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With new earning structure made by Shutterstock will you disable your portfolio?

Disable photo and video
130 (47.3%)
Disable only photo
15 (5.5%)
Disable only video
21 (7.6%)
Disable nothing
76 (27.6%)
Quit Shutterstock
33 (12%)

Total Members Voted: 263

Author Topic: With new earning structure made by Shutterstock will you disable your portfolio?  (Read 56515 times)

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Justanotherphotographer

« Reply #175 on: June 03, 2020, 05:42 »
+1
A lot of people wont be able to disable straight away but will instead stop uploading. If we can get enough buyers to other agencies before January the sting of losing the lower percentage then will be even less.


« Reply #176 on: June 03, 2020, 05:43 »
+2
0,10$, 0,20$, 0,13$, 0,14$, sales have plummeted for me and those that I get are mostly less than 0,20$, with that pace I'm not even going to reach payout. I'll wait till the end of month and then I'm out of that shithole.

I'm level 4 btw.

« Reply #177 on: June 03, 2020, 05:44 »
+4
Everybody should put in their portfolio description for customers, that they should buy images at adobe stock.

« Reply #178 on: June 03, 2020, 05:46 »
+7
Deactivated mine right away - 4000 photos and vectors

« Reply #179 on: June 03, 2020, 05:49 »
+3
Everybody should put in their portfolio description for customers, that they should buy images at adobe stock.

I would not advice to do that, not with Shutterstock's tactics to permanently terminate accounts if they do something they don't like and that would probably be on top of their list.
If people are 100% certain that they will not want to return to SS ever, even not should they possibly change their roality structure again, then yes, but I assume these people would have terminated their account permanently anyways, not just disabled sales.

H2O

    This user is banned.
« Reply #180 on: June 03, 2020, 06:05 »
+2
Just a little remark - on the positive side, this time:
In our German speaking forums, someone's started jotting down the total amount of images available on Shutterstock at a given time. (You get the data in real time, if you use the search box without entering a keyword.)
Between yesterday in the morning (MET) and now (1:52 am) - so, a little more than 12 hours - almost 140,000 images have been deleted or disabled. Not (yet) enough to hurt them, but sure for a clear signal in their direction. :)

And you can add that on a normal day it should be rising by about 200.000. Let's say, by 100.000 in half a day.

It has been around 170.000 images that have been deactivated or deleted between yesterday and today, if my math is correctly, but despite people deleting/deactivating images, there are still more images added daily than deleted.
I seriously doubt that Shutterstock cares. The number has been growing way too fast anyways and you could tell from the yearly sales reports that it has no real influence on SS's income and contributors' earnings. More images in the database simply does not mean more customers/sales. Customers still buy the images they need and whether they have a selection of 1000 images of sunflowers or 10.000 images to pick from makes no difference to them. They'll find one suitable among 1000 already, they don't need a selection of 10.000 and a bigger selection won't make them buy more sunflower images if one is all they need.
That's why I feel like, as long as the overall number of images is still going up, SS will not really care. They might even welcome the slower growth. The recent changes in the similar image rules and, at least what I hear from other contributors, overall more stricter reviews, make it seem like gaining as many new images as possible is not their prefered strategy anymore.

This maybe so for the likes of Sunflowers, the real talent and creative work will be deleted and the content that remains will become stale.

The buyers are usually designers and they are discerning in what they choose.

Sunflowers maybe OK for the public but designers always want more and are generally willing to pay a premium to get what they want.

Shutterstock without buyers are dead in the water.

anon20200611

« Reply #181 on: June 03, 2020, 06:19 »
+2
I monitor at least 100 searches of interest in terms of saturation to keep track of supply vs demand. After all those people "deactivating" I ended up seeing a steady increase in shutterstock saturation this week in all my hot searches like nothing ever changed. If 60% of contributors had deactivated portfolios like stated here, it would have reflected on the number of the provided images.

Especially for newbies, don't believe everything you read in here. I don't think everybody is honest. Many are here just to collect information and not in spirit to team up.

