Author Topic: Thoughts on the Adobe Stock collection as it exceeds 600 million assets (Read 763 times)

Jo Ann Snover · « **on:** December 17, 2024, 10:46 »

This morning the total collection on Adobe Stock was 604,562,465. Four years ago (Nov 30 2020) it was 238,609,759. Today, the genAI portion of the collection was 205,613,425 - very close to the total collection size 4 years earlier.

Adobe Stock's math is strange - if you exclude AI images it says the total is 399,025,915. Add that to the genAI total and an extra 76,875 images appear. I'm assuming the numbers are mostly right and don't worry about 100k here or there

Yesterday I looked at the entire collection sorted by downloads and noted that the first few pages were almost all free items (they're marked). On the first page, 91/100 were freebies; on page 2 it was 78/100. I'm sure Adobe would argue that the freebies bring in overall business to the site, but it's sad that all time best sellers are so drowned out by freebies.

When I looked at the genAI collection sorted by downloads, what stood out was how most of them could very well have been traditional stock images/illustrations/3D renders.

The top selling genAI image is an isolated red arrow - and that's on page 4 of the entire collection bestseller list. A fine simple curved arrow.

There are over 750k images for a search on red arrow (about 114k genAI).

Looking in the Discord group where new contributors ask about why their AI images were rejected it became clear that there were some truly terrible images being submitted. I'd previously focused on my (growing) collection of truly terrible genAI images accepted The Apple logos have gone, but the quality of what's getting accepted doesn't help buyers. There's also repetitive items - I made a screenshot this morning of 53 near-identical Christmas arrangements on a wood table - candles, cinnamon sticks, pine cones, etc. from one contributor. All of us who've been around a while have received rejections for "similars". Not sure what value there is for customers in 53 horizontal versions of the same scene.

Then there was the white "bumblebee" with 8 legs, my fire hazard collection (candles setting the house on fire); staircases that'll kill you, crabs & lobsters not found on planet earth; a Happy Thanksgiving word sign with the T and the g cut off; "MCRRY CHRISTMAS"; "AGEESIM"..... All recent acceptances. All useless except to illustrate that genAI produces pretty slop a lot of the time. And which should not have been accepted into a top tier collection of stock.

And ADBE is down again this morning.

wds · « **Reply #1 on:** December 17, 2024, 11:05 »

Very interesting. I have few AI assets and am a bit cautiously/pleasantly surprised that I haven't seen a downturn in sales due to all the new "competition".

I do believe there is a lot of similarity in the AI assets....kind of like the asset is a collaboration between two "artists"; the contributor and the AI tool.
Well everyone is using the same small number of AI tools perhaps leading to an incredible amount of "similars"?

Another effect could be that with all the new content and marketing, Adobe's customer base is growing which would also appear to blunt the competition
from all the new AI assets.

Digital · « **Reply #2 on:** December 17, 2024, 12:06 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on December 17, 2024, 10:46

When I looked at the genAI collection sorted by downloads, what stood out was how most of them could very well have been traditional stock images/illustrations/3D renders.

Actually there's nothing stopping the authors from uploading their traditional 3D renders to the genAI category. Just because an image is marked as genAI, doesn't necessarily mean it is.

davedigitalfx · « **Reply #3 on:** December 17, 2024, 12:58 »

the singularity aka the break point is near ...

cobalt · « **Reply #4 on:** December 17, 2024, 13:13 »

I do very specific test searches and genuinely new content is always just a fraction of the uploads. Wether normal photos or ai, 80% is just duplicates.

If you see niches really being covered or very interesting new twists on well known concepts, maybe, just maybe, stock is over.

As long as I keep finding missing content I will be able to make money.

Andrej.S. · « **Reply #5 on:** December 17, 2024, 15:24 »

Actually the number of content doesn't mean anything because 99% of the stuff is mediocre and will be lost in the oblivion.
There are still very few contributors who has the eye and patience for quality.
And even less can imagine what the buyers are looking for.

zeljkok · « **Reply #6 on:** December 17, 2024, 15:28 »

Quote from: Andrej.S. on December 17, 2024, 15:24

Actually the number of content doesn't mean anything because 99% of the stuff is mediocre and will be lost in the oblivion.
There are still very few contributors who has the eye and patience for quality.
And even less can imagine what the buyers are looking for.

+1000

Injustice for all · « **Reply #7 on:** December 18, 2024, 08:33 »

"the white bumblebee with 8 legs,staircases that'll kill you,crabs & lobsters not found on planet earth"

but that's because it's science fiction stock content!

contributors who started before AI like many of us here clearly see things differently because they are used to working differently.

me too,despite going as fast as possible,I will never be able to do what many new contributors do today,who upload 500/1000 contents a month or even more without even looking at them.

with AI today there are many more new contributors who have never used a DSLR,or read a photography book.

I was already taking photographs at the age of 12,at 14 I bought my first reflex camera,I was already printing in the darkroom,reading various photography magazines and books.

not that all this is of any use today,since things have changed so much that what was done in the past no longer has anything to do with what is done today.

I almost envy the lightheartedness of guys much younger than me who generate and send content like crazy without any worries,I would never be able to do it,because I was used to it differently,and I like to pay attention to details.

However,I wouldn't worry about the number of contents on Adobe Stock,because in my opinion we will all continue to sell and increase sales over time,some faster,some more slowly,but we will all continue to increase sales if we continue to work and upload regularly,and regularly doesn't mean spam,it means regularly.