Dimitris Stasinos

They are just screwing their contributors, like they did many times in the past without any consequence. Their portfolio is soaring. Why would they stop milking the digital slaves?  Between Q1 2019 and Q1 2020:
"Image collection expanded 27% to approximately 330 million images."
"Video collection expanded 29% to approximately 18 million clips."

30% portfolio increase in a year! It's going to take more than a few grumpy folks on forums and quickly forgotten headlines to change their policy. As long as shareholders are happy, it's all good. After the 2020 Q1 release, the CFO explains that "we expect to produce significant earnings and free cash flow in 2020, allowing us to continue paying a quarterly dividend and reinvesting in our business." So most likely, the precious shareholders position is secured, perhaps with the shares taken from the contributors to offset the effects of the Covid-19.

And by the way, this company is financially healthy.  They have a good amount of cash and no debt "We are well positioned financially with $296 million in cash and no debt" according to their CFO. As mentioned before, net income alone is not a good way to assess a company situation. Their EBITDA is solid and increasing over the years, especially considering that they have no debt (the I part of EBITDA). The ratio are not amazing but not bad. See their annual reports.
There is no surge in operating expenses over the year despite massive portfolio increase which clearly contradicts the possibility of booming hosting and content review cost. The 2019 report says " Depreciation and amortization expense increased by $4.7 million as compared to 2018, to $40.4 million in 2019, driven primarily by the depreciation of our capitalized internal-use software. We expect that our cost of revenue will increase in absolute dollars in the foreseeable future to the extent our revenue grows". In other word, hosting fee is no hurting the EBITDA. Which explains why Shutterstock never tried to seriously limit or remove unsold assets as they don't represent a big cost.
 

I doesn’t work this way. We are talking about 5.000 gigabytes of footage that have to be uploaded and pass the curation process. And you are wondering why this would take months?
I can see your point of view. But these are the same words that they are using to justify their actions. The truth is that the stock footage industry saw a significant growth during the pandemic and while other stock footage agencies like Dreamstime decided to help the community by increasing their royalties with 10%, Shutterstock saw a chance to make more money and attract new investors.
Of course this is their service and they make their own rules. This is true for all companies after all. But If we where all so cynical to accept this as a justification for any injustice against working people then i guess we would have more serious issues to deal with.

Please keep us updated on developments. Would love to know how diversifying goes, and the whole stock footage landscape evolves in general. And best wishes to you and others who are affected by the changes.

Actually i saw a lot of unexpected movements on a FB contributor page with over 18.000 members. Many of them have already disabled their portfolios on Shutterstock and are gathering online signs against Shutterstock’s decision.
Of course i am not that naive to believe that actions like these will make any difference but these are healthy reactions of people who are loosing a big chunk of their income. I didn’t created this thread to start a rally against SS here (although i strongly disagree with their decision) but just to let you know that almost 500.000 active contributors took a big hit today.
I am personally building my portfolio on 3 agencies: SS, Pond5 and Adobe Stock, so I will stop uploading new stuff to SS from today but as i said, stock footage is more of a hobby for me.
Anyway, this is not about SS only. There are some dangerous corporate consolidation trends crawling around these days and after the pandemic. Of course these are justified to a certain degree but it’s always painful to see the most fragile social groups (and especially artists) absorbing all the shocks of an industry which they obviously can’t control on their own.

It is unlikely that simply rallying against them is going to change anything. Companies are in it to make as much money as they can.
Certainly, if ENOUGH stock shooters start to pull their content from Shutterstock, then it MIGHT make them re-consider, but I don't know how likely that is. As you said, moving a lot of stock footage is quite an endeavor.
So the question is, what are YOU going to do about it?
Is it possible you can start moving your best selling footage to other platforms first, and then migrate the rest of the footage over as time allows?