« Reply #182 on: June 03, 2020, 06:21 »
+2
Everybody should put in their portfolio description for customers, that they should buy images at adobe stock.
Please don't, it apparently causes an immidiate portfolio ban

Sent from my HD1901 using Tapatalk


« Reply #183 on: June 03, 2020, 06:23 »
+1

This maybe so for the likes of Sunflowers, the real talent and creative work will be deleted and the content that remains will become stale.

The buyers are usually designers and they are discerning in what they choose.

Sunflowers maybe OK for the public but designers always want more and are generally willing to pay a premium to get what they want.

Shutterstock without buyers are dead in the water.

I just named sunflowers as en extreme example, because that's certainly an oversaturated topic. (over 770.000 search results on SS)
But I am sure it can be applied to everything, even if it is  on a smaller sale.
Take a more specific topic, let's say "Woman sitting on chair at dentist". That still gives me over 27.000 results. Do customers need a selection of 27.000 such photos? Certainly just as little as 1000 of these would be enough to let a customer find something he needs, probably even just 100.

Of course a lot of quality photographers who have to pay for high end gear, models, studios, etc. might leave. But even if half of them leave Shutterstock, they are still left with 13.500 photos of women sitting in chairs at dentists. It's hard to imagine that a customer looking for a photo of a woman at a dentist can't find a suitable image with 13.500 images to pick from and even harder to imagine that the customer will even go through all 135 pages of search results. He will probably pick the best he can find for his purpose on the first 1-5 pages and everything more than that is just sead weight for SS.

I wish it was different, but I am afraid a lot of contributors here overestimate how much Shutterstock cares about deactivated photos or accounts.
« Last Edit: June 03, 2020, 06:58 by Firn »

« Reply #184 on: June 03, 2020, 06:29 »
+5
I monitor at least 100 searches of interest in terms of saturation to keep track of supply vs demand. After all those people "deactivating" I ended up seeing a steady increase in shutterstock saturation this week in all my hot searches like nothing ever changed. If 60% of contributors had deactivated portfolios like stated here, it would have reflected on the number of the provided images.

Especially for newbies, don't believe everything you read in here. I don't think everybody is honest. Many are here just to collect information and not in spirit to team up.
I think a large chunk is just waiting for their money to be paid out. Its crazy how SS has been reacting to things

Sent from my HD1901 using Tapatalk


H2O

    This user is banned.
« Reply #185 on: June 03, 2020, 06:58 »
+2

This maybe so for the likes of Sunflowers, the real talent and creative work will be deleted and the content that remains will become stale.

The buyers are usually designers and they are discerning in what they choose.

Sunflowers maybe OK for the public but designers always want more and are generally willing to pay a premium to get what they want.

Shutterstock without buyers are dead in the water.

I just named sunflowers as en extreme example, because that's certainly an oversaturated topic. (over 770.000 search results on SS)
But I am sure it can be applied to everything, even if it is  on a smaller sale.
Take a more specific topic, let's say "Woman sitting on chair at dentist". That still gives me over 27.000 results. Do customers need a selection of 27.000 such photos? Certainly just as little as 1000 of these would be enough to let a customer find something he needs, probably even just 100.

Of course a lot of quality photographers who have to pay for high end gear, models, studios, etc. might leave. But even if half of them leave Shutterstock, they are still left with 13.500 photos of women sitting in chairs at dentists. It's hard to imagine that a customer looking for a photo of a woman at a dentist can't find a suitable image with 13.500 images to pick from.

I wish it was different, but I am afraid a lot of contributors here overestimate how much Shutterstock cares about deactivated photos or accounts.


Dentist imagery will become out of date, within five years, all industries move on, when you are dealing with clients in the dentistry or medical sectors the demand that the imagery is up to date.

This scenario applies across the board of all professions.

As a designer I can tell you that when I search for imagery I am looking for the best content and will not accept second rate pictures, in fact I will go to extreme lengths to make sure I get them.

