Microstock

Jon Oringer’s $52 Million Hampton Home

By Jim Pickerell | 259 Words | Posted 5/11/2021 | Comments
Take a look at Jon Oringer’s $52 million home https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9562059/Billionaire-founder-Shutterstock-lists-oceanfront-Hamptons-home-52-million.html in the Hamptons on Long Island.

Eleven Year Shutterstock Growth Trends

By Jim Pickerell | 729 Words | Posted 2/11/2021 | Comments
The chart below allows you to easily track the growth trends of Shutterstock quarter-by-quarter over the last 11-years and see the number of images in the collection, number of downloads and the gross quarterly revenue at the end of each quarter. You can also see the average revenue-per-download and revenue-per-image-in-the-collection trends.

Shutterstock Q4 2020 Financial Results

By Jim Pickerell | 1851 Words | Posted 2/11/2021 | Comments
Shutterstock has reported Q4 2020 revenue of $180.9 million up 9% compared to $166.4 million in Q4 2019 and up from $165.2 million the previous quarter. Revenue per download was $3.91 per-image compared to $3.44 in Q4 2019 and $3.79 the previous quarter. The average revenue per download for all of 2020 was $3.68 compared with $3.43 for all of 2019.

Nikon Moving Manufacturing To Thailand

By Jim Pickerell | 527 Words | Posted 12/21/2020 | Comments
I purchased my first Nikon camera in 1958 when I lived in Tokyo. At that time Nikon was the premier Japanese camera company. Nikon has announced that they will now move all manufacturing of new equipment from Japan to Thailand. The reasons are simple: Blue Collar workers in Japan average $18.94 per hour -- Blue Collar workers in Thailand average $4.15 per hour.

How Oringer Could Improve Creator Compensation

By Jim Pickerell | 506 Words | Posted 12/16/2020 | Comments
If Jon Oringer of Shutterstock donated his annual salary of $4,598,580 to image creators who produce the products Shutterstock licenses, and divided it among creators based on the number of images licensed, how would that benefit image creators?

Is Wirestock’s “Instant Pay Program” A Scam?

By Robert Kneschke | 1324 Words | Posted 12/15/2020 | Comments
If you use Wirestock to aid you in the process of filling out descriptions, titles, keywords and other required fields, and submitting images to stock agencies you need to read this story by Robert Kneschke (first published in German) and consider taking action before December 19, 2020 if you hope to earn much from your images in the future. Wirestock’s “Instant Pay Program” could be a way to help the middleman make more while the image creator earns less for the images he or she has produced.

Don’t Reveal Your Shutterstock Earnings To Anyone

By Jim Pickerell | 559 Words | Posted 12/7/2020 | Comments
Shutterstock doesn’t want their contributors revealing how much – or how little – they earn. Presumably, this is because they believe that if contributors knew how little they might receive for the imagery they submit they wouldn’t bother to submit anything.

Shutterstock 2021 Color Trends Report

By Jim Pickerell | 264 Words | Posted 11/20/2020 | Comments
Shutterstock, Inc. has announced its 2021 Color Trends  report. By analyzing pixel data from the year’s top downloads and mapping each pixel color to a HEX code, the report reveals the three fastest-growing colors that will tell the story of 2021, as well as local favorites from around the world.

Shutterstock Q3 2020 Financial Results

By Jim Pickerell | 990 Words | Posted 10/27/2020 | Comments
Shutterstock has reported Q3 2020 revenue of $165.2 million up 4% compared to $159.1 million in Q2 2019 and down from $159.2 million the previous quarter. Revenue per download was $3.79 per-image compared to $3.40 in Q3 2019 and $3.61 the previous quarter. Total image and video downloads for Q3 were 43.4 million compared to 46.3 million a year earlier and down from 44 million from the previous quarter. At the end of the quarter Shutterstock had over 350 million images and 20 million video clips in its collection, for a total of 370 million pieces of content.

Adobe Launches Free Stock Image Collection

By Jim Pickerell | 1072 Words | Posted 10/14/2020 | Comments
Adobe Stock has launched a Free Stock Image Collection containing about 70K images (50K pictures, 15K Vectors and 6K video). The first version has been built from the work of a few top contributors who have a significant volume of images in the main collection.

Stock Photography Has A Diversity Problem

By Jim Pickerell | 655 Words | Posted 10/10/2020 | Comments
An article in Popsugar says stock photography has a diversity problem.  According to the author more stock images of black and brown people are needed.

Changing Stock Imagery Market

By Jim Pickerell | 258 Words | Posted 9/24/2020 | Comments
In an effort to better understand how the global pandemic and cultural movements have impacted the stock imagery industry, Adobe surveyed 600 global creatives in July 2020. Creators feel challenged in today’s creative environment, and 82% of respondents believe 2020 has forever changed the way they will create.

