New earnings structure for Contributors

[Gray Photo Online]

The tides of business. From my view of the road, ShutterStock is looking like a dead horse. I shut off my sales in July to get a benchmark. Re-enabled them for August, only to earn doodley-squat, so I've shut them off again as of September. Everywhere else is earning pretty close to last year's levels, so one must know when the end is near and move on to better things.

[Tony ALS]

1 hour ago, Gray Photo Online said:

The tides of business. From my view of the road, ShutterStock is looking like a dead horse. I shut off my sales in July to get a benchmark. Re-enabled them for August, only to earn doodley-squat, so I've shut them off again as of September. Everywhere else is earning pretty close to last year's levels, so one must know when the end is near and move on to better things.

Couldn't agree more. I was going to wait until the end of the year before closing my account here but with so few sales it's pointless waiting. Wasted too much time getting images accepted which is why I was going to wait. Can't believe anyone would stay on the current terms.

[Mick Harper]

I got this reply when I raised a query about this months sales figures. I have just progressed to a new level but the price this month for my images hasn't gone above 10c in one case so far. This hasn't happened with me so far since the change in rates. I was doing ok by my norm. I thought that when I progressed from one earnings level to another it would be goodbye to 10c earnings until my account was reset in January. Evidently not. I have 16 sales this month so far for a paltry $2.62. This wouldn't buy me a decent fish and chip supper This is what I was told:

Hi
I'm ... I do not work for Shutterstock, but I have been a contributor for around 8 years, and an expert to answer fellow contributors queries. I do not have any access to your account information, images or any personal data, but i'm here to answer your questions.

You will get actual percentage of the final image for images sold under 'on demand'.
Other subscription sales will remain at 10cents. This 10cent applies applies across all 6 levels.
 

[Dorota Dylka]

Hi all

I am new to this discussion, also new to Shutterstock (not even whole week). For the last 3 days I was working to upload my 37 photos. Yesterday I earned $0.10 - is this a joke? I know that moderator will probably delete my first ever post on this Forum. It's not a big deal. I already deleted all photos. I earned here  10 cents, after tax will be 8 cents! And they don't pay anything less than $1! LOL
Really sad to hear how artists are treated here.
There are other places around, let's move on!

[Tony ALS]

Got a very fast reply to closing down my account here and paying the minimal amount owing. Images should become unavailable very soon. The minimum was reduced by SS to $1 so that they can pay me as it stands at less than $35. Not worth the effort to continue here.

[Centrill Media]

I just sent instruction to contributor support to close out my account and send me what paltry balance is due. It was a good run here for the past 12 years but the greed at the top of this food chain has ruined it for everyone. So long fellow contributors. I think the video & image stock business model is disintegrating everywhere.

[Wilm Ihlenfeld]

7 hours ago, Centrill Media said:

I just sent instruction to contributor support to close out my account and send me what paltry balance is due. It was a good run here for the past 12 years but the greed at the top of this food chain has ruined it for everyone. So long fellow contributors. I think the video & image stock business model is disintegrating everywhere.

The microstock business has certainly become generally more difficult - no question about that.

But at shutterstock it's really as miserable as no other agency.

Now the situation has certainly worsened significantly due to Corona. But I can see from other agencies that buyers are willing to spend money after all. So Corona alone cannot be the problem.

When I compare it, my situation looks like this in September:

shutterstock vs. AS
50% more downloads at shutterstock compared to AS
266% more income at AS compared to shutterstock

Or, to put it in other terms:
RPD at shutterstock: $0.48
RPD at AS: $1.94
This is four times the value of shutterstock.

I readily admit that this does not correspond to the average of my respective RPD. But since the new revenue structure I get at least 2.5 times that at AS.

And these are not the figures that keep shutterstock busy. Because they still get the same for our files. They simply keep more for themselves. And that in corona times. It is and remains a mess!

 

[Tony Dunn]

It's not just SS amazon & many of these corporations are the same: Unbelievable greed at the top et others expense. Read this link. They need more regulation especially in the U.S. & only by voting the likes of Trump out could anything be done about it. 

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-corporations-considered-greedy-and-evil-even-though-they-employ-lots-of-people

[Centrill Media]

Let's keep political opinions out of this forum.

[Clupeidae]

4 hours ago, Tony Dunn said:

It's not just SS amazon & many of these corporations are the same: Unbelievable greed at the top et others expense. Read this link. They need more regulation especially in the U.S. & only by voting the likes of Trump out could anything be done about it. 

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-corporations-considered-greedy-and-evil-even-though-they-employ-lots-of-people

You have a 20% regressive sales tax VAT in the UK. You have more billionaires per population than the US. Your economy has suffered a 14% drop since 2016. Maybe you should worry about home not the US. In free enterprise companies can pay what they want for a CEO. If the price is too high, they won't pay more. If SS can get photos by paying us 10 cents they will, don't upload, go away if you don't like the pay here. Free choice, not regulations to stop profit.

[zsooofija]

For those disabling your sales, watch out for shutterstock's affiliate partners, they still sell my images and it's been over a 100 days since I disabled my sales (TOS says they have to remove sales from affiliates after 90 days). I already contacted support a week ago but no reply.
I wonder who is keeping all the profit in case of people that close their accounts...

[Tony Dunn]

On 9/10/2020 at 7:51 PM, Clupeidae said:

You have a 20% regressive sales tax VAT in the UK. You have more billionaires per population than the US. Your economy has suffered a 14% drop since 2016. Maybe you should worry about home not the US. In free enterprise companies can pay what they want for a CEO. If the price is too high, they won't pay more. If SS can get photos by paying us 10 cents they will, don't upload, go away if you don't like the pay here. Free choice, not regulations to stop profit.

