Author Topic: Adobe Stock photo sales are rarely $1 or above these days. (Read 4124 times)

blvdone · « **on:** July 07, 2023, 20:34 »

What happened??? No more $1-$5 range sales I used to see often in the past. It's no fun seeing account insights activity anymore. Just depressing.

Lina · « **Reply #1 on:** July 07, 2023, 22:08 »

Yes, amounts are getting obviously smaller lately. But 3,30 sales for example are rare for me last few years and ELs almost non-existent.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #2 on:** July 08, 2023, 18:46 »

I can only speak to my sales, but I've seen a return of higher value sales (as well as overall growth in monthly income) recently. I started tracking custom versus subscription sales because late last year and early this year I saw a big rise in the number of "custom" sales. In addition to tracking the maximum and minimum royalty values each month, I have added some tracking of sales $3+, $2-3 and $1-2. I track how many 38¢ subscription sales.

In June, for example, I had 153 royalties of $1-2 compared to 0 in that value bracket in March and 87 in January. When I added a bracket for .90-.99, March had 115 - so it was a lower price by just a little versus the category vanishing.

ELs are rare now although I had one in June so they're not extinct! For the $3+ category, I had 9 in Jan, 8 in Mar and 4 in Jun. That looks like a downward trend, but so far, the huge increase in volume of licenses has kept the monthly income rising. At some point I expect that will slow and then maintaining a decent return per download will matter.

Jan RPD was 83¢; it hit a low of 65¢ in Mar and moved back up in Jun - it was 78¢. In 2021 it was 92¢ - I'd like this year's volume with that year's prices

cobalt · « **Reply #3 on:** July 08, 2023, 19:00 »

My sales are going up significantly, but also because I have started uploading in earnest again.

I had a 22 dollar license for a mundane old photo recently and they also sold several videos, the last two for 26 and 35 dollars. Also very old videos. Made more money than on pond5 where I have 3 times more files.

The rest of the sales are similar to what Jo Ann describes.

For photos they are currently my favorite agency.

With the way the volume is going up, they are doing something right.

I just wish they would take my files faster.

Shuttershock · « **Reply #4 on:** July 09, 2023, 05:27 »

I have plenty above 1 dollar, however being in the UK and Adobe changing the currency i now receive at least a 25% loss overall due to Adobe.

cascoly · « **Reply #5 on:** July 09, 2023, 12:50 »

Quote from: Shuttershock on July 09, 2023, 05:27

I have plenty above 1 dollar, however being in the UK and Adobe changing the currency i now receive at least a 25% loss overall due to Adobe.

i still have a difficult time understanding this. when you get a sale is it in $ or euro? if sale lists $, where's the loss? if sale shows euro, how does it compare to similar sale in $ for non-EU? and euro over dollar is only 10%

Her Ugliness · « **Reply #6 on:** July 09, 2023, 13:22 »

Quote from: cascoly on July 09, 2023, 12:50

Quote from: Shuttershock on July 09, 2023, 05:27
I have plenty above 1 dollar, however being in the UK and Adobe changing the currency i now receive at least a 25% loss overall due to Adobe.
i still have a difficult time understanding this. when you get a sale is it in $ or euro? if sale lists $, where's the loss? if sale shows euro, how does it compare to similar sale in $ for non-EU? and euro over dollar is only 10%

It is in $ for everyone now, but it's was simpyl converted 1:1, so instead of 1€ we now get 1$. And it may only be 10% to you, but not to PayPal (they never use the official exchange rate, but always one that is much worse for customers) and it can easily translate into a large amount. Last month I got around $1200 from Adobe. Previously that would have been 1200€. But instead only around 1050€ on my PayPal account, so I lost 150€. Money that Adobe just gets to keep, because they have not reduced prices for their European customers.

cobalt · « **Reply #7 on:** July 09, 2023, 13:47 »

They could consider balancing that by paying out 35%-40% instead of 33...

Can you imagine how the other agencies would cringe and die if Adobe raises royalties?

