| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | stock photography and stock footage |
| Genre | microstock photography |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Founder(s) | Jon Oringer |
| Headquarters | New York City, United States of America |
| Key people | Jon Oringer, (Founder, CEO), Thilo Semmelbauer, (President), Adam Riggs, |
| Website | shutterstock.com |
Shutterstock is a microstock photography website which maintains a library of royalty-free stock images available by subscription. Visitors can browse the entire image library for free, and can license and download images online through a variety of subscription offers.
Shutterstock adds to its library each day as photographers and illustrators from around the world submit their work. The new photos, vectors, and illustrations undergo a selection process based on quality, aesthetics, artistry, and originality before the accepted images are added to the library.
As of April 2011, Shutterstock had more than 15 million royalty-free images and 275,000 royalty-free video available to subscribers, taken by more than 250,000 photographers, illustrators, and videographers.[1]
On September 23, 2009, Shutterstock announced that it had purchased rival site Bigstock, effectively entering the credit-based stock image marketplace. [2]
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Shutterstock sells stock photos, stock vector graphics made in programs like Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand, and stock raster illustrations created in 3d graphics programs or bitmap editors like Adobe Photoshop.
Subscribers may purchase either a 25-A-Day subscription and download up to 25 images per day (750 per month) in monthly increments, or purchase an On Demand subscription and choose a set amount of downloads to be used any time over a year. [3] Subscribers may continue to use the pictures even after their membership has expired. However, a subscriber can not stockpile, download, or otherwise store Images not used within six (6) months of the expiration of the subscription for a personal, commercial or a clients project under which you downloaded the Image. If the subscriber fails to use an Image within such six (6) month period, they lose all rights to use that Image. As of February 2009, the fee for a 25-A-Day subscription began at $249 per month.
Contributing photographers must apply before they are eligible to upload their images. The applicants must submit 10 pictures that are screened for quality and suitability. At least 7 pictures must be approved for the contributor account to become active.
Once approved, submitters can begin uploading their work through the website. They supply keywords, categorize the images, and submit them to the "inspection queue," where each and every image is examined to ensure that it meets the standards of quality, usefulness and copyright and trademark laws. Each time an image is downloaded, the photographer receives a flat rate of 25c (with a tiered set of raises as the submitter reaches lifetime earnings of $500, $3,000, and $10,000, respectively). [4][5][6]
In April 2006, Shutterstock began offering royalty-free stock footage on their website. Shutterstock Footage operates similarly to their image library, offering video clips by subscription or on a per-clip basis. Shutterstock footage is available in a variety of formats, including DVCAM, HDCAM and Betacam. [7] Today, Shutterstock Footage contains over 150,000 royalty-free video clips. [8]
Shutterstock was founded in 2003 by Jon Oringer. Oringer uploaded 30,000 of his own stock photos on to a subscription site he developed called Shutterstock, forming the basis of the company. From December 2005 to early 2010, Adam Riggs was president and CFO of Shutterstock. Thilo Semmelbauer took over as President in early 2010. Jon Oringer continues to run the company as Founder & CEO. [9]
Shutterstock's image library of over 11 million images is searchable in a variety of languages including French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Italian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, and Russian.