I doesn’t work this way. We are talking about 5.000 gigabytes of footage that have to be uploaded and pass the curation process. And you are wondering why this would take months?
I can see your point of view. But these are the same words that they are using to justify their actions. The truth is that the stock footage industry saw a significant growth during the pandemic and while other stock footage agencies like Dreamstime decided to help the community by increasing their royalties with 10%, Shutterstock saw a chance to make more money and attract new investors.
Of course this is their service and they make their own rules. This is true for all companies after all. But If we where all so cynical to accept this as a justification for any injustice against working people then i guess we would have more serious issues to deal with.

I doesn’t work this way. We are talking about 5.000 gigabytes of footage that have to be uploaded and pass the curation process. And you are wondering why this would take months?
I can see your point of view. But these are the same words that they are using to justify their actions. The truth is that the stock footage industry saw a significant growth during the pandemic and while other stock footage agencies like Dreamstime decided to help the community by increasing their royalties with 10%, Shutterstock saw a chance to make more money and attract new investors.
Of course this is their service and they make their own rules. This is true for all companies after all. But If we where all so cynical to accept this as a justification for any injustice against working people then i guess we would have more serious issues to deal with.

Shutterstock is about to make an unexpected change on June 1st regarding the company’s paying scheme and cut every contributors share almost in half. The company used to pay 30% per license to it’s contributors (which was also a bad deal but at least an acceptable one) and now introduces a new payment structure, where that percentage will vary from 15% to 40% according to the amount of annual licenses that are sold from every individual artist’s portfolio.
Of course you have to sell 25.000 licenses (this is impossible) in one year to reach that 40% and even if you do, every January 1st your level automatically resets to Level 1, so back to 15% until you reach that number again in the end of the year (spoiler: you won’t).
This practically means that the vast majority of contributors will experience a 50% reduction to their income from SS.
I am a SS contributor for 5 years now and only a tiny fraction of my income comes from stock footage but i know many people who have invested on this and they are making a living from selling clips and photos on micro stock sites.
I guess this is a legal move on paper and it’s definitely covered by one of those filthy pdf agreements. But given this hard period we are all crossing, those unethical moves made by greedy CEOs in order to transfer the loss on the back of content creators have at least to be judged and condemned by our creative community.

Shutterstock is about to make an unexpected change on June 1st regarding the company’s paying scheme and cut every contributors share almost in half. The company used to pay 30% per license to it’s contributors (which was also a bad deal but at least an acceptable one) and now introduces a new payment structure, where that percentage will vary from 15% to 40% according to the amount of annual licenses that are sold from every individual artist’s portfolio.
Of course you have to sell 25.000 licenses (this is impossible) in one year to reach that 40% and even if you do, every January 1st your level automatically resets to Level 1, so back to 15% until you reach that number again in the end of the year (spoiler: you won’t).
This practically means that the vast majority of contributors will experience a 50% reduction to their income from SS.
I am a SS contributor for 5 years now and only a tiny fraction of my income comes from stock footage but i know many people who have invested on this and they are making a living from selling clips and photos on micro stock sites.
I guess this is a legal move on paper and it’s definitely covered by one of those filthy pdf agreements. But given this hard period we are all crossing, those unethical moves made by greedy CEOs in order to transfer the loss on the back of content creators have at least to be judged and condemned by our creative community.

An average portfolio of a full time stock footage provider consists of 5.000 to 10.000 clips on average. As @JurijTurnsek said, uploading all these clips and moving metadata on another agency will take months. And even then it will take longer than a year for these clips to start selling again.
Adobe Stock and Pond5 are more contributor friendly regarding their paying schemes but Shutterstock is leading this market for the last 10 years through aggressive marketing.
As i said i am not directly affected by this as i have a tiny collection but i always considered this market as a great side job for content creators especially now that the market has taken a big hit and almost every summer shooting session is cancelled.
This is one of those changes that are taking place in total silence (i guess major news portals won’t even report this as Shutterstock sponsors all of them) even though millions of people are affected. They even delete commends on Twitter and Facebook as content creators are furious and their only chance to be heard is through social media.

