shutterstock (international)

[Syates]

From the ShutterStock web site:

"Dear Submitters:

We wanted to let you know that we've been working hard on the details of your 2008 commission increase, and we think you'll be very pleased with the new terms. The final stage of this process is to test new price points for Shutterstock products, which we will do over the next two months. We will then evaluate the results of these price increases and finalize your raise. We expect to be able to announce the raise to you during the first two weeks of May. It will be effective immediately.

This year we will also be experimenting with some "starter" products that offer a less expensive entry point to account holders that have never purchased from us before. These new products will offer a brief trial of our user-friendly subscription model, so the account holder can experience first hand all of the benefits of being a paid Shutterstock customer. We're confident that by doing this we'll convert even more site users into happy -- and actively downloading -- customers.

We're proud that we have the best library in the industry and offer the best products, and we will continue to encourage you, our talented submitters, to submit your outstanding content. Thank you for letting us represent your work.

Best Regards,

Shutterstock"

and from an email from ShutterStock to buyers:

"It's been another great year for Shutterstock®. We now have over 3.1 million stock photos, illustrations, and vectors in our collection, which grows at the brisk pace of over 30,000 new premium images each week. Currently, we have over 90,000 contributing photographers and graphic artists worldwide making Shutterstock's image library one of the most extensive and diverse around. Our goal is to ensure that every search you perform turns up fresh results of the highest quality.

A reminder: Are you taking advantage of our Automatic Renewal Program? When you sign up, you lock in your current subscription rate for the next 15 months. It's the best way to guarantee your access to our image library; to sign up now, visit our Automatic Renewal page.

Now is a smart time to subscribe to Shutterstock and lock in current rates: in order to continue to grow our collection aggressively while offering the high level of service to which we're committed, we will be raising fees effective March 3, 2008. As of that date, a one-month Standard License subscription, with 25 downloads per day, will cost £149. As always, the longer the subscription period, the better the value--please see below for the revised fee schedule. (Of course, if you are clever enough to sign up for Automatic Renewal between now and then, this will not apply to you!).

Standard License
Subscription Period    Current Rate(lock them in today)    New Rates
1month                                        £109                           £149
3 months                                     £309                           £419
6 months                                     £589                           £809
1 year                                       £1,099                          £1,529

Our three Enhanced License products will also undergo a price increase on the same date, though these products are not eligible for Automatic Renewal. Still, sneak in a final purchase before the March 3, 2008 increase if you can!

Thank you very much for your business. If you have any questions, please contact support@shutterstock.com.

Sincerely,
Shutterstock Support "

What do you think how much will our pay rise be?  SY

[nicemonkey]

I guess looking back at last years increase maybe a more tiered approach to the payouts i.e. the more you earn the more you get (to encourage the top selling artist to stay rather than move onto macro sites).

I guess we will have to sit back and wait....fingers crossed

[domencolja]

Can't wait the raise. I'm not able to relate this eventual raise with the past ones, but I surely hope it will be substantial. The 0.30 Dollars per download is relatively solid (the quantity of downloads on SS really is dreamy compared to other sites), but the value of the Dollar is catastrophic and economic analysts say it is NOT going to get any better (and we can hope for a stabilization only later this year (but definitely not a reversal of tendency). This alone is already a strong reason for the raise (don't forget all this companies only profit with the Dollar devaluation). On top of that we all know how the "most dangerous" competitor pumped their prices and the industry is surely going to follow (even if SS targets a somehow different audience with it's subscription model and at least until now looks on par (efficency-wise) with the credit system).

[khz]

news is very nice,
but since the price increase will be in march 3th,
2 months for the commission increase seems to be a little long, doesnt it?
US dollar is very weak, new customer price increase will be negative on sales, and
we have to wait for 2 months for the rise :S

[lilcrazyfuzzy]

You can put your uploading on hold and upload everything 1 week before may

[khz]

i think a lot of people will do that

[Syates]

I guess SS may need some time to calculate how much they have to distribute before announcing a pay rise. SY

[khz]

that's the reason for sure,
but it is way too long imo,
first, SS is increasing its prices every year, and they should have some stats about their customer behaviour, they are not doing it for the first time,
second, imo, they will increase .5 cent most probably as previous years,
third, again imo 2.5 months is a big gap between the price increase and commission increase,
and finally, they may calculate the difference of the old and new commission's at the end of the 2.5 months and pay it to the contributors,
for sure there will be old customers with old credits but, i am willing to take .30 for old credits and get higher for new credits
what do you think?
and sum of all, i am happy about the increase this way or that way  )

[dolgachov]

everything about shutterstock goes here