New earnings structure for Contributors

[Wilm Ihlenfeld]

1 hour ago, Primus1 said:

What an image port you have! Splendid! I've noticed you are video specialized too. Very, very nice. Wish you best with your work.

Yes, I agree!

[Piotr Krzeslak]

1 hour ago, Primus1 said:

What an image port you have! Splendid! I've noticed you are video specialized too. Very, very nice. Wish you best with your work.

Thank You guys! Nice to hear it. I'm level 5 and 90% of my earnings here are 0,10$. Totally waste of time. From 1 june my portoflio growing only on other stock sites. Uploading here is pointless. 

[Primus1]

3 minutes ago, Piotr Krzeslak said:

Thank You guys! Nice to hear it. I'm level 5 and 90% of my earnings here are 0,10$. Totally waste of time. From 1 june my portoflio growing only on other stock sites. Uploading here is pointless. 

You are welcome! Yes, it is pointless. Sad. :(

[Tony Dunn]

20 hours ago, Whiteaster said:

That is surprising, I didn't know they have such commissions too.

No Alamy don't  I see that he meant 15 x $0.10 = a  $1.50 sale! which sounds very low for them.

[jjmillan]

¿Alguien ve las ultimas fotos aceptadas ?

[Tony ALS]

3 hours ago, Tony Dunn said:

No Alamy don't  I see that he meant 15 x $0.10 = a  $1.50 sale! which sounds very low for them.

It is low for Alamy but at least it's not $0.10. There is some stunning work in SS's database which deserves so much more. 

[NAXStock]

On 8/6/2020 at 2:00 AM, RoJo Images said:

The answer is simple .... delete your images.

Same situation here, but I cannot even see my files, never mind delete them. My portfolio shows nil files, yet I just sold three after disabling my account.

[Don Landwehrle]

Personally I find this all very sad. Back in the day I had some photos sell through TIB for 4 and 5 figures. When a great man, Larry Fried passed away TIB changed for the worse. Bean counters came in and changed the way things were run. The people in charge went for short term profits at the loss of long term profits. It did not take long. Then came computers and digital. The drop of prices accelerated. What would take years and many rolls of expensive film and processing to learn was thrown out the window. I use to be able to go to something like fireworks and knew maybe 1 other person knew how to capture them. Now, take a photo on your digital camera, repeat, repeat, repeat, now I have a photo. Then came micro stock. Pros were reluctant to go there, but with sales at traditional agencies plummeting they did, me included. The quality at MS agencies went up. Photographers made money on volume but not like it was. The Dollar Photo Club was a harbinger of things to come. Most stopped submitting and it killed the DPC. Now we have .10¢ Shutterstock royalties. I turned off my portfolio after about 7 days of seeing the results. It was always questionable about it being worth my time to upload to any micro stock agency. When Getty finally axed their RM images and offered15% RF royalty I decided it was time to end my relationship with them. Now that SS has dropped our commission and increased their percentage I decided to drop them. The real problem is I fail to see is how any photographer can create quality images at the current rates of compensation to the photographers. I enjoyed knowing people would pay money to use my images. They felt my images were worth purchasing. I now find myself with literally over one hundred thousand beautiful salable images that will probably NEVER be seen by anyone except myself. I continue to shoot photos for myself but like I said, other than self satisfaction, no one will ever see them. A sad time for sure. For income I will be looking for something else to do. For anyone who would like to see what SS and most likely the other MS sites will be missing you can see my images here...  http://landwehrle.com

[Tony Dunn]

10 hours ago, Don Landwehrle said:

