These days I decided to crunch some historical sales/volume numbers and to give credit where it’s due, Shutterstock has been good to me. In fact, it’s responsible for just over 50% of my total Microstock earnings to date at over $25,000.
However, during the past two years or so I’ve been watching how Shutterstock’s competition is catching up and in my case has already overtaken Shutterstock in terms of overall earnings, especially Adobe Stock. In this blog post I’ll try to make sense of how Shutterstock has fallen from grace with three theories as to why.
In this article I’ll focus on photos only (perhaps another one will be dedicated just to footage). Anyway, let’s get started!
This is a follow-up article to the 2020 Shutterstock v Adobe Stock
Check out that article here:
Shutterstock Vs. Adobe Stock
My historical numbers – what % of my total microstock earnings come from Shutterstock alone
During much of my early “career”, Shutterstock was by far the most profitable agency for me as you can see below, going as high as 80% of my total earnings for photos.
However, since 2019 (at least in my port), there has been a double-whammy combination of much lower volumes combined with slightly lower average prices. Keeping in mind that I increased my SS portfolio between 2022 and 2023 by 8%.
Adobe Stock is on the up and up
In the meantime, at least with my port (please comment below if it’s the same with yours), Adobe Stock’s prognosis has been healthier with considerably higher volumes which more than doubled from 2022 to 2023 as you can see below, although I did increase my port by 12% year-on-year).
Taking this March vs 2018 – it’s like night vs day
You may argue oh you chose a great March, but really it could have been 2017, 2019, 2020, doesn’t matter.
How are things looking so far in 2024?
Interestingly, so far in 2024 (which has triggered my motivation to post this article), Adobe Stock and Shutterstock are pretty much neck and neck in net earnings, even if Shutterstock is selling almost 2x more. Adobe Stock just simply sells images at better prices, on average.
Looking wider, Shutterstock is also performing relatively poorly versus its other competitors, iStock and Alamy. So far now approaching mid-March, Shutterstock is YET to be the leading agency at the end of the month as it lost out to Adobe Stock in January and iStock in February. For March, it’s really struggling and probably heading for second or even third place.
Now let’s discuss 3 theories that may be contributing to SS’s slow demise.
Three Theories Contributing to Shutterstock’s Fall from Grace
Theory 1: Changing the Royalty Structure (2020) and Oversaturation
I won’t go into details about the change in royalty structure from 2020, where they introduced the ridiculous tiered-system that resets every January, as it’s been talked about to death. Also, oversaturation isn’t new as all agencies are suffering from too many new images being added while the customer base is only growing marginally.
One can make the case that customers are having difficulty finding newer images for more competitive searches. After all, a great image that is on page 10 stands little to no hope of being picked up by buyers that don’t search past the first page of hits.
It’s just too easy to shoot and upload these days as the technology is making headway, especially in the smartphone department. Some cool stats:
Theory 2: Shutterstock is transitioning into a giant AI-training agency
While Shutterstock’s primary focus has always been on providing stock imagery to its customers at low cost under the subscription model, recent developments suggest a shift in priorities. The platform appears to be increasingly prioritizing its role as an AI-training agency rather than solely serving the needs of contributors and buyers.
With the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, stock agencies like Shutterstock are leveraging vast collections of images to train AI algorithms for various applications. These applications range from image recognition to content generation, and Shutterstock’s extensive library of user-generated content presents a valuable resource for training these algorithms. Contributors do get paid for the training but in my case at least it has been peanuts and considerably less than Adobe Stock for the same period.
Many agencies, including Adobe Stock and iStock, are also going through similar transition within their respective collections but it seems that Shutterstock may be engaging in this practice more aggressively as seen by its recent partnership with OpenAi.
Imagine the year is 2030 and SS-Getty (having recently merged with Getty) decide that they are no longer accepting new content into their already massive 1billion image collection (of mainly stolen images from south Asians). In its Press Release, the CEO states:
“SS-Getty’s Board of Directors has unaminously passed a resolution that from January 1st, 2030, the Company will be discontinuing its stock photography and footage collections, as SS-Getty transitions to a fully AI-driven business model. We thank our loyal contributors that have been with the Company since the very beginning and wish you success in this Brave New World.”
A few weeks later SS-Getty published a further Press Release where they stated that SS-Getty’s Board of Directors would be made redundant as all decisions would be made by a “Super AI Director”.
Theory 3: It’s an industry-wide problem and much larger than Shutterstock
Perhaps we’re just being “lucky” with an uptick of sales from Adobe Stock and the occasional good months over at iStock and Alamy. But the overall medium-term trend when looking at my wide portfolio within the microstock industry is certainly bearish. I’m fully aware of this and perhaps I’m just trying to squeeze the last drops of revenue before everything turns to AI or some sort of hybrid-AI and you can’t blame me.
Perhaps 2024 is the last “decent” year for me/us. I won’t be in any case surprised if in 2025 my overall revenues are down 25% and keep reducing by a quarter year on year until it’s earning just 20% of the peak in just a few years. However, my port may outperform some others as it consists prodominately of editorials. See the latest blog post:
My ultimate fear isn’t that sales will catastrophically drop, it’s that they will continue but the average price will just be a few cents at most for generic commerical work as can be widely seen if you also upload to iStock. Think of food in a white background, happy businesspeople and generic holiday shots on the beach as these can quite easily and accurately be reproduced using AI.
By this stage it will be almost practically giving away the images for free. Perhaps with the exception of editorials, such as the below, which may be licensed at a relative premium as already discussed.
Agencies are adapting and so must contributors
In the next few years I think the larger agencies will be just fine which can’t be said about the smaller agencies that don’t have as many resources to adapt. As for us, struggling contributors, we must adapt or die.
I wish there was more positive to say but even the relative “good times” at Adobe Stock probably won’t last that long. We, as advanced monkeys, must never forget where we stand in the social hierarchy and right now we are at the bottom, unfortunately. It’s just business and us contributors are, in the eyes of management, a business cost that can and will be squeezed to the benefit of shareholders.
Be on the lookout for more “Exciting News” at Shutterstock very soon.
About Alex
I’m an eccentric guy, currently based in Lisbon, Portugal on a quest to visit all corners of the world and capture stock images & footage. I’ve devoted ten years to making it as a travel photographer / videographer and freelance writer. I hope to inspire others by showing an unique insight into a fascinating business model.
I’ve goneall inon submitting book cover images to Arcangel Images. Oh and was also flying a DJI Mavic 2s drone regularly (although it crashed into Botafogo Bay on NYE –here is the story), which I’m upgrading to a Mini 3 Pro and eventually an Air3 in 2024.
I’m proud to have written a book about my adventures which includes tips on making it as a stock travel photographer –Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock Photography