Shutterstock simply do not understand what they are dealing with, there main contracts will be with bean counters in large agencies, but in the studio's of those companies the art directors and designers will put pressure on them to move, when they can't get the content they need.

Smaller advertising and design agencies will just move there buying, not because of the content, but because of the ethics, most designers are ethically minded.

This leaves the large Corporations who simply don't care, but over time, maybe as long as five years, they will move because the lead and pressure would have been set in place by the add and design agencies, some of these people will cross migrate to in house design departments, bringing this thinking with them.


Shutterstock is finished, it will take about five years, as they turn from the shiny out of town Shopping Mall that had everything, to a run down and out of date place with a lack of great content.

The thing with all shopping Malls is they have lead retailers, without these they are nothing and as the talent is now walking this is exactly what is happening to Shutterstock.

« Reply #186 on: June 03, 2020, 07:02 »
+2

Dentist imagery will become out of date, within five years, all industries move on, when you are dealing with clients in the dentistry or medical sectors the demand that the imagery is up to date.


You can continue to argue against every completely random example I picked to get a point across, it's not changing anything. Just pick an example yourself and think about whether you think it will make a difference to customers and Shuttesrtock whether they have 100.000 images of that topic in their database or "just" 50.000. images.

« Reply #187 on: June 03, 2020, 07:16 »
+2
Well, if we argue with your arguments, than SS doesn't need any more images because pretty much everything is in their databse, right?

« Reply #188 on: June 03, 2020, 07:25 »
0
For most people who want a little image to stick on a website, blog or small article im sure they do have enough.
Whilst i agree some things are time sensitive (Medical, aviation, tech etc) a lot arent.
A palm tree on a beach is a palm tree on a beach regardless of 2005 or 2020 for example.

So *most* is likely covered.  There'll still be enough contributors to top-up their database.  As much as we'd like to see it, SS image library is going to continue to grow.

Not everyone spends ages looking for exactly the right image.  I know a lot who buy off stock and they're writing articles and so on with deadlines.  They just want the image that'll do the job to illustrate whats needed in the shortest possible time, submit the article then get started on the next.  Quality hasnt got to be great, just adequate.
Thats the difference between a designer and an author.
SS quite likely will satisfy the latter.  And they'll push offset/custom for the rest.

« Reply #189 on: June 03, 2020, 08:25 »
+2
You can continue to argue against every completely random example I picked to get a point across, it's not changing anything. Just pick an example yourself and think about whether you think it will make a difference to customers and Shuttesrtock whether they have 100.000 images of that topic in their database or "just" 50.000. images.

You are also discounting the effect the numbers will have on investors. Shittystick made the growth of its collection one of its main pillars in pitching to investors over the last 18 months. Now, especially if other agencies totals increase, they are going to be in the same awkward position as the UK government. For seven weeks the government briefings showed how UK COVID-19 cases and deaths were in the middle of worldwide comparisons. Then the cases and deaths rose above all other countries and, suddenly, the figures stopped being displayed in the press conferences because they were no longer relevant. Shittystick will have the same problem in reverse about growth in their collection.

Whether its dentists, tomatoes, sunflowers or marijuana, SS may have plenty of images but who is going to pay for studio time, models and props for the images which really sell if the return is 10c? And there may be plenty photographers in rural India happy to earn 10c a snap (and may be very good photographers) but they are going to struggle to satisfy requirements of tall fair-skinned blonde woman in snowy city street or village life in Transylvania. 

H2O

    This user is banned.
« Reply #190 on: June 03, 2020, 08:38 »
0

Dentist imagery will become out of date, within five years, all industries move on, when you are dealing with clients in the dentistry or medical sectors the demand that the imagery is up to date.


You can continue to argue against every completely random example I picked to get a point across, it's not changing anything. Just pick an example yourself and think about whether you think it will make a difference to customers and Shuttesrtock whether they have 100.000 images of that topic in their database or "just" 50.000. images.

You are not reading my entire post, or not taking onboard the overall picture, Shutterstock is finished, their content will become dated and stale.