Personally I find this all very sad. Back in the day I had some photos sell through TIB for 4 and 5 figures. When a great man, Larry Fried passed away TIB changed for the worse. Bean counters came in and changed the way things were run. The people in charge went for short term profits at the loss of long term profits. It did not take long. Then came computers and digital. The drop of prices accelerated. What would take years and many rolls of expensive film and processing to learn was thrown out the window. I use to be able to go to something like fireworks and knew maybe 1 other person knew how to capture them. Now, take a photo on your digital camera, repeat, repeat, repeat, now I have a photo. Then came micro stock. Pros were reluctant to go there, but with sales at traditional agencies plummeting they did, me included. The quality at MS agencies went up. Photographers made money on volume but not like it was. The Dollar Photo Club was a harbinger of things to come. Most stopped submitting and it killed the DPC. Now we have .10¢ Shutterstock royalties. I turned off my portfolio after about 7 days of seeing the results. It was always questionable about it being worth my time to upload to any micro stock agency. When Getty finally axed their RM images and offered15% RF royalty I decided it was time to end my relationship with them. Now that SS has dropped our commission and increased their percentage I decided to drop them. The real problem is I fail to see is how any photographer can create quality images at the current rates of compensation to the photographers. I enjoyed knowing people would pay money to use my images. They felt my images were worth purchasing. I now find myself with literally over one hundred thousand beautiful salable images that will probably NEVER be seen by anyone except myself. I continue to shoot photos for myself but like I said, other than self satisfaction, no one will ever see them. A sad time for sure. For income I will be looking for something else to do. For anyone who would like to see what SS and most likely the other MS sites will be missing you can see my images here...  http://landwehrle.com

your pictures are too good for Micro Stock. Have you tried Alamy?

[Dobrin_Dobrev]

I have mixed feelings about the new earning structure. 

Most of my downloads are 0,10$. 

I have one download which i got 1,47$ 

Some 0,44$

And for my last download I got 9$. I was shocked when I saw it yesterday. 

I'm level 1 and my main is uploading photos. I've never got more than 1,88$ for downloaded photo before structure changes. May be this was a pure luck.

I hope for more of these downloads for all. 

[jjmillan]

Los nazis calcularon cual era la cantidad de comida mínima para sus trabajadores esclavos .Lo que no se dieron cuenta es que las armas que estos fabricaban salían defectuosas.

[baypinar]

5 hours ago, Don Landwehrle said:

Personally I find this all very sad. Back in the day I had some photos sell through TIB for 4 and 5 figures. When a great man, Larry Fried passed away TIB changed for the worse. Bean counters came in and changed the way things were run. The people in charge went for short term profits at the loss of long term profits. It did not take long. Then came computers and digital. The drop of prices accelerated. What would take years and many rolls of expensive film and processing to learn was thrown out the window. I use to be able to go to something like fireworks and knew maybe 1 other person knew how to capture them. Now, take a photo on your digital camera, repeat, repeat, repeat, now I have a photo. Then came micro stock. Pros were reluctant to go there, but with sales at traditional agencies plummeting they did, me included. The quality at MS agencies went up. Photographers made money on volume but not like it was. The Dollar Photo Club was a harbinger of things to come. Most stopped submitting and it killed the DPC. Now we have .10¢ Shutterstock royalties. I turned off my portfolio after about 7 days of seeing the results. It was always questionable about it being worth my time to upload to any micro stock agency. When Getty finally axed their RM images and offered15% RF royalty I decided it was time to end my relationship with them. Now that SS has dropped our commission and increased their percentage I decided to drop them. The real problem is I fail to see is how any photographer can create quality images at the current rates of compensation to the photographers. I enjoyed knowing people would pay money to use my images. They felt my images were worth purchasing. I now find myself with literally over one hundred thousand beautiful salable images that will probably NEVER be seen by anyone except myself. I continue to shoot photos for myself but like I said, other than self satisfaction, no one will ever see them. A sad time for sure. For income I will be looking for something else to do. For anyone who would like to see what SS and most likely the other MS sites will be missing you can see my images here...  http://landwehrle.com

Since the founder of SS has sold his stocks before the new earnings structure, I think the intention is not to save the suppliers, but rather cannibalistically eat the 330.000.000 images to the benefit of stockholders. Yes, history may repeat, so SS could vanish, or it may get easier to be merged  or acquired by another agency which roughly attracts similar artists (i.e. istockphoto) by avoiding duplicate accounts. The MS industry seems to have already a lot of experience on mergers and acquisitions. 

On the other hand, technological progress has made the technology available to many people, and this brings other benefits. By cheaper imagery systems, we all benefit better health diagnostics, etc. So it is not a completely sad story. Besides, it made it a more even playground for people from lower income countries.  On the other hand the new income structure still plays to the hands of artists from higher income countries which have accumulated thousands of photos throughout the years against newcomers who still has to pay much more to cameras comparatively due to low purchasing power of their local currencies. So, probably you will be able to survive but others wont. Please don't take this comment offensively, it is just taking into account a more global perspective. Best regards. 