Analysis Of Adobe Stock Portfolios

By Robert Kneschke | 1249 Words | Posted 8/21/2020 | Comments
In June German photographer Robert Kneschke did an indepth analysis of the portfolios on the Fotolia website. Adobe displays all the images it represents on both the Adobe Stock and Fotolia websites, but less information is displayed on Adobe. The following information should be an accurate picture of what can be found on Adobe Stock as well as Fotolia.

What Kind Of Images Are In Demand?

By Jim Pickerell | 1220 Words | Posted 8/11/2020 | Comments
If you would like insight into the kind of images that are in demand and what you should be shooting you might want to take a look at AdobeStock. Adobe offers some features other major agencies don’t. Exploring the site could help you decide what kind of images might earn the most money for you.

Shutterstock Partners With Microsoft: Gives Advertisers Free Images

By Jim Pickerell | 252 Words | Posted 7/24/2020 | Comments
Shutterstock has entered into a partnership with Microsoft to give brands access to the stock photography company’s library of images for use in ads. The API integration with Microsoft Advertising will give advertisers on the Microsoft Audience Network FREE ACCESS to millions of commercially licensed images.

What’s Fair Compensation?

By Jim Pickerell | 203 Words | Posted 7/24/2020 | Comments
Shutterstock’s gross revenue in 2019 was $648,500,000. Total royalties paid out to all contributors in 2019 was about $181,730,000. Total Shutterstock stock owned by Jon Oringer is worth over $650,000,000.

Best Microstock Distributors

By Jim Pickerell | 657 Words | Posted 7/21/2020 | Comments
Great Escape Publishing has published its first annual GEP Stock Photography Index 2020 which ranks, rates, compares and contrasts the top 10 online stock-photography sites.

Is There A Need For A Publication Like Selling Stock?

By Jim Pickerell | 558 Words | Posted 6/23/2020 | Comments
After reading my story “Copyright Protection For Photos Is Dead” Paul Melcher wrote, “If there is no more copyright, then there is no more licensing. If there is no more photo licensing then there is no more reason for the existence of ‘Selling Stock’"

Shutterstock Reduces Royalty Rates Dramatically

By Jim Pickerell | 1547 Words | Posted 5/29/2020 | Comments
On May 26th Shutterstock announced that in an effort to cut costs and increase profits as of June 1, 2020 it would dramatically reduce future royalty rates paid to contributors. The new rates will no longer be based on a contributor’s lifetime earnings. At the beginning of each year all contributors will start with zero downloads/licenses and a 15% royalty rate. Previous sales history will be disregarded when it comes to determining royalty percentage. The number of downloads needed to rise to a higher royalty level are as follows:

Shutterstock Ten Year History

By Jim Pickerell | 728 Words | Posted 5/1/2020 | Comments
The chart below allows you to easily track the last 10-year growth trend of Shutterstock quarter-by-quarter and see the number of images in the collection, number of downloads and the gross quarterly revenue at the end of each quarter. You can also see the average revenue-per-download and revenue-per-image-in-the-collection trends.

Shutterstock Q1 2020 Financial Results

By Jim Pickerell | 1369 Words | Posted 4/27/2020 | Comments
Shutterstock has reported Q1 2020 revenue $161.3 million compared to $163.3 million in Q1 2019 and down from $166.4 million the previous quarter. Revenue per download remained flat at $3.42 per-image compared to Q1 2019 and down from $3.44 the previous quarter.

Cutcaster Closes On Saturday

By Jim Pickerell | 225 Words | Posted 4/24/2020 | Comments
Founder John Griffin has announced that he will be closing the microstock site Cutcaster on Saturday April 25, 2020 after nearly 12 years of operations. He gave everyone a few days notice so buyers could make use of any existing funds they have on account and he encouraged contributors with more than $5 on account to request a payout before the closing deadline.

What Is Canva?

By Jim Pickerell | 872 Words | Posted 3/26/2020 | Comments
When the question of market leaders in the stock photo industry comes up the names photographers usually think about are Getty Images, Shutterstock, AdobeStock, iStock and Alamy. Maybe they should be thinking about the Australian company Canva. The users and buyers of photographs are people who design products that needs visuals. Canva has been built to provide a host of services designers need to do their jobs.

Will EyeEm Be The Main Future Supplier Of Stock Images?

By Jim Pickerell | 684 Words | Posted 3/20/2020 | Comments
As I pointed out in yesterday’s story EyeEm is the single largest supplier of stock images to Getty’s Creative Collection. Currently 8,005,719 of the 30,472,764 images in Getty’s Creative Collection have been supplied by EyeEm. That’s 26% of the total collection making EyeEm by far the largest contributor to Getty Creative.

Getty Creative Collection Transformation

By Jim Pickerell | 2640 Words | Posted 3/18/2020 | Comments
In the last four years there has been dramatic shifts within the Getty Images Creative Collection. It is unclear how this has affected gross revenue generated as Getty has stopped providing a public breakdown of the revenue segments of its business. Nevertheless, it is believed that since 2016 annual gross Creative revenue has consistently generated about $280 million of the company's roughly $850 million in gross revenue.