An average portfolio of a full time stock footage provider consists of 5.000 to 10.000 clips on average. As @JurijTurnsek said, uploading all these clips and moving metadata on another agency will take months. And even then it will take longer than a year for these clips to start selling again.
Adobe Stock and Pond5 are more contributor friendly regarding their paying schemes but Shutterstock is leading this market for the last 10 years through aggressive marketing.
As i said i am not directly affected by this as i have a tiny collection but i always considered this market as a great side job for content creators especially now that the market has taken a big hit and almost every summer shooting session is cancelled.
This is one of those changes that are taking place in total silence (i guess major news portals won’t even report this as Shutterstock sponsors all of them) even though millions of people are affected. They even delete commends on Twitter and Facebook as content creators are furious and their only chance to be heard is through social media.

Shutterstock is about to make an unexpected change on June 1st regarding the company’s paying scheme and cut every contributors share almost in half. The company used to pay 30% per license to it’s contributors (which was also a bad deal but at least an acceptable one) and now introduces a new payment structure, where that percentage will vary from 15% to 40% according to the amount of annual licenses that are sold from every individual artist’s portfolio.
Of course you have to sell 25.000 licenses (this is impossible) in one year to reach that 40% and even if you do, every January 1st your level automatically resets to Level 1, so back to 15% until you reach that number again in the end of the year (spoiler: you won’t).
This practically means that the vast majority of contributors will experience a 50% reduction to their income from SS.
I am a SS contributor for 5 years now and only a tiny fraction of my income comes from stock footage but i know many people who have invested on this and they are making a living from selling clips and photos on micro stock sites.
I guess this is a legal move on paper and it’s definitely covered by one of those filthy pdf agreements. But given this hard period we are all crossing, those unethical moves made by greedy CEOs in order to transfer the loss on the back of content creators have at least to be judged and condemned by our creative community.

An average portfolio of a full time stock footage provider consists of 5.000 to 10.000 clips on average. As @JurijTurnsek said, uploading all these clips and moving metadata on another agency will take months. And even then it will take longer than a year for these clips to start selling again.
Adobe Stock and Pond5 are more contributor friendly regarding their paying schemes but Shutterstock is leading this market for the last 10 years through aggressive marketing.
As i said i am not directly affected by this as i have a tiny collection but i always considered this market as a great side job for content creators especially now that the market has taken a big hit and almost every summer shooting session is cancelled.
This is one of those changes that are taking place in total silence (i guess major news portals won’t even report this as Shutterstock sponsors all of them) even though millions of people are affected. They even delete commends on Twitter and Facebook as content creators are furious and their only chance to be heard is through social media.

Just before the coronavirus outbreak in Europe, me and my wife decided to make use of some tickets we had booked 2 months before and visit our friends in Kiruna, Sweden. It proved to be a risky trip as many flights where cancelled one after another and we could stuck at any airport during our transition or return but it also proved to be one of the greatest trips of our life so far.
I managed to squeeze a Mavic 2 Pro and an Osmo Action into my luggage (sadly my beloved GH5 and it’s accessories had to stay back in Greece) plus a bunch of masks, gloves and alcohol wipes…
So, short story, below you can take a glimpse of our 7-Day trip into the Arctic Circle. The vast majority of these shots (almost 95%) where taken with an OSMO action (handheld, no accessories) and i was personally amazed with this little gem.
Of course i missed my Lumix, my motorised slider, my gimbal etc but on the other hand, if i had all of these with me i wouldn’t have the ability to walk 10 km into the frozen Abisko National Park while interacting with my companionship.
 

This is not the YouTube Video Digest
Can we cut down on threads where there are 3 or 4 youtube clips in every post?
How about making or OWN content rather than reposts?

Just before the coronavirus outbreak in Europe, me and my wife decided to make use of some tickets we had booked 2 months before and visit our friends in Kiruna, Sweden. It proved to be a risky trip as many flights where cancelled one after another and we could stuck at any airport during our transition or return but it also proved to be one of the greatest trips of our life so far.
I managed to squeeze a Mavic 2 Pro and an Osmo Action into my luggage (sadly my beloved GH5 and it’s accessories had to stay back in Greece) plus a bunch of masks, gloves and alcohol wipes…
So, short story, below you can take a glimpse of our 7-Day trip into the Arctic Circle. The vast majority of these shots (almost 95%) where taken with an OSMO action (handheld, no accessories) and i was personally amazed with this little gem.
Of course i missed my Lumix, my motorised slider, my gimbal etc but on the other hand, if i had all of these with me i wouldn’t have the ability to walk 10 km into the frozen Abisko National Park while interacting with my companionship.
 