It doesn't matter how many pictures you have of whatever, if they all look pre-2020, designers won't buy them, design and photo styles come and go.

Within 5 years Shutterstock will look very dated, with old content. All the talent will be on other sites, no serious photographer in their right mind will be uploading to them in the Western World.

Designers who buy the pictures are going to change to other sites, not just because the content will be dated, but also because they are generally ethical minded.
 

« Reply #191 on: June 03, 2020, 08:43 »
+1

Dentist imagery will become out of date, within five years, all industries move on, when you are dealing with clients in the dentistry or medical sectors the demand that the imagery is up to date.


You can continue to argue against every completely random example I picked to get a point across, it's not changing anything. Just pick an example yourself and think about whether you think it will make a difference to customers and Shuttesrtock whether they have 100.000 images of that topic in their database or "just" 50.000. images.

You are not reading my entire post, or not taking onboard the overall picture, Shutterstock is finished, their content will become dated and stale.

It doesn't matter how many pictures you have of whatever, if they all look pre-2020, designers won't buy them, design and photo styles come and go.

Within 5 years Shutterstock will look very dated, with old content. All the talent will be on other sites, no serious photographer in their right mind will be uploading to them in the Western World.

Designers who buy the pictures are going to change to other sites, not just because the content will be dated, but also because they are generally ethical minded.

What's the point of arguing about this?
There are many topics with time sensitivity, and many topics with no time sensitivity at all.
Yes, they need to have some fresh things covered.
Yet if a look at my sales a shutterstock even in 2020, most of the pictures sold were shot between 2005 and 2009, even tough i've been uploading constantly since then


« Reply #192 on: June 03, 2020, 08:52 »
+1
Just bought a sh*t ton of puts on SSTK. ;D

Forget their new dime per download chump-change royalty program, Ill be making bank when the bottom falls out of the share price.  8)

« Reply #193 on: June 03, 2020, 09:23 »
+2
Here's an idea: A petition stating that on 1st of July all the contributors that sign it will disable their portfolios for 3 days.
Now - for this to work it's necessary to reach big contributors with big portfolios, to really make an impact. It's a matter mostly of how to contact them, rather than them doing the 3-days pullout, because I saw on forums contributors with hundreds of thousands of images saying they will stop uploading. If the petition gathers only level 3-4 portfolios with few hundreds to few thousands images it's no good.
BUT, imagine that if we muster a total of 30% of the whole SS library to simply disappear for 3 days, it would definitely make an impact, like a strike. Surely, the big contributors will take a pay hit but they're already taking what SS served us, so I'm thinking it's worth it.
The meaning of this would be for SS to acknowledge the fact that without us they're not worth not even 10 cents and to listen.
I am doing stock full time, I have a portfolio of almost 50.000 images and some 2500 videos and I cannot simply disable my portfolio forever. I need to sustain my family and the SS money MUST come in. However, I stopped uploading and will not resume until all this is cleared up and we know where we stand. Also, I can and I am willing to take a 3 day even 5 day paycut, just to smack SS in the back of the head and let them know that they have to change their appalling royalties scheme. Or there can be strike 2, strike 3 and so on.
In my view, this would be more effective than some bad reviews on trustpilot and whatnot, but we have to get together on this somehow. I never made a petition or whatever is needed to put this idea in practice, therefore I encourage more learned people to do it.

