During the past six months, most notably, Wirestock and Picfair have dropped their respective statuses as “free to upload stock agencies” in what is a potentially significant trend for contributors. In this blog post I’ll discuss whether this business model will become more commonplace and if it may present itself as a threat to contributors’ income in a time when we’re already experiencing diminishing returns coupled with rising inflation. Or perhaps, this fee will be an opportunity! Let’s get started!

“Paying to Play” is nothing new!

Online, the concept of “paying to play” has been around for a long time. Print on Demand (POD) agencies often charge an annual fee to host content, including Fine Art America (on a premium plan) and Pictorem. Steve Heap has recently written about his experiences with POD here.

Although the fees aren’t significant ranging from $30 to $60 a year it’s certainly an obstacle for many contributors, especially newbies. In the real world, this business model also exists at photography galleries. In fact, I still have a bad taste in my mouth from when I was essentially scammed at a Vanity Gallery in London – see “Photographers, Beware of Vanity Galleries“.

Not a common business model for Microstock

However, in microstock-land, since we’re already willingly giving away a huge chunk of our royalties to the agencies (up to 85% in the case of iStock), this kind of model just doesn’t really make sense, also due to dirt-cheap hosting costs, even for 4K footage in Prores.

The world is changing fast and just because something doesn’t make sense now, doesn’t mean it won’t in another time. Or marketing gurus will soon present us with some “exciting news” and try to frame it as something positive.

Five Reasons why Microstock Agencies may soon Introduce such Hosting Fees

Even though it doesn’t make sense for the reasons outlined above, it can be a great way for agencies to achieve their goals, which I’ve outlined below. I’m speculating here but I’m assuming the “hosting” fee is something relatively small, such as $10/month or if paid one-time yearly like $80 for a discount.

Reason 1: Reducing the number of (unmotivated) amateurish contributors

Firstly, this fee would dissuade most unmotivated newbie contributors from ever joining, which is a plus for all as the collections are bloated as they are. Those who are perhaps more motivated (or perhaps just wealthier) will likely work harder and produce better quality work for longer. Keep in mind that this is a global business and although this cost may not sound like a lot in most countries it can be significant in less developed countries.

Reason 2: Reducing the number of existing (useless) contributors

For those useless existing contributors that only upload junk (including hundreds of similars), this fee would almost certainly eliminate them. The same goes for contributors that have uploaded junk and stopped due to no sales or just boredom. Clearing “bad images” from collections is certainly a good thing for all. Although the rejected pile is being used to train AI at SS under the Data Licensing scheme.

Now, here comes the sinister part. Suppose that Alamy wants to introduce such hosting fee and I’m not keen on this, but I do have 14,000+ images on there. They could essentially “extort” me to pay up or close my account.

Reason 3: Eliminating thieving accounts

A huge plus for all would be to most certainly dissuade any thieving contributor from ever signing up and those that have already signed up to keep their accounts active. Just not worth the risk to them to both pay the fee and risk having their account shut down. Plus they’re probably not having many sales since the same images are in multiple accounts, as below, and often available for free.

Reason 4: Be able to offer something extra to contributors

Probably wishful thinking, but if a contributor does pay a little extra perhaps he/she can also get something back, such as a keywording service to save time. Wirestock does this type of “service”, which is included in their hosting fee and 15% cut on royalties.

Otherwise, just brainstorming here, the option to pay into the fee would give some perks, such as reaching more clients and/or being able to upload 8K footage (future-proofing)

Reason 5: With Ai, who needs (commercial) contributors anyway, so squeeze them!

I left the most significant reason last and the most controversial. We’re coming to a time when with the development of Ai there is less need for actual contributors as the existing collection already offers enough possibilities to create meaningful work with commercial work (editorial should be OK). Although we’re still in early days of Ai, agencies are all trying to get to grips with the threats / opportunities. Recently, Shutterstock expanded its partnership with OpenAi to provide high-quality training data.

I can’t offer more insight into this as I’m also still trying to understand the repercussions, although have written about this in detail here in the Special Ai Edition.

Would you pay a $10/month hosting fee?

So, now the moment of truth. Supposing that in December this year we receive an email from Shutterstock with the title: “EXCITING NEWS: New Hosting Fee to be Introduced for your benefit”. Ok, it wouldn’t be worded like that but you know what I mean….how would you feel about it?

Join the active discussion at the MSG Forum on this topic!

Closing thoughts

Look forward to your thoughts on the above…perhaps I’m just getting a bit carried away although I’ve been known to make some pretty damn accurate predictions – see here my prediction on Imagebrief closing shop and a post on signs to watch out for an agency may be closing!

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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 eight 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.

Most recently I’ve gone all in on submitting book cover images to Arcangel Images. Oh and also recently purchased a DJI Mavic 2s drone and taking full advantage and perhaps a Mavic 3 soon.

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