Just before the coronavirus outbreak in Europe, me and my wife decided to make use of some tickets we had booked 2 months before and visit our friends in Kiruna, Sweden. It proved to be a risky trip as many flights where cancelled one after another and we could stuck at any airport during our transition or return but it also proved to be one of the greatest trips of our life so far.
I managed to squeeze a Mavic 2 Pro and an Osmo Action into my luggage (sadly my beloved GH5 and it’s accessories had to stay back in Greece) plus a bunch of masks, gloves and alcohol wipes…
So, short story, below you can take a glimpse of our 7-Day trip into the Arctic Circle. The vast majority of these shots (almost 95%) where taken with an OSMO action (handheld, no accessories) and i was personally amazed with this little gem.
Of course i missed my Lumix, my motorised slider, my gimbal etc but on the other hand, if i had all of these with me i wouldn’t have the ability to walk 10 km into the frozen Abisko National Park while interacting with my companionship.
 

I agree with many things Trump does and disagree with many others. Anyone who completely agrees or disagrees with anyone, including God, is probably a Communist, not because he doesn't have opinions, but because there is an absolute ban on expressing any opinion, not in complete compliance with the dictats of the top leadership. 
This post almost seems like it's right out of Communist China or USSR under Stalin or Lenin or Germany under Hitler.
In any civil world, one can Agree to Agree or Agree to Disagree, and both choices are respected. Lack of choice is the foundation of Communism, whether disguised as hard left, or modern age liberals trolling anyone and everyone on social media and in public, even their own brethren, if opinions aren't expressed by an exact expression of phrases and words, including calling everyone else in disagreement with themselves (including non radical liberals) as fascists and racists and evil and (ironically) intolerant and other names.   
If the whole purpose of this post is about politics, maybe politics should be kept out of discussions here. Or dedicate a thread to political discussions (if political discussion can ever be called that).
Ban me or ban whoever you want. There is a huge chance that many of us won't make it past a few weeks from now, thanks to a China created and criminally and negligently spread virus. So it probably won't even matter.

A fix is coming...
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/12/06/apple-plans-fix-16-inch-macbook-pro-popping-sound/
 

thank you for reiterating this. that popping sound would drive me fn crazy

Hi guys, i will repeat my self once again just to make sure that you have been warned about this.
Three out of four 16 inch units are producing pop sounds through their speakers during media playback.
I have a 2019 15 inch model and it does this too, but the 16 inch models are producing louder pop sounds due to the new speaker design.
This is by 90% a software issue but it's not known when and "if" Apple will resolve this through a software update. So maybe you should wait for a couple of months.
If you are ready to spend 3000$ on one of those units, please take some time to read my thread on Apple's site before stepping in an Apple store:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250758649?answerId=251719472022&page=1
I opened the above thread regarding my 15 inch unit's problem but many early adopters of the 16 inch laptop came in to report the same issue. 
I have uploaded 2 videos on YT demonstrating the issue. You will find the links there (there are 4 pages, read them all). In the second video you will see that during an editing session inside FCPX you will hear thousands of pops by just skimming through your media. There is a workaround but it will drain your battery faster.
 

Dimitris, there seems to a simple software fix posted on the Macrumors forum, did that work for you?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/any-one-notices-the-cracking-popping-sound-of-new-16-inch-mbp.2211902/page-7?post=28012328#post-28012328

I can see some terrible artifacts there on the trees and especially on fast movements. I am not talking about compression blocks, those are normal. During the first minute i could see an entire tree wobbling around. This is a very promising drone so i can't wait for some SOC footage.