You sound like that Jon Oringner on Twitter - If you don't like it take your work and go etc.

[Elliott Bignell]

Touching faith in a system that everyone understands to be broken.

[Tony Dunn]

7 hours ago, zsooofija said:

For those disabling your sales, watch out for shutterstock's affiliate partners, they still sell my images and it's been over a 100 days since I disabled my sales (TOS says they have to remove sales from affiliates after 90 days). I already contacted support a week ago but no reply.
I wonder who is keeping all the profit in case of people that close their accounts...

Yes this is the problem with disabling an account They can steal off of you.

[DesignDaily]

I have completed the 100 downloads for this year in last month on 28th and now on 2nd level but Still I received 0.10 Cents for new download which I used to receive earlier. Can you help me with this? I should have got raised basic amount as per level 2.

[Wilm Ihlenfeld]

9 hours ago, zsooofija said:

For those disabling your sales, watch out for shutterstock's affiliate partners, they still sell my images and it's been over a 100 days since I disabled my sales (TOS says they have to remove sales from affiliates after 90 days). I already contacted support a week ago but no reply.
I wonder who is keeping all the profit in case of people that close their accounts...

Can't be true!!!

[zsooofija]

9 hours ago, Wilm Ihlenfeld said:

Can't be true!!!

See for yourself: https://www.carstickers.com/products/marketplace/artist/zsooofija/
I accidentally found this, but I guess there is more, I read others complaining about this too. Unfortunately they don't have a list so I can check them all. I know Zazzle also has a shop with works from SS, you can check that out: https://www.zazzle.com/store/shutterstock

[Wilm Ihlenfeld]

 

33 minutes ago, zsooofija said:

See for yourself: https://www.carstickers.com/products/marketplace/artist/zsooofija/
I accidentally found this, but I guess there is more, I read others complaining about this too. Unfortunately they don't have a list so I can check them all. I know Zazzle also has a shop with works from SS, you can check that out: https://www.zazzle.com/store/shutterstock

Great! Congratulations!

There are now several possibilities.
1. you have not sold anything to the affiliate partners
2. you have sold something and the interface does not work or has never worked.
3. you have sold something and the interface works, but you are not paid for the sale.

Unfortunately I have no idea and certainly no list of how many of these affiliate partners there are.

You should let someone there buy something. Then you know where you stand. Do you have someone who would do that for you?

 

[zsooofija]

4 minutes ago, Wilm Ihlenfeld said:

 

Great! Congratulations!

There are now several possibilities.
1. you have not sold anything to the affiliate partners
2. you have sold something and the interface does not work or has never worked.
3. you have sold something and the interface works, but you are not paid for the sale.

Unfortunately I have no idea and certainly no list of how many of these affiliate partners there are.

You should let someone there buy something. Then you know where you stand. Do you have someone who would do that for you?

 

 

I don't, but I guess I could buy it myself. The thing is that I am so pissed on them (for ignoring my message), that I rather not give them any more money. It's just the fact that I disabled sales (I don't want to pay them more money) and they still offering them for sale. Even if they pay me for the sale, the point is I don't want them to sell my images anymore. I prefer to work with other agencies.

[Wilm Ihlenfeld]

Okay,

I have just tried to by a sticker because I'm curious. But it's not possible.

It is not possible to enter my address - I permanently get an error message. Maybe they have a problem with German addresses.

But they also showed $15 shipping costs to Germany for a sticker that costs $ 4,45 - that's too expensive for me just to try. Maybe a US citizen, who is also a member of the Stock Coalition, can try it.

 

[Wilm Ihlenfeld]

By the way, there was no error message in the sense of "Sticker not available".

My assumption is: As long as the portfolio is disabled and not deleted, the affiliate partner can access the data as normal, because they are still in the database.
Probably there has not been a solution how to communicate to the affiliate partners that the file is disabled.
They will probably continue to sell and the money will end up at shutterstock. But not the provider who deactivated the file.

Or it is the revenue that some contributors wondered about, even though they had deactivated.

[zsooofija]

49 minutes ago, Wilm Ihlenfeld said:

Or it is the revenue that some contributors wondered about, even though they had deactivated.

It's exactly this. But this is not something new, they've dealt with disabled sales/ deleted accounts before, that's why the 90 days, so they have enough time to contact their partners. Anyways, I'll just wait for their answer (not much hope), there's nothing else I can do. 

[Tony Dunn]

On 8/28/2020 at 2:13 AM, Marko Duca said:

I'm not a professional, I don't use pro gear and of course - this is not my main income. My photos are mediocre but I sell images almost every day, and every single sale I made this month was at 0.10$!!! This is a classic capitalist thievery, and they should be really ashamed of themselves! Soon as I get my 35$ I'm out of here!

No you photos are good not mediocre and you don't need pro gear but the ones you think are bad can sell the most. I don't have many DLs because of many being editorial but they've also ALL been 10c DL since end of July -  a real riff off. My worst photo has had 5 DLs & counting but it's not even cropped properly (due to software failure) & has quite bad CA  So if you don't like a photo you took it can still sell. 

[Gray Photo Online]

After watching this spectacle for the past few months I've decided to shut down my account on Shutterstock. I'm not doing business with a company that wants to stick their hand deeper into my pocket and then flip me the bird. At one point earlier this year, they were my top sales. From here on out, they're nothing to me so I could care less what happens here. Sad end to a promising partnership.

[Wilm Ihlenfeld]

15 minutes ago, Gray Photo Online said:

Sad end to a promising partnership.

This statement hits the nail on the head!