« Reply #194 on: June 03, 2020, 09:39 »
+1
Here's an idea: A petition stating that on 1st of July all the contributors that sign it will disable their portfolios for 3 days.
Now - for this to work it's necessary to reach big contributors with big portfolios, to really make an impact. It's a matter mostly of how to contact them, rather than them doing the 3-days pullout, because I saw on forums contributors with hundreds of thousands of images saying they will stop uploading. If the petition gathers only level 3-4 portfolios with few hundreds to few thousands images it's no good.
BUT, imagine that if we muster a total of 30% of the whole SS library to simply disappear for 3 days, it would definitely make an impact, like a strike. Surely, the big contributors will take a pay hit but they're already taking what SS served us, so I'm thinking it's worth it.
The meaning of this would be for SS to acknowledge the fact that without us they're not worth not even 10 cents and to listen.
I am doing stock full time, I have a portfolio of almost 50.000 images and some 2500 videos and I cannot simply disable my portfolio forever. I need to sustain my family and the SS money MUST come in. However, I stopped uploading and will not resume until all this is cleared up and we know where we stand. Also, I can and I am willing to take a 3 day even 5 day paycut, just to smack SS in the back of the head and let them know that they have to change their appalling royalties scheme. Or there can be strike 2, strike 3 and so on.
In my view, this would be more effective than some bad reviews on trustpilot and whatnot, but we have to get together on this somehow. I never made a petition or whatever is needed to put this idea in practice, therefore I encourage more learned people to do it.

I can't see a situation in which the top earners didn't have fore warning of this and cut their own deal, throwing us under the bus in the process. Part of our cut will pay for their deal.

Chichikov

« Reply #195 on: June 03, 2020, 09:42 »
+5
Here's an idea: []


Thousand of contributors have already closed their account or disabled their portfolio.

« Reply #196 on: June 03, 2020, 09:47 »
+1
Here's an idea: []


Thousand of contributors have already closed their account or disabled their portfolio.

Surely not thousands and surely very small portfolios in the vast majority. As I said, not nearly enough.

Clair Voyant

« Reply #197 on: June 03, 2020, 10:34 »
+8
To all of the above replies...

Honestly the powers that be at Shutterstock won't miss you if you decide to pull your portfolio. Accept it.

If you don't want to sell your work for less than it costs to produce then do the right thing for yourself, get out of Shutterstock for the sake of your own humility. And if your own sense of self worth is in this range, then keep your images up.

Between the incompetent reviewers over the last 6 months, strategies on how to re-submit 2-5 times just to get accepted, and now this 6 day notification of a 60% decrease in royalties, you are only hurting yourself by sticking around.

You think being at level whatever is sh!tty? just wait till January 1 when you all go down to Level 1.


I have more self respect for myself than to do this dance and neither am I a charity to a publicly traded greedy company.

It's your choice folks.





« Last Edit: June 03, 2020, 10:38 by Clair Voyant »

« Reply #198 on: June 03, 2020, 10:37 »
0


You are not reading my entire post, or not taking onboard the overall picture, Shutterstock is finished, their content will become dated and stale.

It doesn't matter how many pictures you have of whatever, if they all look pre-2020, designers won't buy them, design and photo styles come and go.


Yeah, it seems we are talking past each other.
I read that, but on my side of the argument I kept reapeating that "even if 50% of all contributors leave Shutterstock it won't hurt them", because I am 100% convinced that not all will leave, not even the bigger  part of them, because for many people this is a main income. So what I am saying is that even if they have 50% less dentist photos (current + newly added in the future, so not outdated), they still have more than enough photos.

« Reply #199 on: June 03, 2020, 10:53 »
+7
Here's an idea: []


Thousand of contributors have already closed their account or disabled their portfolio.

Surely not thousands and surely very small portfolios in the vast majority. As I said, not nearly enough.

You haven't checked out what's been going on.

Between last night and this morning - i.e. less than 24 hours - there were nearly 200,000 fewer images & illustrations on Shutterstock. Remember the boast up top that says they add 171,000 images daily. So the swing in less than 24 hours is at least 370k

That doesn't count the big name producers, or video - like eyeidea yesterday - who have an impact beyond their numbers. When a sizeable portion of the saleable content leaves, you have the millions of image spam portfolios which no one cares about as it doesn't sell

https://twitter.com/joannsnover/status/1268201397230551040

And later on the morning the number has grown to over 445k removed - over half a mlllion swing in less than a day

https://twitter.com/joannsnover/status/1268231587025391617
« Last Edit: June 03, 2020, 12:57 by Jo Ann Snover »


 

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