There is a producer platform cooperative, Stocksy United (https://stocksy.com), that is competitive in this space. I think the photographer payout is at least 50%; critically, profits are distributed to the producers based upon the revenue they are responsible for. They don't have equity owners.
A producer cooperative is a company that is entirely owned by its members, the producers. There are no outside shareholders. One of the important implications of this is that unlike with a for-profit company, where shareholders might be tempted to squeeze out extra profits at the expense of employees, a co-op has no motivation to put the screws to their workers, because those workers are also the owners of the company.
But I'm a little curious about the profit distribution structure you describe. Generally profits are calculated after paying salaries for founders/administrative staff who keep the service running. So you subtract those costs from revenue and then whatever's left is profit/surplus, which gets distributed to the worker-owners according to their contributions.
I was thinking it would be a great time to form a co-op. Submit to Shutterstock as a collective and you’ll reach the higher percentages faster. Get large enough and you can cut them out and compete with them.
Comments
There is a producer platform cooperative, Stocksy United (https://stocksy.com), that is competitive in this space. I think the photographer payout is at least 50%; critically, profits are distributed to the producers based upon the revenue they are responsible for. They don't have equity owners.
A producer cooperative is a company that is entirely owned by its members, the producers. There are no outside shareholders. One of the important implications of this is that unlike with a for-profit company, where shareholders might be tempted to squeeze out extra profits at the expense of employees, a co-op has no motivation to put the screws to their workers, because those workers are also the owners of the company.
But I'm a little curious about the profit distribution structure you describe. Generally profits are calculated after paying salaries for founders/administrative staff who keep the service running. So you subtract those costs from revenue and then whatever's left is profit/surplus, which gets distributed to the worker-owners according to their contributions.
I was thinking it would be a great time to form a co-op. Submit to Shutterstock as a collective and you’ll reach the higher percentages faster. Get large enough and you can cut them out and compete with them.