[baypinar]

1 hour ago, Dobrin_Dobrev said:

I have mixed feelings about the new earning structure. 

Most of my downloads are 0,10$. 

I have one download which i got 1,47$ 

Some 0,44$

And for my last download I got 9$. I was shocked when I saw it yesterday. 

I'm level 1 and my main is uploading photos. I've never got more than 1,88$ for downloaded photo before structure changes. May be this was a pure luck.

I hope for more of these downloads for all. 

Interestingly you have very similar photos accepted and they are selling. Often when I submit similar images, only one is accepted. This decreases chances of sale for me, as potential customers may want slightly different versions of an image.

Most of your 0.10$ downloads should be those given for free to subscribers. Otherwise, they would sell on average around 0.35-0.70 as other contributors report. So, if you take that into account, probably the sum you receive did not change at all, or may even have decreased. Still, I hope it works the other way for you and you earn more than before. Best regards.

[Dobrin_Dobrev]

2 hours ago, baypinar said:

Interestingly you have very similar photos accepted and they are selling. Often when I submit similar images, only one is accepted. This decreases chances of sale for me, as potential customers may want slightly different versions of an image.

 

Kinda a true. 

Some of my images looks similar, some of them are. One of them are with driffrent resolution and pixel size (some are done by smartphone, others by DSLR, thats why), from diffrent angles, some are vertical and horizontal.

But buyers buy the best looking most of the time. I do this because I can't decide which photo will like the buyer. People are diffrent and have diffrent taste.

One thing I can't understand. From last months shutterstock became more strictly for the uploading similar images. But sometimes go too far (the AI i guess). Now I'm uploading two images - dirty laptop cooling fan and second photo with cleaned cooling fan. The reviewer/AI count the photo similar which is not fair. But other photos whick looks similar are accepted. Thats is wrong.. 

I'm still learning the stock photography so I accept every criticism with good arguments. 

My earnings for this year are increased but because of really low sales before. My prtfolio grew up last motnhs and I start to edit (before didn't) and edit more carefully every photo.as every month pass. Started to learning more about editing and photography. So thats are the reasons I guess. But after earning structure changed my passion and excitment here gone. Now this 9$ sale bring some fresh air for me. Don't know how much will last. 

 

[Wilm Ihlenfeld]

8 hours ago, Don Landwehrle said:

Personally I find this all very sad. Back in the day I had some photos sell through TIB for 4 and 5 figures. When a great man, Larry Fried passed away TIB changed for the worse. Bean counters came in and changed the way things were run. The people in charge went for short term profits at the loss of long term profits. It did not take long. Then came computers and digital. The drop of prices accelerated. What would take years and many rolls of expensive film and processing to learn was thrown out the window. I use to be able to go to something like fireworks and knew maybe 1 other person knew how to capture them. Now, take a photo on your digital camera, repeat, repeat, repeat, now I have a photo. Then came micro stock. Pros were reluctant to go there, but with sales at traditional agencies plummeting they did, me included. The quality at MS agencies went up. Photographers made money on volume but not like it was. The Dollar Photo Club was a harbinger of things to come. Most stopped submitting and it killed the DPC. Now we have .10¢ Shutterstock royalties. I turned off my portfolio after about 7 days of seeing the results. It was always questionable about it being worth my time to upload to any micro stock agency. When Getty finally axed their RM images and offered15% RF royalty I decided it was time to end my relationship with them. Now that SS has dropped our commission and increased their percentage I decided to drop them. The real problem is I fail to see is how any photographer can create quality images at the current rates of compensation to the photographers. I enjoyed knowing people would pay money to use my images. They felt my images were worth purchasing. I now find myself with literally over one hundred thousand beautiful salable images that will probably NEVER be seen by anyone except myself. I continue to shoot photos for myself but like I said, other than self satisfaction, no one will ever see them. A sad time for sure. For income I will be looking for something else to do. For anyone who would like to see what SS and most likely the other MS sites will be missing you can see my images here...  http://landwehrle.com

Beautiful images! Great portfolio!

[N_A_Z]

5 hours ago, Dobrin_Dobrev said:

Kinda a true. 

