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digitalskillet · Joined: 10 Nov 2006 Posts: 17

[quote="marcopolo"]

exit · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 5 Location: EUROPE

Gorgeus!

bestmoose · Joined: 08 Jun 2006 Posts: 10

Hi there,
I have not been with SS for long and have had not enough time to really follow all important threads in the forum. To the fuzz about the raise I can only add my opinion. Within the next few weeks I will get to the 33 cent bracket and believe it, or not, I didn't even knew (yeah, dumb me) there was such a thing as a payout depending on your total earnings. For me this will result in a 32% raise, which is in my case very satisfying. I can understand that some are upset for not getting as much as expected, but did you HAVE to expect anything? The economy is stagnating, the currency is declining, taxes are increasing, and I don't even want to start with the price for gas. I am happy SS shares the increase of their prices, especially knowing that they were not obligated to. The amount of exceptional pictures contributed by us made SS and we can make it more and better, resulting in better income for us. Fair deal - in my humble opinion. Thanks for the time reading this. 3:)

cidepix · Joined: 29 Jul 2007 Posts: 190 Location: London / UK

I said it before it's a great raise for mid-range photographers..

Awful for beginners and not so good for top contributors either..

I am not that new, and not top yet so it's ok for me.. But, it should have been $0.28 for newcomers and at least $0.40 for top levels.. Then it would have been perfect for everyone..

Because shutterstock's first announcement a few months back were like "you will be pleasantly surprised" everybody was expecting something like $0.40.. I think 0.40 was the psychological limit.. and everyone would have shut up even if shutterstock said that 0.40 was only for guys who reached $100.000 or more in earnings..

Forgiss · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 10:35 am

jerichoredart · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 6 Location: turkey istanbul

thanks SS

batman2000 · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 10:53 am

I feel that, despite the raise is very welcome, the decrease in sales is what should concern us the most.

SS model has been static for a long time. Everybody else is offering a wide array of options to buying images, from suscriptions to credits to per-image sales. SS has always stayed where they started. And the model is obviously starting to show its age.

I know that many do it for a living and even more do it for fun recognition. Believe me, in two years the recognition will not matter (the fun will stay!), and despite not doing it for a living, I expect to get payed for my work a fair amount.

I can´t believe that SS cannot implement some sort of variations and alternatives for buyers. It is pretty obvious that they are migrating to other venues where they get what they need according to their budgets, and not having to rely on a pricey suscription fee to get a few images and a lot of not-to-be-used images as collateral.

rinder99 · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 10:56 am

barbaraj · Joined: 17 Aug 2005 Posts: 407 Location: Vancouver, Canada

I haven't had a chance to read this thread so I'm sure this has been said already but I personally would have been much happier with my 27% raise if not for the drop in sales.

rinder99 · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 11:03 am

Also, And something I forgot to put on my wish List is , Isin't it about time for the minimum MP's to raise from 4 for new submitters? to at the very least 6 or 8? Ya think? or will it matter with 12MP cameras now For $200.00. There crap but a lot of folks don't know that.

imagist · Site Admin Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 246

We'd like to make a few points in response to this thread before ending the discussion.

On the raise:

The goal of the new payout structure is to reward submitters who, according to the download stats, have contributed the images that our customers go on to license. Our customers appreciate the large total number of images in our library, but they vote every day on which of those images are most valuable to them. It's fair to say that this raise was structured as much by our customers' download histories as it was by Shutterstock management.

Prior to this raise, a new submitter could look forward to only a single 20% payout increase, whereas now they will enjoy a 32% initial increase, followed by the chance for two additional increases down the road. The new payout structure aims to continuously encourage all submitters to improve and enlarge their galleries. We want everyone to work their way up...

There are many ways to contribute to your lifetime earnings total. You can refer buyers or other submitters, you can sell Enhanced License downloads, and you can contribute footage to our growing footage library. The stock footage industry in particular has plenty of growth ahead, as mobile devices and digital advertising become more sophisticated and bandwidth becomes less expensive.

As has been pointed out, your own current earnings rate is not locked until next year. Our hope is that the larger initial raise and the two new subsequent raises will motivate every submitter to improve their quality and increase their gallery size throughout the year. You can earn more money by contributing more high quality content, and when you reach these thresholds, you will benefit from your content working harder for you. It's true that our library is massive and growing. But it's also true that quality content is quickly found and licensed by our growing list of customers. Our four search result sort orders -- Most Popular, Newest, Oldest, and Random -- are simple, have not changed in years, and are in combination very fair and effective. If your image is not being downloaded, it is because the image is not in demand right now, and not because the demand cannot find your image.

On the price increase:

While a few specific products in a few countries did go up quite a bit, we did not increase our overall prices by 50%, or even close to that. Our blended US and Euro price increases were about 26%, and our UK increase was about 36%. Above our core price of 249 USD or the equivalent, we charge higher amounts in some non-USD currencies to reflect the much higher costs of advertising in those markets. The UK is one example.

As some have pointed out, it's true that when a customer pays a higher price they will work harder to capture the value of their purchase. In our industry this means that, having paid a higher price for their subscription, they will go on to download more images.

We have a group of customers who lock in the lower rates with our rebilling program, so the price increase has no effect on the revenue we bring in from those customers. However, we still pay submitters the new higher payout rates when rebilled customers download.

The weak US dollar makes Shutterstock a low cost exporter to countries that have a stronger currency. While it's true that submitters in those strong currency countries are paid in USD, it's also true that a weak USD means our products are a tremendous value when compared to the locally available alternatives. The resulting increased demand for our products in those countries leads to increased downloads for all our submitters.

On the forums:

All submitters start off enjoying the benefits of forum participation, but this is a privilege, not a right. If you cannot act in a constructive and polite manner then we will remove your forum privileges.

Conclusion:

We look forward to seeing your new content and we appreciate your input. We're working very hard to continue the growth we have enjoyed over the last few years -- that is our primary objective. We hope you will all continue to let us represent your content as we move forward in this exciting industry.

Best Regards,

Shutterstock