even lower?
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I started to price my top selling videos on Pond5 at $299/HD and $399/4k. I get 60% commission as exclusive. I did a research and found customers actually pay top $$ for quality content they really need. I already had a few sales at $299/HD this week.
https://www.pond5.com/community?thread=246291911&page=1 (https://www.pond5.com/community?thread=246291911&page=1)
"Pricing is a difficult thing on Pond5. I see 2 successful high-price contributors.
FilmPac and FilmRaw. They are not related, I think.
FilmPac joined Pond5 16 months ago in late October 2022. They have nearly 100k videos priced at $299/HD and $399/HD. I checked their portfolio and found their clips have sold 954 times in those 16 months. If they were exclusive getting 60% royalty, my guess was their RPD would be about $200. 954 x $200 = $190,800. If I divide it by 10 to make it equivalent to a portfolio of 10,000 clips, it's $19,080. Divide it by 1.3 years = $14,677/year. I was actually surprised to see they are selling that much at the high price. Also looking at what kind of clips have sold, I felt like why not my clips sell at that high price too?
https://www.pond5.com/search?kw=salegt:0&media=footage&artist=Filmpac_for_Pond5 (https://www.pond5.com/search?kw=salegt:0&media=footage&artist=Filmpac_for_Pond5)
FilmRaw seems much more successful than FilmPac at similar $329/HD and $389/4k price setting.
https://www.pond5.com/artist/filmraw (https://www.pond5.com/artist/filmraw)
49 clips out of 12k clips have sold 5 times or more. That's equivalent of 20 sales for regular price $79/HD clips. Also, 15 clips out of 49 clips with 5 or more sales are from 2020 and after if you sort by "New".
https://www.pond5.com/search?kw=salegt:4&media=footage&artist=FilmRAW (https://www.pond5.com/search?kw=salegt:4&media=footage&artist=FilmRAW)
So, I'm experimenting by changing all my best sellers to $299/HD and $399/4K. At this price, if I sell more than 1/4 as often as before, I'll end up making more from those clips. I hope this will work well."
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It's hard to understand how it's possible to destroy an agency so totally. It's 10th March, and I'm still not past the $2 mark at SS this month. Adobe and DT are already well on their way to improve drastically on last year's result.
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Yesterday I got a new level (video). But!!! CC shows only 45 sales. There are no returns this year. According to the photo, I moved to a new level 35 sales earlier than the statistics show.
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I was sorting through ancient files to discard/shred and "the old days" were even better compared to now than I recalled. I started with ss in late 2008 and by 2009, with 100 files I averaged $60 a month - I made roughly that much all year in 2023 with 600 images.
I know I have a small portfolio and I put it on hold after the 10 cent subs, so it was shockingly slow when I reinstated my portfolio in the second half of 2022, compounded by not uploading.
Eventually, I started uploaded editorial at the same time I add it to Alamy & DT, and some of those images sold within days of upload, but none are getting the multiple downloads that used to be common. Add to that SODs for 10-20 cents and it's just untenable. Income in 2024 is higher than 2023, but it is still really pitiful; not hard to see an increase when most months I only made enough for a cup of coffee.
Perennial low earner DT has consistently beaten ss every single month but one since I reinstated my account. I have 522 images on DT, so about 80 fewer images there.
I earn more most days on Adobe than I earn in a month on ss. I have 900 images on Adobe so 50% more than on ss, but I earn well over 10x as much there.