Even 1% more would send a message.

whosvegas · « **Reply #8 on:** July 09, 2023, 14:23 »

Last friday i had a nice $26,-- sale
Last months all other sales were below $1.02

PigsInSpace · « **Reply #9 on:** July 09, 2023, 16:01 »

Quote from: cobalt on July 09, 2023, 13:47

They could consider balancing that by paying out 35%-40% instead of 33...

Can you imagine how the other agencies would cringe and die if Adobe raises royalties?

Even 1% more would send a message.

Back in 2020 Adobe restructured royalties, which was a raise for most contributors. I thought that would lock in the other agencies. Instead, shutter stock cut everybody a few months later

cobalt · « **Reply #10 on:** July 09, 2023, 16:11 »

But as a result a lot of very excellent content is no longer coming to Shutterstock.

Producers go where the money is. If you pay peanuts you get peanuts.

Same with istock. They do get a lot of excellent work from their exclusives, but they pay them a lot more. Otherwise their collection would be really dull.

And all the other small places with low income, they have a very small collection of files and it is not the best work.

The process is a gradual one and there will always be newbies wanting to try everything.

But perhaps for Shutterstock ai is the solution. They can hire an army of prompters to create beautiful content to fill the gaps.

They will lower the payouts even more and as a result even more good content goes to Adobe.

Perhaps Shutterstock will turn into a mostly ai company with a little editorial, who knows?

The market is big enough for many types of companies.

Shuttershock · « **Reply #11 on:** July 10, 2023, 06:33 »

Quote from: cascoly on July 09, 2023, 12:50

Quote from: Shuttershock on July 09, 2023, 05:27
I have plenty above 1 dollar, however being in the UK and Adobe changing the currency i now receive at least a 25% loss overall due to Adobe.
i still have a difficult time understanding this. when you get a sale is it in $ or euro? if sale lists $, where's the loss? if sale shows euro, how does it compare to similar sale in $ for non-EU? and euro over dollar is only 10%

Im in UK and Adobe used to show the earnings in pound sterling and payments in pound sterling.....£1 sales are now shown as 1 dollar sales so after conversion I receive about 75p as opposed to £1......about a 25% loss....

And it is a bit dodgy regarding Adobes work practice as Adobe charge customers in the UK in Pound Sterling but pay their contributors in dollars so Adobe must keep 25% of UK contributors money now......

gnirtS · « **Reply #12 on:** July 10, 2023, 09:30 »

Quote from: Shuttershock on July 10, 2023, 06:33

Im in UK and Adobe used to show the earnings in pound sterling and payments in pound sterling.....£1 sales are now shown as 1 dollar sales so after conversion I receive about 75p as opposed to £1......about a 25% loss....

Then add on the Paypal conversion and its even worse.

And Adobe still charge *customers* in local currency for media and for software. Good way of increasing revenue whilst cutting outgoings.

cascoly · « **Reply #13 on:** July 10, 2023, 14:22 »

Quote from: Her Ugliness on July 09, 2023, 13:22

Quote from: cascoly on July 09, 2023, 12:50
Quote from: Shuttershock on July 09, 2023, 05:27
I have plenty above 1 dollar, however being in the UK and Adobe changing the currency i now receive at least a 25% loss overall due to Adobe.
i still have a difficult time understanding this. when you get a sale is it in $ or euro? if sale lists $, where's the loss? if sale shows euro, how does it compare to similar sale in $ for non-EU? and euro over dollar is only 10%

It is in $ for everyone now, but it's was simpyl converted 1:1, so instead of 1€ we now get 1$.

And it may only be 10% to you, but not to PayPal (they never use the official exchange rate, but always one that is much worse for customers) and it can easily translate into a large amount.