Some of my images looks similar, some of them are. One of them are with driffrent resolution and pixel size (some are done by smartphone, others by DSLR, thats why), from diffrent angles, some are vertical and horizontal.

But buyers buy the best looking most of the time. I do this because I can't decide which photo will like the buyer. People are diffrent and have diffrent taste.

One thing I can't understand. From last months shutterstock became more strictly for the uploading similar images. But sometimes go too far (the AI i guess). Now I'm uploading two images - dirty laptop cooling fan and second photo with cleaned cooling fan. The reviewer/AI count the photo similar which is not fair. But other photos whick looks similar are accepted. Thats is wrong.. 

I'm still learning the stock photography so I accept every criticism with good arguments. 

My earnings for this year are increased but because of really low sales before. My prtfolio grew up last motnhs and I start to edit (before didn't) and edit more carefully every photo.as every month pass. Started to learning more about editing and photography. So thats are the reasons I guess. But after earning structure changed my passion and excitment here gone. Now this 9$ sale bring some fresh air for me. Don't know how much will last. 

 

dont count on it..

[Rudy Matchinga]

My disabled port had a sale of eleven video clips (in one day) for .96 cents each.  I had hopes that they may have a change of heart.  Yeah sure.  This company blows.  My contempt for place is immeasurable.

[Lukreo]

The only way to go is to submit to agencies who support contributors and maintain fair prices like Adobe or Pond5. We all know that shutter stock cares only about shareholders

[Charlotte Erpenbeck]

Keywords seem to be crap with many of the newer pictures. If looking for a background (just a test), I get something like this:

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-african-american-sporty-girl-doing-1792398061

The AI makes buying experience worse. Not that I mind, as  I'm done with selling or buying at shutterstock.

[Centrill Media]

At this new SS price structure where they hand out quality content for pennies on the dollar, I can no longer afford the wear and tear on my camera shutters, let alone expect a reasonable compensation for my time in pre, location, and editing software expenses. It is time to close up shop here move on.

 

What are the best stock sites for contributors rated from the best to the worst? (I already know that SS & IS are at the bottom of this list.)

[AWhitmorePhotography]

Please explain how this is "fair". This isn't fair...this is greedy on your part. 

[Mark A. Williams]

Closed account back on June 9.  Still have not received final payout after three contacts.  Was told they have up to 90 days.

[Tony ALS]

2 hours ago, Mark A. Williams said:

Closed account back on June 9.  Still have not received final payout after three contacts.  Was told they have up to 90 days.

That's annoying Mark. I have just deleted another image which I'm gradually doing and will close everything here at the end of the year. I'll never reach $35 but I want whatever there is as I don't want SS increasing there profits further by keeping 1 cent of what they owe me. 

[Roman Malanchuk]

When I started upload my photos to stocks I thought I start my own business.

It was my mistake and my illusion.

Now it is clear that all this time, more than 9 years I was working on some John-billionare's business.

I have disabled my portfolio on June 1, and I really can't understand those contributors who continue upload their works to SS.

I think if all contributors disable their ports this month, SS will suggest previous payment system in September, and if we don't activate our portfolios for one month more they will suggest even more.

 

[RoJo Images]

3 hours ago, Roman Malanchuk said:

When I started upload my photos to stocks I thought I start my own business.

It was my mistake and my illusion.

Now it is clear that all this time, more than 9 years I was working on some John-billionare's business.

I have disabled my portfolio on June 1, and I really can't understand those contributors who continue upload their works to SS.

I think if all contributors disable their ports this month, SS will suggest previous payment system in September, and if we don't activate our portfolios for one month more they will suggest even more.

 

A lot has been going on that you appear to be unaware of.  First of all a lot and I mean a lot of contributors have already either removed or disabled their accounts months ago.  

The response gotten from Oringer was get to work or go elsewhere.  Yes, he said that on Twitter.  SS will not be going back to prices that were-they just don't care.

If you are interested check out the Stock Coalition on Facebook-it will bring you up to date to what is happening.

I also don't understand why people keep their ports open here (unless it is their only income until they switch companies).  It is a downright insult to pay .10 for the quality of images in some of these ports.  Pride people!  And if you worm your way up the scale you will still mostly get .10 a download as has been proven by many previous posts.  Then along comes January and you are plopped right back to the bottom of the earnings pile.