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Articles from December 2019
A reader wrote, “Over the years you’ve published Shutterstock’s gross revenue number. It would be good to see the ratio of corporate earnings to photographer earnings after this weeks
1 billion horn blow.”
It is getting harder and harder for image creators to get higher royalties on their images in
iStock’s Signature collection. Royalties go up based on the total number of times images belonging to a particular creator are downloaded during the year. Download targets for Exclusive contributors have been around since 2017. At the beginning of the year the contributor starts with the ending royalty rate of the previous year. On January 1st iStock starts counting downloads for the year. Essential image downloads are counted as one while Signature Plus downloads are counted as 2. Some, but not all, downloads of Signature images through Gettyimages.com also count as 2. Others, probably mostly Premium Access sales, only count as 1.
Shutterstock Custom assignments seem to be working well for some contributors. Below you will answers to my questions from two of of the more successful Custom Assignment contributors, Adrianne Haskins and Jeremy Pawlowski. Haskins is based in Tenessee and Pawlowski in Portland Oregon. To see Pawlowski’s work check out this
link and for Haskins work go to
this site.
One of many reasons for the decline of stock photography as a profession is that it has become almost impossible for photographers to get a clear understanding of the various types of imagery, and the relative degree of demand, that users want and need. Once that was not the case, but now there is a total disconnect between image creators and image users.
An
iStock Exclusive photographer asked, “Given that Getty is ‘racing to the bottom’ and is about to eliminate Rights Managed from its collection, do you think our Exclusive contracts will be next?" I don’t think so. It seems to me that it will still be to
Getty’s advantage to keep the Exclusive segment of iStock.
Shutterstock, Inc. has announced that its contributor base has reached $1 billion in earnings paid. The company released its
Contributor Earnings Report, which breaks down the massive achievement shared among its global community of artists, photographers, videographers and musicians. The report showcases an overview of earnings by region, a snapshot of high-growth countries and features a selection of contributors who helped make the achievement possible.
Each year, my team at Adobe Stock spends hundreds of hours pouring over thousands of pages of research reports, global news, search data, fine art, and fashion imagery and more to bring you the coming year’s creative trends. This year, we’re doing something a little bit different. For 2020, we’re excited to reveal not just four Visual Trends, but accompanying Motion Trends and Design Trends, too.
Shutterstock, Inc. has launched its 2020 Color Trends report. By analyzing billions of pixel data from images downloaded, and then mapping each pixel to its closest named hex code, the report reveals which colors had the greatest growth between 2018 and 2019, as well as local favorites from around the world. Shutterstock’s 1.9 million customers include designers, marketers, creatives, and bloggers who are often working months in advance on campaigns and projects. Their download choices help to forecast trends in the year ahead.
According to Reuters, the website of communications watchdog
Roskomnadzor has said that one of
Shutterstock’s domains was blocked in Russia on November 13th by the country's Attorney General because the site contained "insulting state symbols."
Paul Roberts of the Seattle Times has recently interviewed Craig Peters, Getty Images CEO, and published an analysis of the company’s current situation entitled “
Its Crunch Time For Seattle Based Photo Giant Getty Images, And For Photographers” that everyone in the industry may want to read.
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This stock photography news site focuses on the business side of photography with a special emphasis on stock photography. Our goal is to help photographers maximize their earnings based on the quality of their work and the commitment they are prepared to make to the trade. The information provided will be applicable to part-timers as well as full time professional photographers. We’ll leave it to others to teach photographers how to take better pictures.
Jim Pickerell launched his career as a photographer in 1963. In 1990 he began publishing a regular newsletter on stock photography. In 1995 the information was made available online as well as in print and was gradually expanded to a daily service.
Click here for Pickerell's full biography.
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