Last month I got around $1200 from Adobe. Previously that would have been 1200€. But instead only around 1050€ on my PayPal account, so I lost 150€. ...

no, that 1050€ is $1155 dollars, so it's about a $50 dollar loss - an exchange rate of about 4%. paypal uses the official exchange rate, but then adds a 4.5% fee; still substantial though

https://ppcurrencyconverter.com/

Quote

Money that Adobe just gets to keep, because they have not reduced prices for their European customers.

but my question is still, when earlier an image was sold for $1 did you get 1€, or .9€?

cascoly · « **Reply #14 on:** July 10, 2023, 14:34 »

Quote from: Shuttershock on July 10, 2023, 06:33

Quote from: cascoly on July 09, 2023, 12:50
Quote from: Shuttershock on July 09, 2023, 05:27
I have plenty above 1 dollar, however being in the UK and Adobe changing the currency i now receive at least a 25% loss overall due to Adobe.
i still have a difficult time understanding this. when you get a sale is it in $ or euro? if sale lists $, where's the loss? if sale shows euro, how does it compare to similar sale in $ for non-EU? and euro over dollar is only 10%

Im in UK and Adobe used to show the earnings in pound sterling and payments in pound sterling.....£1 sales are now shown as 1 dollar sales so after conversion I receive about 75p as opposed to £1......about a 25% loss....

And it is a bit dodgy regarding Adobes work practice as Adobe charge customers in the UK in Pound Sterling but pay their contributors in dollars so Adobe must keep 25% of UK contributors money now......

no loss - your 75p is $1 even w a paypal conversion fee of 2.5%
https://ppcurencyconverter.com/
so you're not losing anything on the conversion

the question is, before the change, did you receive £1 when others rec'd $1? if so, then you were getting a bonus that Adobe has now eliminated

Her Ugliness · « **Reply #15 on:** July 10, 2023, 15:21 »

Quote from: cascoly on July 10, 2023, 14:22

Quote from: Her Ugliness on July 09, 2023, 13:22
Quote from: cascoly on July 09, 2023, 12:50
Quote from: Shuttershock on July 09, 2023, 05:27
I have plenty above 1 dollar, however being in the UK and Adobe changing the currency i now receive at least a 25% loss overall due to Adobe.
i still have a difficult time understanding this. when you get a sale is it in $ or euro? if sale lists $, where's the loss? if sale shows euro, how does it compare to similar sale in $ for non-EU? and euro over dollar is only 10%

It is in $ for everyone now, but it's was simpyl converted 1:1, so instead of 1€ we now get 1$.

And it may only be 10% to you, but not to PayPal (they never use the official exchange rate, but always one that is much worse for customers) and it can easily translate into a large amount.

Last month I got around $1200 from Adobe. Previously that would have been 1200€. But instead only around 1050€ on my PayPal account, so I lost 150€. ...

no, that 1050€ is $1155 dollars, so it's about a $50 dollar loss - an exchange rate of about 4%. paypal uses the official exchange rate, but then adds a 4.5% fee; still substantial though

https://ppcurrencyconverter.com/

I think I know better than you what € amount is shown in my Paypal account, don't you think? I lost 150€.

HalfFull · « **Reply #16 on:** July 11, 2023, 03:33 »

Quote from: Shuttershock on July 10, 2023, 06:33

Quote from: cascoly on July 09, 2023, 12:50
Quote from: Shuttershock on July 09, 2023, 05:27
I have plenty above 1 dollar, however being in the UK and Adobe changing the currency i now receive at least a 25% loss overall due to Adobe.
i still have a difficult time understanding this. when you get a sale is it in $ or euro? if sale lists $, where's the loss? if sale shows euro, how does it compare to similar sale in $ for non-EU? and euro over dollar is only 10%

Im in UK and Adobe used to show the earnings in pound sterling and payments in pound sterling.....£1 sales are now shown as 1 dollar sales so after conversion I receive about 75p as opposed to £1......about a 25% loss....

And it is a bit dodgy regarding Adobes work practice as Adobe charge customers in the UK in Pound Sterling but pay their contributors in dollars so Adobe must keep 25% of UK contributors money now......

You seem to be under the impression you were getting £1 for each $1.... you weren't. They converted $1 to £0.75 automatically no matter what the exchange rate was. In otherwords, we were losing money a lot of the time. Now, we're actually earning more as the current conversion rates are above 0.75.

