Shutterstock launches footage subscriptions

I dont do footage so not of interest to me, but it may be for you. Have a look at their press release for details.

Shutterstock Footage® to Introduce Subscription Product.
Launch is natural step for Shutterstock®, the industry leader in subscription-based access to premium visual content.
New York, NY-- April 16, 200 -- Shutterstock, a leader in the stock image industry, announced today that it will be adding a subscription product to its stock video library at Shutterstock Footage. Previously, video clips from the ever-expanding collection had been available only on a per-clip basis. With this launch, Shutterstock will offer customers the freedom provided by the subscription model, with the refreshing ease-of-use for which Shutterstock is known in the creative community. With a subscription to Shutterstock Footage, customers can download more material to inspire and fuel their creative projects without concerning themselves with per-clip charges and administration. Shutterstock Footage by subscription will be available starting April 16, 2008.

"We understand subscription, and why it works well for creative professionals," said Jon Oringer, Shutterstock's Founder & CEO. Adam Riggs, company President, added: "Shutterstock's image subscriptions provide immediate and unconstrained access to our library of photos, illustrations, and vectors; this new product will do the same for our video clip collection at Shutterstock Footage."

Subscriptions to Shutterstock Footage are available in two main types, one that entitles the subscriber to download clips in all formats including High-Definition (HD) and one that permits all formats except for HD. All subscription periods are 30 days, and subscribers choose which plan is best for them based on the quantity of footage they anticipate downloading during that period. This model gives maximum flexibility and value to subscribers: there is a plan here for someone seeking a modest number of non-HD footage over the course of a month and one that provides for more heavy usage, up to 50 clips at the highest resolution. The plans are as follows:

Shutterstock Footage's collection now contains almost 50,000 video clips in categories such as People, Animals/Wildlife, Transportation and Technology. Easily searchable by keyword, the footage library grows every day -- hundreds of clips are added each week -- meaning that subscriber searches constantly turn up fresh material.


Number of clips per 30-day subscription period
HD Included?
Cost per 30-day subscription
10 NO $269
25 NO $639
50 NO $1,199
10 YES $449
25 YES $1,059
50 YES $1,999

Microstockphoto - October results

It was my best ever month..

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:

20% shutterstock (BEST EVER MONTH - BEM)
17% dreamtime (2nd BEM)
9% Fotolia (BEM)
13% istockphoto (BEM)
4% bigstockphoto
25% 123RF (BEM)
7% StockXpert
1% Featurepics
2% Canstock
1% Galastock
1% LuckyOliver

123RF is high this month as I had an Extended License sale (EL) on which I earned a lot more that the normal 0.3 - $2. An EL is where the buyer gets additional rights with the purchase, for example being able to do bigger print runs. Most sites do them but to date, I have only had a couple. Due to the small size of my portfolio, this messed up the percentages a bit. Normally it is only about 7% with the others obviously picking up the difference.

I have also added above the smaller sites that I upload to. As you can see, not a lot going on there. I am supporting them in the hope they will take off but at this point, it doesn't look like they will be catching up to the big boys any time soon.

shutterstock continues to be my pick as it continues to get consistant high sales, so if you haven't joined up yet, have a look:

My guess for the site to improve most is Fotolia . It has a huge portfolio of photos and their marketing is only starting (they are less than 1 year old). They have multi-language sites and have quite a focus in Europe where the other sites dont seem to be as focused.

Galastock and LuckyOliver - the new microstock sites

In the past couple of months, a couple of new microstock sites have popped up: LuckyOliver and Galastock. I have now got my photos onto them and can report sales at both, though very slow. This is to be expected as they haven't started marketing yet.

LuckyOliver looks very slick and appears to be run my marketing people as they are trying to be unique to get market share. Galastock is more traditional. It will be interesting to see if they survive as the market seems pretty competitive.

If you want to have a look, click on the links or the banner above and you will get taken there:

LuckyOliver
Galastock.

September Microstock photo result

I uploaded another 20 photos this month so that the portofolio keeps growning. Depending on the site, I now have between 100-200 photos on each (acceptance of 50-100%). Most of my shots are travel shots so they do not get big downloads (people shots and business shots apparently do best) but I get a steady, but slow, stream of DL, even on the older photos.

Below are percentages for the month to show how I have been going:

20% shutterstock
26% dreamtime
6% Fotolia
10% istockphoto
5% bigstockphoto
6% 123RF
16% StockXpert

I do submit to another few sites but they dont have enough sales to warrent a mention. The sites above are the ones that are worthwhile unless you have a really large portfolio.

With solid sales this month, the pick of the months is dreamtime :

My guess for the site to improve most is Fotolia . It has a huge portfolio of photos and their marketing is only starting (they are less than 1 year old). They have multi-language sites and have quite a focus in Europe where the other sites dont seem to be as focused.

iStock now does video

For anyone who does videos, istock now does videos so have a look.

For those that haven't heard of istock, they sell photos, and now videos, for you. They are cheap, so people can afford to buy them. Each one can sell over and over again so if you have a good image, over time, it can earn you quite a lot.