New earnings structure for Contributors

[Dasha D]

Are you kidding? 

So now you are telling me to sell my work almost for free? 0.05 per illustration?! While now I'm getting 0.38! 5 years with Shutterstock, I never wrote any single negative review, because I really used to like work with you. And now what? Do you really think that I will give my designs, in fact, for nothing, while spending days to create each one. Thanks guys. But we are NOT VOLUNTEERS here, we are working.

Based on your new rules, looks I'll not earn more than $100! Do you know that only for Adobe Illustrator I pay $22?

Anyway, I'll see what I'll get. If this turns into just a waste of time, I’ll delete all my portfolio. 5 years ... Hundreds of stores, big and small brands around the world sell clothes, accessories, stationery, children's books with my illustrations that bought on Shutterstock. Such a disappointment
 
 

[Maxal Tamor]

30 minutes ago, Saurav022 said:

India is no longer that cheap, prices are increasing everyday. I do not any genuine Indian contributor will be satisfied with lower royalties as it will not be cost-effective anymore.

.

One thing that many people do not take into consideration when they talk about "cheap countries" is that while life in general is cheaper there, people also earn much less.
Also, one should not forget that everything that is equipment (camera, lenses, accessories, computers, HDD, etc.) costs just as much, if not more than in most Western countries.
How many Americans would be willing to invest between $7000 and $10000 if the average monthly salary in their country was less than $250?
It is therefore much more difficult for an Indian, a Ukrainian, a Russian or a Mongolian (among others) to start such a business.

[DIRK VAN DER VEN MEDIA]

55 minutes ago, KoshelevaJenya said:

Well, great! Now you not only erase angry reviews of your policy on Instagram (Twice! Oh my god, twice!),you also hired people to plus your app in AppStore and PlayMarket! How much do you pay them for this? $ 0.5? or definitely not less than 0.1 $ ?   

Very homogeneous...

[rasika108]

I am in serious doubt anyone at shutterstock side is even going to bother to go trough this 77 pages of contributors frustration and anger.

 

[JSparrow]

 

They treat their contributors with such a respect that for two days the Shutterstock representative is afraid to appear in this thread and answer questions... 🤐😒

[Horst-Koenemund]

So wie Ich es sehe, werden viele andere Agenturen, dem Preismodell von SS folgen. 

[Andreas Prott]

I still didn't get the email. Does that mean I am immune???😇

[Zhitkov Boris]

3 minutes ago, Andreas Prott said:

I still didn't get the email. Does that mean I am immune???😇

Check your Spam folder.
Or may be you're 10 level guy.

[Maxal Tamor]

13 minutes ago, JSparrow said:

 

They treat their contributors with such a respect that for two days the Shutterstock representative is afraid to appear in this thread and answer questions... 🤐😒

They are not Shutterstock representatives, they are Shutterstock Forum administrators.
They are just messengers.
Don't shoot the messengers!

[Freeda]

 

20 hours ago, Abir Bhattacharya said:

 

+1

[AnastasiaOsipova]

10 hours ago, Sadie P Photography said:

Мне кажется, это способ избавиться от всех мелких участников, особенно от тех, кто загружает некачественную работу, спамит на сайте или использует нерелевантные ключевые слова.

 

No. This is a great way to get rid of those who do quality work. A wedding cake can't cost as much as one pancake. Those who put a lot of work and love into their business will not suffer the humiliation that will begin on January 1. Have Shutterstock still have a chance to change your mind.

[AsiaTravel]

1 hour ago, Saurav022 said:

India is no longer that cheap, prices are increasing everyday. I do not any genuine Indian contributor will be satisfied with lower royalties as it will not be cost-effective anymore.

.

and while cost of living is still "much" lower, quality equipement as a drone, camera, lenses, computer might be even more expensive than in the US. If you travel or buy a car, the price is the same. So yeap, living a "local" life is much cheaper, but a similar middle class life is not that different with the west. I speak more about South East Asia than India but it is somewhat similar.

[AnastasiaOsipova]

2 hours ago, oleskalashnik said:

Позвольте Shutterstock сначала проявить себя и обеспечить честное одобрение файла. Нет больше странных или глупых отклонений, когда четкое фото называется «не в фокусе», а оригинальное векторное изображение называется «слишком похожим». И перестаньте утверждать настоящий мусор! 

Даже качественный и релевантный контент просто теряется в огромной базе данных, в которой полно плохих изображений из-за отмены экзамена и стандартов качества.

still require "source image" when you load a frankly decorative, cartoon image. I was rejected for missing the source file. It just doesn't EXIST)))

[Birute Vijeikiene]

11 hours ago, eskystudio said:

For those who can't afford to turn off their potfolios completely. How about going on a 2-3 day strike every month by ddisabling protfolios for a short period of time. If we do it collectively it won't cost us a lot. But it will be a sensible loss to Shutterstock. That's nother way fight back, I agree with Steve Tritton in the post above - only collectively we can have an influence.

That is assuming there is a way to turn off portolios for 2-3 days each month.

I've deactivated all images in my portfolio, but the proccess of dissapearing them from search engines and from catalog manager is slow and gradual. The deactivation was made yesterday morning, but today I still have available about 900 images of 6000. And some of the pictures, which I do not see anymore in my SS portfolio, still available on search... This is long process and short 2-3 days actions can't be effective. 

