26th May 2020, Shutterstock announced a big change in contributor’s payment structure and it was a very big and bold decision. It hit a lot of contributor’s monthly income and in result, contributors faced a big decrease in monthly revenue so we decided to unfold various contributors true feelings about this decision. In this post, we shall discuss contributor’s reactions and will try, not to give some personal opinion.
Announcement Summary
We are making this adjustment in order to reflect changes in the market for creative content, help to create fair opportunities for all our contributors, and reward performance with greater earnings potential. Starting on June 1st, 2020, your earnings for each license will be based on your Image Level or your Video Level. All contributors reset to level 1 for both images and videos every year on January 1st.
Shutterstock Announcement
Read few sudden responses on shutterstock forum within few minutes of announcement
So this announcement created a very deep disappointment within shutterstock contributors community. There are above 7 thousands of replies in response to this announcement but we screenshot only around 50 for your reading. Pls read all screnshots and at bottom, find main purpose of this article.
Note: All replies are within same day of announcement.
There are thousands of posts in forum reflecting above frustrated statements of creative community but iI listed few of them so here comes the objective of this article.
What contributors should do now?
It is very clear, shutterstock have no respect for creative community and greed for money captivated management’s minds so they are not able to see the miseries of creative community. A lot of contributor’s take home money decreased to 50% that was already hard hit by corona from the beginning of 2020. So what should we do now, after annoucement’s almost 4 moths?
These are current posts from that forum posts with action
So do we need to delete or disable our accounts from shutterstock and is it the only option?
It is my intention to explore every possibility for our creative community so they can take decision as per there SWOT. Let’s have a SWOT analyses of this whole situation.
Strengths
- We are creative and independent
- Availability of other platforms exist
- We can build own identity
Weaknesses
- We don’t have resources to sustain long term as we are already facing corona impact
- Creative community don,t have a union
- We are not in a position to loose whole monthly income by instantly deletion
Opportunities
- A lot of other platforms still exists to showcase our work
- We can build our own online portfolio to sell directly
- Direct access to buyers
Threats
- Financial shortages
- Economic Depression
- Corona Existence
How to take decision?
Just view this SWOT and act as you think, its good for you. If you will instantly delete the account but have no other source of income then its not a good decision. If you have some resources in hand and your work is exclusive then you can do it instantly and mean time you can upload to other platforms.
Possible Uploading platforms or in short, shutterstock’s competitors
There is a common question from creative community, where to upload now after all these happenings so everyone have there own opinion based on his own experiences. I perceived that people are mostly suggesting Adobe stock and pond5 and here I need a full support from creative fellows to create a full list of uploading platforms so pls share with me in comment section or email me.
Practical Tip
First upload your art work on some other platform. when an image is sold from that platform, delete that image from shutterstock
Microstock Poll Results clear change after announcement
Past Result
Current Result
Shutterstock’s Trustpilot score
Shutterstock is not only ruining creative community but end user as well. There policies are too bad that end users are giving bad reviews on trust pilot. If these practices to dissatisfy most important stakeholders get not resolved then shutterstock future will be nothing.
Shutterstock facebook page comments screenshots
Attention to Shutterstock’s share holders
There is a perception in market, now shutterstock shares are worth to buy as they will earn a lot so buying share are safe. But main two stakeholders are getting annoyed from shutterstock and in near future, it’s impact will be totally different from people’s current perception. Shutterstock current action created a very bad impression in the minds of end user as well. End user of creative products is paying a handsome amount to shutterstock, and shutterstock is paying only 15% to artist, so buyers with moral values are quiet unhappy.
End user responses on Trustpilot.com (Most Reliable source to review checking) clearly point out that we dislike this shady platform. Out of 1 k reviews, .93 k buyers are declaring bad to shutterstock because of its wrong and greed based policies. So with these bad policies, shutterstock survival possibility is low because quality work of creative community will be uploaded to adobe stock in future.
Shutterstock looses moral values
Covid 19 hit very hard to creative community specifically photographic and video making community and besides supporting to that partners, shutterstock decided to kill that community economically.
Every one in this whole world talking about humanity, brotherhood and helping each other but shutterstock performed totally opposite. They totally disrespect creative community and his own ethical values. Without creative community quality’s work, shutterstock will be nothing except a low quality collector.
Let’s see from an other perspective
Pls read below comment, and what is your opinion about it
The new tiers and pricing are a disgrace, you are de-valuing the time and effort putting up images. You were always fair but this is scandalous, behind long you’ll have no contributors – then where will you be! (shutterstock) You will lose the big players and be left with nothing,
Hi Paula,
Contributors are the blood of shutterstock and same shutterstock is the blood of mostly contributors as they are solely dependent on shutterstock so how they will survive with more than 50% income cut. If contributor will not survive then how shutterstock will survive. Thanks for your contribution.
shutter stock getting greedy. doing the pay cut. reducing the uploading limits. we started shifting to other platforms but worried about my long terms efforts on shutterstock. all going to waste now. no hopes with the current policies
Hi James,
I can feel your pain that, why i write this article. Contributors are worried about their career and few of them are thinking to quit this career due to this new announcement. Thanks for sharing your feelings.
I dislike these types of companies like shutterstock and its policies
Thanks for contributing here and disliking and love always depends upon policies. In past, you were in love with shutterstock and now you started hating so its all due to policies. We are raising our voices so shutterstock listen to contributors and change policies that best suit to both stakeholders and not just fulfill its own greed for money.