Author: Amos Struck

Shutterstock has announced a new grant for artists, the Create Fund to finance fresh content in high-demand topics for their catalog while assisting artists in their project and career development.  Open for submissions right now and until February 2021, this new grant is looking to expand all Shutterstock’s libraries in the themes of diversity, inclusion, social justice, and environmental awareness.  Read on for details on the program and how to enter. A Grant to Secure New Content on World-Relevant Topics The newly launched Create Fund is a $300K fund program that aims at financing and securing the creation of content…

Renowned microstock agency Dreamstime informed all contributors that as part of their community-centred efforts to relieve the effects of the Covid19 pandemic, as of June 1st 2020 they are increasing all royalty rates by 10% of the royalty value. This raise applies to all sales and all royalty rate levels and hopes to aid artists that have lost other revenue streams during the world pandemic and consequent lockdowns and social distancing practices. This isn’t the only move Dreamstime has made towards helping out during these trying times, but it is the first focused on the creative community rather than customers…

Today we bring you a big heads-up from Shutterstock! The stock photo titan announced a new scheme to calculate contributor royalty rates, which will take effect from June 1st, 2020 onwards. The new royalties calculation will be based on the number of times your content sells in one year, instead of the current lifetime earnings system. This way, the more times your images are downloaded, the highest your payout will be. The new scheme affects video earnings as well. This is the first time the agency makes such a significant change to its payout structure –the same that hit $1…

Heads up, Shutterstock contributors! The agency has just released their Contributor Earnings Report that shares one impressive milestone: they have now paid a total of $1 Billion in contributor earnings! The report is broken down regionally and gives a lot of details about sales performance and content in demand. If you sell your images through Shutterstock, you won’t want to miss these insights! And if you aren’t yet a contributor to Shutterstock platform, this could very well be the best time to become one, as the agency is celebrating their contributor-side achievement with a special royalty rate increase for customer…

Good news for Shutterstock Contributors around the world! Today the agency announced they’ve updated their Contributor app to include in-app registration in both iOS and Android. As of now, you can be one of Shutterstock’s over 650,000 contributors by simply downloading the app to your phone, signing up and submitting your images on the go. A very useful feature for the next generation of mobile-first contributors they hope helps to improve their submitting experience. The company also revamped its customer-oriented app, including an easy search for similar images, one of the most loved recent features in their desktop platform. Download…

Around two months ago we reported that Selling-Stock’s author Jim Pickerell had an open survey for photographers — especially those active in the editorial segment– to anonymously share their earning stats and help the community as a whole know more about the current state of the photography business. Such survey closed at the end of October, and now the results are out! While they align with the assumptions and predictions Pickerell and other insiders –and stock photo contributors– could have made, it’s still interesting to have the cold numbers to back them up. Read ahead for a quick roundup on…

Adobe announced they are officially closing Fotolia stock agency in one year from now, on November 5, 2019. However, the Fotolia Contributor Site will be restricted much sooner than that, in just a few months, to fully merge into Adobe Stock Contributor portal. This was a move many of us industry insiders had foreseen. After acquiring Fotolia in late 2014, Adobe has been strongly pushing Adobe Stock –their stock photo service built on the base of Fotolia library and integrated into Creative Cloud launched in 2015– while dropping pretty much all marketing for Fotolia. This shutdown does not mean you’re…

Beginner stock photo contributors and photographers or enthusiasts looking to get started in selling their images at stock photo agencies often struggle deciding what to shoot that will sell well. If this is you, then photographer Zdenka Darula’s video tutorial to find stock photo ideas that sell is a must watch for you! Even if you’re a seasoned microstocker, this artist’s simple yet methodical ways can help you to find new potential best-sellers to add to your portfolio. So why not give it a watch? See the Zdenka’s tutorial video below! Or click here to watch it on YouTube directly. And…

Everypixel –the IT company behind cool AI tools like the software that tells you how good your stock photos are– has launched the beta test for their new DAM product for stock media contributors. This new service offers AI technology, cloud storage, automatic submission and analytics to provide an efficient and cost-effective way to manage your stock media business. While the Everypixel DAM won’t be officially launched until mid-November, the beta testing is running until then. And you can apply to be part of the test and get unlimited access for one month completely free! Sign up for Everypixel DAM Beta Test…

Are you a videographer or do you work with video? Then you NEED to know about VRMeta, the future in video keywording for video content. Developed by MicrostockSolutions –of whom as a microstock contributor you’ve likely heard–, this is an intelligent software solution that gives in-frame, time-based, descriptive metadata of your clips with deep level accuracy, as well as manual tagging to help your content to be easier discovered and ultimately converting more sales in the microstock video market. Learn more in this video below:  https://youtu.be/eo7kHY5Zu4Q Ready to know even more? VRMeta: Ultra-Precise Meta-Tags for your Videos VRMeta is an…