[Sasha Radosavljevich]

1 hour ago, oleskalashnik said:

Perhaps the  'Reset' of levels is a fake part of the plan, which is aimed at ensuring that the authors agree with other changes. Shutterstock can take a step back and remove this promised reset, and we will feel like winners. Although this will be the result of ordinary manipulation, as in politics.

that's what i had on my mind since very first moment.

 

[viennetta]

This pandemic has brought to light the two sides of humanity: those that step up to the challenge of helping others and making sacrifices out of compassion and decency and those who use this as an opportunity to oppress, harm, and take advantage of others to make themselves wealthier and more powerful. Those at Shutterstock who chose to drastically reduce the income of contributors and call it "fair" fall into the latter category. You will be remembered as those who caused suffering when you could have brought relief. 

[Oleksii Arseniuk]

48 minutes ago, rasika108 said:

I am in serious doubt anyone at shutterstock side is even going to bother to go trough this 77 pages of contributors frustration and anger.

 

I think they will - as soon as we stop firing the hell out of this thread

[ShustrikS]

Disabled all video sales. Capitalists only understand the conversation of money.

[Oleksii Arseniuk]

40 minutes ago, ArtEvent ET said:

I assure you - they will soon report that they will turn off the zeroing from January 1. Counting on everyone to calm down and forget about the price of 10 cents. It will be so!

Nope, this won't happen. The decision is already made. There is a bit of a chance that they will postpone it to "correct some numbers" or even less of a chance - they will implement floating rating

[Maxal Tamor]

17 minutes ago, Birute Vijeikiene said:

I've deactivated all images in my portfolio, but the proccess of dissapearing them from search engines and from catalog manager is slow and gradual. The deactivation was made yesterday morning, but today I still have available about 900 images of 6000. And some of the pictures, which I do not see anymore in my SS portfolio, still available on search... This is long process and short 2-3 days actions can't be effective. 

I am not sure that if they are still available on search they are still available on sale.
What do you think?

[Oleksii Arseniuk]

18 minutes ago, Photoroyalty said:

The worst part about this scam is that no one from shutterstock is even willing to talk to us and provide any answers, @Kate Shutterstock didnt show her face for days, deleting comets, blocking people on social media. its like they are in a war with us, are they insane? we are the reason why you make money  ...

Talk to us lets see how can this work for all of us

I guess they have no any update from the SS managers so there is nothing new them to say

[Andreas Prott]

40 minutes ago, Zhitkov Boris said:

Check your Spam folder.
Or may be you're 10 level guy.

Nope there are only messages from my friend the Prince of Zamunda offering me another million I don't need because of my success at Shutter.

[BusinessIllustrator]

29 minutes ago, Photoroyalty said:

The worst part about this scam is that no one from shutterstock is even willing to talk to us and provide any answers, @Kate Shutterstock didnt show her face for days, deleting comets, blocking people on social media. its like they are in a war with us, are they insane? we are the reason why you make money  ...

Talk to us lets see how can this work for all of us

They consider us garbage, biomass, you still do not understand?

[Birute Vijeikiene]

19 minutes ago, Maxal Tamor said:

I am not sure that if they are still available on search they are still available on sale.
What do you think?

I can't check that. All I can do - to push the button "Download" next to my image. Then system asks "Confirm downolad?" I didn't go further because didn't want to use my credits in buyers account. But if they still sell my dissabled images, I do not receive money for them because I have no sales since yesterday...

[underwatercam.tv]

On 5/27/2020 at 12:48 PM, Ingus Kruklitis said:

Your portfolio is sick!! I love it. It's definitely worth much much more then SS pays you. 

Thanks, ...but they don't care toloos my portfolio. That is what they ansered on my complaint and announcement to pull off my portfolio ...

hI Peter,

We hear your concern with the new earnings structure changes. We value your contributions to Shutterstock and understand this is not an easy decision to make.

The decision to make these changes was not made lightly and was done with much consideration for all of our contributors. Shutterstock aims to fairly compensate our contributors for the time and talent invested in the production of their work. Given the market has changed significantly since Shutterstock was founded in 2003, we have made changes to better reflect the current market.

The adjustments are being made to align with changes we have been seeing in the global market for creative content. They also help to create fair opportunities for all our contributors, and reward performance with greater earnings potential.

As the global need for content increases, the volume of content being produced also continues to grow. The increase in supply of content available on the market has resulted in lower prices and free content on some platforms. With this pricing pressure, Shutterstock must also be competitive while continuing to support the production of high-quality content and driving high licensing volumes world-wide.

While we have historically paid contributors based on a percentage of the license value along with a fixed-rate for some plans, paying at fixed-rates is no longer aligned with how customers engage with those products. Also, the previous earnings structure was based on inequitable factors, such as lifetime earnings.

Starting on June 1st, 2020, we are moving to a percentage based earnings model for all licensing plans. The amount contributors earn from each download is a percentage of the price paid by the customer for that license.

Shutterstock aims to provide customers with competitive plans and pricing, while fairly compensating our contributors for the time and talent invested in the production of their work.

The new compensation model allows contributors to receive a true percentage share from each download, rewarding content creators for producing quality work that is fresh, relevant and currently in demand by our customers.

Your account will always be available to reactivate should you decide to rejoin our contributor community! Rather than closing your account, you can simply turn off licensing in your account settings. Please let us know if you would prefer this option and we will not disable your account at this time. We are certainly sad to see you go.

If you have any further queries or concerns, feel free to contact us anytime.

Shutterstock team cares for you. Stay healthy, Stay safe!  

Thanks & Regards,
Sangeeta
Shutterstock Contributor Care Team