So, how are your Adobe sales going? I'm seeling like crazy last few months. With 270� (and the highest sale was �14 for video) february was by far my BME there.

At the same time, I made 35$ at SS in february, lol, $0.10 sale after $0.10 sale, it's just pathetic. Out of cca. 20 video sales this year, the highest was $2,25$, most of the rest were like $0.25. Disgusting really

My adobe sales are growing consistently.

Same. Even February was short month it was the best month so far, a little better than January. I hope it is not just short term success, however it motivates to create more for Adobe.

Now and then SS produces a SO or EL that brings them up and makes the totals look good. RPD beyond some singles and odd sales, is pretty terrible. But to be fair, if we are only talking dollars, bottom line, not how I got to the totals?

Adobe is roughly 33% better, total earned, so far this year.

RPD and RPI are even more irrelevant for myself as I have different images allowed and accepted on AS vs SS. The number of identical images might be in the low hundreds. Hard to say anything or make any helpful predictions for anyone else. And no video on either.

Periodically I take a look at my Adobe sales in more detail (i.e. more than just what the monthly total is when I request a payment!) and recently I thought I noticed a big increase in the proportion of licenses that were tagged "custom" versus "subscription". I also noticed a Maine beach image has been selling more than it historically has, but that's only of interest to me

With no useful contributor statistics at Adobe Stock I had to improvise a bit with Google Sheets and cut and paste, but was able to get a few insights that I think are generally applicable. It's a mix of good news and less good news.

The good news is that my sales (downloads and $$) are both substantially up in the last six months. My portfolio increase was modest in that time so I think it really is growth. January & February 2023 were up 41% ($$) and 45% (downloads) over Jan+Feb 2022. (Those two months in 2022 were up about 5% ($$) and 30% (DLs) over 2021)

The less good news is that the download numbers are growing faster than the $$. It's great that more images are getting downloaded, but it's hard to keep that sort of growth up over time. Which leads to the other part of the less good news - the revenue per download is dropping. 74� so far this year vs 77� in 2022, 92� in 2021 and 95� in 2020.

When I look at the number of sales marked as subscription versus custom, the proportion of custom downloads is growing over the last several years, but the revenue per download for custom sales is lower than for subscription. The section growing the fastest is producing lower royalty sales.

I compared Jan 1 - Mar 6 sales from 2020 through 2023, separating out the two groups, custom and subscription (if it were less cumbersome to get data from Adobe Stock, a longer period would be ideal).

Subscription sales are still more numerous than custom, but year to date in 2023, subscription downloads are 1.32x  custom downloads.
 
The same 2+ months in 2022, subscriptions were 3.45 times custom; in 2021, 12.24 times custom and in 2020, 21.69 times custom downloads.

I assume the change relates to the Pro Edition for Creative Cloud for Teams and Enterprises and  Creative Cloud Express. Both plans produce items tagged "custom" in royalty reports.

Looking at my revenue per download for custom versus subscription downloads (again for the Jan 1-Mar 6 period) in 2022 it was 87� for custom and 74� for subscription; for 2023 it was 69� for custom and 78� for subscription. It's good news that the subscription revenue is up, but the custom was down by more.

If you look at the download volume for 2023 so far compared to the same period in 2022, subscription downloads are up 7% where custom downloads are up 182% (and I really mean way more than doubled). Subscription revenues are up 13%, which is good, but custom revenues are up over 120%.

You might wonder why I'd be bothered as both are increasing - isn't it just doom-and-gloom to see any bad news there? We'll have to see how things develop (and as I've said many times, my crystal ball is broken) but the relentless royalty erosion for us - the suppliers - means earning a fair return on our portfolios will just get harder as eventually there just won't be enough buyers to pump up the volume enough to make up for the lower royalties per download.

As always, YMMV

In the last 12 months with over 20k images online and around 2000 downloads per month each at SS and AS:

Adobestock + 500% (mostly 0.38� or 0.99� and >3.3EUR)
SS - 80% (actually only subscription sales, 0.10$ or 0.14$ commission and number of downloads -40% in the last months too).

Have to say, i dont upload to SS anymore since mid of last year, subscription sales of 0.10$ as regular commission is far too low.
long live AS, SS can go offline

I am really pleased with Adobe. 6 months ago I had around 1200 files and hardly any uploads in 10 years. Income down to 10-20 dollars.

I added around 600 mixed files including 260 files of gen ai content since August 22.

Feb 22 - 13 dollars

Feb 23 - 190 dollars with now 1885 files

The entire portfolio has woken up. A few nice video sales for 28 dollars each. A lot of content getting their first sales ever.

Enough sales in the first few weeks to hopefully get another bonus code next year.

I still have days with no sales, but it is very motivating to upload to Adobe.

There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.

Quote from: stoker2014 on March 16, 2023, 06:27

There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.

Yes. There are sales. I did not put any videos in any free library.

Conclusion?

Not Advertising works

Quote from: stoker2014 on March 16, 2023, 06:27

There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.

Yes. There are sales. I did not put any videos in any free library.
Conclusion?

I write for myself and draw my own conclusions. I am not responsible for what you write, as well as for the veracity of your information.

I have a very slow week at Adobe Stock , only me ?

Do not worry, all months is bad so far

If one of my photos start selling then it sells more. That can be the search algorithm within one agency but doesn't explain increased sales at other agencies.

So my explanation is different. I do not advertise my portfolio or my pictures. Nevertheless, I have numerous bestsellers with various agencies. From my point of view, this is because I have apparently met the taste of customers across agencies.

For the thesis that advertising for stock photography should bring something, no one here has yet provided proof - all just personal hypotheses and a question of faith.

Quote from: Her Ugliness on March 16, 2023, 06:57

Quote from: stoker2014 on March 16, 2023, 06:27

There are sales, I think it's because I put my video in a free library. Advertising works.

Yes. There are sales. I did not put any videos in any free library.
Conclusion?

I write for myself and draw my own conclusions. I am not responsible for what you write, as well as for the veracity of your information.

Are you responsible for what you write or your own veracity of your information? I have many sales and I have nothing in any free library.