Video Subscriptions - a new way to earn even less money?

[Amlan Mathur]

I doubt that even they'll end up earning from this. The content quality goes down, a chunk of people opt out. It'll be a feeding frenzy for a while but then the content will become outdated. People get used to the idea that videos are super cheap meaning you can't up price later. What a losing model 

[Barry Paterson]

I think this explains the $0.60 cents video sale I just had this afternoon. I wondered how that was even possible. If this is going to be "the norm" now, it's not worth shooting video any more. The time it takes to plan, light, shoot, edit, upload and keyword video isn't recompensed by 60 cents, especially when you can only upload one or two clips from the same shoot now due to the more rigid "similar content" policy.

[Richard Whitcombe]

60 cent sales have been around a while already sadly so not related to this (and SS have refused to say exactly what its from).

[Amlan Mathur]

Hope there is an easy way to get clips off Shutterstock 

[Milo J]

1 hour ago, Amlan Mathur said:

Hope there is an easy way to get clips off Shutterstock 

If you want to pull your entire video port, it is very simple. Go to your dashboard, click on account settings and click "no" for footage sales. That way you can always turn it back on if you change your mind.

[Augustin Lazaroiu]

25 minutes ago, Milo J said:

If you want to pull your entire video port, it is very simple. Go to your dashboard, click on account settings and click "no" for footage sales. That way you can always turn it back on if you change your mind.

That option is no longer there (at least on my account)

[Whiteaster]

6 minutes ago, Augustin Lazaroiu said:

That option is no longer there (at least on my account)

It has to be, I just checked.

[Augustin Lazaroiu]

20 minutes ago, Whiteaster said:

It has to be, I just checked.

that is all I have under Licensing options

[Whiteaster]

2 minutes ago, Augustin Lazaroiu said:

that is all I have under Licensing options

That is the one, press the "No" button at footage sales to activate it and opt out of footage sales.

[Augustin Lazaroiu]

7 minutes ago, Whiteaster said:

That is the one, press the "No" button at footage sales to activate it and opt out of footage sales.

Silly me, I thought it had something to do with the text above. I just pressed the “?” and realized they are two different things

[Whiteaster]

8 minutes ago, Augustin Lazaroiu said:

Silly me, I thought it had something to do with the text above. I just pressed the “?” and realized they are two different things

It can happen to anyone, with all the pandemic worries on  our mind.

It has probably to do with the influence of other people asking for an opt out option, while we already have one.

[David Moreno Hernandez]

11 minutes ago, Whiteaster said:

It can happen to anyone, with all the pandemic worries on  our mind.

It has probably to do with the influence of other people asking for an opt out option, while we already have one.

There is a difference between opting out to the new subscriptions and to stop contributing to SS 

[Doug Jensen]

I'll tell you what pisses me off, I had 46 clips pending and another 126 clips that were all set to go and just waiting to be submitted.  All the metadata was loaded and I was just waiting to submit them when the time was right.  I only uploaded them last week so they had not been there very long.  Suddenly tonight I only have 48 waiting to be submitted  -- meaning that  78 clips that were all set to be submitted have been deleted.  So, not only do I have to upload them all over again, which will take more than 24 hours by FTP, I will also have to go through the remaing clips one at a time to determine which ones got deleted by Shutterstock.  And to make matters even worse, the full file names cannot be shown.  What a waste of time.   The only bright spot is that all my metadata is in a CSV file so at least I won't have to go through the painstaking process of doing the metadata for each of the 78 clips one at a time from scratch.  Thank god for CSV files.

[Mike Kuhlman]

Sad to say, but it's better than 0 sales for $0.  Maybe one video clip a year sells for me at $23.70.  At $3.30 per sale x hopefully 100s of subscription sales, that's $1,000 per year in addition to still image sales, certainly better than my clips are at right now, collecting cyber dust.

[Richard Whitcombe]

1 hour ago, Mike Kuhlman said:

Sad to say, but it's better than 0 sales for $0.  Maybe one video clip a year sells for me at $23.70.  At $3.30 per sale x hopefully 100s of subscription sales, that's $1,000 per year in addition to still image sales, certainly better than my clips are at right now, collecting cyber dust.

Thats pretty unlikely.  The people that'll go subscription are the companies that buy lots of videos  - the ones that buy most.

That means instead of that 1 x $23.70 sale you'll get 1 x $3.33 sale.  Its not going to attract 8x more customers to make up that shortfalls, it more likely means existing customers will be retained with crazy cheap 4k deals.
It's like the "exciting changes" to EL sales.  Didnt increase the number of customers by anything like enough to make up for the cut in commission.
Add that to the fact most big buyers and companies have accounts across multiple agencies,  if they do and your clip is now 90% cheaper on SS than elsewhere they'll grab it from SS meaning you lose out on commission from there too.

 

[CH Digital Media]

7 hours ago, Whiteaster said:

That is the one, press the "No" button at footage sales to activate it and opt out of footage sales.

Just a heads up on this, I selected the 'No' option on the video license radio button and I can still add my video items to the cart.

