As you know, PosterSpy was known for its film studio poster competitions, these funded our website and enabled me to work full time on the website. Unfortunately, many other websites (you know who) took the competition model but began exploiting artists – companies even began running their own crowdsourcing campaigns disguised as friendly competitions, with many commercialising the final product. What was once a really amazing community initiative began to turn rather sour.
Many artists were disheartened and appalled by the actions of the other companies so we did what was right, we stopped hosting competitions.
This is a decision I stand behind, it was the right thing to do and now we’re working directly with filmmakers and studios on commissions to pay artists the way they should be paid. Although these projects are rare and not easy to obtain right now, especially with the world still recovering from COVID.
The downside is that the marketing agencies we used to work with don’t necessarily value 1 or 2 pieces of art, they liked the competitions for volume and the excitement that was generated. Convincing studios to switch to a commission-based marketing option hasn’t been easy and we’ve not been met with much success.
This is why I set up Patreon, our revenue from competitions (as studios paid us a fee to host them) made up roughly 90% of our yearly revenue and although deciding to stop them isn’t something I regret, we are now faced with financial issues and keeping the site online.
In 2018 I was able to quit my job and commit all my time to PosterSpy, I held events, meetups, released products for charity. PosterSpy was really making some impressive moves. I know that many artists have been asking “Why isn’t PosterSpy doing this? Why isn’t PosterSpy doing that” – the simple answer is there’s no budget for it because I stopped hosting competitions.
I know this is not something I need to community to “solve” and in fact this is an issue I need to solve myself and find new revenue streams. However, with the site evolving day to day and the volume of art increasing exponentially, maintaining the site is becoming increasingly difficult. I have never charged artists a fee to use the site. Or ever really asked for anything from the community.
Site hosting is expensive, managing the site and dealing with member enquiries, working with filmmakers and recommending artists, working with agencies to find artists is something until now I’ve mostly done for free. But with this cut of revenue, it’s something that is just impossible to continue.
With our Patreon – (what will eventually be moved to premium accounts giving you lots of perks and features here on PosterSpy.com), I hope to use the funding to maintain the website and continue doing what I do and appreciate every one of you who has become a patron. I’ve worked hard to secure some brilliant discounts with partners you know and love and we’ll be holding regular giveaways and exclusive content for our Patreon.
If you enjoy PosterSpy, or have benefited from the website in some way over the course of its 7 years here, please consider becoming a Patron to help me to continue doing what I do.
Here are just some of the benefits you’ll get by being one:
You can become a Patron here.