Using Payoneer I get the current exchange rate less 0.015. So, if the Exchange rate is £0.80 for every $, I would receive an exchange rate of £0.785. As it stands, I could make the same $'s from Adobe this year but actual have more money in my pocket. Of course, there will be times when the exchange rate drops below £0.75 (the old fixed rate) but that is the way of the world and business... but, I'd rather that than the fixed rate which is rarely ever correct.

cascoly · « **Reply #17 on:** July 11, 2023, 13:35 »

Quote from: Her Ugliness on July 10, 2023, 15:21

Quote from: cascoly on July 10, 2023, 14:22
Quote from: Her Ugliness on July 09, 2023, 13:22
Quote from: cascoly on July 09, 2023, 12:50
Quote from: Shuttershock on July 09, 2023, 05:27
I have plenty above 1 dollar, however being in the UK and Adobe changing the currency i now receive at least a 25% loss overall due to Adobe.
i still have a difficult time understanding this. when you get a sale is it in $ or euro? if sale lists $, where's the loss? if sale shows euro, how does it compare to similar sale in $ for non-EU? and euro over dollar is only 10%

It is in $ for everyone now, but it's was simpyl converted 1:1, so instead of 1€ we now get 1$.

And it may only be 10% to you, but not to PayPal (they never use the official exchange rate, but always one that is much worse for customers) and it can easily translate into a large amount.

Last month I got around $1200 from Adobe. Previously that would have been 1200€. But instead only around 1050€ on my PayPal account, so I lost 150€. ...

no, that 1050€ is $1155 dollars, so it's about a $50 dollar loss - an exchange rate of about 4%. paypal uses the official exchange rate, but then adds a 4.5% fee; still substantial though

https://ppcurrencyconverter.com/

I think I know better than you what € amount is shown in my Paypal account, don't you think? I lost 150€.

ok - it's not the amount you rec'd for paypal, but i thought you were claiming the loss was due to conversion, not AS change in reporting. do you know that $1200 would h ave been 1200€ previously? how? i couldnt fgind a way to see individual sale prices on AS

but you havent answered my original question - earlier when a sale was $1 for US, what was the € amount you received?

if you did get 1€ while we got $1 then you were getting a bonus that AS has now adjusted or are prices for buyers different in EU & US?. or were you getting .9€ for a $1 sale?

cascoly · « **Reply #18 on:** July 11, 2023, 13:37 »

Quote from: HalfFull on July 11, 2023, 03:33

Quote from: Shuttershock on July 10, 2023, 06:33
Quote from: cascoly on July 09, 2023, 12:50
Quote from: Shuttershock on July 09, 2023, 05:27
I have plenty above 1 dollar, however being in the UK and Adobe changing the currency i now receive at least a 25% loss overall due to Adobe.
i still have a difficult time understanding this. when you get a sale is it in $ or euro? if sale lists $, where's the loss? if sale shows euro, how does it compare to similar sale in $ for non-EU? and euro over dollar is only 10%

Im in UK and Adobe used to show the earnings in pound sterling and payments in pound sterling.....£1 sales are now shown as 1 dollar sales so after conversion I receive about 75p as opposed to £1......about a 25% loss....

And it is a bit dodgy regarding Adobes work practice as Adobe charge customers in the UK in Pound Sterling but pay their contributors in dollars so Adobe must keep 25% of UK contributors money now......

You seem to be under the impression you were getting £1 for each $1.... you weren't. They converted $1 to £0.75 automatically no matter what the exchange rate was. In otherwords, we were losing money a lot of the time. Now, we're actually earning more as the current conversion rates are above 0.75.

...

exactly - that seems to be the misconception of most who have been claiming they should have made more

dragonblade · « **Reply #19 on:** August 05, 2023, 16:56 »

Quote from: Her Ugliness on July 09, 2023, 13:22

Last month I got around $1200 from Adobe. Previously that would have been 1200€. But instead only around 1050€ on my PayPal account, so I lost 150€.

That does not seem right at all - or fair. Regardless, it sounds like you're doing extremely well with your sales. I'm assuming that you have a huge port with thousands of files?

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Author Topic: Adobe Stock photo sales are rarely $1 or above these days. (Read 4124 times)

blvdone

Lina

Jo Ann Snover

cobalt

Shuttershock

cascoly

Her Ugliness

cobalt

whosvegas

PigsInSpace

cobalt

Shuttershock

gnirtS

cascoly

cascoly

Her Ugliness

HalfFull

cascoly

cascoly

dragonblade

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