[Richard Whitcombe]

It may take a few days to get through the various servers.

[geogif]

What happens here is the logical consequence of technical development. Cameras are getting cheaper and cheaper, software is getting cheaper and cheaper, any idiot can take pictures and videos with little skill today that are completely sufficient for MS. In most cases even a smartphone is sufficient for this purpose and even for 4k videos there are cameras that cost less than a mediocre lens. 

In the long term, the development will lead to two separate supplier markets. A pure amateur market on the one hand and a highly professional professional market with reasonable prices on the other.  The professional market will also communicate its requirements in briefings and will not take everything that the lenses offer. 

I suppose that already today a considerable part of the contributors in SS consists of amateurs, who like to take the pocket money, but do not depend on it (I am one of them). The split between this amateur market and the professional market, which is expensive in many respects, will deepen and widen. 

This is all part of the technical development. It basically began with the invention of 35mm film. Digitization has given this process an additional dynamic and tremendous speed, the consequences of which we are experiencing. 

Yes, I believe that anyone who continues to try to make a living as a professional in the amateur market will suffer severe losses. That is bitter, and that is what is causing the reactions we are seeing here. However, it should be clear to everyone that the number of amateurs is so high that no agency will be bothered if a handful of long-standing contributors leave. No one will notice them. 

Very bitter, but true. MS in its present form is nothing to earn money seriously, but only a way to finance the costs of your hobby. And it's not getting any better. 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[Richard Whitcombe]

SS makes no secret of the fact it makes a chunk of money from Offset and Custom so tacitly admitting the split between amateur and professional markets.  Going by that i can see its business decision to make the amateur even cheaper (and not care about quality) almost sensible as it could push serious buyers to those other platforms.

[Duncan Andison]

2 hours ago, CH Digital Media said:

Just a heads up on this, I selected the 'No' option on the video license radio button and I can still add my video items to the cart.

I think it takes a while for it to update. Give it a day or so and by then, all the cached files should be gone as well.

[oleschwander]

2 hours ago, geogif said:

What happens here is the logical consequence of technical development. Cameras are getting cheaper and cheaper, software is getting cheaper and cheaper, any idiot can take pictures and videos with little skill today that are completely sufficient for MS. In most cases even a smartphone is sufficient for this purpose and even for 4k videos there are cameras that cost less than a mediocre lens. 

In the long term, the development will lead to two separate supplier markets. A pure amateur market on the one hand and a highly professional professional market with reasonable prices on the other.  The professional market will also communicate its requirements in briefings and will not take everything that the lenses offer. 

I suppose that already today a considerable part of the contributors in SS consists of amateurs, who like to take the pocket money, but do not depend on it (I am one of them). The split between this amateur market and the professional market, which is expensive in many respects, will deepen and widen. 

This is all part of the technical development. It basically began with the invention of 35mm film. Digitization has given this process an additional dynamic and tremendous speed, the consequences of which we are experiencing. 

Yes, I believe that anyone who continues to try to make a living as a professional in the amateur market will suffer severe losses. That is bitter, and that is what is causing the reactions we are seeing here. However, it should be clear to everyone that the number of amateurs is so high that no agency will be bothered if a handful of long-standing contributors leave. No one will notice them. 

Very bitter, but true. MS in its present form is nothing to earn money seriously, but only a way to finance the costs of your hobby. And it's not getting any better. 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 

2 hours ago, Richard Whitcombe said:

SS makes no secret of the fact it makes a chunk of money from Offset and Custom so tacitly admitting the split between amateur and professional markets.  Going by that i can see its business decision to make the amateur even cheaper (and not care about quality) almost sensible as it could push serious buyers to those other platforms.

Sad but true ...

[Patrick Cooper]

2 hours ago, Richard Whitcombe said:

Add that to the fact most big buyers and companies have accounts across multiple agencies,  if they do and your clip is now 90% cheaper on SS than elsewhere they'll grab it from SS meaning you lose out on commission from there too.

 

Exactly. All the more tempting to close one's own video port on SS and concentrate on submitting clips to P5, AS and any other agencies that pay respectable commissions for footage. I recently learned that P5 are also starting up a subscription plan for videos but at least you have the option of opting out of it. And I will never submit clips to IS due to their super low commissions. It is a sad day to learn that SS are now going down a similar path. This is the beginning of the end. 

[geogif]

It looks like it was the right decision not to put too much money, time and effort into the production of videos. 

[JosefH]

Just got an email from Pond5 that they are offering 60% for exclusive contributors.  
Markets sort themselves out, it basic supply and demand.  If SS underpays, the quality will suffer accordingly and other services will rise with quality as they provide more competition.  

The best thing you can do to help the market is to stop using SS if you are feeling like you are not earning what you deserve.  The worst thing you can do for the market is continue to accept being underpaid if you feel it is not enough.   

[Richard Whitcombe]

Pond5 offered that a while ago.  Worth noting they're also trialling a subscription scheme (hyperstock) BUT you can opt-out if you email them.